Many years ago I declared myself a no review zone. I had a
lot of friends – from various writing sites and spoken word nights – who were prose
writers and poets, many of whom went on to to be published or to self-publish
novels, short story collections and poetry collections. Obviously, the quality
varied and there was - sorry, really, really sorry – a tendency towards angsty,
awful poetry that even the Vogons would have refused to read. Poets who had
clearly never read any poetry, ever, were putting out collections that amounted
to nothing more than opening a vein and bleeding onto the page and asking to be
praised for their bravery.
I bought them. I bought them all. I supported them all. They
were nice people. They may not have been hugely talented poets, but they were lovely
and I wanted to support them in the only way I could – financially. But I couldn’t,
in all conscience, write glowing reviews. Hence the no review zone.
Later, several friends released excellent short story
collections, poetry collections and novels – but I couldn’t review them. I was
the non reviewer. The no review zone. I was stuck. While I had lost touch with
the majority of the really not very good poets, I had made this declaration and
felt I had to stand by it. It was a blessing in some ways, but when I read
something wonderful I really wanted to say so, to shout out to everyone: BUY
THIS! IT’S AMAZING! AND I KNOW THE AUTHOR!
But I couldn’t. I didn’t do reviews.
And then I brought out my own collection and things got a
bit more difficult.
When you buy a book, do reviews matter to you? They matter
to me. I find myself looking at reviews on Amazon and I’ll read a 5 star
review, then I’ll look at a 1 star review, then I’ll look at those reviewers’
other reviews. If the 5 star person is giving great reviews to everyone, I
ignore their opinion. If the 1 star person is just a nippy wee git sniping at
everyone, I ignore their review. But if those people give a variety of reviews
over several books, I’ll take their opinions a bit more seriously and they may
influence my decision to buy or not.
I wanted reviews for my book. But how could I ask for
reviews? I’m the non reviewer – how cheeky would it be to ask other people to
do what I was unwilling to do?
But I asked, and they did, and they were lovely. But now I
know I have to do the reciprocal review, and what if I read their book and I
don’t like it/think it’s badly written/come face to face with Vogon poetry? Do
I have the courage to be honest if they’ve given me a 5 star gushing review?
What’s the protocol here?
Well, we know, don’t we? We see it every year in those ‘authors
pick each other’s books as book of the year’ in various newspapers.
But if I do the obligatory, you gave me 5, I'll give you 5, my credibility is shot.
But if I do the obligatory, you gave me 5, I'll give you 5, my credibility is shot.
And it sucks. But it’s what we do.
There is no such thing as an honest reciprocal review. Is
there?
P.S. Here are some wonderful things I would have reviewed had I not been the non reviewer (seriously - buy all of these): A Man's Hands, A Documentary About Sharks, Somewhere to Start From, Spit, Melons and Memory, Ordinary Domestic, Dot,Dash
and loads more. TUT.
I too would love to write non-starred reviews. But the ones I do are never below three, because knowing the sheer bloody graft and years (in my case) of a person's life that go into a book, I simply abstain when I think a book falls below my three standard, and four in the case of authors I know personally - I simply can't bear to inflict a public dissing on someone I know and (usually!) like. It's even tricky reviewing someone's book who has already given mine five, in that there's huge unspoken pressure to reciprocate, no matter what they say. And anonymous reviews just hand a golden opportunity to trolls. I just don't know the answer. Except that my catalogue of reviews on the work of others doesn't indicate a Pollyanna syndrome, it's just that the ones, twos and most threes stay in my head. So please take them at face value!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I would never go in and slag off a book. No need to make someone feel crappy. But the pressure for reciprocals is definitely there.
ReplyDeleteThere should be a no-star category, so that you can pass comment without passing judgement.
ReplyDeleteI don't review much and when I do I err on the side of caution. However, of the seven reviews I've written for the Amazon sites, three are 5-stars, with one of four-, three-, and two-stars for the others. Nevertheless, I view most 5-star reviews with a degree of skepticism, particularly the more gushing ("If you only read one book this year..."). When I see that kind of review of a book I've read and not enjoyed, I know it's the author's cheer squad at work.
To be honest, as an author you would do well to pay attention to the middle range of stars, for those are more likely to be honest.
Yes, I'd definitely like it better if the stars were removed and I could just say what I felt. I still don't think I'd review something I thought was awful - why cause someone grief? - but I'd do a lot more reviews.
ReplyDeleteI think the main problem is the associations that come with the star ratings. To me, a three-star rating means a decent, well-written but ultimately forgettable book. Reading it is far from a waste of my time, but it's not a book that inspires me to sing its praises from the rooftops. There's nothing wrong with that. I'd like to give more three-star reviews - I read this, it was alright, you might like it too. But it's never that simple. To some people, a three-star rating suggests a barely adequate, dull and/or unoriginal book that you've dragged yourself through with gritted teeth. It's almost an insult.
ReplyDeleteFor some, four stars seems to be the minimum requirement for a book worth reading, but even then there's a hint of falling short about it. Most (if not all) of the books I review are at the four-star level - books good enough to make me feel I should tell other people about them. The number of novels I've read that I genuinely consider to justify a five-star rating I can probably count on the fingers of one hand. I can't see that I'd bother to review a book I thought was only worth two stars, or even finish reading one to which I'd award one solitary star. I put a lot of effort into not buying those kinds of books in the first place!
I don't have a problem criticising work by people I know, but I will always aim to make it as constructive as possible, and hold back if I think some aspect of it is truly awful because there's no point in hurting someone's feeling unnecessarily. It's useful to highlight a minor flaw/shortcoming or two, to avoid looking like (to borrow Perry's phrase) one of the author's cheerleaders. It needs to be an honest review, after all, if it's going to encourage anybody else to buy it.
But, yeah, the whole thing's a minefield.
I do sometimes review books by friends but only if I can be honest and still give 3 stars or better. If I don't think it's worth that then I just keep quiet.
ReplyDeleteStars confuse me. How much better does a book have to be to get 5 instead of 4 and how much worse to get 1 instead of 2? I'd prefer options such as terrible, not good, not my kind of thing, OK, pretty good, excellent and best thing I've read ever.
Dan, Patsy - apologies. I seem to be missing notifications. Thanks to you both for reading and commenting.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think we're all agreed that the star rating is the biggest problem. I like your solution, Dan, of reviewing on your blog - I always enjoy your reviews and I know they're honest and that you spend a lot of time on them and you never just claim that everything in a any book (even when it's by someone you know) was perfect and wonderful. You can be honest without having to give a score - that seems the best way.
Patsy - straight to the point as always - 'terrible' as a starting point. Haha - harsh, but yeah, maybe.