Does criticism hurts less coming from a “qualified” critic? Of course, from a newspaper, it could just be someone who is pretentious, and doesn’t read romance and only read it (or did they?) to make disparaging comments at a genre most people treat as a dirty little secret. (Of course they might have read the book carefully and penned a thoughtful review.) Petty behavior and dra–ma only encourages the rest of the world to rolls its eyes and say “oh, the romance community is at it again.”

When do you want to see a review? Right when it comes out? A month after? Only after you’ve read the book?

I have to admit, when it comes to reviews, and a book I haven’t read but know I want to read, I’ll avoid the review. I don’t want anything at all to corrupt my reading experience and try to avert my eyes from seeing any sort of grade or opinion that might influence how I feel.

Maybe I’m just that paranoid and skeptical – but in general I always want to know “what aren’t they telling me?” Statistics of any sort, really, make me think that. I want to know their data- who collected it, the population, who ran the formulas, and who paid for that to be done. What’s the margin of error? How has the media twisted it?

I’ve noticed a lot of blogs out there that only give positive reviews. In many ways, that’s commendable. What with all the negativity in the world at large, positive things are good. Like puppies, rainbows, and a thriving economy. The duckies at TGTBTU like all those things as well, but we don’t leave out reviews of books we may not have liked. Let me say again, here, that a C is not a bad review. A C review only means the book was average. Not great, not terrible, just rather run of the mill. We also write D, F, and DNF reviews.

Once, I did not like a story I read. I didn’t want to give it a “bad grade,” and made excuses for not liking it. [but really, I just think it was badly written. No reflection on the author as a person.] I mean, I’ve had to read parts of the internal revenue code before. For hours – and yes, I nearly cried. It was not a good experience. There have been a few times while reading a book I found myself thinking the IRC was better.

I know some authors have Google or other such alerts set up, so they know exactly when, and where their book is mentioned. Others avoid reviews (although they may or may not stick to that). I can understand that. Although in a different context- some professors or GA/TAs don’t read their evaluations either. However, oftentimes such evals simply say “I DESERVE AN A!” [I’ve gone through the evals for a few instructors. Some are funny. Some are offensive.] I’d like to believe that reader reviewers aren’t so thoughtless or ridiculous. We actually do have reviewing guidelines here, and have to justify liking, or disliking a book. We’re not for snarking on a book, or author in a review. [Ponderings and random posts of course do not follow those rules, as you can see if you click around.] Perhaps I should note, that some evals are thoughtful, and have ways an instructor can improve. Writers like to hone their craft, and it’d be nice to think that some thoughtful comment or constructive criticism might be useful to an author.

There are certain reviews I’ll disagree with, or that drive me batty. At times I’ll see a review (posted anywhere on the internet) that makes me wonder, “did that person even read the book?” I’m pretty sure anyone who has gone searching for reviews has thought the same thing. I once saw a review where the person said they hated the book, because of how the main character acted in a previous book. Never you mind that the character had a complete about face 1/3 of the way into book one of the series. I wanted to smack the reviewer – and can’t even imagine the author’s feelings if she saw it.

For some company sites, reviews can be removed. However, we’ve all learned that this can be a good or a bad thing. DeborahAnne MacGillivray is the first situation that comes to mind. Of course, what is crossing the line? The duckies often talk about books, authors, blogs, and all sorts of frivolous things. We notice if an author comments on a review, or thanks a reviewer for reading and reviewing her book. (Is any publicity good publicity? The strangest posts from TGTBTU gets picked up by news agencies. Or sites. Like car ones.)

We’re all appreciative of a classy author saying “Thanks for reviewing my book, sorry you didn’t love it.” For an D, or F review. [It’s a bit of a question for a C review- because a C doesn’t mean the reader didn’t like it. It just means the reader didn’t LOVE it. And if I sound like a broken record, it’s because I need to be one. I feel like we need to add “A C is not a bad review here” under the banner.] We sometimes also note if an author says that – then goes to their own blog and says “oh the reviewer just didn’t get it.” Or more.

I’ve seen some great reviews, that were just as well written as the novel itself, and no published lit crit would be any better. (I freely admit mine are not such reviews. In fact, I generally treat them as a break from formal/academic writing. *angelface*)

So – for readers – here’s a question to you. How influential are reviews for you? Personally I think it’s important to know a reviewer’s taste. I know I drive Sybil batty, because I’m something of a rogue duck. She can’t figure me out. Books she thinks I’ll hate, I love. Books she thinks I’ll love, I’ll put down because I just can’t stomach more at that point. Or, gasp – I don’t finish them. 😀 I apparently haven’t quite figured out my reading tastes either.

