Rules and Myths about Reviews

 

Rules and Myths about Reviews

 

You can find a lot of book reviews on the internet, but you know what you find even more of? Rules about reviews. Every other day there’s a twitter thread with hundreds of comments or a goodreads discussion with passionate arguments from reviewers, readers, and authors. The majority of these rules are based on very strange myths and assumptions so I wanted to take some time to work through my thoughts on them.

 

Authors Shouldn’t Read Reviews of their Own Books

This “rule” is thrown around by both authors and reviewers. Sometimes it’s mentioned kind of jokingly: “Well, I went and read my reviews, but I really shouldn’t have done that” and sometimes it’s taken with such seriousness as if it’s some kind of serious and unbendable rule.

 

Personally, I don’t understand how this is even possible to acheive. I’m an author who spends a considerable amount of time on the internet and the number of reviews I actually have is very limited, so of course I’ve read all of them, but really... even for an author who has hundreds of reviews I find it difficult to believe that they can prevent themselves from at least checking out a few of their reviews. More importantly, I struggle to understand why they would want to do this.

 

I feel like this “rule” perpetuates this strange idea that authors are super sensitive and can’t handle criticism. Sorry, no. Authors put a lot of time, effort and emotion into their books, so yeah, sometimes criticism that seems unfounded or that doesn’t get a book will be annoying, but we can handle it.

 

 

A Four Star Review is Bad

I see this on twitter alot. Mostly authors who keep “reminding” people not to tag them in “bad” or low-star reviews. And these discussions often include 4-star reviews. As an author who also reviews I often find myself wondering on which planet a 4-star review is considered bad. I’ve given 1, 2, and 3 star reviews to super famous, well-written books by hugely successful authors. I really don’t understand why anyone would think a 4 star review is bad. For me, 4 stars means it’s a great book. Well-written. Solidly entertaining. Just not perfect. It has one or two little downsides. I rarely give 5 star reviews so when I do it is more meaningful. The best books will usually get 4 stars from me. I’m starting to repeat myself, so let me put this another way.

 

Have you ever seen a successful, famous book with all 5 star ratings? Do you not realize it looks extremely suspicious/unrealisitic when a book has only 5 star reviews and ratings? Forget reviews and ratings. Think about the impression people get when a book or movie has a huge following of fans who keep insisting it’s perfect. It’s not a good impression.

 

So yeah, authors, please chill and be happy when someone gives you a 4star review. It means they liked your book.

 

 

A One Star Review is the End of the World

I’m not saying it’s always fun to get these as an author, but... I still wouldn’t shy away from giving them if I think the book deserved it. Also, I regularly seek out the one star reviews of books I actually liked (even ones I LOVED) to see what other people’s opinions are. It can be entertaining and it can also reinforce how much I liked the book. It’s possible for me to enjoy a ranting 1-star review and understand where that reader’s anger came from and at the same time still like the book because the things that bugged them so much are valid, but for me personally they don’t outweigh the good of that book. Just because we enjoy something and think it’s great that doesn’t mean we can’t look deeply at its flaws.

 

This doesn’t just go for 1-star reviews of books that are super famous or that are written by someone else. I got a 1-star review for Children of the Dead City shortly after I published it which I love. Why? It came from someone who was interested enough in my book to buy it and spend money on it. The person then read it and got to a certain part where I do a certain evil thing to one of my characters and got super angry. This shows me that they enjoyed the book enough to keep reading up to that point in the story. It also shows me that they loved the character so much that they were angry about what I did to that character. Success, right? I seriously grin every time I read that review. (*gasp* I not only read a review of my book, I also read it more than once! LOL)

 

Reviews Are Not for the Author

This is technically true. Reviews are meant for other readers, to help give them an idea of what the book is like if they’re undecided. Although, I usually read the reviews AFTER I’ve finished the book so that I can see what others thought of my favorite moments, or the things that got on my nerves, or whatever. The only time I’ll actively seek out reviews before I’m finished reading a book is if I’m in the middle of it and something about it is really, really bothering me and I want to see if others are equally annoyed. But, anyway, regardless of how people interact with reviews the target audience for them is definitely other readers and NOT the author. But this doesn’t mean authors are somehow not allowed to read them, which is usually the context given for this statement.

 

I don’t know about other authors, but this author goes on the internet to see other people’s opinions about the things I care about, so of course opinions on my own books are part of that!

 

 

I think my point in this lengthy blog post is that I wish people would be less focused on rules around reviews. Stop focusing on who should write what, who should tag who in the reviews, who should read reviews and just take reviews as people’s opinions. They’re more of a big conversation people are having about a book and I think that’s great. And I want to end this long post by thanking those people who go out of their way and spend their time writing reviews. Whether they're 5-star or 1-star reviews, long or short, detailed or not, I appreciate you for writing it and expressing your opinion and enriching the conversation about books. 

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