Good Reviews vs Bad Reviews

As book bloggers writing reviews is our daily „bread“. I wrote a blog last year explaining my rating system. Now, us book bloggers, we talk a lot and we exchange our thoughts on books, but also other blogging issues. I think it happened to all of us that we didn’t like a book and when it comes to writing the review it gets really hard. „How will I write it in a way that the author or publisher doesn’t get upset?“

Well, let me tell you one thing, reviews are not there to please an author! It might sound cruel and we all want to be friends with the authors we like. Yes, Twitter is great and I have met a lot of great authors through it. It’s wonderful to chat with them and I enjoy the contact very much, but I think when it comes to reviewing it’s important to be constructive and honest.

I had cases, where I didn’t like a book and I felt really bad about it. I’ve learned to make the best out of the situation. I write the review, put my honest opinion in it and try to explain the way I felt about a book. There are some book bloggers out there who only post reviews of books they like and everything under a 3* is not going on the blog. For me that’s not what blogging and reviewing is about. There are so many books out there, different genres, authors and stories, so not every book is for everyone. We have different tastes and it’s natural that we don’t like every book. Reviewing is about sharing your opinion on a book, whether it’s good or bad. It is a feedback for the author, but also information for other readers, who are looking for a new book to read.  Of course I always feel a little bad writing a bad review, it’s also harder to find the right words in my opinion. It gets even more difficult when you are supposed to review the book for a blog tour, I always feel kind of bad and I think that will stick, but I’ve learned to write my reviews in an honest, constructive and open way, I include examples and I mention the good as well as the bad things. I’ve had blog tours or publishers who said that they only want 3* reviews or higher ones, I also had authors who mentioned that in emails. Of course all authors want good feedback and for promotions only the high ones count. You can’t please everyone with your stories and you don’t have to!!! Yes, seeing a one star or 2 star review is not nice and some of these reviews are not constructive, but I think authors still have to accept them.

My tip for all the book bloggers: Be true to yourself, be honest and say what you feel, as long as you explain it in your review it’s all good. There will always be authors who don’t like that, but it’s their problem!!!