Reviews. People count on them for feedback from others, to help make informed buying decisions. Whether you’re buying a book or a coffee pot, you want to know that it’s going to be worth your money, and in the case of a book… your time, too.
As a consumer, I often post reviews of things I’ve bought. I’m an avid Amazon customer and have reviewed items I’ve bought, ranging from books to… well, a coffee pot. And for the record, if I’ve posted a review, it is my truly honest opinion, based upon having purchased and experienced the item personally.
As an author, I am fortunate to have become friendly with many other authors. The truth is, many of their books are fantastic. Some of them are not. Some I haven’t read, either because I haven’t gotten to them yet or because they’re a genre I don’t enjoy.
This has posed a dilemma for me, because I am a highly ethical person who is ALWAYS honest. To a fault. (If you don’t believe me, ask my husband and he will surely attest to this, while rolling his eyes.) Yet if I’ve read a book that I thought was terrible, do I want to post a negative review and hurt my friend’s feelings? Honestly, no.
It’s extremely important to me that my fans, friends, and readers can trust information that I share with them. So, I’ve come up with some guidelines that I apply to myself and my reviewing of other author’s books:
- I never feature or promote books that I haven’t read. EVER.
- I never post a dishonest review. If I said I loved it, it’s the truth. If I shared it, tweeted it, blogged about it, etc, then rest assured that it’s a book I’ve personally read, enjoyed, and think you might too.
- If I read a book that I don’t enjoy, I follow the rule grandmothers having been touting for years: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Meaning, if I didn’t enjoy the book then as a general rule, I simply don’t post a review at all. I also don’t mention it, promote it, tweet about it, etc.
Hey!… Wait a minute! Isn’t #3 kind of dishonest? I’ll admit, I did struggle with this. And I do (rarely) post a negative review. But overall, here is my thought process: You’re meeting a friend for lunch. Looking forward to seeing this friend, how likely would you be to think to yourself, “I can’t wait to see Jim and tell him about this book I think he WON’T enjoy?” Not very likely. Now, if I’m at lunch and Jim asks if I’ve read such and such, I would tell him what I honestly thought. But I wouldn’t feel compelled to broadcast the information unsolicited. I’d be far more likely to look forward to seeing my friend and saying, “Oh my God, I read this (other) book and I think you’ll love it!”
I invite you to see all of my product reviews on Amazon (both books and other items) by going here: Lori Verni’s Reviews on Amazon.
4 Responses
LisaG
Great post. You have said what I have felt for so long. When it comes to books, I don’t share everything, especially if I haven’t read it on my personal fb pages and sometimes feel terrible about it. But if friends and fans put their trust into one thing that is terrible, they may not listen again to anything promoted . And that is not fair to the books and other items that we KNOW are good.
LoriTheAuthor
Thanks for commenting, Lisa! I worry that my fans may think I’m sharing things just because I’m friends with other authors, which, much as I want to support one another, I’d never do because I do want to be trusted. (With that said, I do also try to read as many of my author friends’ books as possible so that if they are good, I can share, share, share! 🙂
Susan Buchanan
Yep, it’s a toughie all right. I, too, have the same dilemma. I tend not to review books I would rate less than 4 stars (although I have done on occasion). And I always try to think of something positive to say, but I never lie. I think it comes across in the content of my review if I absolutely loved a book, or if it was just all right. Great post
LoriTheAuthor
Thanks Susan… it’s nice to know so many of us are on the same page!