Ethics in Blogging: Taking the Wild Out of the Wild West?
By Jane • Feb 19th, 2008 • Category: Letters of Opinion, Misc • •
moar humorous pics
In the past few weeks, we here at Dear Author have talked about author ethics and it occurred to me that we haven’t talked alot about blogging ethics.
While I do think that ethics is a community issue, I am not trying to force my ethics on anyone else in the blogging community. What I am trying to do in this post and subsequent posts on this issue is to explore the idea of blogging ethics and what that means.
The internet has been referred to as the Wild West. It’s ungovernable but vibrant. Alive with colorful personalities and outspoken individuals. The idea of placing limits on anyone on the internet is a bit of anethema.
But I have always been an advocate of criticism. I feel like one cannot grow without criticism or self examination. I can see, when I look over the posts of the past two years, that I have grown as a person and as a blogger. That my opinions and stances and voice has changed in response to my connection to those who have come to share in the community here and when I have gone out to other communities to participate.
There are posts, in my past, that I would not post today. The one that I can think of is the post regarding Rosina Lippi. What I said in the post is perfectly true but it was unnecessary and petty. For me to go back and delete the post would be to engage in revisionist history which I personally don’t like. I prefer my asshole-ishness to be out there for everyone to see.
The one post for which I think I took the most heat, both publicly and privately, was the one in which I took Adele Ashworth to task for her statements at AAR. It is not a post that I regret today, even in retrospect. I don’t know that I would change even the tenor. Will I look back in two years at that and wish I had gone a different route? I don’t know.
But what I am willing to do is engage in conversation with those in this community and the greater romance community about change that they think should occur for the betterment of the community.
I cannot promise that change will occur. But I can say that I look and read the comments and I do think about what is being said, particularly those opinions whose are contrary to my own. Because becoming a better person, a more competent blogger, a better contributor to the community occurs by listening, absorbing, and filtering the messages and attitudes of the community.
But the meat of this is to discuss the author response to bloggers. Some of the responses I received are directed toward review policies. Here are some of the requests I have received and my take on each one. I would love to hear from others on these topics:
1. Bloggers who request an ARC should review it.
My response: Yes, absolutely. I know that authors get very few ARCs. Some authors might only get two or three. Some might get 40. Some authors are willing to make e-arcs and some are not. But making an e-arc takes time and if an author is willing to send you a book for review AT YOUR REQUEST, I think you owe the author a review. I also think that if a reviewer asks for a book but doesn’t get one, she shouldn’t complain about it publicly. I think the author and publishers have the right to determine who gets what, even if it seems (and may very well be) short sighted.
2. Bloggers who request participation from an author should refrain from bashing/trashing the author around that same time.
I have a little problem with this because I’m not quite sure what “bashing” is. For example, we have the First Sale series here at Dear Author. I invite authors to submit the blog post near the on sale date of their books. This often coincides with a review of a book that we have done. The book review might be a less enthusiastic review. Is that considered bashing? Or is that considered unethical? Should we refrain from posting the first sale letter if we are not going to give a positive review? Should we refrain from posting a negative review of a contributing author for a period of time? I.e., a week or more?
3. Bloggers should not read/review an author’s book whose writing they dislike or alternatively, should not read/review an author’s book who they personally dislike.
This one is a tough one. First, I have taken heat for this so I might not have the most impartial view. I reviewed a book after being told in comments previously that it was not a romance. I was criticized for reading this book because I was told I would not like it but the fact is I bought (yes, I paid for this book) the book because I was curious to see how it was “romantic” but not a romance. The book didn’t work for me but not because it wasn’t a romance but because I felt that the telling of the story was flat. This book, however, worked on every level for my blogging partner, Janine, and despite the fact that I personally had issues with the way that the author and her friends treated me post the review, I felt it important to put up Janine’s review and every subsequent review Janine has done for this authorʼs work. Janine is a big fan of this authorʼs writing and does not hesitate to recommend her work to everyone. Should I not have read/reviewed the authorʼs book when I was told I would not like it?
Second, I have read/reviewed books for authors I personally dislike because I try hard to separate the personality from the work and sometimes I am successful with it. For example, I am not a big fan of a particular author of vampire romances but I have stated on more than one occasion that I love one of her books and I have given two books in the series differing grades: a B and a C. Robin reviewed and gave a B+ grade to a book by an author who called Robin a non-fan.
This is a tough call for me. I think one way you can resolve this is by being transparent. I.e., maybe in a prefatory paragraph a blogger can state their position on said author. I.e., I was told by the author/friend of the author/random commenter that I was not going to like this book and they were right. Or I have had my issues in the past with author A and perhaps that has colored my view of her writing. I will say that recently I decided that we would not review the author of the vampire series on this blog any more because I think I had lost any sense of impartiality.
4. Should there be differing standards for reviews depending on whether the blogger bought the book or received it for free?
I think that there should not be a different standard, but I do know that as a blogger, I feel more free to be negative on a book that I bought than one I got for free even if I didn’t ask for the book. Having said that, I think I have been plenty negative about books I have received for free.
5. Should a blogger refrain from being entertaining in penning a negative review.
I think point 4 relates in large part to this question. Does a blogger “deserve” a free book if it is going to serve as a “trash/bash” session for the blogger’s own entertainment. Said another way, isn’t the blogger having fun at the author’s expense. While I understand the concept of this, I have a hard time buying that a blogger is unethical because so long as the book itself is being mocked and not the author.
6. Should a blogger make fun of or mock an author’s response to a review?
This one goes to the idea of whether authors should suffer in silence or whether they have the right to speak out in response to a mocking post. My opinion is that an author has the right to do whatever she wants but she must be mindful that her online persona is one of her marketing tools. It is an unfair standard and the question is in an ethical blogging environment, should it be?
7. Do bloggers treat some authors preferentially, both in reviews or in parsing out their online statements?
I try not to treat authors differently in reviews but I do think I treat them differently when reading their online statements/posts. If I have a relationship with an author and I find something distasteful on their blog or website, I will email them. If I do not have a relationship, I won’t but I might bring it up openly on the blog. My own hot buttons have to deal with the treatment of readers and the reputation of the romance industry. If I feel that readers are being unfairly attacked or if I feel like the romance genre is, I will most likely make a public post. One reason I would do this is because if I don’t know the author from random why would I believe that author would be interested in my opinion? But, should the first response always be to make a private appeal?
8. Should bloggers police other bloggers?
This one I have a real problem with. For one, I don’t think that I should be responsible for anyone else’s actions. I can only monitor and control my own posts and comments. I don’t even know how I would begin to address this. If someone brought something to my attention, I might comment on it, but it’s not reasonable to believe that one blogger or even a community of bloggers would know what others are saying.
9. Should bloggers be more respectful of authors? And if so, how is this respect shown?
An author does not automatically gain respect from me merely by being published. What I do try to do is make sure that a review is about the book and that my comments about a blog post or public statement of an author is about the public stance and nothing else. I would be interested in hearing other positions on this.
I know that these are a lot of issues to discuss and there are actually more that I received in emails when I asked for feedback on the subject. I am of a mind to post weekly polls in the sidebar to gauge the temperature in this community.
Jane is a long time romance reader whose passion is, you guessed it, reading. Jane also does not like to talk about herself in the third person, but apparently this is the way that this biography thing works (although in a true biography, someone else would be writing this blurb). Anyway, currently Jane loves urban fantasy authors Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews. She's really excited about this year's crop of historicals including Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady and Sherry Thomas' Private Arrangements and the upcoming Loretta Chase Her Scandalous Ways.
She's looking for a good contemporary author. Email her with a recommendation!
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Wow, you really hit a lot of stuff here.
I honestly do think about some of these things.
I think the idea that bothers me most though is the idea of bloggers owing the author a review.
Reviews for me are like… well, writing I guess. I really hope they say something about the way I think or my likes and dislikes. You know something about me as a person reading your book so people can relate to my opinion.
Sometimes, an honest review on a book just does not come all that easily.
