Fringe Fiction Unlimited discussion

Hi all, I'm new to the whole author thing, and I'm learning all sorts of things about promoting or trying to promote my book. One of the things I did was find a recently released book with similar themes to mine. I sent the author of that book a message suggesting that we buy each other's books and post Amazon reviews. This other author accepted, so I bought a copy of his book on Kindle and started reading it. I got about 30% into it before my eyes started crossing. It just was not compelling, and the dialogue was way too on-the-nose. People don't talk like that.

A few weeks went by, and that other author sent me another message saying that he really loved my book. I don't know what to do now. Should I lie and write a good review of his book? Or should I write him back and give him an honest assessment and let him decide whether to post our reviews to Amazon or not?

I say message him and tell him about the situation you're in.

I'd also say maybe don't try to review swap again. There's just too many contributing factors that make it hard to tell the truth, and we need truth in reviews. :-/

Oh, I don't plan on offering a review exchange again. And I only did it that once, just as a test.

I added a few words to the title of this thread so it was more clear to what you're saying. Also so that nobody thinks this is a place where you can ask for reviews.

Yes, that's a tricky one, isn't it? I've found myself in that situation before. I try and avoid reading books by authors I know well unless I already know that I like their style.

The thing is GR is a small community. Don't take me wrong. There are a lot of authors, but we tend to gravitate in the same groups so of course one might review a book from an author who has reviewed theirs or vice versa. It doesn't mean it was a swap. It is just that sometimes reading the authors's comment makes you discover a book you'd like to read. I am not going to set the book aside because that author reviewed mine. It's bound to happen since I only read indies or small press.

The thing is to stay honest. And by not swapping, you can do that. There are no strings attached.

It's tricky situation. I find myself in similar situations like this all the time, playing in bands - sharing stages with many acts that I love, but many that I don't. I'm a very honest person generally, so I do find it hard if someone says "so, what did you think?", because I want to say "yeah, seemed a bit lame/uninspired/derivative/uninteresting to me", but that seems a bit mean, and I don't want to hurt people. Then again, I kinda think that if someone is specifically asking what you actually think, you're doing them a disservice by lying about it. I usually go for some kind of a self-deprecating "well, I'm notoriously difficult to please, but..." kinda angle - implying or even saying outright "it's not you, it's me". I try to make absolutely clear the subjectivity of judgement, so that they don't think that just because I don't like something, it is somehow "bad" (because, let's be honest, a lot of people love things that I think are terrible). In the end, I guess you need to speak to that person, and find out whether or not it's more important for them to get a review, or a good review.

I know your situation, I only ever did one true "review swap", and quit doing them because of my own experience.
Had someone agree to one, and I read their book over the course of a month or so. It was even a pretty good book.
I didn't receive a review back from them until almost a year and a half later. I decided that was not the way I was going to get reviews, and I haven't looked back.

that was the first thing i learned, and got rather lucky with mine. I loved the book that i read, and the person enjoyed mine. it wasn't until after the reviews were posted that i learned of the dangers of such thing, and decided not to try my luck any further on that.
But yeah it seems to hold several issues, from questioning the legitimacy of the review, and just kinda making bad blood with an author who may not be able to take criticism etc.

My advice.
write a 3 star review. Be vague. state a few pros and cons.
3 star reviews are the new 1 star review.

I disagree. I gave three star reviews that were far from meaning one. I would not generalize.
There are still only 5 choices when reviewing. Making 3 Stars the equal to a one star isn't a good idea in my opinion. Better avoid being caught in such situations rather than making you have to watch all your other three stars you've given in the past.

Nathan wrote: "My advice.
write a 3 star review. Be vague. state a few pros and cons.
3 star reviews are the new 1 star review."

I agree with G.G. One star review is a one star review, three star review is a three star review.

From my own experience, don't do it again. Since you already have this time, be honest with the other author. I was. I sent her a message first telling her what I felt. I was specific about the things I liked and the things I disliked. Maybe she took some of my advice to strengthen her work...maybe she saw it as my opinion, which it clearly is and since art is subjective and we are both mature adults, we moved past it. And are virtual friends to this day.

I agree with most others here. With the increasing level of ebook self publication market I've found as many hits as I have found misses. One first time author genuinely wanted feedback and provided the same to me. The process strengthened both of our novels. There were ones on the other end of the spectrum. Hits and misses.

I would suggest an open conversation with the other author before agreeing to swap. Agree to speak up if there are problems before posting a review. Hence, both authors should be open to hearing blunt truths about their baby, but honest critiques from other writers can only help one hone their craft.

But remember, fiction is extremely subjective. No matter how well-written it might be, not everyone is going to love your story.

Authors trading reviews is a double edged sword..there's benefits yes but in the end someone there's a chance someone is going to be offended and then a mess ensues...

All the reason not to do it. The best way to trade reviews is just to read someones book and then down the road you read they happen to read yours this way your just doing it because the book is on your list not because you agreed to do so. To me that doesn't count as a trade but it's the nicest way you can go about reading each others books without the harsh taboo intent around it.

Justin wrote: "Authors trading reviews is a double edged sword..there's benefits yes but in the end someone there's a chance someone is going to be offended and then a mess ensues...

All the reason not to do it...."

I agree. There's a chance that there's no backlash, and when that happens it's really really great. Only thing is that that chance is super duper slim. And once it really hits the fan you kinda gotta wonder if it was worth the risk.

