Books, Blogs, Authors and More discussion

Where do you stand on the matter?

Depends entirely on the review itself really. An author has to be prepared for negative reviews, no matter how good their work is.

Some examples of reviews I have had on Barnes and Noble that made me lose faith in humanity:

I havent read it yet but im not going to because alot of people say they hate it

I aint gonna read it. Cover looks booooorrring! I luv dork diarys but dout this one!! No afencd to

It look sooooooo boring from the cover i rather not dare to read it.

Basically a bunch of one-star reviews from people who hadn't even downloaded the book, let alone read it. Fair enough the original cover really was bad but that's not the point!

When whether deciding to read a book based on reviews. I generally check a few really good reviews and a few really badd reviews. But generally I focus on the 3 stars reviews. This way I get an overall impression and see if there are common themes in all the reviews.

Terri's sounds pretty similar to what I do tbh - also with so many previews avail on ebooks I grab a sample and see if it catches my attention from that :)

Agree with michael on negatives, they're most useful if there's some constructive elements to them, it's only a review if they've read it. But you do have to be prepared for it, there's plenty of award winning books I've read that are held in high regard - I can appreciate them from a literary POV - but I didn't enjoy them and so you've just got to live with some people getting you and others not.

Cover Art can be fixed. English and Grammar of the story can be fixed in time. I do feel people should read a book before they review it.
It has been my experience also that their are a number of people who read full sized novels in two days and review it, and then start saying they didn't like this or that and that's not what happened in the book. They more than likely skimmed through it and are guessing at what they think they read.
Personally, I feel if a person didn't like the book, couldn't finish it, hated it, they should move on, let it go. It shouldn't necessarily be considered a license to trash a books rating, crush the ego of an aspiring author and put more negativity into the world.
On Amazon they have a way of grading reviews, Did this review help you? I had a bad review from a person and 11 out of 41 were good reviews - the rest they were bashing away about this or that! It's an angry person who likes to read.
Makes me wonder if they have ever tried writing a book?
My books have horrendous English from what I gather from reviews, which means in spite of different editors and editing the books it has been to for not. I am exploring professional editing help, saving money to hire an editor, and looking into getting my first two novels re-edited. The English can be fixed!
What does keep me going is in spite of the bad reviews I have almost as many four or five star rating where people have loved the books.
People have said they couldn't put it down and that they have never read anything like it before! Both were goals I was shooting for when writing them.
That's my two cents worth which by the way is more than rating are worth.
Everybody is different and like something different! That's why there is such a wide range of stuff to read.
Keep writing and God Bless.

By the way, "The Great Gatsby" had to be massively edited an re-edited even after publication.

James Joyce, whose Birthday would be today, "Ulysses" was banned in the US and Great Britain until 1933 when it was published in 1922.

Keep your chins up when getting negative reviews - As a writer we should pray our books get banned!!

I wish they'd kept ulysses banned tbh - it was the bane of my semester when I read it at uni :)

Do you think jj would be upset if I reviewed it negatively?

I think if a negative review is at least helpful, then as an author, I can learn from it. I think and hope my writing has improved because of some of the reviews I've received.
However, if they are totally negative, I just IGNORE them.
Sometimes, a really bad review can work in an authors favour. I'm one who will read a book that has bad reviews just to see if I agree, and quite often I've enjoyed the book, and countered with a good review. :)

Then there was the time the MR. left an email on the computer we share, I swear I don't normally read his email, but this time for some reason I did and saw it was about some terrible new movie out that was all about bashing the church, and Nicole Kidman should be ashamed to call herself Catholic, and witches and church conspiracies and I thought, COOL! I rushed to see it, loved Golden Compass, then bought the books and loved them even more. Refrained from emailing the lady who sent that email to thank her for alerting me to this! hahaha
I'm sure if I ever get my book out I'll be grateful if anybody bothers to review it, good or bad. Except those people who didn't bother to read before reviewing. (and amazon is banning sock puppets? Are those really worse?)

