Comments on: The Welter of the Internet #2: Writing reviews

By: Sally Apokedak | Weaving Words Into Worlds

Sally Apokedak | Weaving Words Into Worlds — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:01:18 +0000

[...] Michael Stearns also likes to talk about what he’s read. He’s decided to give up making negative assessments in public. Because when you are “in the biz” you can’t afford to offend others. [...]

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:24:33 +0000

My brother recently told me that I hadn’t followed through on one of my plot points and that I’d pulled a “moonraker” and turned my murder into a missing person’s case. He went on to explain that the Bond film Moonraker was really about a vehicle theft that tripped around this whole “plot to destroy the human population and create a superior race.” It was the first time that criticism made me snort laugh and spit all over my touch screen monitor… which was so gross. He was right, though. My brother is a reviewer… and a good one. He thinks his reviews through and backs up every point.

I’m a reader or reviews not a reviewer because I just don’t have the heart to crush even the books that beg for it and some do beg for it. I avidly read reviews though, and I generally disregard any lame gushing reviews. It takes a solid majority of negative opinions for me not to read something… and, even then, I still feel like reading it just to see how it could be so horrible. (I think it’s like when you pull something out of the fridge and say to your spouse, “Here… this is foul… taste it.” Of course… I’ve been married twelve years now, so my husband just rolls his eyes and goes back to clipping his toe nails.)

By: Becky Levine

Becky Levine — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:57:27 +0000

I wrote book reviews of kids’ books for several years–without getting to pick and choose which ones I read or reviewed. That completely burnt me out on putting negative reviews out into the read-o-sphere. So (when I remember to put my books into Goodreads), I only do the ones I like–I try to see it as more passing on recommendations to other readers, than having to make a judgement on whether something’s good or bad. Just did too much of that for a while!

By: Classics That Ain’t So Classic » Upstart Crow Literary

Classics That Ain’t So Classic » Upstart Crow Literary — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:24:45 +0000

[...] Michael’s thought-provoking post on writing reviews on Goodreads, I figured I’d take my turn dipping a spoon into the controversy crock-pot. You see, there [...]

By: debbie

debbie — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:38:54 +0000

I love to list books written by my author-friends, but I just hate rating them, so I don’t do it at all. The star thing seems so arbitrary anyway, since one person’s five is another’s three star rating. But I do like Goodreads, for keeping track of my read and to-read lists and for getting book recommendations from others, and I love booktalking – but agree that it’s sometimes really and unfortunately awkward to do it so publicly.

I think it’s useful, to a point, to see those uncensored bad reviews; they keep us authors humble. They are not-fun, but whatever. Welcome to the internet. Actually, I don’t like the oozy good review written by one well-intentioned relative either (on Amazon) – it’s just embarrassing!

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:44:59 +0000

I think there is a muddy line here: The difference between posting a review that “trashes” a book and one that actually constructively criticizes it. Though I suppose to invested parties, even the smartest of critical responses to a novel is a hatchet job.

I think of Samuel Delany’s forty-page analysis of why Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed is a deeply flawed and thereby questionable book. He’s absolutely right. On the other hand, knowing that doesn’t affect my reading of the novel at all. I still love it.

By: michael grant

michael grant — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:58:01 +0000

No, it won’t ever come back to bite you in the ass because everyone in publishing is perfectly reasonable, sympathetic and understanding. None — absolutely none — are vengeful.

I don’t review books on Goodreads or Amazon or any of those sites. (I limit my troublemaking to attacking the industry at large. But only because I’m trying to save them.)

Trashing books in easily Google-able fora is all risk and no reward.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:05:38 +0000

Why, Rita, that’s how I *always* roll.

By: Rita

Rita — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:42:35 +0000

I think it’s worth mentioning that even a positive review puts you out there. Raving about a book others hate can be damning—which starts invigorating conversation. We forgive and forget positive reviews faster, of course. Chalk them up as flukes, whatever. But too many and . . . you make your tastes known.

Giving positive reviews takes courage, in other words. It’s just more fun, in the event you’re attacked.

To continue my comment 16 above—
Depending on what was said and how it was said, a negative review could actually make me more excited to work with an agent or editor. So if you, Michael Stearns, are asking what you should do, I say, Be awesome.

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Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:39:16 +0000

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