There is sense of duty, a moral obligation if you will, when you are sent a book, asked to review it for whatever reason, and the book,…well, let’s just be honest and say it’s a stinker.
You want to throw it into the recycling bin, use mind bleach, whatever analogy seems fit,to scrub it out of your mind.
But…
You had a free copy of the book.
The majority of the bookblogging community ADORE it.
You agreed to sign up to the tour.
WHAT NEXT?
- A) Shoot yourself in the foot by being honest with your review?
- B)Get yourself blacklisted by blog tours/publicists/publishing houses?
- C)LIE?!
What do you do?
AT this point, my worry is best illustrated below-
This is all the blog tour/book people when I put my crazy hand up, yelling ‘Yes please! I’D LOVE TO READ IT!’
But…this is anxiety speaking and that old FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) beast raising it’s ugly head again.
Yes, books are an author’s life work, yes they hope it is read and enjoyed but a part of them must also be prepared to deal with those who one star it, because it took too long to arrive, the cover was bent, and all the messed up,or legit, reasons we have for one starring.
It’s a crisis of conscience and this is how I have dealt with it in my own, muddled up way.
It might help, it might not, but I found writing this helpful to frame my responses to books I cannot get along with, both as a book blogger, and in general as a lover of books.
A) Book blog tour people are lovers and readers of books but they also appreciate honesty.
If you are not getting on with a book, let them know,early as possible- they may offer content so that blogpost spot isn’t missed.
Think about the book-maybe you just read an EXCELLENT novel which left you bereft at the final page. If you are short of time, change it to a giveaway, ask for a content spot and review it later when you gave it another shot.
That way the book potentially gets double the exposure, you haven’t wasted valuable blogspace on negativity, you don’t have to worry so much but do let these lovely people know!
B) Not really sure this is a thing, it may be, it may not, BUT there are so many ways you can blog about books-share, borrow, join a book group, your blogging does not have to rely on blog tours etc alone. It’s wonderful being part of the book blogger community but FOMO is real ladies and gentlemen, and you can find yourself chasing after a book you’d realistically never read,in a genre you don’t understand or enjoy.
Think hard, the blogger people want to put books in the hands of those who want to read them. Ask yourself this simple question-if it wasn’t free, would I buy it? Ebook/paperback/hardback editions of books are vulnerable things, open to sharing, pirating…book sellers and authors are struggling to make a profit, even a living.
What you love to read, share.
Myself, I have signed up to too many blog tours because I have a wide range of interests BUT as a result I have double/triple booked myself and switching rapidly between books does the authors no favours at all. So I am setting boundaries and keeping them. I LOVE blogtours, you find bloggers you haven’t come across before and there are so many books which I have bought this last year have been through blogger recommendations, I cannot begin to count them.
But it can lead to pressure to perform, so be honest with yourself, and the blog tour people before going ‘ME PLEASE!’ And don’t be surprised to have an email going ‘Rach, you booked yourself in for 4 blogposts that day…’
You can say no…
C) Now this, this is a tricky one.
You can lie.
I think each blogger sets their own guidelines on this and there are creative ways in which you can make it plain, especially for those who actually read your blog posts.
They can tell!
You can hide the truth in plain sight about what you felt about a certain book, as well as that, in my case, I have made a decision not to use this blogspace for negative reviews.
Goodreads is where I leave what I hope are thought out, considered takes on the books I did not enjoy.
They are not knee jerk reactions-out of the handful of books I have read and not enjoyed, each one has a reason behind it, exactly the same as the 5 star reads, well, for any rated book, there are reasons why.
This may not be nice to read, but it circumvents the ‘all or nothing‘, ‘wonderful or bust‘ atmosphere which sometimes exists, and makes a book reviewer feel like they are somehow failing a novel by not liking it.
It can be liberating to say,for example, ‘I am not a fan of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride And Prejudice’ (or any of her books as a matter of act) and here is why…’
Not to be mean or because she is popular, but let’s face it, will eminent Austen scholars/lovers lose sleep over this meandering thought of mine? NOPE!
Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one on something, some have opinions on everything, however, lying is not something I like doing.
This is why I have created a new shelf on Goodreads called ‘Abandoned’.
It actually was therepeutic doing this, I hate the term DNF (again, just an opinion, I find abbreviations, in the main, exclusive and limiting) so came to this shelf naming clueless. But abandoned suits it very well.
So there we have it!
My bookish thoughts on a wet and rainy Welsh summer day!
How do you deal with thoughts of leaving books, unfinished and unloved, what do you do?
I am moving onwards with a brilliant new book that has me hooked.
And there’s the rub.
For every book which you want to burn with fire, there are millions and millions of others to dive into..
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bridgeman.lenny@gmail.com
Like you, I enjoy many genres and when starting out as a blogger I also wanted to put my little blog on the map, even if it was just as a little speck, and I was too enthusiastic about signing up for blog tours, and I was too quick with requesting NetGalley ARCs too. So. Much. FOMO! As a result I spent many month reading what I had to read, not what I wanted, although of course I wanted to read everything I’d signed up for, but maybe just not then and there, ya know. And I also ended up reading a bunch of books I didn’t really enjoy. So I’ve become a lot stricter and reign myself in much more 😄 Now I only sign up if I’m desperate to read the book and I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy it. Nothing sucks more than having to review a book you didn’t like. If I can’t give 3 stars or more, I only review on GR, not my blog. I try to be kind but also honest.
I love this!! Thanks so much for sharing Kelly, totally agree with you on that, I bury my reviews on Goodreads but they are there…no need to be mean , I mean some of the reviews have been breathtakingly rude for no reason other than a book was delivered late. This is absolutely not the author’s fault!! And it drags their ratings down!
Totally feel like I am reading on a schedule and need to slow down cos as much as I would like to read, I literallt, physically cannot do it. And then it’s not fair on the book or author
Agreed!
This happened to me recently. I got about 50 pages into the book and realised it was a dud. I let the publisher know it just wasn’t for me and gave them the choice – I could review it (I wouldn’t trash it but I would certainly say what I didn’t care for) OR I could just quietly abandon it and nothing would appear.
I dont have any qualms about saying I didn’t care for a book. My blog is my honest opinion and if I only wrote about what I loved reading then it gives a false impression. However I make sure to do a balanced review. Usually you can find something that works.
This is it, with stories of book reviewers/bloggers being hounded by others for daring not to like something AND having cogent reasons why,where do you draw the line?
Once I had to contact a blogtour organiser at pretty much a similar level into a book that was a big, fat ‘NOPE!’ and she was lovely, really lovely about it.
ANd then looking at Goodreads, all I have been is unendingly positive lately and then you worry, like you say, that because you agreed to review it? Started a book that I thought was one thing and it turned out to be an absolute nightmare read. So I quietly put it on Goodreads and left it…but like you say there is a way and a balance to be found in this
Well, I don’t do blog tours so my experience is only with ARCs, but (see https://anzlitlovers.com/review-comments-policy/) I make it plain in my review and comments policy (every blogger should have one IMO) that (a) what I write is my honest opinion and (b) “I reserve the right to donate unsolicited books that I don’t want to read, or books I start but can’t bear to finish to the Op Shop, or as Giveaways on the blog.”
Because I am careful about what I agree to review, there have only been a couple of occasions when I abandoned the book, and I simply emailed the publisher and explained why. There has never been any problem with that.
Unsolicited books are a different matter altogether. Consumer law tells us that we are no obligation whatsoever with unsolicited goods. But because I like to maintain a good relationship with publishers, I treat these books on a case-by-case basis. If a publicist hasn’t bothered to read my review policy which tells them which genres I read, then I feel not a shred of guilt about turfing a romance or a dreary memoir and no explanation either. I know they are busy, but I am busy too. But if the book is from one of the genres that I do read, I keep it and try to fit it into my plans. But they always take second place behind other books that I committed to review.
Happy blogging!
This is brilliant advice, thanks for sharing Lisa!
I no longer join blog tours! There I’ve said it and my world didn’t stop!
I was fed up with mediocre books that I felt pressured to say positive things about. When I stopped it lifted a great weight off of my shoulders.
There are so many blog tours now for books that my eyes glaze over when I see a poster for tours that last for weeks. I also got to a stage where I started to disbelieve all the gushing reviews for book tour books by some bloggers.
Now I alternate between books that I have which are review requests and my own TBR list.
I thought seriously about the type of blog posts that I enjoy reading and found that I skip over cover reveals, book blitz, and book promo only posts, so I no longer have those on my own blog either.
I look for other things I enjoy seeing about books, like the #6Degrees book challenge, some book memes, reading challenges, discussion posts etc.
There is life after the end of book blog tours!
More power to you Rosie!!
It’s not easy making decisions like this and sticking to them, and redefining what blogging means to you,what enriches your life and how to go about it.
And the same with glowing reviews, it’s not being pedantic, I like seeing that there are a variety of reviews and all 5 stars makes me think is it really that good? And why? And then you worry, especially with that blogger being hounded for not liking a book that other people loved
I am 100% using my book blog to promote books, but Goodreads now has an ‘Abandoned’ shelf for the ones I couldn’t get on with.
It was very cathartic doing this!
It’s good to be able to have somewhere for books taht didn’t work for you.
As for 5* reviews. When I check out a book, I like to head to Goodreads and I always read the 2* and 3* reviews first as that’s where I find most honesty. I like to know what didn’t work for a reader and if it’s something I don’t mind, then it probably wouldn’t stop me from getting the book myself. But I’ll also read some of the 5* and the 4*s, you can usually get a feel about the book. And if I’m really not sure about a book with only 5* reviews, I’ll do a little digging of those reviewers on GR and Amazon. You soon find out if they’ve only reviewed a handful of books.