When I’m thinking of buying a book, I do read the one-star reviews. There. I admitted it. But would I write one? No, and here are three reasons why:
The author is not a moneymaking machine, but a human. A mean reviewer won’t see the fallout of posting a nasty review, but writers cry, get angry, sulk and fall into depressions over one-star reviews. It’s not fair to use the Internet to vent at a target you think is safe because you are in a bad mood that day or just angry in general. I know I’m preaching to the proverbial choir because I don’t sense angry dispositions among our regular blog readers, but we’ve all seen reviews from people who need a chill pill. If a book happens to hit all your HATE IT buttons, take your chill pill before bequeathing a one-star review. Wait a day or two before spouting off. Or better yet, don’t.
Reviews are read by the author’s publishing team. I don’t believe one bad review will keep an author from gaining her next contract. But it doesn’t help, even though the publishing team possesses discernment in assessing the merit of all reviews. An author drafting his friends and family to give nothing but five-star reviews may bring up the idea that only the author’s friends are reading the book. And speaking of the publishing team…
A bad review insults everyone involved in the book, not just the author. This is a point especially to consider if you are a writer. The publisher and author are obvious, but it will be hard for you to find out who’s editing what. If you unwittingly insult most of the books edited by Mr. Major Editor, how likely is he to buy your precious words, no matter how many times he has lunch with Your Big-Time Agent?
If you don’t normally read the genre and find you don’t care for the book, why trash it? Some reviewers will admit they usually don’t read a certain type of book and proceed to criticize everything about it. I suggest chalking it up to a learning experience and saving vitriol for books you really know about.
But what if a book really and truly deserves a bad review? Find out what to do on next week’s post.
Your turn:
Do book reviews influence your book-buying choices?
Have your feelings ever been hurt by a review?
What have you learned from bad reviews, either as a reader or writer?
I have left a one-star review, on Goodreads. It was a self-published book, and it never should have left the guy’s hard drive. The Goodreads reviews are largely glowing ones, praising the author’s skill at translating the story of Moses to a science fiction setting.
Except there was no skill. It was a poorly written book all around. And the sad part is it’s from a man who’s generally well regarded within the SF/spec writing community as a good editor.
He may be a good editor, but he’s a lousy writer. I bought it after reading the sample, telling myself surely it can’t be this bad all the way through, maybe it gets better. It didn’t. Since this book was my one and only exposure to him, I steer clear of anything with his name on it.
I don’t read Amazon reviews. Don’t trust them. I do read Goodreads reviews however, especially if I’m on the fence about a book and not sure what the heat level is. Goodreads reviews are pretty good about helping me figure out where on the heat spectrum a romance falls.
Great post. I have struggled with this in the past. I do not review very many books, but the few I have reviewed I am honest about. Thankfully, I have loved them. My policy tend to be, if I don’t love it, then I don’t review it. As a new writer, I have no interest in tearing down another persons hard work. I understand the amount of sacrifice involved in publishing a book, so I wouldn’t want to be responsible for raining on their parade. Now, if the book goes against my moral beliefs, then that would be different.
I as a reviewer will never write a bad review. I had a couple of books I did not like. I wrote the author and told them what bothered me and they thanked me. But I never wrote a review that would cause someone else not to buy the book. Why? Because someone else might like it. We are all different. Only post positive reviews that will help the authors.
I try to remember the Golden Rule.
This was a great post. I usually select books based on my interests. It may sound silly but I usually pray and ask what book do I need to read next? I rarely pick one that doesn’t live up to my expectations. I did give a 3 star review to one book but I tried to kindly explain why. I try to treat people like I would want to be treated really. I wouldn’t want to just tear down someone’s hard work either.
I’m lucky (I guess) – my books haven’t garnered any 1-star reviews as yet. I do read the 1 and 2 star reviews of books before I buy them, just to see why they rated the book that way; and those reviews are rarely well-written, so it’s difficult to take them seriously.
Great post. It’s my first time here, but I will most likely be back.
I don’t let reviews influence my book-buying decisions. The best thing about having an eReader is the “Get a Sample” feature. If a book doesn’t hook me with the sample – or I find something that irritates me about the writing style, characterization, etc., in those first few pages, I stop reading, delete the sample and move on. Amazon has also had the “look inside” features for many years,and I will use that if an eBook is not available before I plunk down my money. All of this is equivalent to picking up a book of interest at a bookstore and reading the beginning before buying.
