by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Last week I read a Washington Post article about doctors who were angered by bad Yelp reviews from patients. They fired back at these patients, revealing confidential information in the process. (“Doctors Fire Back at Bad Yelp Reviews–and Reveal Patients’ Information Online” by Charles Ornstein.)
The crux of this particular piece was that doctors who responded angrily to the patients were violating patient privacy. But to me, it was just another reminder of the inherent danger of responding to reviews. Any reviews.
It’s very difficult for me to imagine a time where an author comes out looking good after responding to reviews.
This doesn’t mean that I’m not itching to respond to some of my reviews. I’ve received plenty of reviews that were downright irritating. My most-reviewed book, Dyeing Shame, has 684 reviews. 684 mixed reviews.
Many times I wished I could argue in my own defense. For example, I’d love to explain that Amazon’s shipping issues don’t actually reflect on my book’s content or quality.
But there wasn’t a single instance in which I felt my response wouldn’t sound argumentative, thin-skinned, condescending, or downright priggish. Or even arrogant, like some of the defensive doctors in the Washington Post story.
Commenting on good reviews? For me, that’s also a bad idea, although I didn’t think so when I was first published. Now I consider it author intrusion of a different sort. Most reviews are intended by readers for readers. They’re hardly ever directed at me.
The one time in my memory that I’ve responded to comments was very recent. It was for my trad-published book, Pretty is as Pretty Dies. The publisher suddenly updated the digital file and, in the process, omitted chapter seventeen and included two chapter sixteens. As you can imagine, readers were dinging me over this. I was baffled because this book has been live since 2010. I immediately contacted the publisher to correct it. Then I set to apologizing to the readers who complained…offering to email them the missing chapter immediately from my own draft from over six years ago. This is the only time I felt it was appropriate for me to respond…not to defend myself, but to apologize and offer a fix.
Reviews do have their place. Glowing reader reviews can be an important part of our editorial review section on our book’s page on Amazon and other retailers. We can tally our best reviews to make marketing statements: “100+ 5-star reviews!” We can learn from our bad reviews, if they have something valuable to impart to us.
And, for me anyway, practice the challenging art of patience while remaining silent.
Have you had any reviews you’ve been itching to respond to? Do you read your reviews at all? Have there been times in which you did respond to reviews or felt you needed to? How did that go? What’s your own policy on responding to reviews?
The danger of responding to reviews: Share on X
Hi Elizabeth – responding to anything can cause a few headaches now-a-days … I remember your hassle about your missing chapter. What I don’t understand is why people don’t think … before they blame – still it’s life and we need to adjust.
I’m just wary and avoid reacting if I don’t need to … yes the art of patience, while remaining silence … not easy – but oh so necessary … cheers Hilary
Hilary–Oh yes, it was a hassle! And my editor had long-retired at that publisher, so I didn’t even have a contact. I just called the switchboard. Argh!
Very necessary, and very tough. Patience is my New Year’s resolution this year and I have it popping up on my calendar all the time. I struggle every day with it.
I have emailed one or two bloggers who wrote positive reviews, but I would never reply somewhere like Amazon.
Years ago, I got a very interesting book through Amazon’s Vine program about the British point of view of American history. I thought it was fascinating- until I saw that the author was arguing with every reviewer, including those who left her four stars. Big turnoff- enough that I couldn’t finish the book after, much less review it myself.
Deb–I think a private email to bloggers is nice, actually. They do tend to direct reviews to writers…at least, they frequently will ping me on social media to let me know of the review, so I feel they’re looking for a reaction from me.
Your example was definitely author intrusion! And they cut off their nose to spite their face at the same time.
I’ve thanked people for blog reviews, but that’s it. Most of the bad ones of my books amuse me, so I just chuckle and move on.
Alex–It’s good to keep our sense of humor!
Eh, I read all my reviews at Amazon, Goodreads, etc. I thank people who mention my book on social media when they’ve tagged me or it shows up in my feed. Responding directly to a review, though? Nope nope nope. When it’s negative, I’ll rail here at home, eat some ice cream, and then get on with my life. I try to remember that the positive reviews far outweigh the negative ones. Not always easy to do, but it helps.
B.E.–Good point and that was something that the Washington Post article advised the doctors…a Jeffrey Segal was quoted as saying: “For doctors who get bent out of shape to get rid of negative reviews, it’s a denominator problem,” he said. “If they only have three reviews and two are negative, the denominator is the problem. …If you can figure out a way to cultivate reviews from hundreds of patients rather than a few patients, the problem is solved.”
Or, really, even just a higher number of positive reviews than negative.