Like right now I am in a dry spell. Real life is in the way, I had a job review coming up and my focus is not worth much reading wise. So instead of wasting peoples time I shut the heck up.
There are easy reviews that happen that almost write themselves. If a book falls in an extreme of “I love it, and here’s why!” or “I hate it, and here’s why!” you are in such luck. I have found something to say and usually something I personally feel is constructive or even unique in my take of the book.
But… mostly when a review is harder to write I need to let a book sit for a while after reading it. Sometimes I catch myself not having the ability to really focus on it and I stop and put it away for another occasion and hopefully a better time.
For an author I am sure that is terribly maddening. I hope on the flip side of me being this difficult horrid Pig that the authors and most importantly the potential readers do get something out of the reviews when I finally find something to write about.
And last but not least… I have a secret I want to share.
Don’t tell anyone. It would ruin me if it ever got out.
It might be better for someone to wait and see what happens review wise because me “not reviewing something” might mean I am being polite and that I actually might even know you personally and/or like you as an author.
I guess I would rather write 5 ecstatic detailed reviews of books I love than a million short, funny, witty, reviews of books that just did not do it for me.
Because snark and jokes are fun and all but it can get to be a bore.
Yeah, I know. Pig… Boar…
Removed for further editing.
My view has always been that if a reader has invested time in reading a book, then s/he is free to say whatever s/he thinks about it. Whether the said reader paid for the book or got it at the library or as a free ARC makes no difference.
As for respect, I expect to be treated with civility online, as I do in real life. Respect has to be earned.
I agree a writer has to take care in how she responds–to a review or a topic. She has to take more care than a reader. That’s both logical and fair.
There are, however, some sites, some posters, who’ll bitch slap a writer no matter how carefully she responds. Just because they can. I’ve learned to avoid those sites, or if it’s a poster on a site I do frequent to consider my response–and tailor it to the individual. But the key is ‘I’ve learned’. It generally takes some hard knocks, and some mistakes along the way.
Amen Teddy. I’ve got about 9 reviews right now that I’ve jotted down notes and/or have written some paragraphs for but which I just haven’t gotten finished. Sometimes I’m in the mood and sometimes it just won’t come to me to save my life. It’s especially hard to work in information about a book’s plot into the format that we use here.
I know authors and publicists want to see a result for the arcs they’ve handed out but I want to make sure that I do the book justice and be honest for the people who might be spending moolah based on what I’ve said.
My opinion only:
On 1:
To an author, first two weeks of sales are very important, because if you hit the right list, your sales could go up by 30-50%. So when ARCs are being sent to reviewers, especially when a reviewer requests an ARC, I think it’s understood that it is being given in exchange for some buzz. That said, you can’t force someone to review your work if they don’t want to. Here is the disclaimer I typically send out with my PDF:
I would very much appreciate it if you could post a review of it around mid-March on myspace, blog, or a board you frequent. It doesn’t have to be long or positive. I’m just looking for an honest opinion. But it would make my day if it included the release date.
Asking nicely is pretty much all I can and should do. Is it using the bloggers as advertisement? Well, of course it is. But I don’t think this fact was ever in doubt.
On 2: I think the key here is “author”. I have no problem if a blogger has problems with my particular book and then invites me in for a promo, because any publicity is good. But if a blogger posts a long rant about how I am a hack and how I should stop writing and go clean sewers instead and the audience cheerfully agrees with the blogger, why in the world would I come to this blog and put myself on display? Blogging is a promo tool. People who have that big of a problem with me as an author are probably not my target audience. My time is better spent elsewhere.
On 3: I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I think deciding whether a personal dislike of the author prevents a reviewer from accurately evaluating a book is a question of personal integrity each blogger has to figure for themselves.
On 4: No. Why in the world would how you got the book matter?
On 5: No. Bloggers are writers. We read blogs for entertainment value. How entertaining one should get is up to individual bloggers.
On 6: Before I made it into print, someone older and wiser told me, “In response to critique, you say thank you or nothing at all. Nothing else. Don’t be the entertainment.” I have seen some cringe-worthy author rants that proven the wisdom of this statement. You can’t win in response to critique. Everything you could say has been said between the covers. It’s not the blogger’s responsibility to police the author. If the author is determined to be an asshat, I think the blogger is fully within their rights to say, ‘You go, buddy’ and milk it for all the entertainment value she can get out of it.
On 7: Yes.
On 8: To some extent every community polices itself. But I think bloggers are steered by audience more than by other bloggers.
On 9: Should bloggers be more respectful of authors? And if so, how is this respect shown?
“An author does not automatically gain respect from me merely by being published.”
No, but some respect should be afforded from the start. I think all people should treat each other with respect and basic courtesy. I’ve seen people rant and rave and call authors names because of something they didn’t like in a book. We are NOT our books. We put out a product. You may not like our product and that’s perfectly okay. But we, as individuals, are distinct from our work.
1) Yes. If I specifically ask Jane to try to get an arc or if I specifically tell an author or publicist that I’ll read a book/arc, I try my best to read it. The review might take a while to write or to be posted due to our heavy schedule here but I try to make sure it eventually gets done. However, if something is submitted to us in the hope that one of us will read it, then no, I don’t feel obligated to read it. There are also those cases where I just can’t finish a book even to the point where I feel comfortable doing a DNF review. Since this is something we mention in our submissions policy, I don’t get myself tied into knots over it.
2) I think I know which book Jane is talking about here and I agreed with her decision.
3) For me, reading is my pleasure. I don’t get paid for it and it sure doesn’t pay my bills. If I don’t like an author’s style, I won’t read/finish the book. I have a hard time separating an author’s online persona/actions from their books. For this reason, I don’t haunt other blogs and rarely go to author’s blogs/websites beyond what might be needed for writing a book review. If someone is acting like an ass, I don’t want to know.
4) No. Whether or not I got it free, my review might influence someone to spend their money for it. Readers, does this information influence how you read our reviews?
5) Snark isn’t my style. I’m just not that good at it. I can enjoy other’s snarkiness but it only rarely surfaces in me.
6) No. An author risks making him/herself look bad by a petty response. I’m not going to sink to that level in reply. If I make a mistake, I try to graciously correct it.
7)Honestly, I think I’ve been guilty of this at times. I try not to do this because if I then read a book by this author I don’t like, it makes it harder to be truthful in a review.
8) Hell no. They’re responsible for what they do.
9) As Jane said, being published doesn’t entitle anyone to any more respect than anyone else. I don’t do as much posting as Jane does about aspects of the romance community other than the actual books. My responses to questions 3, 5 and 6 also tie into this question.
Great Blog Jane.
I agree with Sherry respect needs to be earned but I don’t like to see someone get slashed online either.
As for reviews I don’t care if the reviewer paid for the book or not as long as she’s honest in her review. What I don’t like is when the reviews become an attack on the author and publisher. I haven’t really seen this on review sites but Amazon.com seems to have a lot of them. Do I purchase books based on others reviews either online or in magazines? No, I buy what pleases and catches my attention at the bookstore (which explains my 900 to be read pile).
The name of the game is professionalism, all the way through this, like rock.
1. Bloggers who request an ARC should review it.
If at all possible. If they really can’t - and this has happened to me on Speak Its Name once or twice - and the written material is simply too vomit inducing to get past the first couple of pages - then the blogger should write back and explain why, sending back any hard copy they may have received, obviously
2. Bloggers who request participation from an author should refrain from bashing/trashing the author around that same time.
That’s completely up to the author, imho - if an author posts to a site where the blogger(s) have a reputation for slagging off covers and contents and/or they are notorious for not liking their kind of book, then author beware. As an author I would be very wary of participating any ANY blog where this sort of behaviour is considered funny.
3. Bloggers should not read/review an author’s book whose writing they dislike or alternatively, should not read/review an author’s book who they personally dislike.
If a reviewer isn’t professional enough to put personal feelings aside, then they aren’t grown-up enough to be able to write an impartial review about the writing.
