Before we dive into Clive West's wonderful and spot on blog piece, I wanted to take a moment and let you know how excited we are that Clive and his friends from Any Subject Books are joining us. They have a talented staff of writers with wonderful observations on the writing life. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!--Mary Ann Loesch
Have
you been the victim of a lousy review? In all probability you have because it's
a simple fact of life – if you raise your head above the parapet you should expect
to get shot at (why should you?) Not only that, there are plenty of people out
there just dying to pull the trigger.
Once
upon a time there were just two sorts of bad reviews. Top of the heap were
those dished out by the official book critics employed by newspapers, magazines
and other publications and organizations. Their profound opinions would be
splashed all over the media and then judiciously quoted by the books’ authors.
You know the sort of thing; there's a famous rejection letter sent to Charles
Dickens' by the Saturday Review back in 1858:
"We do not believe
in the permanence of his reputation... our children will wonder what their
ancestors could have meant by putting Dickens at the head of the novelists of
today."
I
don't know what Dickens made of it but he could have quoted it as "The head of the novelists of
today", Saturday Review in his own publicity material.
Now
that's not exactly a true summary of what the Saturday Review was saying but
the 'rose-tinted' quote reflects the game of shadow-boxing that has gone on
since some hirsute individual first thought of making rough drawings in the
sand with a stick: an author creates something and someone else tears it down
(or tries to).
The
other type of review used to get written by Joe Public. In the unlikely event
that Joe was ever given any serious airtime in the media, it would be confined
to the 'Readers Write' section where it was usually seen as the ranting of some
eccentric. It was a fun bit of reading but only a few people would pay serious
heed to it.
Now
it's all changed. Joe Public, through the likes of Amazon, Smashwords et al can
vent spleen to his heart’s content and, worse still in many cases, his opinions
will adversely affect your sales. Unfortunately as has been well documented,
getting into a sparring match with him, no matter how well-deserved, is always
going to be a losing battle.
Should
you pay any heed to his reviews, though?
There
are essentially three types.
Firstly,
there are those who have a perceived grievance with the distributor:
●
"My
book arrived late"
●
"The
parcel was damaged and the pages were creased"
●
"They
sent me the wrong book"
It
ends up with the (entirely innocent) author getting 1 or 2 stars because of
these alleged events. If you're the victim of this then, apart from getting
rightfully hot under the collar, try hard to put it from your mind because the
criticism has nothing to do with you.
This
could easily be partially solved by expanding the 'star' system to offer stars
for:
●
Writing
●
Delivery
●
Other service
Only
the first would then be attributed to the author. I don’t suppose it’ll happen
but it’s a nice thought.
The
second sort of reviewer has read the book and not liked it but has lost sight
of what their function is. For example:
"I didn't like the
violence and I thought the settings were dark and dreary. I'm glad I was able
to download it for free - I certainly would not have wanted to pay for it. I
will not be reading this book again."
What
does this tell you?
Precisely
nothing. The reviewer has written subjective drivel. They're so keen to get
their opinion heard that they don't bother to substantiate any of what they
say. There is nothing of substance here and who is to say that the reviewer was
even right to have purchased the book?
Too
many reviewers lose sight of what they should be. If you can't be completely
objective about any book, irrespective of whether you would normally read or
even like its particular genre, then your opinion is going to reflect your
taste and not the quality of the book. What you are supposed to be reviewing is
the quality and appropriateness of the book for its target market, nothing
else.
Sure,
some pious people will say, "A book should be aimed at everyone" but
that's blatant rubbish. A bodice-ripper historical romance is not a Western, a
crime story is not a fantasy, and a teen romance is not a fairy story. Does
that statement get me the prize for stating the obvious? Therefore I stand by
my argument that any meaningful review needs to be written by someone who is
able to see the book objectively from the point of view of its target
readership. It also needs to substantiate itself with some details of where the
book is perceived to fall short of reasonable expectations.
Much
of this problem could be solved by proper guidance notes to reviewers telling
them that unsubstantiated opinions risk removal and a blocking of their
reviewer's account for repeat offenders.
Finally,
there are the well-constructed opinions which go into detail about what is
wrong - the anachronisms, continuity errors, spelling and grammar mistakes,
plot holes etc. These opinions are vitally important to quality control and
even if an author is on the wrong end of such a drubbing, they should recognize
that reviewers like this are helping keep the bookseller from getting clogged
with dross.
Not
only that, if you get one of these, consider taking the book down and giving it
a major overhaul paying careful attention to the points the reviewer made. If
you think of them at all, do so in a spirit of gratitude.
Why
can't the reviewers be reviewed? Amazon's 'x of y people found the following
review helpful’ goes a little way towards this but nowhere near far enough nor
will it until it is accepted that many of the bad reviews need deleting just as
those that will remain should inspire some heavy duty revision.
Until
then us authors will be dogged with damaging subjective, prejudiced,
unsubstantiated and ill-considered opinions.
About
the author
Clive
West is marketing director for Any Subject Books Ltd, an indie publisher always
looking for new and aspiring talent. Follow them on Facebook
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