I don't do review swaps, but I do list an email address on my blog for indie authors to request reviews... Which I only accept if I'm pretty sure I'll like it based on the Amazon page & other reviews. (You know, like how I choose all the other books I read)

I figured this was a safer way to say yes and review honestly, rather than have that obligation of a swap hanging over my head (or feeling mean if I had to post a not-so-good review. Which I do.)

Review swaps are never a good idea, especially if you didn't like the book and the other author loved yours, but honesty in a pm message is always a good thing.

Review swaps are just not a good idea because aside from the possibility of not liking the person's book there's the chance a troll sees the reviews and rips into the people and reports it and just a mess.

I couldn't agree with you more! I actually would not recommend swap reviews--at all! Feelings get hurt, there's a backlash. They liked your book, their's was not so compelling and you flipped to the end barely reading the pages.

I think they feel that if we give good ratings to one another that will help, but I don't like lying for any reason, readers will never believe another word I say.

So, I think it's best to never swap review, and don't review a friend's book unless you really like them as authors. NEVER AGAIN!

Would anybody be willing to offer advice on how they offer free books to reviewers? Do you physically send them a copy or do you send them a pdf over email? Is there someway to offer an ebook download for no charge? Thanks for the help!

I'm curious... What do you mean by "the dialogue was way too on-the-nose?" Do you mean proper?

As far as your dilemma goes, the truth is always better. I'd be honest with him. Tell him what gave you trouble. You never know; you might be able to help him become a better writer, so that he could go on to improve his book. That way, the next time you read it, you'll enjoy yourself. And no, I wouldn't post a dishonest review.

Unfortunately, from what I've seen, authors don't respond to that very well.

This is a topic that has unfortunately been beaten to death but only because more and more authors just don't get the memo. It's not good to trade reviews, you shouldn't do it, it makes you look unprofessional, you may not get the review you want and you shouldn't have to lie just to get an honest review. Many times too many people are honest about what they think of a book only to find that the other person gave your book a 1 just because you didn't like theirs, and they may have liked your book. It's too unethical and unprecedented and leads to more headache and controversy than positivity.

Why can't it be like a book writing group, where you're there ~for honest reviews? As a reader, for about four years now, I've kept track of the errors and bad sentence forms on each published book. And these are mostly considered really good writers!

I'll tell you now, I subtract a star if I'm tripping over misspellings, bad grammar, run-on sentences, incomplete sentences of nothing but phrases, etc. Wouldn't an author want to know?

I haven't been able to finish some books by beginning writers because of the bad habits; as in using brand names (maybe 10-15 per page! ) when it lent nothing to the story. Sometimes, the stickies begin to fill the pages, become thicker than the book! (I use stickies when it becomes apparent that what I've been given is a very worked over but still a first draft version.)
I'd prefer to meet in person, go over each point.

I've been keeping my mouth shut. It's not mean though; it's honest, and would prepare the author for a big publishing house debut!

But I can't even finish the novel, novelette, or short story, it's so "marked up".

But I'd never ever post a false review.

Its one thing to be true to yourself and honest about reviews but its different when people berate your works that's for sure.

Personally, I wouldn't trade reviews for a number of reasons:
1) it's unprofessional.
2) it is done with the silent promise that if you give a good review, the reciprocating author will give a good review of your work, which in my opinion is unethical and cheating.
3) you will never know if the review is accurate.
4) you may develop a reputation for it which will be detrimental to your work.
5) others will come to expect it of you.
6) you will lose your reader's trust if they cannot trust the reviews of your work.

Well said

I started this thread about a year and a half ago. I have never heard from the author I made this verbal little deal with. I had, of course, bought a copy of his book. I never finished reading it, but I also never heard from him after the email he sent about liking my book. He never posted a review of it anywhere. So, after all this time, I'm just going to assume that the issue is dead at this point.

My book is in a small sub-sub-genre, and it has been called the best-regarded book in that sub-sub-genre by other authors in it, so I take some satisfaction in that.

Katia's message echoes my sentiment...if you're trading reviews, you'll never know if the review they left you is accurate. Nothing wrong with asking readers for reviews, of course. But only if offered in honesty.

Glad your book has some good regards though!

I've said this time and time again, trading reviews is a double edged sword. Sure, it sounds innocent and like it could be good but there's so many red flags about it and the big one which is if you don't like someone's book they may hate yours just because they feel you did them dirty.

I know everyone has provided so countless answers by now, so I don't know whether or not this has been suggested yet.


But, you can tell the other author about your opinion using constructuve criticism and suggest ways to fix it. I think it would be a fun project to collaborate with the author to enhance their book. If the story's fine, it should be pretty easy to fix the dictation.

I suggest finding the book Self Publishing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print. It was a whole slew of techniques used to fix faulty dialogue and other writing problems. It doesn't contain anything about story, but there are plenty of other books out there for that.

I hope this helps. And I wouldn't say that that trading review is a bad idea, just make sure you've read the other book and enjoyed it first. :)

Mr. Blue

Ken wrote: "I enjoy the idea of trading reviews. Although, both Authors and readers have different taste/ideas it is nice to share those expression. There is no correct "review" the idea of sharing is so amazi..."

It's authors exchanging reviews not authors and readers. It's not a good idea because if you don't like their book but they liked yours, they could possibly leave you a bad review just because you wrote them a bad review and rating. Yes, some authors are like this and it's sad but the whole "honest review" only goes so far with some authors. It's why it's best to stay away from agreeing to exchange reviews.

It could be better to read an authors book and then tell them later on down the road and then maybe they read yours and there you go you exchanged reviews but not really.