once more, with feeling: negative reviews
I have a feeling I'm just going to have to keep answering questions about this post and this one for a good while. Here are two recent comments to these posts (which discuss negative reviews in general and Beth's review of A Breath of Snow and Ashes in particular):
from Jamie: [...] With that said, it upsets me that one person's review would turn you off reading the book. What if your fans (I am a huge one) took the same stance with a negative review of your book? The fact that they didn't *purchase* it aside, wouldn't you feel as though you were somewhat short-changed in that you didn't even get the chance to prove the reviewer wrong? I was just surprised to see your POV on reading the book. To be honest I was quite disappointed.
from Dana: It seems highly innapproriate to me to find an extremely negative review of another authors work on your homepage. Even if everything said by Beth is valid why would you want to post it here? If Diana Gabaldon ever considered you a friend I doubt she does now! As for the tone, I don't speak to any one, friends, enemies, whatever, using the language Beth used. Fuck is not an adjective! It made it hard to read. It also took away some of her credibility, because it made her sound like she's a foul mouthed 16 old. I am telling you this, because I have so enjoyed your books and respect you as an author, but I think posting something like this on your homepage can hurt your reputation.
To Jamie, first:
The plain truth of the publishing business is that negative reviews cost sales. It's just part of what goes on. I've had bad reviews from readers (the infamous Amazon anonymous reviews) and from places like Publishers Weekly, and those bad reviews cost me readers, right or wrong, justified or not. Just as the good reviews (and there have been more of those, for which I'm thankful) have brought in readers.
I would hope that any potential reader looking at reviews before making a buying decision would bring critical thinking to the process. I don't automatically decide to read (or not read) a book on the basis of a single negative review.
For example, this review:
"This is the absolute worst book ever, gag me with a spoon, what idiot wrote this shit?"-- I would ignore completely.
"I didn't like this book as much as x's book."-- Again, there's no substantive content here, so I'd ignore the review.
"This author knows nothing about her subject and she can't write a sentence to save her life."-- This review would make me pause. If there were a lot of reviews like this, it might slow me down reading the novel unless there were other considerations.
"Author X has been putting out this crap for years and people keep buying it. A person with a degree from a public university has no right to advertise themselves as an expert in this area."-- this kind of review -- which attacks the author on personal grounds -- makes me angry, and I would probably read the novel to spite the reviewer.
"I loved the first three books in this series, loved everything about them. Adored the characters. But this new novel was such a huge disappointment, and I'm sad and angry about that, and here, exactly, is what went wrong in my estimation: [...]"-- In this case, especially if I had admired the early books, and especially if the problems touched on areas that I personally find very difficult, I might well decide not to read the book. As I did in the case of A Breath of Snow and Ashes.
Now to Dana, who is worried about my reputation:
I am trying to imagine some day sitting down at the computer and finding a review of my next book that parallels Beth's review in terms of detail, tone, and conclusions. I can tell you how I would feel: devastated that a reader who had once loved my work (because her love of the stories is very clearly there) was so disillusioned by the new book.
Of course it would be hard. There is no denying that. But after I got done being shocked and hurt, I hope that I would be honest enough with myself to admit that such a review is a labor of love. A reader has to be very invested in the universe I made to go to so much trouble. Because if you read Beth's review, really read it, you'll see how much thought went into it. She didn't just dash off a one-sentence "I hated it" review. She didn't go after Diana personally. She sat down and said, here's where it went wrong, and then she laid it all out point by point. If somewhere down the line I get a review like that, here's what I hope I'd do: (a) scream and cry (b) calm down (c) read the review carefully (d) make notes (e) decide which, if any of the substantive comments had value (f) talk those over with my editor and agent (g) decide how to go forward.
That's what I hope I would do. Conversely, I dearly hope I would NOT do any of the following: (a) go after the person who wrote the review and try to make her life miserable (b) go after people who agreed with the review for the same reason (c) try to rally the troops to go out and slay the negative reviewers in my name.
Please note, I have no idea if Diana has read Beth's review, or the discussion of Beth's review here. If she has and wants to talk to me about it, I know that she will. Diana is a strong woman. She is perfectly capable of defending herself if she feels she has been wronged. If she does contact me, I will be sure to let you know.
Here's my bottom line:
Honest reviews are hard to come by in this particular part of the publishing world. Beth's was an honest review, and that's why I wanted to talk about it. I'm not worried about losing anybody's friendship, and if my reputation suffers, then those are probably people who wouldn't like me or my work anyway. Which is fine. It's a wide world with many choices, and there's room for all of us.
Edited to add: it occurs to me that one valid criticism that might be coming my way is that I rarely include negative reviews here. I haven't been doing much reviewing at all lately, but I have been negative on occasion. Examples: Hunter's Havana and McCullough's The Touch.