Book reviews & gender of the reviewer

I don't think you can count this as meaning anything. Now if you had 100 female reviews saying positive things, and 100 male reviewers saying negative things, then you would have a very interesting case. Right now you are dealing in individuals, not genders.

However the broader discussion topic is an interesting one, but I haven't really taken stock of the genders of my reviewers. I think most of them are female, and most have been positive (though I have had some negative reviews from women as well). Then again Eoin Colfer gave me an amazing blurb, so I guess not really, I don't personally have such an experience.

Anyone else?

Your sample size is really small. One male? It's more like a personal taste issue. I wouldn't worry too much -- we've all had bad reviews.

That said, I think it really depends on your target audience, the type of stories, etc. Sometimes the disparity is not just along the gender line, but also education, life experience, race, etc.

For me personally, I've had good reviews from both males and females. However, the comments are very interesting. Most of my male readers tend to judge my protagonist (who is male) more harshly -- words such as "jerk," "train wreck," "selfish prick" and "immature" have been thrown around a bit. And my male readers are generally more interested in the personal growth story (and they liked the transformation) than the love story part, while the female readers tend to enjoy the latter a bit more, and they don't mind the protagonist -- in fact, some even go on to say my protagonist is endearingly clueless (at least at the beginning) that brings out their maternal instinct. It's really interesting.

I read the review. The things he didn't like were style based. He didn't like redundant word use, cliches and the sudden tone switch. He liked the voice of the main character. Those comments don't strike me as particularly 'male', but I'm not a gender roles expert.

You cannot infer anything at all from a sample size of one. You'd need to give it to fifteen or twenty men before we could even start to discuss sexism.

Okay, newsflash. Despite what the overly PC brigade would have you believe, men and women really are different. You might say that of them, the former group originates on the red, fourth planet, whereas the latter originates on the second planet.
There's a reason that chick-flicks and chick-lit are so called.
I'm not saying your book falls into one of these categories, I've not read it. But is it possible that it's subject matter/style are just more appealing to women than men?

And yeah, one is too small a sample size.

Before I changed my pen name to emily I had several authors respond to my reviews saying that I clearly missed the point because I was a man.

Anyhow, does it matter why he didn't like it?

I think a good reviewer can take into account that a book is being marketed as a certain genre (be it romance, western or whatever) and then separate quality issues from taste issues (including feminine/masculine styling).

I think this reviewer was very clear about why he didn't like your book. He had issues with your literary style and word choices, and he was quite specific about them. It seems to have had nothing to do with his chromosomes or wedding tackle, or even with any issues he had with the subject matter of your book.*

In my own experience, I haven't noticed any differences between male and female reviewers. I do think that male reviewers are more likely to be assigned to books that are marketed more to a male audience (sports biogs, books about people who go back in time and murder Hitler, etc.) and female reviewers are more likely to be assigned to books that are marketed more to a female audience (cozy mysteries, sweeping family sagas, etc.)

*I should also say that I didn't find his review particularly useful or well-written; as a reviewer myself, I feel that resorting to the petty "But why must blood always be congealed?" kind of nitpicking is doing readers as well as writers a disservice. I looked at other reviews he's written, and he appears to do the same kind of thing even when giving a positive review. I couldn't help thinking of the Comic Book Guy character from "The Simpsons".

maestrowork said:

...while the female readers tend to enjoy the latter a bit more, and they don't mind the protagonist -- in fact, some even go on to say my protagonist is endearingly clueless (at least at the beginning) that brings out their maternal instinct. It's really interesting.

Click to expand...

That's because women are silly. Or rather, I'M just plain stupid. It's a cliche for a reason that we like to try to change our men. Or at least help them. We think if we just do this and do that just the way he likes, we can make him happy. We try to take care of our men even when that isn't what they want.

Just my opinion.

And I'm not really generalizing, so please, fellow females, do not get upset with my comment.

I'm talking about me.