I love to read and I read a lot of books. Lately though, I’ve been disheartened by how many poorly written or just plain boring self-published books I’ve read. Six self-published books in a row now and they were all big let-downs in one way or another.
I want to be supportive. I want to review other author’s work. But if it is painful to get through, if I have to force myself to open back up your book and read a few more pages each night, if each spelling error or grammatical mistake jars me out of my train of thought, I can’t (and shouldn’t) give you a good review.
The Decision to Not Write Negative Reviews
I’ve gone back and forth on the question of negative reviews for a while now. If I wasn’t writing my own work, I might feel differently. Social media, opinion pieces, and online comments seem to devolve into negativity more often than not. I don’t want to contribute to that negativity. I want to stay positive. I work hard to stop myself from complaining on Twitter or trashing something with an online comment.
You might say, if you don’t warn people about a bad book that you’ve read, then you’re doing a disservice to the reading community. There is some truth to that. But I don’t necessarily see my job as a voice of warning. If I’m honest, I probably dislike as many things as I like. I’m old enough to have realized that my personal tastes are not all encompassing. So if I’m going to spend the time to write a review, it needs to be a four or five star (out of five) review or I’m just not going to write it.
That gives great books another positive review in their quill while not hurting authors that are still working on their craft and almost certainly will improve.
3 Reasons Not to Write Negative Reviews
1) There’s already enough negativity online.
I don’t see any reason to contribute to the negativity that already permeates the Internet. Spend five minutes reading the comments (talkbacks) on aintitcool.com and you’ll realize what Obi-Wan Kenobi meant when he said, “you’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
2) I don’t want to hurt other authors who are still growing.
It is entirely possible in some cases that their writing just didn’t connect with me and other readers may love it. If nothing else, then the current work I’m not fond of is a stepping stone to growth as a writer and greater writing down the road so I don’t want to hurt the chances of this writer to find readers later if they read negative reviews now. We can all improve.
3) I want to stay positive.
I want to keep my online “brand” (and who I really am as a person) as positive as possible. Dwelling on the negative only brings me down. I don’t mind reading poor work only because it helps me to be a better writer by noticing how I might have done things differently and not making the same mistakes. But that’s something I mentally note, not something I need to blare with a megaphone to the world.
I actively keep my Goodreads author profile updated with my latest reads and now I’m going to have to be a little more careful, especially when it comes to self-published authors because if it isn’t great, it isn’t going on my “read” list with a review.
I completely agree with what you have said. I like to share and blog about books I have enjoyed and am excited about. I don’t like every single book I read but I prefer to just not blog it rather than belittle someone’s hard work. Great post 🙂
Thanks! I agree. It’s so much better to build up a writer rather than tear them down.
Ben,
Until today, my first book on Amazon has seen all 4-5 star reviews, but today, my first 1 star review came in. In searching online for some guidance on the matter, I came across your post, and I too appreciate and agree with your comments.
Having recently published my first book on Amazon after almost a year of writing and editing, which included the services of a professional editing firm, I have a very clear picture of what it takes for a serious author to create and share their work. There comes a time when you simply have to make a choice: Do I keep writing and editing indefinitely or is what I have good enough?
I’m not going to say that my book is 100% perfect, that there’s nothing I could possibly do to improve it, but I published it because I believed it was ready. I’ve just learned to accept that you can’t please everyone, and honestly, I’m glad to get my first negative review out of the way. Now if they keep coming in, I’ll have to take a serious look at things, but for now, all I can do is move forward.
Because of my experience in writing my own book, I too will be more inclined to say nothing rather than tear an author down, and even if I do feel it necessary to leave a less than positive comment, I’ll make sure to do so constructively and give the author the feedback necessary to help them in the future.
At any rate, I enjoyed your post and appreciate your attitude toward this topic!
Ron
Thanks Ron! It is great to hear your perspective. It’s always scary putting your art out in the world and you’re exactly right, you can really can’t please everyone. Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts.