Since the reviewer involved in this incident has just published her first book, I’m tempted to revisit this issue with her and see what she now thinks about how I handled this situation.
That incident helped me solidify my rules for bad reviews. And I haven’t had anything as strong or nasty as that incident since.
Though I did have one author who decided her self-published book was terrible and asked me to remove any mention of the book because she didn’t want to be associated with it. It was too bad because the book wasn’t all that bad.
I also had one author ask me to cut words out of a review that I had written because he felt that I had given away too much of the story. I did change it but I don’t think I made the right decision because I do not think that I gave away too much. But I was “young” then. Now I would simply tell him that no one remembers the review itself – only whether or not the book sounded interesting enough to read the book and I would have left my review alone.
Kooky reader comments is another thing …. Lots of these over the years usually threatening to boycott the site for one reason or the other.
What does your site offer readers?
Reading suggestions. Although we read a lot of new books – because that is fun – we also read not so recently published books. We hope that we are like a friend that recommends a good book. Some you’ll want to try. Others, you are glad that you know about them mainly because you know it is NOT one that you will want to read. It is hard to imagine that you would visit MostlyFiction.com and not find a good book to read.
What promotional opportunities does your site offer authors?
None outside of the obvious – that every review is publicity. If we really want to call attention to a book then we might do an interview or a book giveaway. For a few years, I went crazy with “book raffles;” so much so that it started to feel more like we were just pushing anything and everything. We tried to review the books that we gave away but it didn’t always work out. Worse, I’d realize that we were about to raffle a book that no one was that crazy about. So now I’m only doing book giveaways for books that we truly want to promote. Of course, since several of our former reviewers are publishing books this year – we will promote those! Nepotism reigns supreme in the publishing world.
Article comments
1 - c hoare
Some interesting differences in the way MostlyFiction works. I like the idea of having links to other review sites and author sites. It suggests someone visiting the site will find more detailed information on both book and author -- and the author will have more substantial exposure than a few quick paragraphs vying with hundreds of others for reader attention.
Chris H.
2 - A. F. Stewart
Great interview, it sounds like you are doing a wonderful job with your website. I loved the thoughts on including the "where" in a review, along with the "how", "what", "who" and "when." I hadn't really considered that.
3 - Margay
Wow, what an in-depth interview! Thanks, Judi, for sharing your thoughts with us. It was very informative.
4 - RG
If bad reviews are discouraged, what's the point?