That’s good advice. A lot of the books I’ve given low reviews to are books I never would have picked up if I’d had the opportunity to read the Kindle sample (as a NetGalley reviewer, we only get the title, author, publisher, and sometimes a brief blurb on which to base our decisions. I’m usually pretty good at picking books I’ll like, but sometimes I miss big time).
As a book reviewer (unpaid) for a Christian Publisher, I try to write reviews that provide both pros and cons, and list good things and not so good things about a book.
If I address theological issues I back it up with scripture. I ask myself what do I want to know about a book that will help me make an informed decision.
The only time I’ve given what may be considered a harsh review was when writer(s) have used fowl language to make their so-called hero manly. To me, that’s lazy writing and bad character development. Not to mention offensive.
In writing a review, I try to check my ego at the door and be as real as possible.
As a reader, I appreciate honest reviews and do read across the scale. Those who rate one star because they have an agenda are easy to spot, and I simply disregard them.
I’ve read a lot of books for review, but would never give a one star review on a public site. Maybe the book hit me wrong, or the genre was wrong. If the writing really has problems, I might send an email to the author personally and ask about certain things that may have bothered me. I remember twice I didn’t finish a book because I just couldn’t get into it or enjoy it. If I’ve read an author at least twice, and still don’t enjoy his/her writing, I won’t buy another one of his/her books. I don’t read reviews until I’ve read the book myself.
My feelings have been bruised by poor or bad reviews, but if the good ones outweigh the bad, I feel better. I have learned from poor reviews.
Being a reader I don’t read a lot of the reviews but if I do I tend to look at the 3 star ones cos they are often balanced. Unless I know the reviewer I tend to disregard 5 star reviews as have heard many are paid for. I do hate the one stars that abuse the author etc and a lot of the time have received the book for free. I will put up a 3 star review saying why I liked it then what I didn’t like. I do find reviews for non fiction I tend to look at more. Last year looking for a book for dealing with grief I read several of the 5 star reviews thought the book sounded great and then read the lower stars and could see it really wasn’t right for me at the time.
I’ve done hundreds of book reviews and only ever given two 1-star reviews. One I regret and one I don’t. I don’t regret the one that was neither Christian or fiction and I didn’t appreciate the mocking tone towards Christians or God.
I would not give another 1-star review of a fiction book. Lesson learned. Good advice. Don’t do anything knee-jerk.
And even though I do a lot of book reviews… I almost never read them. On the rare occasions I do, I’ll read the 3-star reviews. I figure most of the 5-stars are the author’s family and friends and most of the 1-stars are over-reactions (like mine was). The 3-stars give me – I think – the most objective views.
Generally I almost always give three, four, and five star book reviews. I may have given a couple of twos but no ones. I figure I’m better to keep quiet than spew forth a one star review.
(That said, I have given a couple one star reviews on movies – but they truly deserved it!)
Are reviews for the writer or the buyer?
As a reader/buyer, I appreciate honest reviews from the full spectrum. Some of my favorites have had an equal amount of one star and five star reviews. Reading taste is certainly subjective.
By not reviewing books that we deem only deserving of 4 or 5 stars the entire system of reviewing at all (from the readers perspective) has been diminished and become purely a marketing tactic.
Agreed. Over the past 3.5 years, I have written 4 1-star reviews after waffling and laboring over what to do. A 1-star review is reserved for a book that I cannot or will not recommend to anyone (so it’s generally more than a personal preference issue). My personal opinion as a book blogger/reader is that if I only review the books I loved, it seems like I love everything I read. While I try to choose books I think I will like/love, every book isn’t a perfect fit for me, and I think my readers (of my blog) deserve my honest opinions and thoughts about the books I’m reading. Of course, there is no excuse for pettiness or nastiness, which I try very hard to avoid in all of my reviews (1-star or not). And with 2-star reviews, if I’m the only one who seems to feel the book was disappointing, I try to link to other reviews to provide a more balanced perspective. What doesn’t work for me may be the perfect book for someone else.
I agree with all of this. But I’m thinking back to how many reviews I read that trashed 50 Shades of Gray. Or is it Grey? Seems like everybody in the industry threw a few stones at that one for a while.