The Writer & Book Reviews
When was the last time you read a novel that you hated? Read it right the way through and got to the end and thought “That was the worst book I’ve ever read”?
For me, the answer to
that question is “Never”.
I have never read a
novel that I didn’t enjoy. Okay, I might have started a few and stopped after a
couple of chapters, but if I’m not enjoying a book I don’t force myself to
finish it. Life is too short to be reading books that aren’t enjoyable.
But the reason I don’t
read bad books is that I’m selective about the books that I buy. The best way to get a recommendation for a
book is word of mouth – to be told by a trusted friend that something is worth
reading. Some of the best books I have
ever read came from recommendations from friends – Silence Of The Lambs, Green
River Rising, Bravo Two Zero.
But even with a
glowing recommendation, I would still look at the book before buying. Yes, it’s wrong to judge a book by a cover
but the simple fact is that a cover says a lot about a book. And so does the
blurb on the back. Even the title. Then
before buying I always perform my own personal litmus test. I flick through to
a page in the middle of the book and read a paragraph or two at random. If it’s
well written, if it flows, then I’ll buy the book.
The equivalent in the
brave new world of eBooks is the sample, where you can look at a chunk of the
book for free before buying. That
facility alone means that you should never buy a book that you are going to
hate. Or even dislike.
So here’s the thing.
When I go to Amazon, why do I see so many one-star reviews from people saying
that that had to force themselves to finish such and such a book, that it was awful, that it was the worst book
they had ever read? Why do they put themselves through such torture? Why did
they buy the book in the first place?
The review system, and
the way books can be ranked with between one star and five stars, gives
everyone a voice, the chance to say how much they enjoyed – or hated – a
book. And sites like Amazon give
everyone the chance to express their opinion – and to do it anonymously. In a perfect world this would allow the
buying public to get a general consensus about which books are good, and which
aren’t. But sadly the world isn’t perfect.
Take one of the greatest English novels of the twentieth century, John
Le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
One of the best thrillers ever written, but also one of the best
novels. As of today Tinker Tailor has
101 five-star reviews. But it also has ten one-star reviews. Ten people think that Tinker Tailor is one of
the worst novels ever published. (And
one of those reviewers said he couldn’t finish it, nor could he finish Catch
22).
John Le Carre is one
of the greatest living writers, there is no question of that. I know that I
will never produce work of the quality of his novels. That’s not to say that
all his books are perfect. I didn’t like the ending of Absolute Friends, and if
I had reviewed it I would probably have given it four stars for that reason. But as of today, while Absolute Friends has
ten five-star reviews it has two one-star reviews and five two-star
reviews. That means that two people
think that Absolute Friends is one of the worst books in the English language.
Yes, of course
everyone has the right to an opinion.
When someone tells me that they believe that the earth is flat or that
the Americans didn’t land on the moon, I say “God Bless” and let them get on
with it. But I do fear there is
something flawed with a system that allows people to express opinions that are
so clearly wrong.
Like all writers, I
get my fair share of bad reviews. But in
the good old days of real books, it was newspaper and magazine journalists who
wrote reviews. And they would be balanced, and considered, and thoughtful. And in fact most books never got
reviews. My publisher would always be
thrilled to get even a few paragraphs in the Daily Mail or the Sun. The vast majority of newly-published books
were simply ignored.
But with sites like
Amazon, everyone can review, and everyone’s review is treated equally. An Amazon Top 100 reviewer who has reviewed
thousands of books and written hundreds of thousands of words, is treated the
same as an anonymous reviewer who has only ever reviewed one book. And in a lot
of cases, reviewers leave reviews without any evidence that they have actually
purchased the book.
There’s no doubt that
a proportion of reviewers abuse the system. So what is a writer to do if he
gets a review that is clearly malicious or just plain stupid? I’ve been given one-star reviews because I
wrote a novel in the first person and the reviewer didn’t like first person
books. I’ve received a two-star review
because the reviewer didn’t like the fact that I didn’t use chapters in my Spider
Shepherd thrillers. I’ve had reviewers
saying that my writing was turgid and awful.
So my big question would be – why did you buy it in the first place?
I think it was eBook
pioneer John Locke who said that if you got a bad review it was because the
reviewer was outside your target market. One of the things I have noticed is that if I
price a book cheaply, I tend to get a higher percentage of bad reviews. I think this proves that what John says is
correct – because when it’s cheap people take less care about what they are
buying, which means you get bought by readers outside your target market.
Without fail, if I raise the price of a book, the percentage of bad reviews
falls!
Last month I
self-published a new crime thriller – Take Two. I priced it at the Amazon
minimum of 99 cents, and it did well – it spent a month in the UK Kindle Top 10
and in February alone sold almost 40,000 copies. But I did get a lot of bad reviews. As of
today, it has 188 reviews of which 67 are five-star, 38 are four-star and 23
are one-star. So more than ten per cent
of my reviewers think Take Two is one of the worst books ever published. The thing is, it isn’t, of course. It’s a fun
crime thriller, set in the world of TV soaps, and it’s as well-written as any
of my books. But it has clearly been
purchased by people who were expecting something else. Because it was cheap they
probably didn’t bother reading the sample first. That’s the equivalent of
taking a book off the shelf in a shop and buying it without opening it. What I do find confusing is the number of reviewers
who claim to be fans but who hated Take Two enough to give it one-star. Yet those ‘fans’ have never reviewed any
other books of mine. I would have thought a ‘fan’ would at least have reviewed
a few of the books they had enjoyed.
Do bad reviews matter?
You know, in the grand scheme of things I don’t think they do. I think most
buyers realise that the review system is flawed and pretty much ignore it. They
realise that an unknown author with ten five-star reviews for his only book is
probably being supported by his family and friends. And that a lot of the
one-star reviews have very little to do with the quality of the writing and
more to do with trolls being trolls.
When I first started
self-publishing eBooks, I would often confront people who had given me bad
reviews, especially when they were clearly malicious. I learnt pretty quickly
that it is a pointless exercise. Either
you wouldn’t get a response (because the account was only opened to post the
one bad review) or the reviewer would react by saying how I dare I criticise
them and that I had no right to query their judgement. I’ve learned that it’s
best to say nothing. In fact, it’s best not to read reviews at all.
When self-publishing
kicked off, Amazon were quite good about removing reviews that were clearly
malicious, but their attitude has changed recently and now requests to have bad
reviews taken down are met with a standard email saying that they are trying to
encourage a diversity of opinion.
So here’s the simple
truth. Everyone is entitled to their
opinion. And everyone is entitled to express that opinion. All you can do as a writer is to grin and
bear it. The best advice I got was from eBook guru Joe Konrath who said that
writers shouldn’t read reviews of their work.
Or Google themselves. Writers should do what writers are supposed to do
– write.
Stephen Leather is the author of more than thirty novels and is one of
the UK's most successful eBook publishers. His book 'The Basement' topped
the Kindle bestseller list in the UK and the US and in 2011 Lee Child
was the only British author who sold more eBooks. His latest thriller, 'False Friends', was in the Sunday Times Top 10 hardback bestseller list. Before working as a full-time writer he was a staff journalist on
newspapers such as The Daily Mirror, The Daily Mail, The Times and the
South China Morning Post.
Stephen Leather's website is http://www.stephenleather.com/ where you can find information about all of his novels as well as many other interesting facts about this prolific bestselling author. Stephen can also be followed on Twitter @stephenleather
Thank you, Stephen, for a post which gives all writers plenty of food for thought.
Eric @ www.ericjgates.com
