This week I’m resharing a post that previously appeared on our old blog. I’m addressing a question many authors ask:
Should authors review?
First, let’s back up to a more important question:
Should authors read?
Yes!
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” (Stephen King, On Writing)
My personal view is that authors should read both inside and outside their genre. The odd writing craft book doesn’t hurt either!
- Authors should read inside their genre to understand current trends in subject and voice.
- Authors should read outside their genre to get ideas and inspiration for their own books.
- Authors should read writing craft books, because we all need to be teachable.
But should authors review?
Yes.
Well-written reviews influence sales, so writing reviews blesses authors you enjoy reading, and influences others to try their work.
Do authors have to review?
No.
Reviewing a book is one way of blessing the author. But it’s not the only way. There are other ways, tangible and intangible. Pray for them. Buy their books. Recommend their books to friends. Comment on their blog posts. Follow their blog. Sign up for their email list. Like them on Facebook and Amazon. Follow and Fan them on Goodreads. Like their reviews on Goodreads. Tweet their new release. Tweet helpful reviews.
Should authors review everything they read?
No.
You don’t have to review everything you read, and you don’t have to publish your reviews on commercial sites. Most websites have a clear set of reviewing guidelines, and authors need to bear these in mind when deciding what to review—and what not to review.
(I’ve written several posts on Amazon’s reviewing guidelines. Click here and here and here to read them.)
I believe that as Christians, we absolutely need to adhere to the rules of each website. In fact, I believe we should hold ourselves to higher standards, not just to abstain from unethical behaviour, but to abstain from the appearance of unethical behaviour.
For example, I’m a book reviewer and a freelance editor. While I have an obligation to review books I obtain from book blogger programmes (e.g. NetGalley), I can’t review any book by clients on a commercial site such as Amazon.
So where can authors review?
Commercial sites
Commercial sites are any sites which sell books to readers. These include Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BookDepository, ChristianBook, and Koorong.
But just because you can review doesn’t mean you should. When reviewing on commercical sites (especially Amazon), ensure you only review within the site’s reviewing guidelines. If you choose to review on Amazon, review a wide range of titles. Don’t only review books by friends or authors from your publisher, as that will look like a reviewing circle.
As a guide:
- Don’t publish reviews which could be seen as promotional
- Don’t denigrate books in the same category (books which could be seen as competing with yours).
- Review under your author name, not a pseudonym
- Don’t include the word ‘Author’ in your Amazon reviewer name
- Don’t include ‘Author of …’ or refer to your own books in your reviews
Some authors do choose to review under a pseudonym (e.g. under their real name if they write under a pen name). If you do, you need to act as a regular customer, not an author. This means:
- Review everything under the same pseudonym.
- If you copy reviews across sites (e.g. reviewing on Amazon and Goodreads), use the same pseudonym across all those sites (that’s good branding).
- Never mention your own books in reviews or discussions.
- Never comment on reviews of your books. This catches a lot of authors out.
- Always remain within the reviewing guidelines. Your real name might not be visible to customers, but the retailer has your real name and address. And someone with better Google-fu than you will work out your true identity.
Overall, I think it’s easier to use your own name.
Reader Sites
Reader sites don’t sell books directly (although they might link to retail sites, and they might earn an affiliate commission from those links). Reader sites include BookLikes, Goodreads (owned by Amazon), Library Thing, Litsy, and Riffle.
Reader sites are a more problematic than retail sites for author/reviewers. If you’ve been using a site like Goodreads for a while (months, if not years), and are a member of different discussion groups, then it might appear strange to change the way you use the site simply because you are now a published author. So continue using the site as you have done in the past.
If you are a published author and you’ve never used Goodreads, I suggest you set up an author page, perhaps link your blog, and then sign out. Do nothing. Observe for a period (perhaps months) before deciding if this is a community you want to be part of. Goodreads is a complex site with its own culture, and a lot of author-vs-reviewer angst could have been prevented if authors made the effort to get to know the site and its users before jumping in.
If you decide to participate in the Goodreads community, participate as a reader.
Don’t mention your books, or the fact you are an author. If people are interested, they will view your profile, see you are an author, and may be interested enough to try one of your books.
I think the major thing to know about Goodreads is that members use the rating system in a variety of ways. One star often means “I don’t want to read this book”. They might not like the cover. They might not like the blurb. They might object to the way the author behaves online. They might not like Christian fiction (in which case, it might be an example of Christian persecution, which calls to mind Paul’s pesky injunction from Romans 12:14, to bless those who persecute you).
I understand this behaviour annoys authors, who see it dragging down their average rating. But Goodreads is for readers.
Personal Website or Blog
This is your personal space, so review away.
Host blog tours. Endorse. Influence. Interview authors. Guest post on other blogs. Gush about everyone and everything. Blog readers want to connect with the author, so give them the opportunity to connect with as many of your author friends as you want.