I’m with you–ice cream and remembering the good ones outnumber the bad. The more ice cream, heaving on the caramel topping. Then the rest of the topping straight out of the jar…
What a mess, Elizabeth, having two Chapter Sixteens and no Chapter Seventeen! No wonder you responded. I think you did the right thing in that one case; but, in the main, I agree with you. Responding to reviews is asking for trouble, no matter what the review was like, especially if you respond directly on, say, Amazon or Goodreads. I think there are better ways to more indirectly thank readers for their support.
Margot–Very good point. The worst is responding on a retail site where potential readers are considering purchasing our book!
Saying anything can open you up to all sorts of problems. You could wind up as one of those “Authors Behaving Badly.”
Diane–Oh, that would be awful! I’ve read those…ugh.
From a reviewer’s point of view, one of the things I hate most is a reviewer who focuses on commenting about the writer and not the writing. Common sense should come into play when a person is writing or even reading a review. If you receive an ARC of a book, not complain in your review that a word was misspelled. I can understand a writer not responding to a review (good or bad). When I review a book, I don’t expect to hear from the writer. I’m trying to let readers know what I liked about the book….the writer already likes it or they won’t have written it. :)
Mason–I think the pro reviewers–people like yourself, serious bloggers, they usually handle things really well. The problems mainly arise from reader reviews. Thanks for helping us understand this from a reviewer’s perspective…that you don’t expect to hear from the writer. Useful to know!
Am I itching to respond to reviews? Who, me? *wink*
As a historical mystery author, I continually encounter readers who have a garbled view of the historical time period I’m writing about – a period of time I have carefully researched. Certainly I’m not the last word on the subject, but some readers have confused the social mores of my Progressive Era American setting with the British Victorian (30 years earlier) prudery stereotypes they think are gospel (and those stereotypes are actually quite caricature-ish). I had one reviewer blast my latest book for my use of the phrase “I’m going to stretch my legs,” saying a lady would NEVER refer to “legs” but rather “limbs.”
Not true. That prudery might have been evident in 1860s Britain, but it wasn’t even widespread there. I always check my terms against the 19th century U.S. newspaper archive (Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, a fab resource). Plenty of “leg stretching” going on there. But what can one do?
I’ve also had my time period confused with Jane Austen’s regency period. Just because it’s the 1800s…weren’t these folks paying attention in history class? Sigh.
Thanks for letting me vent, Elizabeth! ;)
Kathy–Infuriating! That’s got to just kill you, knowing all the hours of research that you put in, and being flagged for being wrong.
I’ve also heard authors complain about Brits who label their American spellings as misspellings.
It’s just very hard sometimes not to respond to these things. But we look great by taking the high road!
I do read reviews for my books, but I’ve never commented on them. From what I’ve read of others’ experiences, keeping mum is the best policy, though I can understand how that would be extremely frustrating at times.
Lori–Frustrating but ultimately likely best for our book sales. Thanks for coming by and weighing in!
When reading reviews for a book I am contemplating buying, I really hate it when reviewers give bad reviews for slow delivery or dinged books. Really? How did that author have control of that? I do not frequent Goodreads since the reviews there seem to major on petty and snarky for the sake of being cruel or funny. Of course my books are dying on the vine so I might have to reconsider Goodreads … or my writing career! :-)
Roland–Goodreads is, for me, an unsettling place for writers to hang out. But I do think it’s useful to have a presence there…to set up our books there and our profiles. Other than that…I’m with you! I don’t visit there often.
Like you, I do have a small presence there (a profile & list of my books). But the Snark is king there … or queen. :-) And since Amazon purchased it, I have even more reservations about it.
OH my, the kerfuffle with the doctors is pretty bad! But then, doctors have a bigger God-complex than authors do. :-D
I have a policy of never responding to reviews, either. One time I grabbed a book for free, read it, and discovered that it was this creepy soft core porn. Not even honest erotica. I left it three stars and a warning to other readers. And the author emailed me personally, all teeth and claws, “thanking” me for the “review”. It scared me so bad that I’ve avoided this author ever since. I don’t want to do that to some poor reader who didn’t care for something I wrote.
Kessie–I was reading the doctor story and thinking, “Whew! They need to learn how to button it, like writers!”
That’s a really scary experience you went through. I did read, some years ago, about a writer who started stalking some reviewer–acting really bizarre and threatening. Very troubling.
I’m way too sensitive and easily angered, so it would be best not to respond my own bad reviews. However, I’m always chiming in for someone else. Who do people think they are?? Nobody, that’s who. 😡 I’mmmm getting angry thinking about those naysayers.
T
Teresa–I was a lot more sensitive at the start of all this. Now I think I’ve been battered so many times that it’s somehow made me very thick-skinned. The only ones that really tend to irritate me are the ones that have nothing to do with the book…or when readers think one-star is the highest rating and not the lowest! (I’ve seen this happen a few times, with glowing reviews and a one-star). You’re a good friend to get mad over bad/unfair reviews for others!