I would rather be panned than ignored. Some negative reviews have helped me with my writing (grammar.) Some miss the point I'm trying to make. Those are the most annoying, and sometimes I wonder if they have even read the book.

Some reviews have objected to the theme of the book, a camp for teens that promotes sexual abstinence while also teaching methods of birth control. I don't mind those, because at least I've forced the reviewer to think about it, which is why I wrote the book in the first place.

Bad reviews are pretty much inevitable. I've been so lucky with my reviews so far, but even then, I've just noticed that some kind person took the time to downvote every single review of my book on Amazon UK.

The thing to remember is that if you act with dignity (ignore them, in other words), bad reviews can say a lot more about the reviewer than they do about the book or the book's author.

I have to agree with Micheal in that authors should be prepared for a variety of reviews, including the negative ones that may be less than a four or five star. When i write a review i am always honest and if the reader/ commenter is honest in their thoughts on the narrative, then that can only be a good thing for it shall give the writer a clear picture of what another person see's which they might not. Any critisism is always constructive, and i am mindful of the fact that writing a novel is hard and so one should respect the amount of hours, time and effort that the author has put into their work regardless of your thoughts.
I have never given less than a three star review as i have not as yet found anything that requires a lesser grading. Even if there are many negatives to the piece of writing, there will be positives that will outweigh them and so i do not have to lie to give the book the rating that i do. If the comments are constructive and you show your opinions clearly, then this should help the author in reconizing all good & bad points, and thus it should be of great benefit to them. Short reviews that are a mere useless sentence with no substance is not helpful at all, and can be quite demorilising therefore it could be concidered a waste of time to write. (i.e I hated this book...erm, well perhaps they would like to explain why? and another one is: I was unable to finish reading this book as i disliked it so much, because it is not to my taste. Fine, but again they are not explaining much as to why they bothered to read it in the first place and secondly what bits in particular vexed them).

Short reviews that are a mere useless sentence with no substance is not helpful at all, and can be quite demorilising therefore it could be concidered a waste of time to write

Helpful to who?

It's not a waste of time to leave a one sentence negative review. The customer has invested their time and money in buying and reading the book in question. They're well within their rights to respond however they see fit. They don't owe the author a justification for their opinion.

As I said above, that kind of review can end up saying a lot more about the reviewer than the book itself, but that's quite beside the point. As writers, we don't get to dictate how customers should react to our work, however demoralising that might be.

I don't usually bother to read reviews before buying a book, as I fundamentally do not care what random people on the internet think of anything. Because the odds are that any given random person on the internet is a pedigree moron. On the rare occasion I look at consumer reviews at all, I tend to look at the broad balance of opinion rather than individual pieces. If there are a dozen single line reviews with one or two stars... well, I actually find that very helpful as a customer.

Andrew, I agree with you that a review, especially a bad one, can tell you more about the reviewer than the book, and pointing this out usually makes the author feel a bit better about the review.

Once you put your work out there you have to be prepared for it to be evaluated. I had my first negative review but I respected the opinion's of the reviewer and I need to take into consideration constructive criticism in order to improve. Personally, I get a bit dubious seeing a book just have dozens of 5-star reviews. I know there are some cracking books out there but not every book can appeal to everyone.

I've just blogged about this very topic and have come up with my ten steps for dealing with a bad review if you want to check it out?

http://thenuthousescribblers.blogspot...

I sometimes give a two star, usually if the book is not going anywhere for me after 10-25%.

If I really hate a book, I do not write a review at all.

There are even a few, with major editing or grammar problems, where the story was so good I was still able to enjoy it and give a three star review.

If I am going to read based on reviews, I try to read a few of the bad, as well as the good, to really get a feel for the work.

