Guest Post: Roll with the Reviews
Today, I have the lovely Elaine Spires on my blog and she has written a guest post about reviews. Enjoy!
I am delighted to have been asked to guest blog for you today. Thank you!
With the advance of technology in the last couple of years it has become easy for authors, especially self-published authors, to promote themselves. It has also meant that everyone and his baby brother has become a book reviewer. Whereas before, a friend would shove a paperback into your hands saying, 'You must read this! It's fantastic! I couldn't put it down,' we now only have to click onto Amazon to read what dozens, hundreds and sometimes even thousands of readers have thought of a book before we decide whether or not to buy it. And, in spite of this appearing to be something that has made things simpler for us as readers, it has, in my opinion, made things far more complicated.
You see, it is so, so easy to be mislead by 'reader reviews'. Let me give you a couple of examples. Last year I received what I can only describe as a 'panic' message by an author to her circle of author friends. She was in a state because someone on Amazon had 'only given a three-star review' to one of her books. She was begging everyone to go onto the Amazon site and click the unhelpful review button. I was really surprised by this, because I would have said that three stars out of a possible five was a reasonable review. Curiosity sent me to take a look at the review and it wasn't at all bad, in my opinion. The reader/reviewer hadn't written anything nasty or mean, just simply that the book was an average chic-lit book. Having read the book in question, I had to agree with most of the comments.
As writers we all want readers to like our books, after all, they mean the world to us as we have spent many months pouring our heart and soul into them, worrying over them, changing them and sweating about them before proudly presenting them to the world. It's hard to see that someone not only hasn't enjoyed it, but has gone onto Amazon to tell the world they haven't. But, in the words of the old saying: if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. We must never lose sight of the fact that taste in reading matter is such a personal thing. Some books are the literary equivalent to Marmite. One reader's E L James is another reader's J K Rowling!
But this leads me onto the integrity of the reviewer. I would never write a review for a chic-lit book because I simply cannot stand the genre. I do not like fluffy stories where you know by page five when unlikely heroine Francesca bumps into drop-dead-gorgeous-hunky Damian when he rudely knocks all her shopping into the kerb and she thinks him absolutely obnoxious, that they are going to get it together in the end. I don't like sci-fi, fantasy or horror, either, so for me to write a review on a book in any of these genres would be unfair, unless is was so good that I absolutely loved it in spite of its genre. Then, I would just have to let the writer and everyone else know just how much I had enjoyed it. I like books with believable characters, twists you didn't see coming and a good old story to them. That said, should I find myself in the unlikely situation of reviewing a book I hadn't really enjoyed, I would go out of my way to find something positive to say, because I know how much that would mean to the writer. Unless, of course, the grammar is awful; that is something I cannot forgive. Someone who earns their living from writing should hang their head in shame every time they write was stood instead of was standing, amount instead of number, less instead of fewer and gotten instead of got. That is something I would come down hard on.
But writers also have to play fair. We all want amazing five-star reviews, but isn't it so much more rewarding to get genuine five-star reviews? I sometimes wonder if reviewers feel somewhat obliged to write a gushing, five-star review simply because they know the author. Yes, it's galling when someone writes a stinking review - or one such as I had for Holiday Reads last year - three stars 'Nothing special.' What kind of a review is that? That isn't a review, in my opinion, yet there it sits on my Amazon page! However, rounding up my mates to condemn it or to write false five star reviews to counter-balance it would have achieved nothing and would have compromised my integrity, something I'd have to live with. It is for genuine readers to see it and condemn it, not for me. And the worst thing a writer can do is strike back at a reviewer. I recently read a whole thread where a writer had attacked a review - which hadn't been that bad - and the reviewer. Lots of other people had waded in and the one that came off worse was the writer, because he (it was a man) was made to look thin-skinned and petty. It would have been so much better to just treat the review with a dignified silence. That way, few would have noticed it perhaps, yet by getting into a series of defensive rants simply drew everyone's attention to it.
I would ask readers/reviewers to be honest but kind; to state if the book is outside a genre they usually read or like and to remember that trashing my book is like writing something nasty about my baby. (Trolls I ask nothing of; they are sick people hiding behind a screen who need to get a life.)
