The trouble with reviews

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.

Authors 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.


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.

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

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.