As a reader, and an aspiring writer, I thought I'd weigh in. Negative reviews happen to everyone. I mean, even Shakespeare has gotten bad reviews! If it can happen to the classics, it will happen to you. That is an absolute certainty. Sometimes a negative review can be very constructive, other times it just tears your work apart. From the standpoint of a reader, they are entitled to do either one if they wish. As a writer, once I put my work out there for public use I no longer have control over what people say or think about it.

When I think of my own writing, I would rather read a review that tears my book apart than a dissertation about my grammar issues. At least the first one, the reader felt passionate enough to tear my book a new one..even if that emotion was hate.

As a reader I have written some of those tear a new one reviews because the book made me angry. I had spent my time and my money on it and I felt it was terrible! When I feel I have wasted my time and money, I am not gonna be gentle.

I also disagree that you have to read the whole thing before you review it badly. Or that you have to buy it first. Not so. Yesterday I was looking at a book on Amazon, I did the look inside to read the first handful of pages to see how it was. I didn't even make it a page. Dialogue shoved into the middle of paragraphs. Improper use of commas in nearly every sentence. Random switching from first person to third person. Random switching from present tense to past tense. I couldn't bear any more. Have I written a review saying such? Nah. Will I? Maybe.

I usually stay with 3 stars for new writers, or if they are really bad, I don't review them. The exception was a political tract disguised as a post-apocalypse book. I will give 2 stars to established writers if they've written a poor book.

I have published negative reviews (fewer than 3 stars). My decision to do so depends on whether I was solicited to review a book or if I won or purchased it.
If I am solicited for a review then I would rather have a dialogue with the author and see if there's something that has gone wrong (i.e. I received an un-edit copy, or the author is actually seeking beta-readers). Unless it's the latter, I still post some sort of review.
If I won or purchased the book, I post a review.

I find there is a bias toward positive reviews. We never see threads or articles asking "What do you think about positive reviews?" A review is just that: someone's opinion about someone else's work. There are just as many reasons why people may not like a particular book as there are for why others do. It's unrealistic to set an expectation on readers, not to mention it's a bit of a sham to say "Only review if you like it." Could you imagine a restaurant owner asking that you not mention that rancid sauce to anyone? Or if a film director disavowed any criticism of what he considers his best work?
As many have stated, if an author publishes a book, then a reader will form and share his/her opinion of that work.

D. Ann wrote: "I'm going to weigh in from the reader's side. I'm working on my first novel so maybe when it's published I might have a different view but I doubt it.

I do think reviews of all ratings are valuabl..."

Nice one, Ann. I totally agree with you. Particularly the paragraph below.

[The only time I look down on a reviewer is if they bash the author in their review. It's bad form and makes them look bad. Just like it's bad form for an author to attack a reviewer. Either way, personal attacks have no place in reviews.]

definately important not to bash and if it/something didn't work for you just say so and explain why if you can because that helps the author - you don't have to resort to being mean about it or swearing!

Negative reviews should always be constructive. There's no reason to be nasty. Ridiculing a book or author doesn't help anyone. It hurts the writer, who has presumably put a lot of work into their book, and customers who read it get the impression that the reviewer just enjoys being mean.

Actually, I got a 1-star review for one of my books yesterday!

She really, really didn't like it... but it made me laugh, so I wasn't annoyed or anything.

I think that as long as a negative review is fair and polite, there isn't a problem and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, if the review is antagonitic, rude, off the topic or they obviously haven't read it then that is not useful, constructive or worth reading.

I remember a few years ago I sent out a short story to a couple of magazines. The first rejection letter was very positive: the editor said the story was brilliant, he'd thought about it for days afterwards and it had made him smile, but it was the wrong genre for the magazine. The second rejection letter was two paragraphs telling me how much the editor had hated the story, been offended by it and felt that it had a 'teasing, child-abuse theme' and how would I feel if a story like that had been written by a MAN?
The two rejections (for the same story) were so chalk and cheese, but were the very reason that I kept on writing - I knew that my writing provoked emotions in people and that was what mattered most. For me, people who say something about my work is much more important than people who say nothing. One-star reviews are just as valid as five-star reviews; better that people take the time to say how they have been affected by your writing than say nothing at all.

