I've written about book reviews before. Frankly I wish they'd all go away. But since I'm an author I have to live with them. I also know that reviews matter. Good ones help sales. Bad ones hurt author's egos. I reblogged a post about reviews from Kristen Lamb last June. She and I are on the same page about writing bad reviews. We just won't. We know how much they hurt, and why hurt our author friends and colleagues? And, I've had some reviews of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On that were pretty ego-hurting. However, I'm fortunate that most been very positive. Like the one posted on Amazon yesterday. It is so in tune with my sentiments and what I wanted to get across in my book, I have to share it here. My only connection to the reviewer is she contacted me about how to get permission to use a Paul Simon song quote in her own book, and I gave her the information. When she told me she read my book, I asked if she'd write a review. Yesterday she contacted me again to tell me she … [Read more...]
Book reviews matter
Should Authors Write Bad Book Reviews? by Kristen Lamb
Reviews have been on my mind again lately - especially bad ones, especially those written by people who don't appear to have read the book. I took special notice of Pamela Paul's words in an interview in this month's Poets and Writers, which I think all reviewers should take to heart, Paul is the new editor of the New York Times Book Review section. Nearly every writer writes a book with a great amount of attention and intention and hopes and dreams. And it's important to take that effort seriously and to recognize that a book may have taken ten years of a writer's life, that the writer has put heart and soul into it. And it behooves us, as book-review-editors, to treat those books with the care and attention they deserve, and to give the writer that respect." Then I found this wonderful post on Kristen Lamb's Blog on the same subject. I personally will not write a bad review because I know from my own experience that they hurt. Please let me know what your think. Here is … [Read more...]