4. Should there be differing standards for reviews depending on whether the blogger bought the book or received it for free?
No. Of course not. Why should they be? I buy books, I (sometimes) get given arcs and more rarely hard copies, or I’m pointed to where I can read the novels online free. They are all as valid as the other.
5. Should a blogger refrain from being entertaining in penning a negative review.
I don’t think a review should be amusing at all, because the blogger (unless they are in it for their own aggrandissement, and there are some) is writing about something that’s not personal to them. Unfortunately there are bloggers like this. I wouldn’t say it’s unethical, just unprofessional and a little sad.
Even if a book is utterly dire, it shouldn’t be mocked on a review site. It’s a different matter on a personal blog of course, you can say what you bloody like on there.
6. Should a blogger make fun of or mock an author’s response to a review?
No. Absolutely not. Again, if it’s a personal blog, it’s up to the blogger but I don’t think authors should even respond to reviews (unless quietly and privately via email and then only “thanks” and leave it at that.) To mock an author for a response on a review site? That’s just dreadful.
7. Do bloggers treat some authors preferentially, both in reviews or in parsing out their online statements?
Probably. There’s a lot of sucking up to Big Names, no matter where you go.
8. Should bloggers police other bloggers?
If they want, why not? It’s a free universe. I don’t like Fan Wank and all those sorts of blogs, because it’s just full of people laughing over other people’s misfortunes, but again, if people wish to be childish, that’s really up to them. It doesn’t help the cause to improve books in anyway, though.
9. Should bloggers be more respectful of authors? And if so, how is this respect shown?
Respect is earned; good writing (or clear signs that the author wants to write well and is working hard at improving), professional quiet polite behaviour, courtesy (thanking for good reviews, replying to comments and to emails) all that sort of thing. Not behaving like a Diva over bad reviews in public, not speaking out for advertising’s sake about hot issues like homosexuality or religion or fan fic just to get attention. Helping other authors. I’m a great believer in bread on the waters and writers who work hard at their craft get my respect and those who shout and wail and spam will never do.
Where would you draw the line, Erastes, between personal blog and review site?
Playing devil’s advocate here - I am thinking back to a few ‘My First Sale’ interviews here. They are usually posted close to the person’s release, and I generally find these to be fun little vignettes about an author. Sometimes it’s precluded with a bit about how much the reviewer liked one of the author’s books.
But then, say, the next day, the review of the author’s new book is up and it’s less than flattering. As a reader, I’m fired up to try the author after seeing the ‘My First Sale’ article, but then after the not-great review (I can’t think of one that was a slam, just ones that were very ‘meh’ books) I back off and put my buying dollars away.
I buy a lot of books based off of the DA ‘good opinion’. If Jane says she loves something, I usually run out the door to buy it, because I know Jane is almost as picky as I am. But I can definitely see that a flattering post followed by an unflattering review might come across as ‘bashing’.
Which it’s not, really. But I do think it sends a bit of a confusing message. So maybe those could be spaced apart a bit more?
That being said, I do want honest opinions from the bloggers, no matter how they acquired the ARC or if they hated the book. The reason why I read DA’s blog (instead of say, Klausner’s) is because the opinions are always honest. I trust this site a heck of a lot more than Amazon’s reviews.
Excellent topic, Jane!
I come to Dear Author for honest reviews. And that’s what I’m looking for. I’m always ready to add books to my TBR pile(s), so if I find a favorable review here, chances are I’m adding the book to my list. If a reviewer doesn’t finish a book, I want to know why (especially if it was a book I’m interested in). Is it necessary to reveal plot twists in a review? I don’t think so. Just tell me if you liked the book (or not) and why.
1. Bloggers who request an ARC should review it.
Well, that would be nice, but doesn’t always happen. Of the ARCs I send out, I get about 2/3 to 3/4 of them back in reviews. Life happens and not everyone can get to the book, and some just don’t do it. I understand that and appreciate the ones who can, and understand the circumstances for those who can’t. And some might just not like the book and don’t want to do a review. I’m fine with that, too.
2. Bloggers who request participation from an author should refrain from bashing/trashing the author around that same time.
I don’t recall this ever happening to me. Everyone who’s ever requested my participation somewhere has been kind. If my book is being reveiwed at the same time, as an author you should be prepared for an honest review, which may be good or bad. I would never expect love and kisses on my book just because I’m also guesting on a site. Doesn’t work that way.
3. Bloggers should not read/review an author’s book whose writing they dislike or alternatively, should not read/review an author’s book who they personally dislike.
Why would they? I don’t read books from authors’ whose writing I dislike, and I don’t read books from authors I dislike. Then again, I’m not a reviewer or blogger who reviews, so I’m probably not the person to answer this question.
4. Should there be differing standards for reviews depending on whether the blogger bought the book or received it for free?
Of course not. It makes no difference how the book was acquired. A reader either likes the book or doesn’t.
5. Should a blogger refrain from being entertaining in penning a negative review.
Every blogger has their own style when reviewing, their voice. If their voice is funny and entertaining, even in a negative review, they should stick to that. Sometimes the entertainment factor can take the sting out of a negative review. As long as the review is about the work and not about the author, it shouldn’t matter.
6. Should a blogger make fun of or mock an author’s response to a review?
Depends on the response. Some authors never learn to shut up. I’m a big believer in saying ‘thank you’ regardless of the review and getting the hell out of Dodge. More authors should learn to do that. *sigh* I’d say if you’re going to engage in a war of words with the reviewer, you’re fighting a losing battle and you get what you deserve. Authors never win in these skirmishes and just end up looking stupid.
7. Do bloggers treat some authors preferentially, both in reviews or in parsing out their online statements?
I have no idea. Do they? And how do I find these bloggers? Will they treat me preferentially? I’m easy. ;-)
8. Should bloggers police other bloggers?
Ack. Who has time for this? Blogger police? I picture badges. Seriously, you can’t police what other people do.
9. Should bloggers be more respectful of authors? And if so, how is this respect shown?
I think everyone should start out respectful of everyone else in blogland. Doesn’t matter if it’s author, reader, blogger, whatever. Everyone is entitled to respect out here. Not everyone will agree with your opinion, and that’s okay. And then there are always going to be a select few who don’t know what the word respect means. Sadly, those people will never change and can’t be policed. They can only be ignored.
Great blog post Jane. Good food for thought, as always. :-)
erastes says
5. Should a blogger refrain from being entertaining in penning a negative review.
I don’t think a review should be amusing at all, because the blogger (unless they are in it for their own aggrandissement, and there are some) is writing about something that’s not personal to them. Unfortunately there are bloggers like this. I wouldn’t say it’s unethical, just unprofessional and a little sad.
Even if a book is utterly dire, it shouldn’t be mocked on a review site. It’s a different matter on a personal blog of course, you can say what you bloody like on there.
………………………………………..
Now this I disagree with, simply because a truly funny negative review usually gets me to buy the dang book, whereas a DNF or simple negative doesn’t… I didn’t read the JR Ward books, until about the 3rd or 4th book came out and some truly funny mocking reviews came out, along with some gushing reviews… Here is my take, even bad books, if someone is passionate enough about them to write a smashing review of, is a book I am not likely to be bored by… Boring is my personal kiss of death, Greatly entertaining bad books are almost as much fun as greatly entertaining good books… If ARCs are truly about promotion, an author would be wise to understand that a snarky review may very well sell as many copies of the book as a gushing review…
I think there are levels to this. If you spent a lot of time on this blog slagging off Jaci Burton’s books, for instance, and holding them up as an example of the ultimate in bad romance, the worst books ever written, mocking the books repeatedly, her covers, etc. If you then went and read and reviewed one of her books, after months of blog readers seeing you mock her, I would find that suspect. In that case, I think no, you shouldn’t review the author’s work because it wouldn’t reflect well on you. You already know you don’t like her work, the readers of your blog already know you don’t like her work, so what purpose does the review serve (which is another topic entirely, probably–the purpose of the review).