Jennifer wrote: "Negative reviews should always be constructive. There's no reason to be nasty. Ridiculing a book or author doesn't help anyone. It hurts the writer, who has presumably put a lot of work into their ..."

Why? If a customer feels they've been let down by a product, they can say whatever they feel like. It's harsh, but you've just got to take it on the chin. You don't have to like a bad review, but I really don't like this attitude that they should be anything. Hatchet jobs happen.

the argument that writers put a lot of time into their books counts for nothing and I speak as a writer. No one asks us to write. We choose to do it and spend our time doing it. We should not get praise for that fact alone, but only for what results from it if it is indeed deserving of praise.

Readers owe authors absolutely nothing. Authors owe readers their gratitude for choosing to devote some of their leisure time to reading our books. I blogged on this http://sulcicollective.blogspot.co.uk...

Helen wrote: "I remember a few years ago I sent out a short story to a couple of magazines. The first rejection letter was very positive: the editor said the story was brilliant, he'd thought about it for days a..."

You are a true writer. I've always said that I would rather be panned than ignored.

I got a 1-star review too. The book's not for everyone and I got to accept that. I guess I do like the fact that my writing can, depending on the person, either make them very happy or fill them with rage.

I wonder how those low ratings happen. If I read the first few pages or even a chapter and the book doesn't grab me, I might not finish and won't post a review. If doing a review, one should read the whole book and reading a badly written or boring book is not worth my time, so I won't.
On the other hand, authors should probably be prepared for anything if they expose their work to the public.
Any review should be respectful and considerate and also find at least one good point, in my opinion.

Ok guys, what do you think of this 1 star review I posted the other day?

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

The author didn't appreciate it (and behaved a little weirdly), but I don't believe in providing false feedback. As a lot of you have mentioned, a book is never for everyone.

I believe that when you put your book out there, it should be of the highest standard you can manage and by reviewers providing feedback on what worked and what didn't, it not only helps potential readers, but also you as the author.

I think any review, positive or negative, is essential especially if it is well thought out. It helps potential readers determine if it is something they would like to read.

Lynxie, I had a look at that review and couldn't see anything wrong with it. You expanded on the reasons why you didn't like it, and the criticisms seemed fair enough to me.

Maybe the fact that the book was based on her personal experiences made the author overly sensitive.

Thanks Michael. That is the ultimate reasoning I came up with too. If the writing and plot had of been in order, it would have likely gotten 3 out of 5. Oh well, plenty more books to read :D

How about the flip side? Someone asks you to write a review and you don't like the book? Or, in the case of self-published books it's a wonderful idea that is in first draft form and not edited for spelling and grammar? I don't like leaving two star reviews without explaining, but I don't like hurting authors' feelings, either. I would lie and say, "Oh, it's wonderful" but that compromises my reputation with those that follow my reviews.

Lynxie, it looks like you had a lot of complaints with that book(I would too.) The only stuff that didn't sit well with me was your personal feelings on the story. You're entitled to them and not wrong to have them, but I could see the author having a difficult time dealing with them.

This is a side note to the overall thread, but I'd also say that I've known a lot of abuse victims in my time, and there's a lot of reasons people stay, and other people don't help victims. One of the ones that seems relevant here was that when someone who identifies as strong finds themselves in that position, they feel they have to fight through it alone. They feel the world will think they're stupid, that they should have known better. They are terrified that word of the abuse getting out will tell the WORLD that they are just as helpless, broken, useless, unlovable, whatever the abusive descriptor is, as their abuser says they are. Keeping their shame to themselves is the closest to self esteem that they can find.

