Why I'll Never Again Write a Negative Book Review

I’ve never been comfortable writing negative book reviews. Unlike reviews for mass produced products such as furniture or clothing, a book review is personal to a single individual. An individual who, on average, spent 2-3 years researching, writing, editing, publishing, and promoting a single book. And rest assured that author received plenty of negative feedback and rejection during that time. During the agent query phase, it is not uncommon for an author to receive upwards of 80 agent rejections before one will agree to represent them. Then, it is likely the agent will receive several publisher rejections for the story. If the author is lucky enough to land an agent and find a publisher, the book will go through several iterations during the editing process. This is, of course, after the author has edited it themselves, had Beta readers look it over, and maybe even hired a professional editor independent of the publisher’s editor. Authors are familiar with rejection and negative feedback.

Side note: on occasion, a book of poor taste makes it out into the world. I’m not talking about those books in this post. There should always be room in the public discourse to discuss problematic/tone deaf literature and how we can learn from our mistakes and do better as a society moving forward.

So by the time it reaches the hands of a reader, it is pretty damn good. It may not be your taste, it may not resonate with you, but it isn’t a bad book. Even if there are typos. It still doesn’t mean the book is bad. So what constitutes a negative review? I follow several trade Facebook pages geared towards authors and in one, there was a discussion of starred reviews on Goodreads. I was surprised to find out that authors consider a 3 stars or below on Goodreads to be a negative review. In case you aren’t familiar, Goodreads labels their starred reviews as follows: 1 - “did not like it”; 2 - “it was okay”; 3 - “liked it”; 4 - “really liked it”; 5 - “it was amazing.” This Facebook discussion was 100% geared towards authors reviewing other authors. But as a reader, it struck me that authors, as an unwritten rule, do not review each other below a 4.

Although there was some debate over whether 3 stars was a positive or negative review, the majority viewed 3 stars as a “C” grade. Several compared the Goodreads rating to Amazon ratings. Interestingly, Amazon ratings tend to be higher because 3 stars is not equated to “liked it.” And since Amazon is a beast in the book-selling industry, their ratings tend to be the industry standard. Thus, a 3-star rating is a “negative” rating. I was a tiny bit mortified that I’d given authors whose books I enjoyed a “negative” rating. I would hate to think my marking a book as “liked it” ever deterred someone from reading it. Or thwarted a potential sale.

In addition, the more I talk to authors as a result of this blog, the more I learn about what it is like to be an author. Did you know that some reviewers tag authors in their negative reviews? What could possibly be the motivation behind that? Tagging someone is like inviting them into your home. Tagging someone in a negative review is like inviting someone into your home and then insulting them. Again, tagging an author in a negative review is not like tagging a clothing company in a negative review about a pair of pants you just purchased. No one at that clothing company takes your negative review of those pants personally. In fact, the people who were involved in designing and making those pants probably will never see or hear your review. But tagging an author in a negative review is to insult them directly and personally. It is not okay.

It is also not uncommon for authors to receive emails from readers pointing out mistakes the author made. Readers want to point out spelling errors, typos, grammatical mistakes as well as inconsistencies in history. Someone commented on one of my pins on Pinterest about a well-known, highly successful author, “If only she and the majority of ‘period cosy’ writers would take the trouble to read Golden Age authors and run a quick Google to check the details, her books might actually be readable instead of a hotchpotch of mistakes.” Honestly, reviews like this make the reader look bad, not the author. Might I remind this commenter that this is a work of historical fiction meant to be approachable my the modern reader and sold to the masses (which it does, quite successfully.) I also want to ask this commenter how many books they’ve written and published? How easy it is to criticize an author when you haven’t attempted to write a book yourself.

I am also willing to bet this author did far more than read a couple of Golden Age authors and run a quick Google search while researching for the book.

Isn’t there enough negativity in the world? Do we need to publicly critique one person’s work of art, just because it wasn’t our cup of tea? Was there anything you liked about it? Can you see why someone else might enjoy it? I understand wanting to share your opinion, to help your friends and followers avoid wasting time and money on a book they may not enjoy. So how does one share their opinion without writing a negative review?

Skip the stars. You can write your thoughts about a book without giving it low stars.
In addition to writing about the things that didn’t resonate with you, write about the things you did enjoy.
Perhaps explain why the book wasn’t for you and then suggest the type of person who would enjoy It.
Consider if this was just bad timing. Sometimes I start reading a book and the timing is all wrong - I don’t like to read thrillers when I’m stressed at work. Sometimes I mistake not liking a book for bad timing. If I return to that thriller while on vacation, I may love it!
Reflect on whether your review is written to help fellow readers, or dig at the author. The example I provided above was in no way trying to help fellow readers - it reads as vindictive.
Ask yourself, would you be willing to read your review out loud in front of the author? If not, re-write it to be more constructive.

I’m not asking you to coddle authors. As a group, they are strong and have thick skin. They are used to negative feedback and rejection. But they put their hearts and souls into writing these books for readers to enjoy. They did it for the readers, for you and me. They gave us this gift only for some of us to throw it away just because it wasn’t precisely the gift we were looking for…like a kid who gets the wrong toy for Christmas. Let us stop acting like kids who didn’t get the toy we asked Santa for and instead appreciate the gift our parents got us.

Finally, the teacher in me wants to tell each and every author to keep writing, keep sharing their talents with us, keep following their passions. So I guess this is me shedding my title as a book “reviewer” and taking on the role of book “cheerleader.”

Hi.

Apr 2 Why I'll Never Again Write a Negative Book Review