And writers please remember that one lukewarm review doesn't mean your book is rubbish, simply that it didn't appeal to one particular person. Don't lose heart! Just keep on writing and roll with the reviews.
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Elaine Spires is a novelist, playwright and actress. Extensive travelling and a background in education and tourism perfected Elaine's keen eye for the quirky characteristics of people, captivating the humorous observations she now affectionately shares with the readers of her novels. Elaine spends her time between her homes in Essex and Five Islands, Antigua (W.I.).
What's Eating Me - Eileen Holloway is an obese mother of two, whose husband went out to see a man about a car one night and never came back, struggling to keep all the plates spinning. But Eileen becomes a celebrity the day her mother puts her forward for Barbara's Beautiful Bodies, a reality TV show which follows the journey of the seriously overweight as they are put on a rigid diet and exercise routine to change their lives for better and for ever. What's Eating Me looks at what happens to her once her journey to reach her target weight is over.
Sweet Lady - the story with a couple of huge twists, where nothing is as it seems! East London artist Eleanor West is holidaying in Antigua with her daughter Victoria before her latest summer exhibition. When beach-bum Tyrone walks into their lives, nothing will ever be the same again.
Singles' Holiday - Antigua, the Caribbean at its most luscious; cloudless, cobalt skies, silver sand, turquoise sea, and a group of total strangers, with just one thing in common: they're single. Some have come just to have a good holiday; some for something more. Some will become lifelong friends; others just won't get on. But it is, perhaps, their tour manager Eve who has the biggest shocks of all as she takes care of her group through sunny days, boozy, balmy nights and a tropical storm as we get to know each group member, while they, in turn, get to know each other.
Singles and Spice - A singles' holiday to India's Golden Triangle - Taj Mahal, the pink city of Jaipur, tiger-spotting in Ranthambore, the noisy, crowded streets of Delhi - all go to make up a trip that is hot, humid and spicy. Eve Mitchell, Travel Together's tour manager extraordinaire has a couple of familiar faces in her little group of travellers and others that she hasn't met before; sexy man-eating pensioners, a compulsive over-eater, a constant whiner and a man with a personal problem. And there's a big surprise awaiting someone -and Eve! - one morning at dawn. By the end of the tour, which sees our group travelling by plane, coach, rickshaw, train and elephant, she will know rather more about some of their innermost secrets than she'd like.
Single All The Way - Travel Together Tour Manager Eve Mitchell is planning a quiet Christmas at home to rest and relax before an extra-special New Year. But she soon, very unexpectedly, finds herself in the depths of the Essex countryside looking after a singles' group which contains some old, familiar faces and some pleasant - and not so pleasant - new ones. With its country walks, quizzes, disco and black-tie ball, the Christmas and Twixmas Break passes quickly, but just as they think it's all over the plot takes a twist and we learn some dark secrets...
Short Story Collections:-
Holiday Reads - Short stories for your sun-lounger - or wherever! Seven women, each with a different holiday problem. Meet, Olivia, who wishes she wasn't on a tennis holiday; Estelle, alone on a cruise; Fiona who's flying too close for comfort; Shelley, who shouldn't have got involved with a foreigner; Alison who finds our her husband's off on a cruise - but not with her!; Eloise who's having a rotten time in Ibiza and Karla who's desperate for her family holiday in Corfu to go well
Holiday Reads 2 - More quirky short-stories with a holiday theme for reading on the plane, on the beach or by the pool, your back garden on a sunny afternoon or curled up on the sofa if it's raining.
The Christmas Queen - in which we meet up with Eileen Holloway again. Her whole life through, Christmas for Eileen has always started with loads of work and preparation and ended in bitter disappointment, and involved huge amounts of energy and emotion along the way. But this year, although she knows it will be emotional, she's determined things will be very different. This year she's going to be a Christmas Queen...
Weak At The Knees - Estelle is out and about making her Valentine's Day deliveries. What she discovers as she presents four very different women with an armful of flowers is a real eye-opener ...
COMING SOON - THE BANJO - A trilogy set in Dagenham from 1950s - present day.
Thank you to Ms. Spires for stopping by and please be sure to check out her books!