They can't tell other people, or other people will think they're somehow weak or inferior. One of my closest friends said that when she DID open up about it, many people refused to be close to her, because of the potential of her aggressors going after them instead if they challenged the behavior, and because they immediately assumed she was "high drama." That all happened before I got to know her, and she still starts shaking when she talks about the isolation that other non-abusers forced on her when she tried to get away. She lost her entire social circle, and the majority of her family.

Especially if the author is writing about her own experiences, I can easily see that it requires a particularly strong spirit to withstand not just the healing from the situation, but the criticism incurred by publishing the details of it. That said, I hope this author was prepared for that before publishing. It's certainly one of the risks about putting yourself out that far, and it's not the fault of readers who are unable to identify with her experience.

This is why I could never publish a biography, even if my life was that interesting.

Linda: I always contact the authors privately, if my feedback is very negative. I'd love for them to learn from the critique, and sometimes people are more receptive in private. I've had other authors do the same for my work, and ask if they should post the review publicly, or just move on. I've always told them to go ahead and post it. If it's a detailed negative review, it'll have merit to other readers, and help prevent my book from making its way into the hands of other readers it's ill suited for.

Nicolas wrote: "Lynxie, it looks like you had a lot of complaints with that book(I would too.) The only stuff that didn't sit well with me was your personal feelings on the story. You're entitled to them and not w..."

Nicolas, a review is not just about the grammar and the style of writing, it's also about how you personally felt about the book. Authors should expect a wide range of subjects in a review, some of which will reflect the biases of the reviewer. To me, the real problem are ratings. I would rather see reviews without ratings.

Stan wrote: "Nicolas wrote: "Lynxie, it looks like you had a lot of complaints with that book(I would too.) The only stuff that didn't sit well with me was your personal feelings on the story. You're entitled t..."

I agree completely, Stan. The full comment showed that while the author has my sympathy, she may not be ready to publish her story, if that content in the review was upsetting her. Lynxie mentioned the author had behaved weirdly about the review, and I think that this may be why.

Thanks for your thoughts Nicolas, I understand what you were saying. Yes, I think that you are right in that perhaps the author wasn't ready to hear that sort of feedback on such a personal issue.

Linda wrote: "How about the flip side? Someone asks you to write a review and you don't like the book? Or, in the case of self-published books it's a wonderful idea that is in first draft form and not edited for..."
I had exactly that dilemma recently - having read a book by someone I knew. I contacted the author in private - told them My quibbles with the book and gave them the option of whether I'd post a public review or not. Any thoughts on this approach? (I'm not sure if it was the right one...

I don't mind low or bad reviews if they have something to do with my skills.

But, this just happened to me the other day. So on 3/4 I had a FREE day for my 2nd book and I think I was sabotaged.

I received a 1 star review around 10 am with the following...

"1.0 out of 5 stars a joke???, March 4, 2013
Just downloaded this book. Found that each paragraph was missing 1 to
2 beginning sentences. Had to delete from my kindle. Was this a joke
or what? Totally impossible to read."


I responded back with;

"I'm extremely sorry you are having problems. I just downloaded the
book and viewed it in both Cloud Reader and Kindle for PC reader and
it all looks fine. Since it's free today (3/4) try removing it and
adding it back.

I can assure you, I'm not joking. This is a wonderful book! The
problem you are experiencing is most likely with Amazon's download.

Please keep in mind that a 1 star review for an author is devastating,
especially when it isn't about their writing skills or story line.

Please let me know if this doesn't fix the issue and I will engage Amazon."

This slowed my downloads down and now my book has a 1 - 1 star review. I've already reported it to Amazon, but through another chain here, I've been told it most likely won't be taken down.

Kristina wrote: "Oh, I'm so grateful for a negative aspect of a review I got. It got me to totally revise my first book. This second edition is going to be so much better, because in such a short time, I've learn..."

I could not agree with you more. Readers have taught me so much. I would like to recommend a book,

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print a wonderfully helpful book.

