People that demand only excellent reviews from bloggers and consequently get mad at honesty in reviews that are anything less than glowing when sent ARCs (which are taken IN EXCHANGE FOR HONEST REVIEWS) are why I don’t rate my reviews anymore. 🙃 - ThreadSky

bookspotlight.bsky.social • 81 days ago

People that demand only excellent reviews from bloggers and consequently get mad at honesty in reviews that are anything less than glowing when sent ARCs (which are taken IN EXCHANGE FOR HONEST REVIEWS) are why I don’t rate my reviews anymore. 🙃

Reposted from Emily | A Quintillion Words

Thoughts? 😅

If I agree to review your book, that doesn't mean I will automatically give it 5 stars. And 4 stars is GOOD?!

So confused. My reviews are usually pretty good at explaining why a book gets a particular rating. Feel very weird about this. I'll be thinking about it all night 😂 #BookSky

Comments

sacredbalance.bsky.social•81 days ago

What is the chance they wanted honest and open feedback? (This is a query not an underhanded challenge.)

grumpysensei.bsky.social•81 days ago

4 stars is good. Can't see what they're complaining about.
I'd kill for more four star reviews.

desiheart.bsky.social•81 days ago

I’m honestly awestruck at the questioning of a 4 star review. As I prepare my next piece for reviews, I’ll be pacing circles in the floor hoping for mostly 4 stars. Similarly, as a reviewer, I delight in giving 4 star reviews as that’s solid praise for any book.

dgcampbell.bsky.social•81 days ago

Maybe they are like me, and just assume that you meant to rate it 2, and are wondering if you accidentally pressed the wrong button...

leeburton.bsky.social•81 days ago

I'm assuming the review, in fact, detailed the reasons it got a 4-star.

faythompsonauthor.bsky.social•81 days ago

the two primary sites of amazon/goodreads do little to nothing to moderate reviewers to make sure, at minimum, they have purchased a copy of the book and/or demonstrated page count reads. Many bad reviewers simply paste up crap to attack authors and the zon does nothing.

flameinc.bsky.social•81 days ago

I use the very simple metrics.. 5, outstanding. 4, really liked it. 3, liked it but eh. and if its 2 or 1 I just don't bother. It's all on a scale of how likely am I to recommend it to other people. 4 is "man I liked that, I'd like to see more by them"

sabrinaaccalai.bsky.social•81 days ago

That's so ridiculous! How over-confident to assume they deserve 5 stars 🤦‍♀️

nillcord.bsky.social•81 days ago

My charitable reading is, that person just wants to know what they didn't like as much as what they did.

I understand the impulse, having had it a lot. Atm, my favorite review for my own book is one of the three-star ones because it spelled out what was good and what wasn't very clearly.

nillcord.bsky.social•81 days ago

(my least fave review is the other three star one, but I won't get into that.)

nillcord.bsky.social•81 days ago

I also did once ask a reviewer this question because they hadn't left the actual review yet, just the rating, and I misinterpreted that to mean they weren't going to review the book publicly, and I really did want honest feedback.

I could tell I'd done wrong by asking immediately.

bensbookclub.bsky.social•81 days ago

It hasn't happened yet, but I'm really scared of the day I read a book I got given for free by an author and don't like it, I'm not sure I would want to make a video with a poor review.

It's made me very wary of ARC offers to be honest.

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

bookmarkedone.bsky.social•81 days ago

I have enough rants on my blog now that authors have a good idea of what they're getting into (one referred to it as "the chopping block"), but I know the feeling.

Netgalley and BookSirens seem to be a good buffer between author and reviewer to keep things distanced and professional if needed.

bookmarkedone.bsky.social•81 days ago

Anyway, thank you for wanting to be kind! The world needs that. :)

thehomebakery.bsky.social•81 days ago

I'd rather have an honest review than a promotional review. After all, a good review only helps sales if the reviewer is trusted.

That being said, if it's a typo or something, I would prefer the reviewer give me a chance to fix it first as I'm a team of one

cbahm.bsky.social•81 days ago

Some authors act like an honest reviewer called their child ugly. Reviewers aren’t the cheer squad or the PR team. A gracious response would have been, “Thanks, you’ve given me something to think about.”

elizmanderson.com•81 days ago

literally had a friend last night who's been on a lot of ARC teams say she's worked with some authors who are SO mean about it if you DNF the ARC no matter why, she was stressing out about what to do about an ARC she might DNF

lacrimamundi.bsky.social•81 days ago

Authors demand reasons for review of X-stars.

Also authors: WHY DOES NO ONE WANT TO REVIEW MY BOOOOOOOKSSSSSS.

Make it make sense.

Some really need to get of their high horses and make a reality check. 🙄

williamburnette.bsky.social•81 days ago

I've stopped reviewing books. It's not worth the questions, or a review bomb of my own novels.

drafoxter.bsky.social•81 days ago

So sad that a few bad apples that harass reviewers makes it even harder to get legit reviews. 😔😔😔

rewantremethick.bsky.social•81 days ago

Totally understandable, but such a shame for the writing community of sensible authors who just want to get genuine opinions of their work that people like you are being driven away from engaging in this way. Edge cases like this are wrecking it for the rest of us.

williamburnette.bsky.social•81 days ago

Agreed. I feel bad since almost half of my reading is indy books. But my sanity is worth it.

rewantremethick.bsky.social•81 days ago

Oh yeah, you don't have to deal with that crap. Reading is supposed to be for pleasure.

luketarzian.bsky.social•81 days ago

I don’t get people like this lol. Reading is subjective. If you want a participation trophy go play community softball. 😂

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