As most of you who are now following this blog can probably imagine it has been a crazy couple of days. Just when I think it is going to calm down something happens that keeps it going. I understand “going viral” from an entirely new perspective now. For the handful of people who followed me previously and haven’t gotten wind of what I’m talking about read the comments on this review. The first fifty or so should be enough. A few people posted about it on some internet forums and within a short time word was spreading throughout the internet via twitter, Facebook, forums, emails, and no doubt other avenues I’m not aware of. I thought it would be a good idea to give a run down on several subjects surrounding the entire episode. Many of my friends say I like to bloviate (look it up). Here comes a bunch of that.
Early on Red Adept, the Queen of Kindle reviewers, was kind enough to lend her support. I appreciate that and the many others with the kind comments via the blog, emails, Facebook, and twitter. It seemed many of you intuitively understood what I’m aiming for with this blog and are now following it through the many venues available. I appreciate it and hope you continue to like what I’m doing. Spread the word to your friends. I know, the whole world has done that already. :D
On the subject of Ms. Howett, I’ve already said most of what needed saying in my comments. Many of you pointed out the fallacy in her thinking it was my “fault” if she sent me a bad copy of her book, and many of you understood that despite not being obligated I DID get the newer version. Thanks to those who investigated and pointed out that the current version still had the issues I saw. Some think this was a planned publicity stunt. If so I wasn’t let in on it and question how successful it was. Her sales rank did rise, but I don’t believe this reflects that many sales.
There is a coffee mug some enterprising soul has made available immortalizing one of Ms. Howett’s comments, a youtube video, and write-ups on Slate.Com, and The Guardian website. The episode made the front page of Fark.com, and many other mainstream, non-book related websites. I’ve been happy that the commentary about me is generally positive.
One thing that rankles me is those posting 1 star reviews on Amazon, having not read the book at all. Those who read the sample and posted I have mixed feelings about. They at least had some basis for their comments. The technical issues I pointed out are apparent early on. Those who posted without reading at all are – I’d better not use any of the terms I really want. Unethical, rude, and inhumane are some more polite ways to put it. For the record I feel the same about 5 star reviews from friends and family who haven’t read the book or 1 star reviews based on price. I’m happy Amazon has weeded out most of the bogus reviews from Ms. Howett’s book.
I appreciate feedback. Although I hope everyone can see a distinction between a typo or grammar error on a blog and the same in a book, I’m still aiming for error free while realizing I probably won’t hit it any time soon. Pointing out those issues in emails or comments means I can fix it and potentially improve in this area myself. I freely admit I’m not perfect in this area. (I suspect concentrating on use, non-use, and misuse of commas would be the most fruitful area to explore.) Other feedback or suggestions are appreciated as well.
Last, if any of you are interested in “the numbers.” Prior to the Big Bang I was averaging about 50 visits a day. (Visits, not to be confused with page views, which appear to run between 1 and 2 average per visit.) My previous high was just shy of 300 visits last Friday when the negative review post was published. Monday I had 52, 000 visits, 194,000 on Tuesday, and as I write this with 4 hours remaining in Wednesday it appears I’ll come close to matching that. The number of followers (twitter, Facebook, and Google Friend Connect) was about 230 and has now climbed to 1,900. Links have been shared on Facebook in excess of 2,000 times and while I have no idea how many tweets have gone out, I would be amazed if the number isn’t many thousands. Not to mention a yet-to-be-determined number of book review submissions that is well north of 100. (If anyone is interested in an unpaid book reviewer position, email BooksAndPals(at)Yahoo(dot)com and tell me about yourself.) Authors and publishers who have submitted this week, I’ll be attempting to make contact over the next several days as I formulate a plan of attack for the crush of electrons in my to-be-read file.
To say it is surreal and a bit overwhelming (in a good way) is an understatement. Thanks again for all your support. I hope everyone will keep coming back. I am optimistic the future of this blog will meet your expectations.
Showing posts with label Negative Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Negative Reviews. Show all posts
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
A Word on Negative Reviews
In the short time since starting this blog I’ve received multiple emails from authors whose book received a negative review asking, even demanding, that I remove the review. Rather than address them one at a time I decided to address all these situations in this post. Consider it an open letter to both authors whose books have been reviewed or will be in the future, as well as my readers.
I’ll start by saying I don’t give negative reviews lightly. I understand writing a sixty thousand word novel isn’t easy. It is much more than two hundred times tougher than writing a three hundred word review. I’d guess it is easily thousands of times tougher. I get that. I’m not going to dismiss your months or years of hard work without a second thought. I’m not out to torpedo anyone’s budding career as a novelist, nor is a single review from me going to do that.
However, I also have to consider the purpose of a book review. It’s to help readers decide if it is a book they want to buy. The primary purpose isn’t to help the author, publisher, or anyone except the reader. The author would like a positive review and may benefit from it, but that purpose is secondary. For this reason I will not remove a review once it has been posted. Requests to do so will not receive any response. Doing so would be a disservice to my readers. I will post it to the other sites as indicated in the submission guidelines page. Asking or insisting I remove a review is no different than if I demanded an author stop selling their book.
What Gets a Negative Review
Authors and readers should review the Guide to Reviews page to understand what the rankings mean to me. In this I mention that personal taste can influence the star ranking. However, this really only comes into play when a book is borderline between two different rankings. I’ve made a minor change in the Guide to Reviews page to make that clearer. Any book with 3-star ranking or lower has some definite flaws. What and how serious those flaws are will determine the ranking. These might be problems with the story or the characters. It may be a convoluted or difficult way the author has of expressing themself. If so I’ll typically explain what these are so readers can decide, based on their personal preferences, how this should impact their purchasing decision.