My only proviso with promoting other authors through your blog is that readers will judge your writing based on the writing of those authors you choose to endorse and influence. If you write Christian romance, you probably don’t want to be endorsing an author who specialises in erotica. If you review a book with obvious writing or editing issues and don’t mention them in your review, I’m going to think you didn’t notice them—which makes me wonder about the quality of your own writing.
Should Authors Review?
I hope I’ve convinced you that authors should review books. Do you review everything, or do you only review titles you can recommend and endorse? This is something you will ultimately have to decide for yourself, but I hope I’ve given you some food for thought.
Hi Iola – Interesting food for thought re author names. I mainly review on Goodreads, and sometimes on Amazon. I’ve reviewed under Nola Passmore so far, but am launching a website shortly with my author name Nola Lorraine. I hadn’t thought about whether I should review under that name. The name won’t be a secret though. So maybe when I eventually set up my author page I should mention there that I review under Nola Passmore? Any thoughts.
Also re editing, I never review anything on Amazon that I’ve edited. On Goodreads I’ve reviewed some books that I’ve given feedback on, though I don’t think I’ve reviewed any I’ve been paid to edit. But if I’ve had anything to do with it, I put a disclaimer at the end (e.g. ‘I provided feedback on an earlier draft of this book’). Any thoughts on that? I’ve sometimes been asked by clients if I can review or endorse a book and I say I can’t. Am thinking that might be something to include in my terms and conditions.
Always good to revisit these topics. Thanks.
Yes, you do need to include a disclaimer (especially if the author thanks you for your input!). You can either include a disclaimer that you review as Nola Passmore, or change your reviewer name – as you say, it’s not a secret 🙂
You can review books you’ve edited on your own website and on Koorong, but not on Amazon or any other site that forbids promotional reviews. But it might be easier to say you’re not going to review books you’ve edited, because you don’t want to be forced to review something where you read it and find the author has rejected most of your suggestions and produced a substandard book as a result.
Thanks Iola. Yes it can be tricky when a client asks you to review or endorse their book, especially when you don’t know what they’ve done with all your suggestions. Will give it some thought 🙂
Hi Iola, great post! Thanks for pulling it out of the archives and sharing it today. I only write book recommendations, and those recommendations are based on how I felt about the book as a reader. I can enjoy a book with average, or even below average writing technique, if I’m hooked into the story and the characters come alive on the page. If I’m absorbed in the story, I won’t notice the writing quality. The books I don’t enjoy as a reader are the books I rarely finish reading. I read Amazon samples before I buy, and if I’m not hooked into the story early, I stop reading. My reading time is too precious to waste on books I dislike. 🙂
Story is king! I’m currently reading a book where the writing is occasionally stiff and stilted, but the plot kept me reading far too late last night. I only put it down because I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open.
Thanks Iola. I needed to read this as I’ve been unsure about reviewing. It helped reassure me and make the guidelines clearer in my own mind. To begin with, I only reviewed books I really liked. (Didn’t want to seem ‘not nice’.) However, as hard as its been, I’ve been challenged that I should review most books I read if my comments/thoughts may be helpful to others deciding whether or not to buy the book. One of my reasons for this is that not everyone has a lot of money to be buying books and then finding they don’t like them.
I also worried that I tend to love books written by author friends I’ve personally met and spend time with and wondered if I’m being biased … then realised its okay, because the reason I love their books is the same reason we’ve invested in a friendship – we connect on an emotional and spiritual level.
And I’ve realised that reviews are subjective and I’m allowed to be subjective just as anyone who reads my books is. We can’t expect to like everyone’s books, or for everyone to like ours. I now get suspicious of books with only 5 star reveiws, especially if they have no more than 10 reviews : )
Hi Jenny I have the same issue sometimes reading a book by an author I like or have gotten to know online but then read the book and really don’t like it. I don’t like hurting feelings. I won’t put a review for anything less than a 3 which I think is still an ok review cos I honestly thing a 3 review from someone I know or I know reviews a lot goes a lot further than the 5 star reviews. I have emailed authors before to say I can’t give the book more than 3 stars explaining why and while some are not happy most are ok with it. One in particular was a book of short stories from a writing group. While some stories where worthy of 5 stars some were below standard. On in particular was so confusing I am still not sure what happened. I told the lady who compiled it I could only give 3 stars and she said go ahead do the review. I did mention I loved a couple of the stories and mentioned that. Another Author wanted to pick my brains as to what didn’t work and how it could have flowed better. I know I am a reader not an author but sometimes lower reviews do help authors especially if they trust you or know you only want the best for them.
It’s a tough call – do you only give positive reviews, or do you give more critical reviews as well? We don’t want people to waste money they might not have on books they don’t enjoy. It’s a decision each author has to make for themselves.
I buy books by author friends to support them. I don’t always enjoy them, but I figure I’m under no obligation to review if I paid for the book. It’s harder if I’ve been given a review copy, as then I feel obliged to review (even though Amazon’s policies tell me I’m not!).