But on the other hand, if it’s an author that you’ve disliked one or two books in the past, given mediocre or even bad reviews to, but keep hearing that her writing is improving, that this book is her best so far, I don’t see why you shouldn’t give an author another try.
I think a lot of it has to do with motivation and what your purpose in reading the book/reviewing the book is.
Interesting topic. Sometimes I ask myself these questions. The only thing I have to add is that I prefer to write and to read amusing reviews - negative or not. These days we tend to spend so much time online, I’d rather have some fun while doing it. And talking about fun, this is ultimately while I am looking for : a good time while reading a book or a review.
I try to be as honest as I can in my reviews and sometimes it hurts me to say I didn’t like a book, specially if it is by an author I like.
You covered a lot of ground there, but on the First Sale posts, I think it’s neat that there’s a potentially “balancing” opportunity if it’s posted near the same time as a review that might not be so great. It gives another perspective.
Jaci, your answers were the best. You are a class act!
Charlene, definitely true. And Angela brings up a terrific point as well - it’s when it seems like the negative review is a vendetta rather than genuine feedback that it’s questionable.
Let’s say if you started reviewing a ton of Cassie Edwards books here on DA. I might question your motivations. ;)
If you spent a lot of time on this blog slagging off Jaci Burton’s books, for instance, and holding them up as an example of the ultimate in bad romance, the worst books ever written,
Dammit, Angie. That made me twitch. Where’s my Xanax? ;-)
Thank you Bev. So are you.
Would like to weigh in on one point–Angie’s point on #3. Perception factors here as well. For me, I have read several books by an author I consider an active, visible member of this particularly blogging community. Absolutely did not like them. Long ago, I reviewed the first one I read. And was honest. Beyond that, I saw no value in continuing to let others know that every time I tried this author’s work, I hated it. My point on perception here is that I didn’t refrain from reviewing her books because I had nothing to say, I refrained because I believed that any more negative reviews of her work would be perceived as an attack. Primarily because she is a member and friend to many in this community (which, circularly, is why I continued to try her stuff in hopes of finding something I liked). I’m not sure I would have refrained if the author had had less of a presence here, or none at all. Have to think on that.
Oh, and you know the bestest response from an author ever to a negative review. I mean even if you do not feel like being nice that is.
Keep a sense of humor and make a comment back and yes feel free to correct me. If I know it was not the best review and I see you keeping it in perspective and yet responding especially if you get a good point in you will most likely have sold any readers like me that book but also your next one.
Book reviews, even the negative ones can work for the author with the right tact and no, you do not have to sit and take it and say nothing.
One of the comments I received from anonymous authors was that authors did not know what reviewers wanted in terms of a response. I can’t speak for anyone else, but generally I dislike it when an author comes and says “thanks for the review” no matter if the review is good or bad. If an author has something to substantively contribute then a comment is great, but if it is just to acknowledge the review, it is unnecessary. I don’t write the review for the author.
Dang, I knew I shouldn’t have done my blog-hopping today. I got edits waiting for me, but I gotta comment here. I’m on a time crunch though, so hopefully I make sense.
Straight up, I’ll say that I don’t think ethics should be straight-across the same for everybody. I do think people should try to use ethics, because if people in general concerned themselves with ethics, a lot of society’s problems wouldn’t exist. Nooooo, not saying that blogland ethics are responsible for the plight of society, but understanding right from wrong, ethical from unethical, and doing the right thing, the ethical thing can’t ever be bad, can it?
But I don’t think that a personal blog belonging to a reader should be held to the same standards as a professional review blog. If I see bashing/trashing on a personal blog, it’s not going to affect me the same as it would if I saw it on a professional blog. Professional blogs have no room for bashing/trashing/insulting.
I do need to clarify that I don’t automatically see every negative review as bash/trash. That isn’t the case. I’ve read plenty of negative reviews that in no way bashed or trashed.
I might not blink if I see a personal blogger state that author b is as dumb as a box of rocks and couldn’t write their way out of a wet paper bag, but if I saw that coming from a professional reviewer, my opinion of that reviewer’s professionalism is going to plummet. Even if author b is as dumb as a box of rocks. Personal insults and attacks don’t belong in a professional arena.
Yeah, I’ll agree with that. ARCS aren’t a dime a dozen, authors don’t get many of them and the ones they do get should be put to good use. If a reviewer requests one from an author, the author believes they are getting a review…promo… and I’d imagine the reviewer is aware of that. If the reviewer can’t guarantee a review, they should let the author know when they make their request, so the author can make a well-informed decision.
I don’t see a negative review as trashing. I see personal insults, mocking, humiliation, etc as bashing as trashing. So request participation from somebody that’s gotten a negative review? I don’t see a problem there.
Insulting somebody personally and then requesting participation? That I would see a problem with.
Depends on whether or not the blogger can be objective.
No. Why should there be? It’s the same book, whether it was bought or given.
I don’t think so. But I also see a difference between entertaining snark, which is generally what I get from the negative reviews I see here, and outright insults. Two blogs I read a lot are the DA blog and Karen Scott’s blog. I love both of them. Karen can get really negative in her reviews (and I doubt that’s a big shock). Yes, I admit it, I’ve chuckled more than once on some of her negative reviews. But I see Karen’s blog as a personal one.
I’ve already mentioned that I don’t think a personal blog should be held to the same ethical standards as a professional one and some of the negative reviews on Karen’s blog, if I saw them on DA, there is a chance it would change how I perceive DA, because I see DA more as a professional blog than a personal blog. Whether DA planned to be viewed professionally or not, I don’t know, but that is how I see the blog.
That’s up to the blogger. I’ve seen plenty of author responses that almost begged for mocking. Getting up an arms because somebody just didn’t care for the book is silly and if I were the blogger in question, it would be almost hard to NOT mock.
Getting insulted over personal insults or obvious bashing is more understandable, but authors are best to just let it go.
But making fun/mocking runs a risk~I’ve seen bloggers mock & make fun and maybe they thought they were betting clever, but what I saw was pettiness and as I’ve said, I don’t tend to waste my time on pettiness so those are blogs I don’t mess with reading.
Even when an author posts something that practically screams for a mocking retort, there’s a risk that the responders are going to end up looking as bad or worse than the person they’re mocking.
It’s not something that would affect or concern many personal bloggers, but for professional sites, it can be a different issue altogether.
All bloggers? No. Some? Yeah, I’ve seen some. Again, I see a difference between a personal blog and a professional one. Preferential treatment on a personal blog is no big deal, in my book. On a professional blog, I don’t really care for it. I’m all for a level playing field.
Unless they plan on starting up some sort of ‘blogger association of blogland’, no. Dear Author isn’t responsible for what PBW blogs. PBW isn’t responsible for what Shiloh blogs. Shiloh isn’t responsible for what Sybil blogs. Sybil isn’t responsible for what Karen blogs. Karen isn’t responsible for what the Smart Bitches blog. And the list goes on…and on…
Another thing that I heard from authors were that it was frustrating to read a line in the review “I haven’t liked this author in the past . . . ” because the implication is that if you didn’t like it in the past, then why would you like it now. I think of the Lara Adrian example or the Maya Banks one I gave yesterday. I did not hear anything about those authors “improving.” The books just showed up free on my doorstep and for lack of anything better to do - i.e., search through my TBR pile, I picked up those books and both changed my opinion of their previous work. Have they gotten better as writers? I suppose in my opinion they have or at least whatever writing that they had done in the past was eclipsed in my mind by the most recent offerings. (I know in the Banks case it was really her book, Into the Mist, that has me anxiously awaiting her future work more than Sweet Surrender which was good but wasn’t entirely my thing).
That’s a long way of saying that sometimes you try authors that you haven’t liked in the past just for the heck of it.
I disagree.
Reviews should be entertaining. I often read good reviews not for a book rec (my tbr pile spilleth over) but for the simple enjoyment of reading some articulate, funny, thoughtful and engaging writing. As mentioned above, once in a while, a negative review might even pique my interest. What’s wrong with humour? I don’t think a review should be withering without reason, or malicious or vindictive, but if a reviewer truly disliked a book and used humour to illustrate their points - why not? Books are personal to readers; they move, they uplift, the enrage, they provoke. A review is not literary criticism, it comes from your personal reaction to a reading experience.