I have a question for this group, as I am guessing you all have gotten negative reviews before, but what if you get a negative rating with no review by someone who according to their profile has been a member since 2011 but your book is the only one that they list as having read and rated?
I guess you probably know at this point that this is what happened to me. So here's the situation.
My book just had a giveaway that ended. I mailed the books last night. No one has yet recieved copies of the books. This morning I go on to check my book stats and find it has gotten a 1 star rating, but the rater left no review as to why the book was given this rating. Then I want to see if it was even their type of book so I went to compare my shelves with theirs and discover they have been a member since 2011. Only one book is on their read shelf-mine. Only one book has gotten a rating-mine. They gave it a 1 star and I don't know them which makes me a little suspicious about the review as very few people that I don't know have read my book.
The timing and the facts that I see just give me the impression that it is not someone who has read the book. I wouldn't have cared about the rating as much if they had left a review with a reason for giving it, but this is not what happened.
At this time that rating is the only Goodreads rating my book has and this rater has not rated it on either Amazon or Barnes and Noble at which it is being sold.
So I guess what I am wondering is that given the facts would you ignore the rating? And even if it isn't a real rating, will it put people off buying the book even though there is no review for the rating or will people be likely to ignore it based on that same fact?

Jennifer wrote: "I have a question for this group, as I am guessing you all have gotten negative reviews before, but what if you get a negative rating with no review by someone who according to their profile has be..."

That's a raw deal, Jennifer. It would not put me off buying a book to see a negative review with no written explaination. Maybe the reviewer didn't want to say anything specific to offend you, but then why even post a 1* review? My opinion would be not to take it to heart. If they offered no explaination that could be helpful to you in correcting whatever they thought was "wrong" with the book, there isn't much you can do with that. Certainly readers are more than welcome to their opinions, and are not required to give details about why they feel one way or another. But as an author, it is not particularly useful to make your writing any better.

As for the original question of this thread, I'm kind of feeling like I would love to see more balanced reviews of my book. Not that I don't appreciate the good reviews, but in all honestly I know 75% of the people who have reviewed my book. I've only received one 4*, and that is (ironically enough) also somebody I know. I'm really not trying to sound ungrateful, and I don't particularly look forward to a bad review. It just seems fishy to me as a reader when I see books that have all great reviews. Maybe my book really is that freakin' fabulous! ;-) But more likely there will be people with whom I'm not personally aquainted that will feel less inclined to give me a glowing review based on the fact that they know me, or like me, or are just proud of my book. I'm both looking forward to and dreading that day. :-/

Negative reviews are inevitable and some people are more tactful in delivering such a review than others. As an author who has nurtured my "child" my from conception through thr point of sending out into the world, sometimes I have to hold back that Mama Bear instinct to lash out and defend it when I feel someone has threatened my baby. Any constructive criticism is invaluable and must be accepted that way. Unnecessary bashing simply needs to be ignored, and not taken personally. Don't let a bad review ruin your day :) Learn from it if you can.

Angel wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "I have a question for this group, as I am guessing you all have gotten negative reviews before, but what if you get a negative rating with no review by someone who according to the..."

Totally agree re balanced reviews - I have been very pleased with several balanced reviews from folk I don't know - who have been honest about things they found a little tricky in my book (for example) the need for readers to make use of the character list and glossary and that it isn't just an easy read - fair to other potential readers to know before they buy or borrow it. Although it's lovely to have a glowing review its probably more valuable to readers to have it qualified in whatever way a reader feels appropriate.

I think there's a difference between honest and negative. If I don't like a book, I am going to put that in my review. But,I always take care to point out the positives and identify a group of readers that may appreciate it. I also try to give reasons as to why I didn't like it. I usually tweet/email my reviews to the author or publisher, but I don't with negative reviews. That's just tacky!

I believe, as authors, we have to be aware that we WILL get negative reviews. You can't please everyone. And as reviewers, we MUST be as professional as possible.