Bad Book Reviews – What NOT to do.

I’m not sure if it’s the weather or just one of those traceable, connected-consciousness internet trends that people in dark, computer monitor lit rooms study, but there has recently been an up-welling of posts, tweets, facebook conversations and group discussion about the same topic: Bad Book Reviews.

As both an avid reader and an author who believes 100% in giving (and receiving) honest feedback, I felt the need to comment on some of the things I have noticed.

There are two definitions for Bad Book Review I want to touch base on:

Bad book Review: A review that is poorly written, verbally abusive against the author or about a book they haven’t even read.
Bad Book review: A review that is well written, not abusive, offers constructive criticism but that gives a low rating to a book because they thought it was bad.

It seems that some authors are having a very hard time understanding the difference between those two definitions. In the past week, I have watched six friends and fellow reviewers get attacked by authors and author fanclubs because they chose to leave a one or two star review for a book. That is ridiculous.

I thought the concepts in this post were common sense, but it seems some need a refresher. I know that the influx of self-published authors is also one of the key factors in the recent backlash I have seen. I am a self-published author. I get it. It’s hard to put yourself out there and not feel connected to your book. You aren’t protected by a wall of a publishing house’s media and PR department. You see a review on your book and feel like it’s all about you.

It’s not. It’s about your book.

You chose to write a book and publish it. You chose to put it out into the world and ask people to buy it from you. People bought it (or you gave it to them free in a request for a review) and they read it. Those same people, as they read your book, form an opinion about it. They then have every right to come back and write their opinion down (just like you wrote your book) and publish that review for others to read.

I’m going to put the following in point form, because I know authors are busy people. I’m putting aside four WIPs and eight review requests to write this post, after all.

A review is an opinion. Period. End of argument.
Not everyone is going to like everything they pick up to read.
The “if you don’t have something nice to say” argument was great, when you were five years old. Telling people to hold their tongue unless they can leave a shiny four or five star review is like trying to live on sunbeams and granola. It gives authors false ideas about their books and gives potential buyers of the book only a partial view of what they are about to buy. No book, in the history of the written word, has ever deserved only 4 or 5 stars from everyone who ever read it. People read for different reasons and get different things out of the books they read. See points 1 and 2 again.
Not having something nice to say is not an excuse to say something awful, hateful or poorly thought out. Even if you hate something, there is a way to say so that wont have you sounding like an asshat. People will take your opinion more seriously when you don’t sound like an asshat. So, speak your mind, be honest, but don’t be an asshat. It’s really not that hard, people. If you feel really strongly about a book you didn’t like, write down your thoughts then step away before publishing it. Let those thoughts sit for a day or two then revisit them. I bet you real money you change your words and tone a bit and add in some less critical and more helpful points than you had originally written. It’s hard to be constructively critical when your emotions are involved, and reading is always an emotional process.
Everyone has opinions. It is their right, as human beings who have been given a mouth and a brain, to speak what is on their mind.
Not everyone’s brain functions in a complete circuit with their mouth. Some people are just rude. Responding to them does absolutely nothing to curb the behavior. The internet makes it even more impossible to reason with them. You can’t reason with them, threaten them or otherwise get them to listen. Yes, these are the trolls, and yes, you should under no circumstances feed them. Especially after midnight.
Walk away and do not respond. Ever. Never. Never. NEVER respond to a review. Period. I cannot stress this enough. No argument is valid as to why you should ever respond to a review as the author. Do you see the “big name” authors responding to reviews on Amazon and GoodReads? Absolutely not. It never works out in your favor, I promise you. This is both for 1 star and 5 star reviews. No matter your intention, responding to a 1 star makes you sound like a bratty author with hurt feelings, and responding to a 5 star makes that 5 star sound like a ‘sock puppet’.
Negative reviews can be a good thing! If you step away from the little stars (or lack there of) and just read the review, you may be surprised about what you can get out of it. If you do get something out of it, feel free to mention it, but don’t respond directly to the reviewer. In example, I recently received a 3 star review that said simply “too much like Firefly for my tastes.” – That review made my farking day and you are damn right I tweeted about it because I was so proud of it. I didn’t respond directly to it on GoodReads, though, and if I had been offended by it (seriously, how could I be offended by being compared to freaking Firefly, but if I was,) – you better believe I would have walked away and never mentioned it on Twitter or elsewhere. Why? See next point.
Do not WHINE about it on Twitter, Facebook, to your friends and family, etc. When you whine about a negative review, it calls in the “troops”. People you didn’t even know you knew or had backing you will come out of the wood work to stir the pot. Some of them might reply with well written and valid arguments. Most will end up being #6, even though they may not mean to be. Some may get caught up in the heat of the argument or feel emboldened by the internet’s anonymous cloak and lose that connection, turning them into a #6 against their will. Then what do you have? A bunch of #6′s arguing at each other on your book’s review page, blog post or twitter feed – and no one is listening to anyone else.
Let it die. If it is one thing the internet has proven time and time again is that the average lifespan of anything is five days, unless you are stupid and you feed it. See #6 again.
Take what you can from critical reviews and ignore the rest. Ignore the reviews that blow sunshine up your ass. Ignore the reviews that burn your book. Read the reviews in between that give you points and opinions on your style, characters, world building, story and grammar. Take them and actually consider them. If you think your book is perfect the way it is and everyone should just love it and love it some more, then you will never grow as an author and there is nothing I can do for you except pat you gently on the head like a good little kid and say “awe, bless your little heart.”.
Stop taking things personally. Unless the reviewer specifically mentions you in a hateful, derogatory tone (such as “so-and-so is a ‘derogatory term’ and should commit suicide” ), then you should understand that the review is about your book and not you. Yes, reviewers may mention you as the Author, such as “so-and-so’s style leaves some things to be desired and I feel like she could have done a bit more research”. That is not a personal attack. That is a valid opinion about you the author, not you the person. If, however the person does sound abusive about you personally, don’t respond. Report it and walk away.

I will never deny that I have never broken a couple of those rules. I most certainly did when I first published. I was a scared little author who thought my book was awesome and everyone should love it and I was waiting for someone to call me about the movie rights. Then I stepped back and woke the fuck up. I had some seasoned authors (I love you, Kbards) shake me, I started listening to the feedback and realized my book needed some major work.

I learned from it. I grew as an author, and I feel like I’ve come a long way from where I was just one year ago. I also understand that I have a long way to go. I hope I never stop growing as an author and I hope I never stop receiving critical feedback about my books. There are still times when I am tempted to take negative feedback personally. I’m a human being with feelings, after all. So, those 12 rules above are as much a reminder for me as they are intended to be some advice for other authors.

I commend every single self-published author who takes that huge, scary leap and hits the Publish button. It is an act of bravery that the majority of the population will never do. Putting yourself out there takes guts, but it also takes an understanding on how to step away.

I am in no way condoning abusive reviews. If you don’t get that, then you need to re-read my post at least twice. As with all things on the interwebs, this post reflects my personal views and opinions. Feel free to leave yours. I will not censor replies, unless you include a link to a website selling purses. (Yeah, I see you, spam bot!)

In the spirit of supporting online conversations, here are some posts by other bloggers on the same topic: (msg me if you have one!) And no, I don’t just post links that support my views, but thanks for asking

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