To Review or Not To Review

JoB42 · Feb 5, 2018

Apologies if this is not the right area of the forum for this question.

As an author, would you rather get a bad review or no review?

Some authors are so well established that I don't think bad reviews are all that damaging. I mean, a handful of bad reviews are bound to appear and tend to wash out with all the good reviews. The solution here is simple, at least for me, and I tend to go ahead and leave an honest, sometimes blunt review.

But what about an author that doesn't have a lot of reviews? Seems to me that leaving a bad review could do real damage to the author's career, and who the heck wants to hurt someone's career? I'm not prepared to lie and leave a good review, but it often occurs to me that I should just skip reviewing the novel in question. Then again, I figure that a lot of authors need more reviews, and I wonder if neglecting to leave one does the author a disservice in the long run.

Shrug. Thought I'd put the question out there and see what other folks think.

Enlightened · Feb 5, 2018

As a to-be author, I would appreciate a bad review over no review, unless there were already some satisfactory number of bad reviews out for the work.

DarienW · Feb 5, 2018

I'm guilty of reading bad reviews, trying to brace myself I imagine, but in some cases: Man, am I the only one?

I, like you, JoB42, tend to leave well enough alone. Many times, I'm so late to the party too!

I have started keeping reviews and may post them one day. I occasionally join the comments stream, as there's no stars involved in that.

I want to cheer fellow writers on, and I get no joy from knocking them down. The fact is no one can appeal to everyone (check out the reviews on "Gone Girl" the go-to book cover reference. I liked it, but many didn't.)

I think reviews mean that person thought enough of it to comment, good or bad, so I think I would appreciate them all. Doing a review is an effort.

PS. I do know some people diligently comment on everything they read, and I'm thankful to them too, as I enjoy reading opinions.

blackcat777 · Feb 5, 2018

As a reader, I would want to know if the book I'm buying is a bramble of bad logic and grammar before I bought it. (This is on the author to address before publishing.)

As a reader, I would want to know if a book is categorized incorrectly before purchase, e.g., a book without HEA marketed as romance. (Correct marketing is also the burden of the author, and identifying incorrect marketing can help readers find the content they WANT, and could potentially alert an author that something is wrong and needs to change.)

As an author, sometimes negative reviews are backhandedly helpful if what didn't work for the reader is clearly identified, as it could potentially steer readers seeking that content toward the work. E.g., one stars for "rape!" on a bodice ripper.

As a reader, you have no obligations to the author. This is real life. No one person can please everyone. Clarifying why something didn't work for you personally would be constructive and generous, but it isn't necessary. It was your money and your time. Just because I slaved for years in the restaurant industry doesn't mean I won't send my food back if it's wrong. I won't be rude about it. I simply value my time and money, I expect whatever I purchase to reflect how it was marketed to me, and to be prepared to a professional standard if that is part of the implicit contract of my purchase. Yard sale items are sold as-is. What would you say if you went to the Ferrari shop and they were selling smashed up stationwagons from 1980? You would say WTF and Yelp, "Don't waste your time at this dump!" Being a mechanic would have nothing to do with it.

No one ever improved by being surrounded by yes-men, or by being sheltered from other people's opinions. As a reader, you are 100% entitled to your opinions.

If someone's newly indie and they get a bad review early, it could be damaging in the short term. But it's also up to the author to know the market, have the book edited, etc.

The only thing that is NOT cool is drive-by one-starring of books you haven't read. That's bad juju. (So is buying a bunch of five star reviews. So is Amazon deleting legitimate reviews with no explanation. Life isn't fair.)

Lakey · Feb 6, 2018

Interesting question. I’ve not yet been in a position to receive reviews of my fiction, so my entire post here might be of little relevance to your question. I expect it would be quite painful to receive poor reviews when one is just starting out. But I have been a critic (mostly of movies, but also of books) for far longer than I’ve been a fiction writer, and I do think open discourse about art is rather an essential piece of art doing what it intends to do. (I once wrote a fairly lukewarm review of a film, and the film’s director contacted me with thanks, saying “You’re one of the few critics who understood what I was trying to do.” I didn’t think he’d done it superbly or extremely consistently, but I did read the film the way he’d meant it to be read, and he was glad to see his reading out there in the critical discussion of the film.)

So, if someone has a substantive critique of something I’ve written, well - I might not enjoy reading it, but I do think it ought to be out there. I’ve taken some pretty harsh criticism of my film writing (some of which is so harsh as to be hilarious; some is more subtly incisive) but as I developed confidence in myself as a thoughtful and knowledgable film writer these stung less and less. There is no critical view on which every reader will agree.

