On Reviews
Authors often discuss bad reviews, asking the question should they be responding to them.
Some bad reviews are amazing, where the reviewer says something like, "I didn't bother to read the book because I knew I wouldn't like it." Huh?
Or if it's a mystery, giving only one or two stars because, "I figured out who the murderer was right off."
And then there was this one, "I didn't like the way the book ended."
Not only do I get good reviews for my books, but I've gotten a few bad ones too. Do they upset me? Not really. What does upset me is that most of these "bad" reviews aren't really constructive--and I've seen some on others' books that were downright mean.
I also review books. I do it here on my blog sometimes and also on Amazon.
If I don't like a book, I don't review it. Why? Because I know that different kinds of books appeal to different people.
Sometimes there are part of a book I don't like--and I might mention them and why, but I like to give an overall positive review. If I took the time to read the book all the way through, I had to have liked most of it. If I don't finish a book for some reason, I will not review it.
When I review a book I seldom tell much about the story because I've found other reviewers have already done it, so I write what I really liked about the book.
One thing that's deadly for a reviewer to do, is to give away the big reveal. Once that happened to me and I wrote nicely to the reviewer and asked her to take that part out, and she did.
I appreciate anyone who takes the time to write a review for one of my books.
Thank you to all of you who have.
Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith
Some bad reviews are amazing, where the reviewer says something like, "I didn't bother to read the book because I knew I wouldn't like it." Huh?
Or if it's a mystery, giving only one or two stars because, "I figured out who the murderer was right off."
And then there was this one, "I didn't like the way the book ended."
Not only do I get good reviews for my books, but I've gotten a few bad ones too. Do they upset me? Not really. What does upset me is that most of these "bad" reviews aren't really constructive--and I've seen some on others' books that were downright mean.
I also review books. I do it here on my blog sometimes and also on Amazon.
If I don't like a book, I don't review it. Why? Because I know that different kinds of books appeal to different people.
Sometimes there are part of a book I don't like--and I might mention them and why, but I like to give an overall positive review. If I took the time to read the book all the way through, I had to have liked most of it. If I don't finish a book for some reason, I will not review it.
When I review a book I seldom tell much about the story because I've found other reviewers have already done it, so I write what I really liked about the book.
One thing that's deadly for a reviewer to do, is to give away the big reveal. Once that happened to me and I wrote nicely to the reviewer and asked her to take that part out, and she did.
I appreciate anyone who takes the time to write a review for one of my books.
Thank you to all of you who have.
Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith
Comments
I agree 100% with everything you've said. Like you, if I absolutely cannot "get into" a book, I probably won't finish reading it and I definitely won't review it. I will NEVER write a bad review for a book. Again, like you, I believe "One man's garbage is another man's gold."
Marja McGraw