Monday, May 15, 2017

The trouble with reviews

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Authors need reviews on their books, that's not a secret. In fact, if you are a friend with an author, chances are they've asked (no, not asked, begged you) for a review.
You might've seen many memes on Facebook or other social media stating to support author(s) by reviewing their books. However, the reviewers are not forthcoming and you can hear crickets chirping and see tumbleweeds rolling across many Amazon book pages. 
So, what are authors to do? Obviously crying on social media isn't an answer. In desperation, many are forming and engaging in review exchanges. Yes, I'm guilty as charged. However, I quickly noticed that these groups eventually turn into "don't buy this book it sucks, buy my book it rocks" kind of thing.

Image result for bad book reviewsAuthors reviewing other authors' work are the most scathing. Over the years I've received my fair share of such reviews and guess what, they are all from authors. Or they can be pretty vague, as they sit tight to see if the other party (the one they are swapping reviews with) will award them with a five star and a glowing review.

When an author reviews another author, they will point out things a reader wouldn't necessarily notice.Things such as points of view (POV) also called head hopping, passive language, info dumping, plot holes, redundancy and so on. Before I started writing, I didn't know of these things. To me a book was a book, either I liked it or I didn't and anything in between. 
The unfortunate things with these review exchange groups is that often the rules dictate that the book must be reviewed, at what cost to the author, that is none of their concern. In some groups, if the reviewer thinks the book deserved one or two stars they are to contact the author and let them know and ask if they still want the review posted. I can live with that rule, however, many reviewers will assign three or more stars, but the written portion of the review will basically bash the book. Their reasoning is that the Amazon algorithms can't read the review and that all reviews matter, no matter of rating or how favorable they are. Okay, so the computer program can't read it, but people can. And while some don't care about what others have to say, many unfortunately do. On top of that (and many if not all authors are aware of this) to get into promotion programs such as BookBub, you need a certain number of reviews that are four to five stars rated. I don't know if the text part of reviews are the part of acceptance, but I would assume so. Otherwise you can have nothing but 5 stars ratings with most unfavorable reviews.

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While every author will appreciate it if you brought their attention to the issues with their books, they would appreciate it more if you do not state these issues publicly, especially if you have that author's private contact. Chances are someone already did it but just to make sure the author knows, you can drop them a quick line through private channels. If the book is really that bad, a reviewer always has a choice to not to review it if they think their review wouldn't help the book or the author. It's no different than when you see a post on Facebook you don't agree with and instead of commenting something that would anger the poster and cause some flames to fly, you just continue scrolling. Not your circus, not your monkey. Even if the group rule states you must review. No one can make you review it or do something you don't feel comfortable with and you have qualms about doing it. And with mostly authors exchanging reviews in these groups, this could work both ways and backfire. Seems the saying 'treat the others the way you would like to be treated' is going out of style, and in that case how many would want to find out just how they treated others. So unless you are absolutely, one hundred percent sure that your book is spic and span, keep the negativity out of your reviews.
With the ease of publishing a book these days, there's a plethora of people who wake up one day and decide to do just that, write and publish a book. That's the easy part. The hard part, surprisingly, is finding your readers. That comes as a shock to many and they think it's okay to bash other authors' books and that such actions will get hordes of readers their way. It's quite the opposite.
Some even argued that we get our job performances reviewed. Yes, yes, we do. In your boss' office, behind the closed door. I suppose they also believe that it's okay to manipulate Amazon ranks any way they can, to get on that bestsellers' list. If the big companies can employ people to only write glowing reviews on their products, why can't they do what they must in order to get ahead? Boy are they in for a surprise, an ugly surprise. Amazon cracks down on these things and banns people from ever selling on their sites.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't expect nothing but five stars glowing reviews. Any rating you believe the book deserved is fine. But justify that in your review in a diplomatic manner. Stating "this author needs to find a better editor, there were not only typos but often the wrong word was used out of context. If that doesn't bother you too much you'll probably enjoy this book."
I don't know about you, but this sentence grated me. Couldn't this have been toned down? Something along the line of unfortunately some editing issues prevented me to enjoy the book fully. Or left this out of the review and brought to the author's attention either via private email or Facebook channels. Then to add an insult to the injury the assigned reviewer messaged the group with a warning that I'll most likely turn pissy because I challenged her review. Which I didn't. I thanked her for the review and told her that I'm aware of the issue and that I'm addressing it with my editor. Then another question arised. Why would I stick with the same editor who didn't do a good job in the first place? Because I've already paid her and chances are she wouldn't refund my money. Plus, she was apologetic and got on re-editing the manuscript right away. While people from the group offered to do free edits on the first chapter or so in a few weeks, maybe longer. I've already had such an offer and the person never delivered. Instead, she acted as if she had no idea what I was talking about. Then gave me every excuse in the book why she can't do it. Thank you, but no thank you. When I offer my help, that means I'll get on it asap or at the very least let you know that I'm running behind but didn't forget you. Plus, I didn't want to tell the other person, but I've read her book and it could use better editing too. She shouldn't be offering her "editing" services either. I suppose she was butt hurt because I refused her offer of free editing.

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On the negative book reviews, I too am guilty of giving not so favorable reviews to books and I always made sure author knows the issues and if is up to them to fix them. I'm not a Grammar Nazi so if there are grammar issues, I'm not the one to notice them unless they are obvious, such as you're vs. your which seems to be the biggest issue these days. Most books that didn't impress me were BDSM and I tell the authors this is not my cup of tea, but they insist I read and review and are positive I'll love it. I find their alpha males' possessives toddler like behaviors. No real alpha self made billionaires male would act that way, and the way the women are treated in these books is borderline with abuse. But that's whole other issue to be discussed over a pot of coffee or two.

I had to write this long rant as a way of arguing with myself whether it is feasible to continue writing books. With the market already saturated with free or $0.99 books, and even box sets of 20 + books sold for as little as $0.99, the readers are overwhelmed too and are becoming increasingly picky. I hear now they don't even want to sign up for Kindle Unlimited since they have to pay a monthly fee for that when there are perma-free books out there. But as the meme below says

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And I will most likely continue to write. Writing is not only my creative outlet, but also a therapy and escape from the ugliness of the reality. Despite the fact that at the moment all the fun and love I had has been sucked right out of it. It's the only way I can get better at it. 

Thank you for reading my rant. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. 

16 comments:

  1. Wonderful article, Zrinka. You said it all so well. One thing I will never do is write a bad review. I won't even let an author know I am reading their book -- just in case I don't like it. If I review it, then they'll know I read it. But you can't read everything, and you can't review everything. But the least we can do, as writers, is support one another.

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    1. Thank you for stopping by my blog, Joe. Yes, support is essential and hard to come by lately. With everyone crying bai maih book and unwilling to offer support, the others are saying the heck with this, form now on it's me and me only.

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  2. Great post Zrinka, You hit the nail on the head. The authors are forced to beg for reviews because the publishing sites rank books higher with lots of reviews. Readers don't know how important reviews are, they just want to read and enjoy the books. So, what should authors do? As a last resort, they join review exchange groups which is not a good idea as you pointed it out. There are authors who open fake accounts to leave reviews on their own books or pay for five star reviews. Amazon needs to work on this and change their algorithm. They need to let the readers just enjoy the book and not hire and reward reviewers and force the authors to resort to unethical practices.

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    1. That's true, Erika. These review groups are everywhere. On Goodreads, Facebook, didn't come across one on Amazon, but wouldn't be surprised if there are there too. The members are saying oh this is to help us, but that hasn't been my experience. There are people who think the books should be written only one way, and that's their way. They are old school, read Tolkien and think that's how you write books. No, not nowadays. The publishing and writing styles have changed dramatically and as I said with the ease of self-publishing, they are finding it hard but they are many and are in these groups. Their reviews can be detrimental to your work because they don't know better and are actually believe they are doing you a favor. It's really hard to see them turning to writing at their age with no life savings and diminishing pensions and government payouts. Only to get bitterly disappointed in publishing as it was their last ditch effort.

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    1. Thank you, Mary Anne. I'm glad you liked it.

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  4. That's a nice piece of work, and so very true. When I started on my writing journey I was given advice about critique and criticism. If you can't be nice or constructive say nothing.