Some of my favourite reviews are negative. (Damnit, I wish I could find Candy’s interpretive dance review…)
But then I come from the point of view that a reviewer owes a writer nothing and, where possible, the distinction between readers/ reviewers and writers should be distinct. The romance community is far too incestuous for its own good. Maybe this is true for other genres - I don’t inhabit those spheres to know.
I don’t expect my movie critics to hold their punches: indeed, it is the ones who can call a movie “the cinematic equivalent of tertiary syphilis” and passionately and intelligently advocate for what they love that I particularly enjoy. (I enjoy Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian, too: he can write beautifully when a film moves him and cuttingly when it apalls him. And why not - reviews are entertainment too).
What’s the difference between a movie critic and a book reviewer?
Be thoughtful, be articulate, be entertaining. That should be a reviewer’s manifesto.
And if that isn’t the million dollar question. (rolling eyes)
See, I disagree. I think it’s just polite for an author to say ‘Thank you’ (if nothing else to thank you for your time/opinion). But I’m southern, so maybe that’s just part of my upbringing.
I actually dislike it when the author jumps in to the commentary and starts explaining. When someone starts saying “I did it this way because of XYZ” or “The reason why I chose this is…”, I really hate that. To me it feels like making excuses for something that readers might find questionable and a little bit like backtracking. It can also come across as OMG PLZ LOVE ME & UNDERSTAND ME.
That being said, I am probably going to be guilty of the same thing when my book comes out. Please love me!
SNORT!
Heh. I, um, wrote a novel.
I love this post and I’ve been thinking about some of this stuff myself as I’ve been having a bit of an existential crisis trying to figure out what my niche is in the blogosphere. So here are my responses as they relate to my own style.
1. absolutely. I’ve just started feeling confident enough to request ARCs, because I have yet to have someone turn me down. But I’m just one reader, and a fairly slow one at that, so if I’m going to ask for an ARC, it’s because I really want to read the book. The three ARCs I’ve ever asked for have been respectively, one I won at a contest here that I wanted to make sure I could read in an accessible format, the first print offering from an author acquaintance, and a book that I was fairly certain I was going to love that I figured wasn’t ever going to make it onto audio or be produced in an e-format I found accessible. In all cases I did review the books in question, though I haven’t yet posted the third of these reviews yet, and in all cases, I am more than happy to use my blog as a promotional tool because, hey, that’s the price I pay for wanting free stuff.
2.
2. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I know that when I reviewed my friend’s book, I was less than totally enthusiastic about it, and since I am on her yahoo group, I was a little worried that I was going to get flack for a less than 5 star review. Thankfully, she was really cool about it. I do try to be even-handed when I’m writing review posts on my blog, since I don’t think I do snark especially well. But if I don’t have any online connection with the author of a book I’m reading, then it’s a lot easier to be honest about how I’m feeling because there’s no esxisting relationship there.
3. Well, I still read an immensely popular author’s vampire series even though I hated the first book and disliked the second only slightly less. I just want to know if they’re all going to be that bad, and I’m a horrible completist and believe in reading things in order. And there aren’t too many authors I’ve formed a strong dislike to online. There’s one I won’t review because I just can’t take her online persona all that seriously, though I’d still read her books. And there are a couple of others who’ve made asses of themselves on the Internet, so I’m not rushing out to see if I can find accessible copies of their books. But I don’t know if I wouldn’t review them if they offered those books up to me.
4. No, I don’t see much of a differing standard in principle, although I admit to the fact that the people-pleaser in me wants so much not to be hated that I’d probably find *something* nice to say about a book that someone took the time to send me.
5. I don’t understand this one. I know that for me writing negative reviews can be cathartic. I imagine it’s the same for other people, and I imagine that’s part of the entertainment those reviews bring.
6. Well, I would like to think that I wouldn’t make fun of an author’s response to a bad review publicly, but I am also not a paragon of virtue, so I’d probably be sending emails to friends along the lines of, “Can you believe what this bitch said? Bwahahahahahaha!”
7. Yeah, I probably do. But I try to let people know in advance when I might not necessarily be biased because, say, the author is a friend or something.
8. No. Bloggers trying to police each other tend to irritate me.
9. I think people should respect each other, period, whether blogger or reader or random lurker.
Interesting post with lots of food for thought. Each individual point is worth addressing but as a collective I think that there is too much emphasis on blogger responsibilities vis-a-vis authors. It would be interesting to see some of the items that didn’t make today’s post that are less author-centric. DA has addressed items in the past that also belong in this list (eg: review DNF books?)
Does that mean you’re going to try me again, Jane? lol.
I try to stay away from the sites that trash authors — and by trash I mean they rant and rave about the book, but never say why. And then they attack the author.
I’m well aware that there is always going to be someone who doesn’t like my books. If you want to share that opinion publicly, that’s cool. All I ask is that you leave me out of it. lol. And that you state why you disliked it so much — that’s doing a service to readers and to me as well.
I remember Mrs. Giggles slagged me a couple of times for my characters thinking too much. Because of that I started being more aware of doing that in my work. I think I’ve cut a lot of internal dialog out of my prose now and I have Mrs. G to thank for it! So, even if a review is negative in tone, that doesn’t mean something good can’t come out of it. Plus, I’d like to think that someone wouldn’t base the entirety of their opinion on one review. I generally read reviews for the synopsis and then check the book out in the store (or on the author’s website) before making a decision to buy.
Totally disagree with this. What is the difference between a movie critic and a book reviewer? Peter Bradshaw writes for a respectable broadsheet and his reviews range from soaring, ironic to downright withering. He is always entertaining and smart.
Reviews should be entertaining. I often read good reviews not for a book rec (my tbr pile spilleth over) but for the simple pleasure of reading an articulate, funny, thoughtful and engaging peice of writing. As mentioned above, once in a while, a negative review might even pique my interest. What’s wrong with humour? I don’t think a review should be withering without reason, or malicious or vindictive, but if a reviewer truly disliked a book and used humour to illustrate their points - why not?
Plus, reading a book is a personal experience. You can’t be objective about aesthetics (well, yes, if you’re an academic - but). Books amuse, provoke, enthrall, enrage. In other words, they engage your emotions, particularly romance. Shouldn’t there be an emotional response - as there would be to a movie or a peice of art. Of course, you write about the cinematography or the brush strokes, but ultimately it comes down to your response.
Some of my favourite reviews are negative. (Damnit, I wish I could find Candy’s interpretive dance review…)
But then I come from the point of view that a reviewer owes a writer nothing and, where possible, the distinction between readers/ reviewers and writers should be clear. The romance community is far too incestuous for its own good, imo. Maybe this is also true for other genres - I don’t inhabit those spheres to know.
I don’t expect movie critics to hold their punches: indeed, it is the ones who can call a movie “the cinematic equivalent of tertiary syphilis” and passionately and intelligently advocate for what they love that I particularly enjoy.
The reviewer’s burden of responsibility is to his/ her readers - that they are informed and entertained.
Jane, this is just me speaking as an author, but when it comes to a bad review, is there really anything constructive that could be added?
For whatever reasons, a book didn’t work for the reviewer. Maybe the ending seemed rushed. Or the heroine was TSTL. The author could always try to ‘explain’ but does that explanation change anything? Is the ending less rushed? Or the heroine less stupid?
I don’t really know as I sit here right now, but I feel that authorial voices in a response to a review can stem the discussion. I think that we had a great discussion about Eve that Nora Roberts participated in when I reviewed the last In Death book. I guess that was one where I felt that Roberts contributed constructively to the conversation and didn’t stem or halt the introspection of the character arc.
This is just my opinion here, but authors need to remember what they are doing is selling their work. Their writing is a job. Not everything related to that writing should be taken so personally.
