Reviews--for good or evil?
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
This is something that's really been bothering me lately. What's the point of book reviews? There's almost as many opinions on this as there are religions.1) You should always give a good review of a book because as the reviewer, you got it for free, and why would you dis someone who gave you free stuff!
2) Reviews should be your honest opinion of the book.
2b) reviews should be the honest opinion of any reviewer who liked the book.
3) Reviews should be all about whether or not a reader would like a book.
4) reviews should be about how well a book is written.
You get the idea. Sometimes the differences of opinion are so slight it's almost laughable.
And of course, the only thing more prevalent than opinions about reviews is *reactions* to reviews.
1) I got a bad review, Boo hoo. (genuine upset, crying, tantrum, preferably in private, but some idiots...er...people...like to rant about bad reviews on their blog or website. (I say idiots because this never ends well. They don't look good by doing so.)
2) I got a bad review, but the person reviewing it didn't
a) read my book
b) like shorts, which my book was.
c) like the genre, and admitted it.
d) spell a single word right in their review.
These are the toss-away reviews. They lack legitimacy, and authors discredit them.
3) I got a great review. But I know this person, so...what's the review mean? Anything?
b) I got a great review from some random review house, but they have a policy of only giving good reviews.
4) the oh-so-elusive: someone reviewed my book and actually *got* it.
With that in mind, I've come to the decision the only valid review for me personally is a recommended read from someone I know or who knows me. But how 'bout you? Do you cruise the really trash-talkin' review sites to find the most hacked books to buy? Do you only buy the ones that get 5-whatevers from a bunch of review sites? Or do the reviews just not matter at all?
Posted at 9:01 PM by Dayna_Hart
1 Comments:
Honestly, I probably pay the least amount of attention to reviews possible. I like reading and giving an opinion of them on my blog. Notice<< I said opinion. Not whether or not the writer shouldn't ever dare strike a keyboard again, not whether or not the author is insane to be writing in that length/genre/heat whatever. It's solely my opinion (there's that word again) of the BOOK, the story from cover to cover, or if an e-book, the beginning to the end.
Personally, I do think people who write a review and can't sound sober while doing it, shouldn't post a review. I also think that a bad review from a stranger has as much bearing as a great from a friend and vise-versa==very little. One person won't sell you a hundred books. Only the author and their enthusiasm has that much power.
If you obtain several good, great job. Several bad, um, obviously something didn't click. Fix it. Numbers and the accumulative reaction is the only real way to say if you've got a good book. One review will not slay Goliath.
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