Bad reviews and angry authors

[Dave Rosenthal]

On The Baltimore Sun's book blog (www.baltimoresun.com/readstreet) we've noted the recent discussions about bloggers who post tough reviews -- and get hammered. Recently, a blogger dissed a self-published author's book, and got a snide, anonymous comment, as well as threats of legal action for posting an excerpt and the book's cover. Many bloggers are justifiably outraged, and some note that they do not post negative reviews, to avoid offending anyone.
Do you shy away from giving a bad review? Have you ever had an angry response from an author? Is the reaction worse from self-published authors?

[dovegreyreader]

So late to this party I expect everyone's gone home but I decided from the outset (nearly 3 years ago now) that I wouldn't do excoriating criticism on my blog, I only write about books I've loved because to be honest time's ticking on and I don't have any to waste on books for which I often think I'm just the wrong reader. Plenty of people out there who will be the right reader for them and I'm not going to diminish their reading experience because no way do I feel qualified to do that.
So from all of that you may also deduce that I don't call myself a book reviewer because that involves being objective about my reading and I don't do that either. I'm a flouncy, pouncy book tigger because this is all about a love of reading good books and sharing that passion about how a book has affected me emotionally, why I'd press it on you if we met in the street etc.
I've been criticised for taking that stance too but hey, it's my blog and nobody pays me a penny to write it, the day someone offers me a fortune who knows, perhaps I could do 'tough reviews' but until then it's Mrs Nice Guy here in Devon UK :-)

[Amy]

I was actually thinking about this the other day, because even bad reviews on a blog can lead to sales for an author. Really, if you want to promote books you love, the best way to do it is only to review books you love. I think it's great you do that, as its your blog and your choice!

[Trish Collins]

I understand why a blogger wouldn't want to post negative reviews.

However, here's the reason I *will* (and have) posted negative reviews: I started my blog to talk about books like I would talk about books with friends. When I talk about books with friends, I don't only talk about the good books, I also talk about the bad books as well.

With that said, books that may have gotten a negative review from me (such as Atonement), often get cast aside in favor of something else. So for the most part my reviews are positive.

But again, I think it's totally fair for a blogger to only post positive reviews. It might not be the way that I blog, but I guess that's okay. ;-)

[Musa]

I think even a bad review is better then no review at all, I just wrote a book and I had some people say some pretty bad things about my book. But you know I wrote the book for me, and I enjoyed doing it. I think if you can't take a bad review your in the wrong business and should keep your writings in your journals.
That's what I did for almost ten years, I never allowed anyone to even take a peek. I guest for me one reason was because I know I don't have the best grammar in the world.
Here is what I think if you can find someone to say the worst thing they can think of about your work, your in business.
It means they took time out to look at your work.

[Dave Rosenthal]

Norm,, that's good advice for reviewers. It's also helpful to remember that there are lots of ways to evaluate a book: writing style, plot, character development, emotional punch, etc. When I talk to reporters about a story, I always try to start the discussion with some praise. That starts the discussion on a positive note and makes any criticism easier to handle. I've also found that even stories with major flaws have redeeming qualities.

[Musa]

I think ur right, some companies out there will pay even for a bad review it means, that's how they improve on their products and that's how you improve on your writing. You also have to look at it like this, it would be good if everybody could sell a million copy's of their first book. Real Bad criticism may be writing your next best seller. You know know what the market thinks about you.

[Ruthie @ Ruthie's Book Reviews]

The only thing that I can think of is, once I read and reviewed a book by an author, who was really sweet in the beginning until it seems that she read my review and then never spoke to me again, but I didn't apologize because I was just expressing my opinion. I don't know what else to say, but that everyone is not going to love all of the books that they read. That's just the way it is - but when I don't like a book I just say on my blog - 'Don't take my word for it, check it out yourselves!'

[Lexie]

I try very hard to post my reviews in such a way as to make it clear that while I didn't like the book there were elements that I did enjoy. On the occasions when I just can't stand a book--for whatever reason--I save my ranting for my personal blog and write a short paragraph about the book on my book blog stating that this book was not to my liking and I could not fairly review it. A lot of times when I take an extreme dislike to a story or book I tend to not be as eloquent or gracious (leaning more towards the extreme emotionalism that isn't constructive feedback at all and more of a 'omg did I hate this' variety) which isn't fair to an author to have to read in a public forum.

As for grading self-pub differently..I agree that the standards should be the same as a house-published book. I've read some very good self-pub'ed books and from those the author gets picked up by a major house, then again I've read some barely comprehensible self-pub'ed books and can see why the author was rejected by every major publishing house in the world. I sometimes wonder if the self-pub'ed authors who do get rejected, but then suceed with their book and get picked up by a House if it was just the editor or agent who didn't like the story and another one would have.

[Blaine Dixon]

I handle mixed reviews the way major authors and publishing houses do, I edit the negative parts out and use the good quotes! :)

[pussreboots]

I've had a couple angry emails from both sides of the fence (self published and traditionally published). In my experience how the book was published doesn't seem to predict an author's response to a negative review.

[Ellen Potter]

As an author who has occasionally experienced negative reviews from bloggers, I have to admit that it hurts my feelings, but I understand that if you are going to "play" you sometimes have to "pay." By the time most authors have been published, we've experienced a healthy dose of rejection from agents and publishers. We generally develop fairly thick skins. It's possible I suppose that self-published authors may not have been pummeled by so many rejection letters and may bruise a bit easier.

[Hava Lyon]

On my site, I review strictly nonfiction books, and I've found some real doozies out there. I review them all - positive, negative, or just so-so, I tell it like it is. My reviews are written for potential readers, not the authors, so if the authors don't like what I have to say, well...sorry, it turns out I wasn't too fond of what they had to say, either! LOL!

But honestly, I don't do many bad reviews, simply because I try to only review a book if I finish it (I've only made one or two exceptions to that rule that I know of) and if the book is truly horrible, then I have a hard time forcing myself to finish reading it. ;-) I did have one author who lambasted me for my review, but I posted a rather nice (and very long) response to his comment, and never did hear back from him. Other than that, I don't believe I've ever been chewed out by the author. I have been chewed out by readers who found my site through Google, didn't like what I rated a book, and told me all about it though. ::shrug::

I figure it comes with the territory. All of this is completely subjective - it isn't like math, where 1 + 1 always equals 2. Sometimes people disagree on how well written a book is (violently disagree in extreme cases) and I just chalk it up to human nature.

Hava

PS I don't review self-published books at all - I forgot that portion of the question. ;-) It's just that I have a hard enough time keeping up with all of the books I bring home from the library - I couldn't possibly keep with others.