If somebody doesn’t like my book and they tear it to shreds, hey, that’s fine. I’ll manage. I might not like the fact that it got torn to shreds, but I’m not going to take it to heart.
Things that are personal, I’ll take to heart. Attacks against my family, attacks against my beliefs, those I’d take to heart.
Commentary or criticism on my writing? No, I’m not going to take it to heart because I don’t expect everybody to love my writing. I’m thrilled when they do, but I’m not crushed when they don’t. I didn’t come into this expecting to please everybody~maybe that makes it easier to deal when I don’t.
So humor in a review doesn’t faze me, as long as the humor isn’t being used to bash or trash an author. And when I say bash or trash, I meant personal insults and attacks, I don’t mean negative snark reviews. Humor away. I’m of the opinion that people shouldn’t take themselves so seriously anyway.
One of the comments I received from anonymous authors was that authors did not know what reviewers wanted in terms of a response. I can’t speak for anyone else, but generally I dislike it when an author comes and says “thanks for the review” no matter if the review is good or bad. If an author has something to substantively contribute then a comment is great, but if it is just to acknowledge the review, it is unnecessary. I don’t write the review for the author.
Jane, I disagree with you here. Especially here on your site, which you named “Dear Author”, and with your reviews which you address as, and I’ll use myself as an example, “Dear Ms. Burton”. Your site isn’t called “Dear Reader”, so I’m confused here.
And I think it would be in very poor taste if I read a review you did of one of my books and didn’t at least acknowledge your time in reading and reviewing my book with a thank you for doing so.
If you don’t want authors to reply, why did you set up the site naming it as you did, and why do you address the reviews to the author, if you don’t want us to acknowledge them in any way? Or am I just reading it all wrong?
If you’re looking for authors to engage in critical debate over your reviews of our books, perhaps you should state that. Frankly, I’m just appreciative of a review and always like to thank the reviewers without engaging in critical analysis or debate of their review. That’s when authors get in trouble and blasted by readers. So help me understand what it is that you want (other than for me to shut up, which is what I said authors should do earlier. ;-) )
Yeah, okay. That makes sense.
No time to now, but I soooooo want to comment when I have a moment later.
I have some very definite opinions on this.
I know. Go figure, right? :0
This is a problem and it stems from the fact that when Jayne and I started the blog a couple of years ago, we thought we were going to be blogging for us and a few friends. We NEVER thought there would be a community that exists today here at DA. The choice of the blog name stemmed from two things.
First, I was writing out a review for my tiny reading community of which Jayne and I had been part of for several years. I felt like I wanted to write the review to the author because I was so frustrated with all the noise that surrounded the book. (I can go into this more fully but am trying not to name names) but because I think it would be in ill taste to email an author because I was disgruntled, it was more an open letter to the community i.e., hey readers, here is what I how frustrated I felt about this book, am I the only one?
The first blog name I thought up was “stupidreader” and it was a wordpress.com blog because that is how I felt when I was done reading the book and reading the author’s explanation for the book. I felt like the author was saying “you silly reader, you just don’t get it” (and it was true, I did not get it). But I thought that was a stupid name. I looked up “dear author” and that was an available domain name and thus I decided that sounded better. I think if I went back and reviewed my emails, it took all of 10 minutes between stupidreader and dear author. There was simply no other thought process that went into it from there.
It is a fiction, a stylistic format, that we have kept up since the inception but the review/letter/thoughts about a book are not directed at the author. They are written in the form of a letter but they aren’t for the author.
And I guess my feeling on the “thank you” is probably born of my suspicious nature. I.e., I do know some authors and I do think that their “thank you” is genuine but for most authors I view the “thank you” as some thing less than sincere. I know that is totally unfair, but that is my feeling on it.
I don’t know that I want authors to engage in a critical debate of a review that I wrote. I welcome that if that is what an author would like to do, but again, I think that presumes that the review is written for the author and I believe that reviews are not for authors. Not in anyway at all. They are for readers to help them talk about the book that they’ve read, to help make a decision as to whether this book might be for them, and yes, to even entertain them.
It has never occurred to me to request one. hmmm…
There is a difference between “bashing/trashing” and criticism. So no.
If I were being paid to review a book, I’d do my job. But I’m not being paid, so I review the books that speak to me.
I don’t understand this question. I’ve reviewed books that were given as gifts by either friends or authors. How can you be at all credible if you change your standards based on your personal expenses?
No. That’d be as boring and disappointing as the boring and disappointing book. I think there is a right and wrong way to do this, of course, but I make as many mistakes as the next person. Again: I’m not paid to do this.
I try very hard to make sure that anything an author says to me in an email correspondence is strickly confidential. I believe that we all have public and private persona and that it isn’t right or ethical to misuse someone’s trust. Privately, however? I may say something to a friend.
If they POST something? Not too much I can do in that case.
Sure. Some do. Some don’t. I love me some CERTAIN authors and chose to read their books and blather on about them. I also say what I think and try to be fair. Again, you want to be credible.
There lies insanity.
I think it’s a good rule of thumb to treat all people respectfully. From grannies to kindergarteners. Unless they are total douche bag meanies.
Here’s my take on this. For me, there’s a difference between a blogger and a reviewer. Definitions According to Jackie: Anyone who has a blog and posts to it is a blogger. Someone whose site is dedicated to reviews and other aspects of the writing industry is a reviewer. So I took all of Jane’s questions to specifically mean reviewers.
1. Bloggers who request an ARC should review it.
Should? Sure. That’s not always feasible, because there are many books that get released around the same time (even the same day), and sometimes, Real Life intervenes. But yeah, if reviewers request it, I think they should review it.
2. Bloggers who request participation from an author should refrain from bashing/trashing the author around that same time.
See, I think that reviewers should never bash/trash an author. The author isn’t the book.
3. Bloggers should not read/review an author’s book whose writing they dislike or alternatively, should not read/review an author’s book who they personally dislike.
If they don’t like the writing, they’re probably not going to give a glowing review. But there’s no way to know unless they read the book, is there?
If they don’t like the author, then I would guess it’s going to be tough to separate the author from the book when they read it. That can be done, of course, but it would take admirable restraint on the part of the reviewer.
Frankly, I think reviewers should read whatever they darn well want to read.
4. Should there be differing standards for reviews depending on whether the blogger bought the book or received it for free?
Nope.
5. Should a blogger refrain from being entertaining in penning a negative review.
Nope. But snark (which is how I’m taking “entertaining” in the question here) is an art form — not all reviewers do it well. (And not all authors take it gracefully, but that’s a separate issue.)
6. Should a blogger make fun of or mock an author’s response to a review?
A reviewer can do whatever he or she pleases, of course. Personally, I think there needs to be a level of professionalism by the part of the reviewer (and, if the author responds, of the author as well). Can someone be mocking and be professional? Probably — but that’s tough to pull off.
7. Do bloggers treat some authors preferentially, both in reviews or in parsing out their online statements?
I’m sure this is the case. Reviewers are human, after all. Should they do this? Probably not. But again, reviewers are human.
8. Should bloggers police other bloggers?
No, no, and fuck no.
9. Should bloggers be more respectful of authors? And if so, how is this respect shown?
Again, this all comes down to professionalism. Reviewers should be professional, even when they do snarky reviews. Authors should be professional when they respond.
I think the real question here is, Should reviewers be nicer to authors? My answer is, again, reviewers should be professional. It’s perfectly valid for a reviewer to rip a novel to shreds in a review. But they should clearly say WHY they are ripping it to shreds. As long as they do that, they’re making valid points that the blog readers (and the author) can choose to agree or disagree with.
As an author, I’m not looking for nice reviews. I’m looking for meaningful reviews. Sure, I do my happy dance when those reviews are glowing. And I cringe when they are less than glowing. But as long as there is real feedback in those reviews, that helps me going forward. Just like the doctor doesn’t know if it hurts if the patient doesn’t say “ow,” the author doesn’t know where his or her writing could be improved if there is no feedback.