But, fiction is different; I feel much more exposed and vulnerable in the writing of fiction than I ever did in the writing of criticism. So I hope I can develop the same confidence in my fiction, such that if I’m ever in a position to receive a poor review, I can handle it well. A friend of mine who has just published her second novel with a big-five house (and is getting some critical notice for it) chided me not long ago for giving a book three stars on Goodreads(*). She said she doesn’t write reviews of books she doesn’t love, because she knows how it feels to get poor reviews. Well, I think Daphne du Maurier will be none the worse for wear from my three stars. But my friend’s perspective gave me pause, as a fledgling fiction writer myself.

(*) It was really more a three-and-a-half, but I don’t think my friend read the review before chiding me. I hate giving star ratings; I try to give them on Goodreads but I never use them in my film reviews. I need paragraphs, not stars, to convey what I think of a work. The Daphne du Maurier book I bumped up to four stars on further reflection anyhow, when a subtler reading of the book occurred to me. Even if du Maurier never intended that reading, a book that’s rich enough to support alternative readings deserves an extra star.

The Urban Spaceman · Feb 6, 2018

JoB42 said:
As an author, would you rather get a bad review or no review?

I would rather get a constructive review than a bad review or no review. "this book sux, waist of munney" is a bad review. "I thought the book was mediocre in terms of story because of X Y and Z leading to the ABC plot-hole and the superficial characters of Joe and Mary blah blah blah" isn't a positive review, but it's at least constructive and therefore helpful to me as a writer.

Whether somebody likes my story is entirely subjective, and readers have the right to declare whether they liked a story or not. It doesn't really help me as a writer, because I've had some readers rave about my characters and their relationships, and others claim they don't want to keep reading if it ends up with those two guys hooking up. In terms of story, you can't please everyone.

lizmonster · Feb 6, 2018

As a reader, I've been sold more than one book by a detailed bad review.

As an author, I don't read reviews. I consider them a dialogue between readers. Also, I don't need to do that to myself.

AW Admin · Feb 6, 2018

Reviews are for readers, not for authors.
I don't think authors should read reviews of their own books, generally.
The author's big mistake is to comment on a review or respond at all.
I read reviews of books to find books to read, and because I love books.
I also review books, but personally, I review books with readers in mind. Who will like this book? Who should I tell about this book? I'm not interested in reviewing or reading a book I don't find worth reading. I see reviews as a way of calling attention to books I think others will enjoy or value.
If I'm reading a scholarly book in my field, and it's terrible, I'm going to point that out, and be specific about why it's terrible. In general, this is because the book is not a scholarly book, but purports to be one (i.e. bad sources, no citation, many errors of fact).
A review that is critical about what works and what doesn't, and that identifies who might want to read a book, is a good review.

lizmonster · Feb 6, 2018

AW Admin said:
The author's big mistake is to comment on a review or respond at all.

I did this once. Just a pithy one-liner. Not defensive or controversial or anything, really (some friends read it afterward and agreed I hadn't torpedoed my career with it).

But I absolutely regret that I did it, and it's not a mistake I'll repeat.

Curlz · Feb 6, 2018

JoB42 said:
Seems to me that leaving a bad review could do real damage to the author's career

Well, if couple of bad reviews ruin a career then is there a career there at all? :tongue

It's nice to be concerned about the author, it's nice being a good human being, but are the alternatives any better? Leaving an author with no reviews makes the book appear just as bad. It seems so bad that people don't even bother to review. And if you purposefully omit the negatives in a review, then wouldn't that review help trick the next reader into paying money for a book they might not enjoy? So the author is gaining but a reader somewhere is losing. You make a choice here, who you want to support. If you prefer to support a fellow author, that's great. If you want to aid a fellow reader, that's also great.

DeleyanLee · Feb 6, 2018

If it is an actual review, where the reasons are spelled out (spoiler warnings as needed), is a gift to other readers. I used to read various reviewers, specifically looking for their bad reviews because I'd learned that everything these people absolutely LOATHED in stories are the exact things that I adore. Their horrible reviews were the books that landed on my keeper shelf pretty much every time.

With that background, I'd take a well-written "bad" review over no review. But if people are just writing "Don't by this book. It sucks!" that's an opinion, not a review. Those aren't helpful to anyone.