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    1. Thanks, Rick. Criticism is okay, it's not avoidable. But if you're to point out something to someone and they reply with thanks, I'm aware and working on fixing it, I don't see the point of pointing it again. Only if the fixed product is still not good, but you can't please them all and you'll never will.

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  5. And that's why I wouldn't ever join a review group. Those places can get nasty. Almost all my reviews are organic and that's the way I'd like to keep it.

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    1. Thanks Tina Maria. Yes, I've got out of the group. Their attitude became 'we don't need you, you need us' kind of thing. Yet, they are trying to tell me they want to help. Who are they helping, exactly? I doubt anyone could be helped the way they are doing it. Other than themselves, by bashing others books they may mistakenly believe the readers will flock to their books. Many people left the group recently and that is not telling them anything. Some people ask to be added and leave the group almost immediately. Some think they'll get their 50 high star ranking reviews to get in BookBub. I wouldn't put my money on it though.

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  6. I stopped reviewing books because of a "spat" with another indie author who didn't appreciate my 3-star reviews and felt I was attacking her personally.
    So these days if I love a book, I'll recommend it at the end of the year and probably contact the author if he or she wants to be interviewed on my blog.
    As for my lack of reviews... I stopped begging. If the few readers want to review the books, fine, if not, I don't care anymore.
    Happy writing! :)

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    1. Totally! I think that's the best way to go. I would understand if the reviewer mentioned the same issues for the book written by the author with English name as well as for the author with a foreign name. I can read the same book and find many grammar/punctuation and typos in the books by English speaking author and non English author can have clean manuscript yet the reviewer will say that there are grammar and spelling issues when in fact there are none.

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  7. I was once accused of only giving 5 star reviews and told my reviews were worthless because of it. I didn't acknowledge the person, but I could have said I ONLY post reviews on books that I can give 5 stars... that's why my Amazon review name is "5 Star Books I Love". Honestly, we've grown too much in need of voicing our opinions publicly, and you're right... bashing is often viewed as a way of building ourselves up. It's seriously sad that reviews can mean so much. However, I have used 1 star reviews as my reason for purchasing a book, and not the commenter's book either, but the one they left the 1 star on.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Linda. I don't only post 5 stars, but I don't post anything under three. Or at least on a rare occasion. Even if I do post 3 stars, I will try to point out what worked for me. Followed by what wasn't quite there. As I said in erotica/BDSM books many things grate me the wrong way. I was a class moderator for a psychologist who specializing in BDSM and this is a whole life style. It's not something a person wakes up one day and decides to try. And that seems to be the theme in all these books. An experience Dom without a sub takes on inexperienced young girl under his wing and turns her into sex kitten. That scenario is a running theme in these books. Followed by a girl on a run from her abusive Dom runs into yet another Dom. Didn't know there are that many out there. And sex scene after sex scene becomes redundant and exhausting to read so I just start skipping those pages since nothing really is happening that we haven't read about a few pages before. Leaves me wondering what did I just read and there don't seem to be any actual plot to it. I think from now on, I'll have to refuse these books, I don't know why BDSM authors think their books are my cup of tea.

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  8. Such a wonderful post! You nailed this concept on the spot. I used to be an avid reviewer, but since becoming an author, I am realizing more that I now need to be careful and have had to force myself not to leave 3 star or lower reviews. Not even before my book was released, I gave a children's author a 3 star because her book on bullying, while good, was not realistic. Unfortunately this author spent the next 4 months attacking me all over social media by creating fake accounts and leaving 1 star with nasty, make no sense reviews. It honestly took the joy out of reviewing books for me.

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    1. Thanks Mackenzie. That is unfortunate. Yes, the bad reviews sting, and I witnessed friends break up over the reviews, and all kind of ugliness. As a writer you shouldn't react to these reviews. However, I was just on Goodreads reading reviews on The Girl on the Train and some reviews I honestly wanted to reply back saying no one forced you to read the book if it's really that bad. Would you honestly read the book to the end if it didn't capture your attention by the end of the third chapter, at the very least? It should grab you at the first opening sentence, but some books do require a bit more of a read to get into them so I try to stick it out for a few chapters and if the story is going nowhere, than it goes on the couldn't finish list. But to suffer and read it to the end, then give it a one, two or even three stars and unfavorable review, makes the reviewer sound whiny and bitchy and it makes no sense to me.

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