1. Bloggers who request an ARC should review it.
Ideally, yes, but bloggers are only human and there are going to be times when this won’t be possible. To give an example, for most of December and part of January, I had to take a hiatus away from this blog for personal reasons. I did not anticipate that I would be gone during that timeframe, and so, a book that I had asked for an ARC of did not get reviewed. I did try and read it and another book while away but there were just too many distractions and I couldn’t focus on these books well enough to be able to due them justice in reviews. So I chose not to review them.
One of them had already been reviewed by Jayne, thank goodness, and I was hoping that the other would be reviewed by one of our other reviewers as well, but that did not happen — possibly because of the holiday season, or possibly because they were counting on me to review it since I was the one who requested it. In any case, the book ended up slipping through the cracks. I do feel pretty bad about that, since I asked Jane to request the ARC from the publisher.
But as for ARCs that are not requested, I think I saw someone here say that these should always be reviewed by the book’s publication date too, and I just want to make this point: Dear Author gets too many ARCs for us to possibly review them all. We get inundated with unsolicited ARCs and with review requests, and there are only six of us, and we are only human.
I’m a slow reader, my reviews tend to be thorough, and all of that takes time. I don’t think I have enough free time to review more than a small fraction of the ARCs Dear Author gets. The day I’m required to review a sixth of them is the day I quit this gig because I can’t keep up with the volume.
I don’t want to discourage anyone from sending us ARCs because some of my blogging partners are much faster readers than I am, and get to a lot more books. But still, realize that we are human and our time is limited. And if you only have a precious few paper ARCs, perhaps you should consider sending us an e-ARC.
If the reviews aren’t written for the authors as well as the readers, why ask about the author response to bloggers?
I agree, which is why I never ask for books. If I’m intrested enough in a book, I’ll buy it myself.
Depends on what you mean by trashing. I’ll never consider a negative review trashing, unless you called the author a crackwhore, or something similar.
Well, it’s up to the individual methinks. Personally, if I think an author is an arse, then the thought of even reading one word of her published works gives me the dry heaves. If I don’t like you, I’m certainly not going to read your book. I find it too hard to separate assholic authors from their books.
Nope. But I understand that some people may find it a struggle to slice and dice a book ‘generously given’ by an author.
Nope. Entertaining doesn’t necessarily mean bashing, which is what the above question implies. A boring review would not induce me to buy a book, whereas an entertaining one might tempt me.
Depends on the response. I have no problem with authors saying thank you, and leaving it at that. I think any author who goes out of her/his way to tell a reader that their opinion is wrong deserves to be mocked.
If I treat an author preferentially, it’s because I like her/his online persona, even if I don’t like their books.
Preferential treatment is afforded to very few authors here in Romanceland on an automatic basis. I daresay if La Nora started acting like a jumped up arsehole, people would soon forget her legendary status, and would start calling her a crackwhore. Or is that just me?
God, no. Who needs Neighbourhood Watch in Blogland? To each his/her own, unless of course they’re doing something illegal. This goes without saying right?
Re: Review scheduling. This is a tough one because we post about 10 reviews a week. There are only two weeks of publication dates. I’ve heard readers not like it when we post reviews earlier than when the books can be found in the bookstore and on the other hand, publicists want reviews on the release date. The only way to solve this is to post all the reviews for a particular month on the release weeks and none on the other weeks which is no solution at all.
I’m not sure what you mean by this? If you are asking why I solicited commentary by authors, I did it so that I could get an authorial perspective on issues in the blogging community that bothered them. I’m a reader and not an author so I didn’t feel like I could fairly assess what the major issues were that authors had. It was not just a topic about reviews, but about blogging ethics overall although the majority of comments that came back were about reviews.
If you are asking why I commented on authorial response to review in this thread, it was because it was one of the comments I had received by authors - that they weren’t sure what the protocol was for reviewing - and I was just sharing my own personal opinion. This might not be the opinion of any other reader.
It’s not that I don’t want authors to come and comment on a review of their book, I just think that the “thank you” in the comment section doesn’t really contribute to a discussion of the book. It might be that, like Shiloh said, there are some reviews in which authorial contribution can’t be done. Maybe it’s more of a function of what I would rather see v. what I would rather not see. I.e., I would love for authors to come and say - well, here was what I was going for and you got it or it was missed - like a reader’s group guide or something but I certainly don’t expect. I confess I haven’t given it alot of thought and am just talking off the top of my head right now so I don’t know if I am accurately articulating the reason why the “thank you” comment tends to bother me, whether it be for a positive or negative review.
Hmmmm, in my case, I actually do write my reviews as if I know the author will read it and sometimes deliberatly ask questions that I’d like to have answers to. If an author does drop by and responds, it’s great but it’s not something I expect and I understand if authors don’t want to.
I’m not sure I understand the point behind it. If a book doesn’t work for me as a reader, then it just doesn’t work, and it doesn’t matter what the author was trying to get across. Explaining it isn’t likely to change my thoughts on the book.
This is just me though, and I’m one of those people if a book doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, if it does, it does, but I’m not the type to analyze why/why not. ;-) I’d make a lousy reviewer.
Personally, I don’t mind if an author acknowledges a review, even if they just say “thank you for taking the time to read my book and I’m glad you enjoyed it/I’m sorry the book didn’t work for you.” A gracious response is always good and leaves me with the impression that the author can handle criticism. However, author comments (as well as fangirl posts) that rant and rave and don’t understand how someone could possibly not like the book, well, those kinds of posts don’t help.
2. Bloggers who request participation from an author should refrain from bashing/trashing the author around that same time.
This one is also easy in theory but harder in practice. I don’t consider honest reviews bashing. I think that authors should understand that even if they contribute to DA, they may still get a review that isn’t glowing. With that said, I’ve definitely found it more difficult to write a critical review after requesting something from an author. I still do it, because I believe that reviews aren’t worth much if they aren’t honest, but I also empathize with the author who just contributed to our blog and then got a review that may not have thrilled her.
3. Bloggers should not read/review an author’s book whose writing they dislike or alternatively, should not read/review an author’s book who they personally dislike.
I think that should be left to the blogger’s judgment. Regarding the author you mention, yes, I do love her writing and I don’t let my friendship with you stop me from recommending her books. I want everyone to read them so that publishers will be encouraged to publish more books with the qualities this author brings to her writing.
Regarding being told in advance that you won’t like someone’s writing; I rarely take anyone else’s opinions on such things as gospel truth. Usually I want to judge for myself.
As to the issue of personal dislike, I can think of at least a couple of authors off the top of my head whose online behavior hasn’t always delighted me but whose books I have loved and recommended to others. I hope that I will always be able to separate what I know of authors personally from their books but if I feel that I can’t, I won’t review them.
Sweet Lord yes. Jane recently sent me a box that must have had 15 books in it. And it wasn’t the first book shipment she’d sent me this month. And that’s just paper copies. It doesn’t begin to cover the e-arcs we get.
Which is why it’s nice we have 6 reviewers. There’s more of a chance a book will appeal to one of us but sometimes it doesn’t and it won’t be picked up.
Sending e-arcs also makes it easier for more of us to have a chance to read it. Go e-arcs!
Me too, Jayne. I can’t not be conscious that the author will read the review when I write it, because of the letter format.
And I do like the “Thank you” responses, or at least, they don’t bother me. Which just goes to show that even among the six of us at DA, there are going to be different responses to different things and there is no way to please everyone.
One problem as it relates to the idea of “professional” reviewers and one of the reasons I think we aren’t “professional reviewers” is that there are no “assignments” of books to be read/reviewed. Everyone here gets to pick the books that they want to read/review to a great degree.
Here, I’ll tell all our secrets. Generally, the process is like this. Some publishers send all their ARCs for one month in one mailing. I type up a list of titles and then the reviewer responds with a request. Rarely do we get more than one reviewer requesting a book. Random books come in and I will apportion them to the reviewer I think is the best fit. I.e., I don’t send any paranormal books to Jayne other than authors she has already read and liked i.e., Lori Handeland and Dakota Cassidy. I know that she is more likely to read a chick lit type of book or meaty historical fiction. Those all get sent to her. Jia reviews YA and SFF so all of those generally go to her.