Qwest · Feb 6, 2018

Agree, besides, reviews are often about subjectivity. A ton of reviews tell me more about the person reviewing than about the book. For instance, they'll say: "No one is in this book is likeable." Not a problem for me. Or they'll say, "I didn't like the writing style." Again, that's their opinion. Or they'll say it was slow... Again, that's so subjective.

Not everything we write is going to be loved by everyone. Even double Booker winner Hilary Mantel has some bad reviews on GoodReads!

And, while I agree that we shouldn't read our reviews... it can be pretty hard not to. It reminds me of that Baz Luhrmann Sunscreen Song: "Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults, if you succeed in doing this, tell me how."

Yip, tell me how...

Harlequin · Feb 6, 2018

I was a reader long before I tried to write anything, and enjoy doing reviews. I like the deconstruction. It's also useful to me for understanding why a book did or didn't work for me specifically.

I have absolutely given one star reviews, for both established and occasionally for new or less known authors. I don't see why I shouldn't. If it's on a crit board then the goal is help a writer improve; if it's for sale on Amazon, you are competing in the same big ocean as everyone else.

Bearing in mind, if a book "just isn't my thing" I don't tend to buy it, much less finish it. Reviews are something I give to books I expect to enjoy or at least appeal to me.

My general guideline is similar to Matt Hillard;

5 stars - excellent, you're the next Gene Wolfe
4 stars - a very good book
3 stars - recommended, with some reservations
2 stars - not recommended
1 star - Ayn Rand

Twick · Feb 6, 2018

I haven't had a chance to get public reviews yet. But I hope my internal response would be like Captain Jack Sparrow when told he was the worst pirate ever heard of - "But you have heard of me" (knowing nod). A bad review means someone read the darn thing.

After that, is the review fair? It's painful to have one's work dissected in public, but I suppose it's a chance to grow if the criticism is reasonable. If it's not - "the MC isn't a darkly handsome Bad Boy who's good at everything from swordfight to seduction, so he SUCKS!!!" - then I would try to ignore it, because they obviously were looking for something my book never promised.

The Otter · Feb 7, 2018

One bad review is not going to sink someone's career. As others have said, as long as the review is constructive and spells out why you didn't like the book, it's worth writing. But it's up to you. If you feel squeamish about giving one star to a fledgling author, you're not obligated to do it either.

And yeah, there are times when a bad review has actually made me go out and buy a book, because the elements that one person hates might be exactly what makes someone else fall in love. If I'm skimming through reviews, a one-star review saying "this book absolutely enraged me" is more likely to catch my attention than a bunch of mediocre three-stars saying, "meh, it was pretty okay." Because books that evoke strong reactions from people, good or bad, are more likely to have something interesting about them.

Carrie in PA · Feb 7, 2018

I have saved untold dollars thanks to reviewers who give one stars for bad grammar/editing. If the book sounds good, I immediately go to the one star reviews. If there are multiple bad reviews for grammar/editing, I don't buy the book. If the reviews are "I hated the book because X," I will consider their reasoning. If it's "this book sucked," I completely disregard it.

As an author, while I will undoubtedly read my reviews and wail myself to sleep, in all honesty, if the reviews are bad for any reason OTHER than bad grammar/editing, I'm okay*. Reviews are for other readers, not for the author.

*I reserve the right to not be okay when it happens for reals.

thereeness · Feb 8, 2018

As an author, I'd hate to get a bad review that was, like many stated above, filled with things like "waist of munny" or "your chars sux" or things like that. If it was a constructive review, as the Urban Spaceman said, then I'd be more than alright with it. Constructive critique is such that it makes an author take a step back and look at their writing if it's something that's been brought up before. If, as a writer, you've got multiple 1-star reviews citing passive characters and clunky dialogue, then there's something going on in there that your beta/editor didn't tell you and you need to do some serious thinking. As to an author getting nothing but 1-star reviews? There's something wrong there, too, that needs investigating. I'd be more inclined to take a look at my own work if that were to happen to me and wonder if I'm actually good at this whole "writing" thing.

As a reader, 1-star reviews help me stay away from certain books. People who love the trope of the book or who admire the author or whom otherwise aren't very good at constructive critique tend to 4 and 5-star books. I can usually count on the 1 and 2-star reviews to get to the real meat of the problem. Again, if I see more than 5 reviews citing the same problems over and over again, I'll definitely not buy that book. Although, this system doesn't always work if the book was just released and there are literally no reviews lower than a 3. But I find it works in most cases.

