WHY I DON’T REVIEW YA BOOKS ON GOODREADS ANYMORE
FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: I suppose I was the only one until recently who hadn’t seen the crazy viral double rainbow vid, but have you see the double rainbow remix? I have. Thanks to Lauren!
I love Goodreads. Every time I read a book, I’m excited to list it on my shelf and see what other people are saying about it. And, yeah, it’s true — I like to see what people are saying about DONUT DAYS too.
For a while there, I was starring and reviewing everything I’d read. And then I started to think about my reviews not as a reader, but as a writer. If I were the author of said book and I read my review, how would I feel? If I were the author of said book and I saw it had been given three stars out of five, what would I think? (And let me tell you, when I see three-star reviews of DONUT DAYS, my heart does sink a little. I know it’s not supposed to. Thick skin and all that. But it does. Because I want so much for everyone to love it.)
Anyway. As a writer, I really can’t be a reviewer. The biggest factor in this is because I now understand that even the worst of books still represent loads of hard work by the author. And if it was in their heart to get it that far, to a place where I actually held it in my hands, I can’t front on that. I can throw Twilight across the room, but I can’t diss Meyer for putting words to what was in her imagination. (Or what was in her bedroom, watching her sleep. *shudders*)
Also, the writing community is small. About the time I go around saying I couldn’t stand a certain book, I’m going to meet that writer at a conference and have to shake their hand and want the floor to open up and swallow me whole.
So, these days I mark the book as read, and I leave it at that. I do sort of miss putting my opinion out there, but as a published author, my job duties have changed. It’s no longer my role to critique as a reader and say what’s good. It’s now my responsibility to champion books and authors writ large — because as a whole they’re awesome — and cheerlead everything on the shelves.
7 Responses to “WHY I DON’T REVIEW YA BOOKS ON GOODREADS ANYMORE”
July 24th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Great post! I have a writer friend who was crushed by a couple of bad reviews on Goodreads. She couldn’t “see” the nice ones – it was the bad ones that stuck out like a zit 2 hours before Prom. I wish more people would think about what they put out there before they do!
July 24th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
I was so glad to hear this! I stopped reviewing on goodreads for these exact reasons. Everyone thought I was nuts or paranoid. I thought it just made good sense. Business-wise, I don’t want to inadvertently taint others before they even see my work one day. Personal-wise, I don’t want to tell friends/acquaintances (and potential ones) that I didn’t like their book.
Last year a friend I don’t get to see very often put out her new book and I read it and HATED it. It was the final nail in my goodread’s account coffin.
July 24th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
yup… I leave five stars no matter what. I do it because I know that means a lot to readers, but I also know that it pretty much makes my opinion as a reviewer worthless.
July 25th, 2010 at 11:47 am
@Jamie, great point — I guess the other option would be to leave five stars for everything, which I didn’t address.
@Julia and @Bria, thanks for weighing in as well. I am glad to know there are other writers/authors who have taken off their critic’s hats as well.
July 26th, 2010 at 3:22 am
@Jamie, one more thing: I just gave two books five-star ratings, which might be my new policy. Maybe. Anyway, the books were THE HELP and OLIVE KITTERIDGE. The latter won the Pulitzer, so I felt justified in my five stars. Just saying.
July 26th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
I took down all my amazon.com reviews for the same reason. As a writer, there is NO WAY I can have an unbiased opinion, making my reviews pretty worthless to anyone but me, so why go there? Plus, OH HAI, Karma!
July 29th, 2010 at 2:14 am
I totally get this. I actually disappeared from Goodreads altogether for this very reason. Seeing any negative opinions about my own book was hard, and I didn’t know what to say about the books I was reading. Giving everything five stars felt phony, and giving no stars to anything made me feel like there was no point to being on Goodreads.
I only blogged about books I absolutely loved, so these weren’t reviews so much as recommendations. That way, I wasn’t running the risk of offending anyone, and I wasn’t spending my time writing about books I didn’t like.
FYI, best book read recently: DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS by C.J. Omololu