We are requesting some Manga titles for Jan so expect to see more of that but Janine and Janet/Robin read slower and I tend to only give them those books that they request. That’s kind of how the review process works around DA. I know that of the books that I send out, only a tiny fraction of them will get read/reviewed. I think Jia has started and discarded half the box I recently sent to her.
One of the reasons that our reviews tend to skew toward higher grades (more than half our reviews have a B or better grade) is because we are reading books that we hope that we like. I think if we were “professional”, some books would need to be assigned and our reviewing scale would be more evenly weighted.
I was responding to your earlier comment: “I think that presumes that the review is written for the author and I believe that reviews are not for authors. Not in anyway at all. They are for readers to help them talk about the book that they’ve read, to help make a decision as to whether this book might be for them, and yes, to even entertain them.”
It just struck me as odd that if reviews aren’t meant for the authors (as well as the readers), then why address the question of an author’s response to bloggers?
See, I think there are different standards for non-review-site bloggers and for review-site bloggers. To me, a blogger who doesn’t primarily do reviews shouldn’t be held to the same level of professionalism as review-site bloggers. I think that’s because I see review sites as a business (whether or not they make any money), and thus I expect a higher degree of professionalism than I do for non-review sites.
Gotcha. Me, I never know whether I should post a “thank you” no matter what, or if I should lurk but remain silent, or email the reviewer offline, or what. I used to automatically do a “thank you,” then for a while I was keeping my distance even for good reviews. It’s a shame there’s no official field guide for this sort of thing.
I love the idea of a virtual book club, where readers and the authors discuss a particular book — I’d be completely on board for that. But that, to me, is not the purpose of a book review. A review lets the author know whether or not her book worked for that particular reviewer, and lets the reader know the same…which may have an impact on whether the reader chooses to purchase the book, borrow it from the library or a friend, or ignore it completely.
At least, that’s my take on it.
Re-thanking reviewers. I thanked every reviewer who posted a review of my book, whether they liked it, disliked it, or were indifferent about it. I felt like it was the least I could do to acknowledge the time the reviewer had spent reading my book and writing the review. I certainly had no expectations attached when doing it.
Perhaps for clarity, a review site could post their wishes regarding authors thanking them/not thanking them on their home page. That way, it would eliminate authors dropping a thank you thinking it’s common courtesy, when instead, it’s going against the reviewer’s preference.
I don’t think that lack of assignment is a reflection whether or not a site is professional. If you were judging books for a contest, then yeah, that would come into play. It makes sense to me, for example, that if Jia enjoys YA and SF/F, she would read the bulk of the YA and SF/F books here.
Nuts. Back to sending chocolates along with the ARCs and praying for the best… ((wink))
It’s not that I am opposed to being “professional” but professional in what sense? I.e., the NBCC has creeds that I know we don’t follow here at DA. But DA is not a business and I do think that a business is defined as being an entity pursuing a profit. I’m pretty certain that when all is said and done, there is no profit here at DA.
The Cassie Edwards Affair effected (or maybe finalized) a change in me as a blogger (but not as a reviewer). It made me realize that no matter how much I think about my comments before I make them, no matter how much I try to understand someone else’s perspective, no matter how many hours of conversation I have with Jane or anyone else on different matters, no matter anything, if someone wants to hate me or the blog I contribute to or my comments, then they will. And anyone who doesn’t discern a difference between what’s happening at DA and some other Internet zones isn’t likely someone I would ever have a mutual understanding with. So what ultimately matters is whether I can live with what I’ve said, not whether someone else agrees with or approves of it. That’s been quite liberating, even as it’s given freer reign to my inner cynic.
I have also become inherently suspicious of authorial assertions that they don’t mind a critical review but don’t like a personal one. Not because I think authors are lying about this, but because what I think is a comment about a book may come across as very personal to an author. I don’t know if there’s ever going to be a mutually satisfactory understanding on that point. As for authors commenting on reviews, I don’t mind a “thank you” or some other recognition (or even clarification). Beyond that I won’t say that an author should or shouldn’t comment, even though I have my own personal preferences, because every author is different and every comment is different. I would only ask authors to remember that even though they may feel like any other reader when they comment, an author’s voice carries, and whatever an author says will resonate more loudly.
I do get kind of frustrated at the idea that blogs like DA should be viewed as “professional” because, damn, we aren’t getting paid for any of this, and it’s certainly not a vocation for any of us. But I think there’s a catch-22 in trying to be ethical and responsible in that people do tend to expect more of you. I do think that everyone who blogs at DA is very ethical and responsible, and I think we all hold ourselves to a pretty high standard, whether others agree or not. But ultimately I don’t think bloggers should be viewed as journalists, because we aren’t, unless you’re including editorialists in that definition, which is IMO the best analogy. Also, it bugs me when we’re all lumped together, although I’m sure authors feel the same way, and that we’re all guilty of such thinking.
Oh, and as to reviewing and reading books by authors one hates, basically I think readers should be able to read whatever they want. Personally, I have way too many books to read and too little time in which to read them to waste time reading books I hate. However, I can tell you that I will probably continue to browse the BDB books, even though I am SO DONE with the storyline, just to see how it all turns out. I have morbid curiosity where that series is concerned, what can I say. OTOH, I tried a recent Brenda Joyce book after HATING an earlier book of hers, and I realized that I probably don’t ever need to read another book by her. But then there are those authors whose books I haven’t loved until one comes along that I really do like. Which is part of why I won’t ever abdicate my right to read and comment on any book I choose. And if others think I have an ax to grind in any of my reviews, so be it, because I know what I put into them, and if someone else doesn’t get it, I don’t really care.
4. Should there be differing standards for reviews depending on whether the blogger bought the book or received it for free?
No, absolutely not. And in my case, I don’t think it makes a bit of difference how I came to read that book. Of course, it probably helps that you, Jane, are the one who sends me the ARCs in most cases, rather than the author.
5. Should a blogger refrain from being entertaining in penning a negative review.
That’s a tougher one. First, I want to clarify that entertaining does not necessarily equal snarky. I’m of the opinion that all writing, including review writing, should hold the reader’s interest and for that to happen, it has to entertain in some fashion. But I don’t think it has to be snarky to entertain. Roger Ebert for example is a reviewer who isn’t snarky but who is always entertaining in his writing.
So what about snarky reviews specifically? Personally, I don’t feel comfortable writing them. I’m very conscious of the author when I write my reviews, and I do my best to be polite as well as honest.
But that’s just my personal approach to reviewing. Speaking as a reader of other people’s reviews, I’ve read some snarky reviews that I enjoyed and others that have made me cringe.
I think it could be argued that a well-written snarky review is just as much of an art form as a well-written novel. I guess my answer is that although I personally try to censor myself from snarking, I would not want to see snarky reviews censored by readers anymore than I want to see novels censored.
I realize DA isn’t a business per se. But I do consider it a professional review site. I think that instead of “business,” I probably should have said “service.” Sites like this one provide a service to the community. And that, to me, makes it professional.
No matter what, negative reviews will sting. No one likes being told that their book didn’t work for a reader. That doesn’t mean a negative review will be taken personally. Sure, some authors might. But if authors are getting paid for their books, then they’re in the writing business, and negative reviews go with the territory. (Much as I wish that were not the case.)
What about the free books and eARCs you get? Do you think the cost of hosting is outweighed by the money you save in not having to buy a good portion of the books you might have bought in the past?
I really don’t know the answer to this question, so I’m asking because I’m wondering if the books themselves can be seen as the “pay”.
That’s going to depend on the author, though. Each and every individual author is going to have a little bit different viewpoint on this sort of thing.
Not exactly sure what you mean but personal, but I can honestly I’d rather have a critical review than a glowing one. A glowing one doesn’t tell me what I need to fix and I know I’ve got plen