KTC · Feb 8, 2018

As an author, I always felt it was none of my business what people choose to do about reviews. If I had an opinion (and I understand I do not), I would say, 'sure...a bad review is better than no review'. But reviews really are for readers. They have nothing to do with me. I say have at it. I have received a few bad reviews in my time...they are what they are. You can't please everyone. I've even seen a war break out on a Goodreads review for one of my books. It lasted at least two days...back and forth between two passionate readers. One hated the book and one loved it. I'm just the writer. My job is over after the publisher and I finish the final edits and the book sails into the market. Review if you will, don't review if you won't.

KTC · Feb 8, 2018

Carrie in PA said:
I have saved untold dollars thanks to reviewers who give one stars for bad grammar/editing. If the book sounds good, I immediately go to the one star reviews. If there are multiple bad reviews for grammar/editing, I don't buy the book. If the reviews are "I hated the book because X," I will consider their reasoning. If it's "this book sucked," I completely disregard it.

As an author, while I will undoubtedly read my reviews and wail myself to sleep, in all honesty, if the reviews are bad for any reason OTHER than bad grammar/editing, I'm okay*. Reviews are for other readers, not for the author.

*I reserve the right to not be okay when it happens for reals.

I DO have a weakness for ill prepared books. DEFINITELY. The least I expect is polished. If, after it passes the polished test, it still sucks...well that's different. Then it just sucks because I didn't like it. It sucks for ME...others may love it. But if it's riddled with grammar and spelling mistakes, someone didn't take the time it deserved and I have NO time for that.

Harlequin · Feb 8, 2018

I have even less patience for error-riddle books after uploading a short story to KU a little while ago and discovering how little excuse there is for a plethora of mistakes.

amazon will tell you if it catches basic spelling errors and although in sff you're bound to have unknown words it's tripping over, if you have hundreds of typos across a MS surely that is a damn big warning flag that maybe the book needs another proofreading pass. At the very least.

Hbooks · Feb 8, 2018

Someone (can't remember who) wrote a thoughtful post a month or so ago that remarked that they felt different about leaving reviews as a mere reviewer of books versus someone who was also an author, out there with their own stuff. That once they started putting their own works out there, leaving negative reviews on other people's work could be interpreted (even if that's not how it's intended) as trying to sabotage other authors to the benefit of yourself, and that they still rated/reviewed, but only posted the rating if it was a positive one.

Harlequin · Feb 8, 2018

I post under my husband's name for amazon reviews. Not out of an attempt to be duplicitous, that's just who the account is registered with. Goodreads I have registered under a false name, mostly so I can review in comfortable privacy. Nothing worse than angry fan boys trying to harrass you on social media because you dont share their opinion!

Roxxsmom · Feb 8, 2018

I remember reading somewhere that for well-known writers, a novel that gets uniformly bad reviews (I think this was focusing on trade published writers) from the normal outlets will suffer, but for a completely unknown writer, bad reviews are better than no reviews, because the biggest obstacle facing a new or obscure writer is being seen and found by readers who might be receptive to their work.

This refers to reviews by news outlets and so on, I'm pretty sure, not the reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. I'm guessing that an overall downward trend that pushes someone below a four-star average might be harmful to sales, but a few bad reviews, sprinkled among better ones, won't be that harmful.

The problem is when someone has only a handful of reviews and some of them are bad on Amazon.

As a reader, I try to be honest, though this can be hard when I know a writer personally (or via a site like this one). If I talk about a book in my blog, even though my blog isn't read by many people, and link it to my facebook profile, the writer of said book may see the review. That can make for awkwardness. So I don't talk about books I've read on my blog unless A. I have something good to say about them, and B. The book embraces themes or world building elements or plot elements or something else I am talking about or focused on in said blog entry (say I'm talking about fantasy novels with female leads or something). This doesn't mean I won't say anything negative about a book (say I though one character was well done and another not so much), but I don't use it for giving traditional "reviews."

One thing is that I've decided to try an occasional book because of a "bad" review it had. Sometimes a bad review, when compared with the good reviews, is so clearly coming from someone with 100% opposite taste from my own that it is actually a sign I might like the book.

Odile_Blud · Feb 8, 2018

How bad are we talkin'?

I.M.Lost · Feb 9, 2018

Just my opinion (obviously), but I feel like getting the occasional bad review is better than getting no reviews - at least people are talking about your book in that case. If the book is ONLY getting bad reviews, that's a problem, but I don't think a bad review will hurt an author, even a new one. I'm suspicious of books that only get glowing, positive feedback. If you feel badly about it, you can always just leave a shortish review with vague issues you had with the book, or even just a star rating. You don't necessarily need to tear it to shreds.

To Review or Not To Review

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