When Writers Review Other Writers . . .
“If you read my book and give it five stars, I’ll read your book and give it five stars.”
Seriously. That’s what many writers agree to do, and I get it. Really, I get it. We need to help each other out, we who battle to make a name for ourselves in the self-publishing industry. After all, if we don’t give one another five star reviews, who will? Who does it hurt, anyway? No one takes these reviews too seriously.
Ah. But that’s where the argument breaks down, not so much for moral reasons, but more for practical ones. You see, Amazon had adopted a new policy thanks to this mutual back patting among and between writers. It has begun removing many reviews added by writers to its website. The thinking goes: how can we trust a review written by a writer? They’re a mischievous, deceitful lot, they are.
Wow. I don’t like this new policy at all. It condemns a whole group based on the misdeeds, the exaggerations, the innocent white lies, of a few. I’m aggrieved that Amazon has done this. And yet . . . I understand it too.
I understand it because I for one cannot set aside my moral objections to trading mutual good reviews with other writers. The concept of a “tit for a tat, or a back scratch for a back scratch doesn’t sit right with me. Don’t get me wrong. I want to write good reviews. I want to like everything my fellow wordsmiths fashion, because it’s a lonely profession and one that demands commitment and hard work.
And it’s painful to receive mediocre or even (gasp) poor reviews. We writers, we artists, are a sensitive lot. We spend months and years creating a single product, and it’s next to impossible not to invest at least some of our self-worth in whatever book or books we release. It’s deadly of course to allow our self-worth to be connected to or conditioned upon how well-received our work is. When we do that, it makes our self-worth an unfixed thing outside of our control.
And when we expect our friends and acquaintances to provide only favorable reviews of our work, it connects the friendship to the product we’re selling, and this hurts us in more than one way. For one thing, it devalues the unconditional nature of each friendship. We should be loved for who we are, not for what we create or for how well we rate our friend’s creations. Basically, it takes our self-worth, ties it to both what we sell and to what our friends enjoy buying and reading, mixes the entire thing up into a toxic brew and before we know it, we’ve lost a real sense of who our friends are and why they love us.
It hurts friendships. It hurts our ability to love ourselves and be loved unconditionally. It makes reviews untrustworthy. And quite simply, it’s not honest.
I recommend that we preserve our integrity as writers, artists and readers and refuse to trade good reviews for good reviews. By all means ask your friends to give your work a shot. But ask them for their honest take. And promise that it won’t affect your friendship one way or the other. After all, deep down, what really matters is how we view our own work. Right?
Comment
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Comment by El Phoenix Farris on January 9, 2013 at 12:28am -
Oh for sure, Katy, Amazon's system makes no sense, and I really don't like how they're removing reviews. I think people can figure out which reviews are honestly written, you know?
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Comment by Vicky Willenberg on January 9, 2013 at 12:01am -
I think this issue goes beyond just reviewing books. I have seen this happen in the blogging world as well. Though not a book, a blog is still written from the heart. It may not be bound and published, but bloggers share a piece of themselves and can often determine worth based on "hits" and "page views."
This has prompted a surge in requests for "likes" on blog Facebook Pages. Yes, we all want a like and enjoy seeing the numbers go up on our pages. However, I can't bring myself to like everyone who likes me. I may respect them for writing but that does not mean it meets my needs or speaks to me. I feel it devalues those that I truly "like" when I simply return the sentiment without really meaning it.
When I receive a like I always send a message with a thank you and an invitation to visit the blog. But I can't "like you back" unless I truly like you back.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I have found that writing has made me commit more to being authentic. Not only in my words and values, but also in what I appreciate and, well, like.
Thanks for a great discussion starter!
Vicky
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Comment by Katy Brandes on January 8, 2013 at 11:52am -
Although I agree with what you're saying, I question how Amazon judges reviews are author-based. I believe it reviewing something on how you truly feel about it and not giving it five stars because it was written by a friend. Naively, I thought advanced reader copies are given in exchange for honest reviews, not tit for fake tat.
Amazon's process still makes me wonder if there is something strange algorithmic pattern to their eliminations. There was someone who had no connection to me, a complete stranger, who liked one of my novellas but not the other. The reviewer stated why - he assumed the genres would be the same - and gave the second work a lower rating. Now, out of the blue, both of those reviews are gone. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but I wonder if they disappeared due to his rating both of mine that otherwise have very few reviews.
Sorry to digress, but their system seems pretty random.
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Comment by El Phoenix Farris on January 7, 2013 at 8:42am
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Exactly, Marie. I don't think they should eliminate all author reviews, or even reviews by friends (otherwise where would we small-fry get our first batch of reviews?), but asking the reviewer to disclose relationship to author would help readers distinguish among reviews. Another thing that would help is if each reviewers mean review score/number of stars were posted. For example, I give almost only three, fours and five star reviews. If something isn't good enough to get three stars, I usually don't review it.
Thanks for commenting!
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Comment by Marie Nicole on January 7, 2013 at 8:36am -
I've often found Amazon reviews to be ... questionable. Too many five-star ratings. For a book to receive a top-notch rating it needs to be just that: TOP notch. And some of the kindle stuff often appears to be published so quickly, as if many steps had been skipped (sometimes they don't even appear to have been given a once-over) and receive 5 stars! It makes everything appear so much worse than if reviewers had been honest. It takes away all the credibility.
Maybe Amazon needs to ask "What's your relation to the author?" rather than eliminate ALL author based reviews. I'd want to know what my peers think of my writing. Author to author. Best kind of critique out there.
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