Monday, September 23, 2013

Editorial: Negative People & Books Holy Crap Paula What Are You Doing?



What is it with Negative People when it comes to books?  Why is it when one person is successful as an author or otherwise others feel the need to bring them down?  

The answer is I wish I knew I see this frequently.  Usually it is an author or publisher asking a blogger to rewrite a review so it's not so harsh well sometimes a book just plain sucks and there is no good way to say it is any good.

An example of a book I just didn't like nor finish was E. L. James's Fifty Shades series.  I read like two chapters and just didn't get it.  It reminded me of other books while I was reading and just can't read a book that reminds me of other books.
Another book I couldn't get into was The Host by: Stephanie Meyer I read the Twilight Series and got that and was into at the time, not so much anymore but The Host was like an impossible read I got past the 100 pages and just had to stop I was bored, confused and annoyed by the whole premiss.  So it went in my I can't read pile.

But did I bash the authors, did I say their books sucked no I was professional about it I didn't finish it and didn't review it cause I couldn't finish it.  I didn't seek them out to harass them about why their books sucked.

I know authors are suppose to be hardened to what some reviewers say about them but when you type that review and hit publish it's out there for everyone to read so necessarily ripping the authors apart is not doing anyone any good.  When we write reviews or atleast when I do I try to think about the person I am writing about what would I say to them if it was an email and not a blog post?  Me personally I won't rip apart an author based on their book I just state things like:

  • How the story flow was it easy to follow or complex and confusing?  
  • Were the characters realistic to the situations?
  • What was good about the storyline was it the romance, the adventure or mystery?
  • Would I recommend this for others?
Those are just what I rate a book based on.  Through Goodreads I have seen so many people trash books and get appalled that as people we aren't adult enough to be polite even when you don't like book.  I don't know if it's I'm just a nice girl and don't like to dump on others or if this is the new fad book trashing, author trashing.  

So the big question is how do you handle bad reviews, authors who bug you to alter your review?  And what do you base your reviews on?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments I love hearing from you!

2 shout outs:

Zimlicious said...

I honestly base my reviews on whether I, myself, like the book or not. But I also try to point out what everyone else might like about it. I've written about my distaste for the 50 shades series on more than one occasion, and I did that by looking at it from a cultural point of view. Even my friends who love the series said they agreed with many of the points I made, so that tells me I did an okay job with it. Most negative reviews I see just say "this is crap," and that I just don't buy. And I wouldn't rip apart an author anyway because no matter what they write, it takes courage and a lot of hard work.

Also, I didn't bother with The Host, hehe.

Paula said...

I saw the movie of the Host and well other than the characters not fitting the image of them I guess it was ok still hard to picture what Stephanie Meyer was thinking.

As for Fifty Shades I just don't get what the hype is it reminds me of Peyton Place that was like this coveted book people read in secret as it was banned everywhere.