Hi everyone. Today I’d like to talk about reviewing books. I’m not an expert in reviewing, but I often read reviews. Sometimes I don’t think readers understand how much reviews mean to the authors and other readers. Here are some responses from authors and readers. (Everyone is anonymous)

Reader about a review they saw:

2 stars
OMG I LOVE THIS BOOK IT WAS SO GREAT IM DYING UNTIL THE NEXT ONE COMES.
…
….
Ok.. but why 2 stars then?

Author: I don’t mind getting a low review, but I would love to know why. If there’s something I could fix or do better it could help me grow.

Author: 1 star with no explanation Or just “DNF”

Was it just not to your taste? Or were there legitimate issues?

This is actually an issue I have as an author and reader. No explanation doesn’t help me as either.

Author: “Honestly? Any DNF that leaves a review, period. Even if they explain why, 9 times out of 10, the reason they DNFd is resolved if they would have continued reading (this is excluding grammar/editing complaints which my books don’t generally receive anyway). I often feel like a review isn’t justified if they haven’t read ALL of the book.”

Author: The dnf with no explanation.. or the best one is when characters not even in my book gets mentioned and situations that didn’t happen.

Author: The reviews that spoil the plot. Idc If they are negative as long as they are honest and don’t contain spoilers.

Author: When they lower the rating due to something you have labeled in the warning 🤦‍♀️

Author: “I love this book so much I’m only giving it four stars instead of five because the sequel isn’t out yet”

Author: Have so many.

1) Saying they didn’t like something that was CLEARLY stated that was part of the book. Blurb says “reverse harem werewolf story”, review says, “I hate werewolves so one star.” Uhh… no. That’s on you.
If a book is truly misrepresented: okay.

2) DNF but I only read 5% of the book so I can’t actually say why this happened I just know I don’t like it.

3) Glowing reviews that are 2 or 3 star. People, you realize this actually HURTS authors, right? 3 stars and below Amazon considers negative. Might be ‘good’ on your watch, but that’s not how it works on Amazon. This isn’t goodreads. These ranks matter. They affect sales. You want more books? RATE. ACCORDINGLY. Stop being stingy!!!!

4) EXTREME spoilers. Come on!

5) Taking ARCs and not leaving reviews OR not communicating that you need more time/aren’t able/whatever. Your time is valuable! We know this! Just say “Hey, something came up, I might not be able to get to this for a while!” Cool!!!!

5) Bitching about cliffhangers. Some of them suck, and you get no resolution at all. I get that. That’s not a good cliffhanger. But unless it’s a series of standalones, or a standalone, EVERY BOOK WILL HAVE SOME SORT OF CLIFFHANGER. Recognize this!

6) And probably the worst one of all: 1-star because of a handful of typos.
EXTREME editing or story issues: okay. But saying it was unreadable because of a misplaced comma or something is just dickish, and bullying. You expect perfection: write your own or read traditional with their $50k editing budgets.
Indies have $1k-0 to spend on editing, and charge under $5 for a book. I understand when something is so poorly edited it’s unreadable but a couple of typos are going to happen. Period. RECOGNIZE.

I could go on but these are the worst. lol

Author: When they review the book without reading the blurb…and then they complain about what the book was about, even though they should have known going in based on the blurb!!!