Tuesday 27 October 2009

To be reviewed, or not to be reviewed. That is the question.

Why would someone ask people to submit their books for a free review, and then not give each book the time it deserves.
If the person is not going to give their full attention to a book why bother in the first place? Or if they find themselves inundated with books from authors keen to have our work reviewed. Why not just get in touch with the authors and explain that there are a lot of books to read, and so it will take longer than expected.
I would rather that, than read a review of my book that is at worst inept and at best moderately encouraging.
To me it was blatantly obvious that the reviewer did not read the book properly. In fact they admitted at the time, they were trying to read and review two books at the same time. Personally I don't think that was fare to either the books or the authors. We invest a lot of time and love into our writing.

Am I annoyed? you bet I am. I honestly don't expect everyone who reads my books to like them. But I do hope they will actually read and review them fairly.
Is this reviewer saying that they are right and that every other readers positive review is wrong, I don't think so.

One conciliation I suppose, is that all reviews whether good or bad, can be helpful. Because in many cases people will buy the book just to see if they agree with the bad review. I know myself if a new film is slated by the critiques I will go and see it anyway. And more often than not I love it, and I find most of my friends are much the same.

Those who review aren't always right, after all it is just their personal opinion. And thank goodness they don't always have the last word.

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