Yes – I do have a point to all of this. At times, I see a blog comment like “I’ve thought about reading something by this author, but based on your review, I’m not going to read anything by her.” Now, this is tricky. The internet is interesting because it allows for all sorts of issues. And abuses. People act out in ways they never would (or at least I hope so) in real life. It’s easy to jump on the fangirl train, and just as easy to jump on the hater train. What might be hard to do, is remain objective and get the whole picture. What was an objective issue, becomes subjective. Criticism can quickly turn personal, and rather horrible things are said.

At TGTBTU, we try to keep personal bias out of our reviews. I don’t think you’ll ever see “your book was shitty and you, author, are even more worthless as a human being.” You might see poking at plotlines, but not criticism on the author as a person in reviews. For those that know a number of authors, they might think the author is the nicest, sweetest person, but simply not like their writing. That’s fine. Great. Some bloggers even refuse to review books by authors they’re good friends with, for fear of bias.////However, if I learn an author has been plagiarizing, I won’t want to read his/her books. I just don’t think much of someone who does that. I’d feel the same way in academia or otherwise. I once saw an author respond to a comment/review stating the reader didn’t really enjoy the book with “well nyah nyah, I’m laughing my way to the bank.” That turned me off that author. (I was pretty lukewarm about his/her books anyway.) However, said author is extremely popular, and numerous people LOVE his/her books. More power to them. Another time, I was absolutely CRUSHED when I learned an author had posted reviews under socks for his/her own books. So disillusioned. I also don’t like it when an author makes fun of his/her readers.

Basically, I don’t think anything above a D review should turn a reader off an author forever, especially if someone reading the review has never read anything by the author before. But then, I’m obstinate and like finding things out for myself 😛 (sometimes to my deep and abiding regret.) What should, however, turn a reader off an author, at least it does me, is how an author acts. If the author rapes babies and sells state secrets to terrorist organizations, I don’t care if s/he wrote the best story ever. I’m not going to read his/her books. If the author plagiarized someone – I’m likely not going to read his/her work either. If the author crosses the line and stalks a reviewer, or makes fun of his/her readers, I’m also going to be turned off.

I try to be objective. I know sometimes author fans are… almost beyond loyal, and go a bit nuts. (Sybil has encouraged me to write a series of posts on fangirls, but not only do I not know enough about fangirls, I find the task daunting and scary. Too much like walking across a minefield blindfolded.) An author doesn’t control other people. (Or, shouldn’t. That’s how cults form, people – and those generally end badly.) However, if the author encourages bad behavior, especially personal attacks, it just makes me sad.

On the other hand, sometimes how an author acts will make me want to read his or her books. If the author takes up an important cause, I’ll think even better of him/her. Or an author who emails someone to thank them for a review – whether it was good or bad, and leaves it at that. It’s nice that the author took his or her time to drop a note, or leave a comment. Or any feed back – I love any comments on any post.  It’s validation for what you do.

I don’t like giving “bad” grades, and if it isn’t a book I was assigned, I often won’t write a review. Why subject myself to spending time and effort on writing a proper review for a D or F book? The duckies are encouraged to try different types of books, but none of us sit around and think “I know, which book will I hate most? I want *that* one.” In fact, we’ve gently cautioned each other against reading books we didn’t think the person would like. (And I PH34R teh angreh fangirlzzz.)

You pick your battles. A while ago, I began reading a book by an author whose books I normally enjoy a lot. I ended up not finishing it due to a number of issues. Maybe I’ll get it from the library at another time, but as of now I have no such plans. Will I read another book the author wrote? Definitely. I saw a review (on a reputable site) that was exactly how I felt about the book. I saw a number of comments that essentially said they would now never read the author. I understand that sometimes people try to be accommodating, and simply go along with whatever was said in the original post. (Hey – lemmings are cute and can be fun. We all do it.) Especially if it comes from someone with “authority.” (I am not an authoritative figure.) I left a comment saying that I agreed with the review, but I also encouraged reading the author’s other books, offering suggestions of ones I thought were well written.

I think that’s the great thing about reviewer sites. Opinions are welcome. You can say whether your liked or disliked a book, and what you agree or disagree with on a review, a post, anything. What we appreciate a lot less, is mudslinging or “you’re a stupid person because you wrote this review and you stink!” Or for normal discourse “you’re a fugly bitch because you didn’t like this book!” Most of the comments I’ve seen for reviews are positive, but sometimes there is open discussion and debate with people disagreeing, but civilly. An example might be how people feel about Wal-Mart. Oftentimes, we agree to disagree, with no hard feelings

Not quite the same [aside from all the obvious reasons] – but it’s much like Luz Long giving Jesse Owens advice on how to proceed with his long jump. I’m willing to bet Hitler was not pleased. Don’t worry – Sybil won’t go all Gestapo on you if you disagree with a ducky. She’s more apt to laugh. Even if you disagree with her. 😉 (And if you read this entire thing, kudos to you. This pondering has been a long time coming, but I think it’s obvious when I wrote the bulk of it.)