I can only think of one review response I’ve ever seen that made me think more of the author and not less – but all I remember now is that it was a romance author who wrote in a subgenre that I don’t read, anyway. Unless you can be reallllly self-deprecating and funny about it, it’s just a terrible idea to say anything.
There was one time I bought a book because the author was sharing her one-star reviews on her Twitter – no comments or defenses attached, just sharing quotes from the reviews – and it was so funny that I looked up the book, bought it and loved it. (It was “Shades of Milk and Honey” by Mary Robinette Kowal.)
Megan–That’s too funny about the one-star reviews on Twitter! So she shared them without comment…just putting them out there. Ha! That probably worked so well on Twitter because the site is so bogged down with people pushing their books and 5-star reviews. Now I’m curious about Mary, too…I’ll look her book up. :)
I have wanted to respond to a bad review when my new book got it’s first review it was one star, and by an indie author no less. She said, “The plot was all over the place. The characters were flat and were childish – even the adult characters. The writing was juvenile – full of grammar and spelling mistakes.” when I had it edited by several people. I didn’t respond to it though cause in all honesty not everyone is going to like your book, and at some point I just laughed it off. People will be people and it doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t like it since there will be people who do like it. I even let it get me down to the point where I didn’t write a lot because of it. I moved on because this person doesn’t deserve my time, and the reviews aren’t for me.
Jessica–I’m so glad to hear you kept writing. You were very perceptive to know that we’re not the intended recipients of most reviews.
When I was strictly trad-pub, there were writers on those email loops that said they *never* read their reviews. That’s because they were under deadline and contract and knew it would mess them up. I don’t think we have to read them, especially if we know we’re susceptible.
Sometimes I’ll read glowing reviews and then reviews that really slam me. It’s sometimes hard to believe they refer to the same book. It’s taught me never to believe either my good press or my bad press. :)
Responding to bad reviews is definitely not a good idea. I know of a teacher who caused a ton of grief to come back at him/her because he/she responded to online reviews
Jemi–I’m wondering if there’s a profession out there that isn’t soon going to be impacted by reviews. I know teaching has the infamous “Rate My Professor/Teacher” reviews. Always good to just stay silent, regardless of what’s being said!
I am a writer and a voracious reader. I don’t review every book I read but I do write a fair number, posting them on my blogs, Goodreads and Amazon. My reviews focus on the book, not the author. After all, a reader is going to buy the book, not the author. Lol! Over the years I have received several ARCs from authors whom I have online relationships with. When I review an ARC I focus on the story, not spelling or grammar or plot errors because I know that what I am reading is in a sense a draft, not the final published product. My review of an ARC I make public, my analysis of the ARC is for the author’s eyes only.
I don’t write negative reviews. I want my reviews make people want to read a book. If I have a “problem” with a book, I will email the author… I won’t “roast” them in public (well, there was that one time… oops!) I know how hard writing can be. We make mistakes, we’re not perfect. I am certainly not going to help an author by crucifying them.
My take on authors responding to reviews?
DON’T DO IT!
Veronica–You’re the kind of reviewer that writers dream about. :) No negative reviews! I love that you email an author directly on books with issues since I for one *really appreciate* knowing what I should change in my book. And, fortunately, digital publishing being what it is, we can make changes to published text now.
Keeping mum is just the best policy.
Hi Elizabeth–agree totally, don’t ever respond to reviews. My greatest temptation came recently when the only two one-star reviews came in back to back for my first book, which has been out for three years. Neither was a verified purchase, and one of the reviewers hadn’t reviewed anything else–product, book, movie–nothing. It was weird. I was tempted to bring it to Amazon’s attention, then decided it was probably a waste of time and energy.
Meg–Well, dealing with Amazon is stressful, in general. :) Yes, that’s weird, though. No links in the reviews, no spam?
Consider the every day reader who posts a review and is attacked by another reviewer? It happens more than you think. We are writers! So don’t respond to negetive “reviewers”, but when a reviewer attacks our readers’ reviews we need to as a group “bury” the negetive reviewer’s too simple, “unprofessional” reviews with upbuilding comments on our reader’s review. Why would a reader ever post their opinion again? We are the gaurdians of reading, readers, and freedom to express a 3 word review: I loved it or I hate it. It doesn’t matter. There is a reason it was said: “the pen is mightier than the sword”. We are strong alone, but we are an incredible force together. Entertain. Protect. Teach. There is no structure that lasts longer than a book.
Gwyn–A very thoughtful perspective. Thank you.