How not to respond to a review

[Cath Murphy]

We all want to hear good things about our writing, but if a reviewer has a nitpick or two about our work. here is how not to respond to it:

http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-ho...

 

The author in question has obviously picked up some naval language in the course of her research.

[Iben]

Haha, I was just linked to this by a friend too. How this woman cannot see how horribly she's damaging her career is beyond me.

 

Authors, say it with me now: "We do not *ever* respond to reviews!"

 

~iben

Borough of Books

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

Unbelievable. I've seen other authors get angry over bad reviews, but never an author who told potential readers to "F*** off!" Twice.

[Cath Murphy]

Yep - got to file that one under "what was she thinking?"

[Bri Meets Books]

Wow. This is beyond comprehension. I do love the part about asking about reviews before publishing them. What kind of market is that? We have free speech.

[Christine Amsden]

Oh. My.

 

I disagree that authors should never respond to reviews. "Thank you" is always appropriate. And for positive reviews, a gushing thank you. :)

 

I don't respond to very negative reviews. (Ok...ok....in my head, and maybe to close family and friends. :) )

 

Then again, I also don't send review copies that haven't gone through several copy edits. I can't promise perfection, but I wouldn't want to have to re-issue a book a few days later with corrections. I'm not quite as disturbed by that as by the response, but it's worth mentioning.

[Iben]

yeah sure they can say thank you, but then again, why not just do that in the email correspondence that's bound to be between author and reviewer?

 

[Christine Amsden]

That's actually what I meant. When you said to never respond, I think you meant to never leave a public comment.

 

Although authors can sometimes make guest appearances on blogs, in which case they will have to make public comments, and they must still manage to maintain a degree of profeessionalism, even when people disagree with them or dislike their books.

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

I'm with Iben on this one.

 

There is a self-published author who has Google Alerts turned on and who shows up in my combox every time I feature one of her books. She always says thank you and seems honestly grateful . . . but there's no reason she can't do it through e-mail. She makes it public because it counts as PR--and there is the not-so-attractive self-serving element.

 

Authors, of course, have every right to promote their books as they see fit. But in the long run, responding to reviews is probably not worth it.

[Christine Amsden]

Posting comments to reviews of one's own book is, at best, a redundant promotional effort. People reading the post have already been exposed to the book, either in a positive or negative way. They may even forget the more negative reviews, if they later run across a positive review, but not if an author is getting snippy. That can only generate bad publicity. I suppose some would say there's no such thing as bad publicity. I hope they're wrong. :)

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

It's likely true that her comment doesn't really accomplish anything. But in fairness, she also links to reviews from her own blog--and I've got some traffic from her whenever I featured one of her books. 

 

This linking is one way of "responding to reviews" that seems neither self-serving nor redundant, because she is alerting established fans to another opportunity to discuss the book with another reader and shares some traffic with other bloggers.

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

I can see why it would make sense on a blog tour. In fact, your presence would be expected because you invited the bloggers to what is essentially your party. 

 

But the writer I'm speaking of has Google Alerts turned on precisely so she can show up wherever her name appears on the Internet. I understand it's a strategy and that she has to do everything she can to promote her book, but an e-mail would obviously be more classy.

[Iben]

This is very true.