These flaws might be technical issues such as typos, grammar, or incorrect word usage. Those types of flaws exist in virtually every book. I’d venture a guess that a sharp eyed reader will find some in this post. I’d be amazed if some couldn’t be found elsewhere on this blog.
How these kinds of things impact one of my reviews depends on the type and number of errors. Yes, I’m actually keeping track, to a point. I’m not a professional proofreader or copyeditor. If I’m not sure, I don’t count it. Chances of not counting something as an error that should be are much higher than the opposite. If there are a very small number of errors, up to about seven in a typical novel, I’ll indicate this in the format/typo issues area of the review with something like, “no significant issues.” More than that, but under around twenty I’ll say, “a small number of errors.” If there are less than twenty, this is the only place these errors will be mentioned. If you wonder why I mention them at all it’s because the complaint I hear about Indie authors the most is that their books are full of these kinds of errors. My experience is that most aren’t, and only readers with an extremely low tolerance would take issue with so few such issues.
Errors beyond this amount are when they may start impacting the reading experience. My note in the format/typo issues section will indicate how serious the issue is. If the errors detract from the reading experience it will be mentioned in the analysis section.
But everyone else says my book is great
Everyone and I disagree. It happens.
I’ve seen two star reviews for books I’d give four or five stars. I’ve seen one star reviews on books considered “classics of literature.” If 9 out of 10 disinterested reviewers love your book then what I think shouldn’t matter. If all your family and friends love the book and give it a great review, the same thing goes, if you’re sure they will tell you the truth.
However, before discounting my opinion entirely you might be doing yourself a favor to understand why I didn’t like it. Is it a matter of difference in taste or did you push the publish button before your book was ready? If spelling, grammar, and typographical errors were enough to influence my ranking it is almost surely the latter.
Conclusion
As an avid reader, I think we’re living in an exciting time. The opportunity to experience a variety of voices, different subject matter in fiction, and to find quality reading off the beaten path is greater than ever before. This is why I focus on indie authors. However, being an indie author doesn’t mean a free pass for those things that are objective and clearly wrong. If you’re an author planning to submit your book for review and can’t live with the consequences based on what I’ve said in this post and the submission guidelines, possibly you should reconsider.
I’ll start by saying I don’t give negative reviews lightly. I understand writing a sixty thousand word novel isn’t easy. It is much more than two hundred times tougher than writing a three hundred word review. I’d guess it is easily thousands of times tougher. I get that. I’m not going to dismiss your months or years of hard work without a second thought. I’m not out to torpedo anyone’s budding career as a novelist, nor is a single review from me going to do that.
However, I also have to consider the purpose of a book review. It’s to help readers decide if it is a book they want to buy. The primary purpose isn’t to help the author, publisher, or anyone except the reader. The author would like a positive review and may benefit from it, but that purpose is secondary. For this reason I will not remove a review once it has been posted. Requests to do so will not receive any response. Doing so would be a disservice to my readers. I will post it to the other sites as indicated in the submission guidelines page. Asking or insisting I remove a review is no different than if I demanded an author stop selling their book.
What Gets a Negative Review
Authors and readers should review the Guide to Reviews page to understand what the rankings mean to me. In this I mention that personal taste can influence the star ranking. However, this really only comes into play when a book is borderline between two different rankings. I’ve made a minor change in the Guide to Reviews page to make that clearer. Any book with 3-star ranking or lower has some definite flaws. What and how serious those flaws are will determine the ranking. These might be problems with the story or the characters. It may be a convoluted or difficult way the author has of expressing themself. If so I’ll typically explain what these are so readers can decide, based on their personal preferences, how this should impact their purchasing decision.
These flaws might be technical issues such as typos, grammar, or incorrect word usage. Those types of flaws exist in virtually every book. I’d venture a guess that a sharp eyed reader will find some in this post. I’d be amazed if some couldn’t be found elsewhere on this blog.
How these kinds of things impact one of my reviews depends on the type and number of errors. Yes, I’m actually keeping track, to a point. I’m not a professional proofreader or copyeditor. If I’m not sure, I don’t count it. Chances of not counting something as an error that should be are much higher than the opposite. If there are a very small number of errors, up to about seven in a typical novel, I’ll indicate this in the format/typo issues area of the review with something like, “no significant issues.” More than that, but under around twenty I’ll say, “a small number of errors.” If there are less than twenty, this is the only place these errors will be mentioned. If you wonder why I mention them at all it’s because the complaint I hear about Indie authors the most is that their books are full of these kinds of errors. My experience is that most aren’t, and only readers with an extremely low tolerance would take issue with so few such issues.
Errors beyond this amount are when they may start impacting the reading experience. My note in the format/typo issues section will indicate how serious the issue is. If the errors detract from the reading experience it will be mentioned in the analysis section.
But everyone else says my book is great
Everyone and I disagree. It happens.
I’ve seen two star reviews for books I’d give four or five stars. I’ve seen one star reviews on books considered “classics of literature.” If 9 out of 10 disinterested reviewers love your book then what I think shouldn’t matter. If all your family and friends love the book and give it a great review, the same thing goes, if you’re sure they will tell you the truth.
However, before discounting my opinion entirely you might be doing yourself a favor to understand why I didn’t like it. Is it a matter of difference in taste or did you push the publish button before your book was ready? If spelling, grammar, and typographical errors were enough to influence my ranking it is almost surely the latter.
Conclusion
As an avid reader, I think we’re living in an exciting time. The opportunity to experience a variety of voices, different subject matter in fiction, and to find quality reading off the beaten path is greater than ever before. This is why I focus on indie authors. However, being an indie author doesn’t mean a free pass for those things that are objective and clearly wrong. If you’re an author planning to submit your book for review and can’t live with the consequences based on what I’ve said in this post and the submission guidelines, possibly you should reconsider.
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