Response to Reviews by Authors

Wouldn't it be nice (and courteous) if authors and/or publishers responded to reviews?

There is no way for anybody to respond to a review publicly. At best an author who wanted to could respond to a review in Profile messages, but it would not be public.

There have been several discussions about responding to reviews, but most people in the topics have not been in favour.

>1 acorn333: That can get ugly very fast. See GoodReads.

I've only had authors reach out twice regarding my reviews--one positive experience (had a question about something I had mentioned parenthetically); one not so much (just couldn't understand why I didn't rave about the book, which was very mediocre). Since nobody enjoys long, heated discussion strings (at least I don't), it's probably best for authors to ponder reviews privately.

Assuming the response would always be mature, humble, and charitable, then yes, it could be nice; however, that's definitely not always the case. If an author does choose to read reviews, it really comes across as a lot more professional to stay quiet. (Consider that most famous authors, the true professionals, never respond to reviews, if they even read them to begin with.) Anyway, book-reviewing is really for readers, not authors. Reviewers who want to critique work for the author's benefit should offer to beta-read.

>1 acorn333: Actually, no.

There is something in the author community known as "The Author's Big Mistake." This almost always stems from responding to a review. And it always looks bad on the author in question. See also Anne Rice and her responses to reviews on Amazon.

Reviews are for other readers.
They are not for authors.

Some authors can read reviews and see where they might be able to improve on their next book.
MOST authors can not.

The only reason I can see a publisher responding is to thank a 5 star review and demand a review of a four star and below review. Which doesn't really help anyone.

ETA: I almost forgot, there's even a tag here related to all the author meltdowns over reviews:
https://www.librarything.com/tag/authors-behaving-badly

I am not a fan of the idea of having people responding to reviews, at least not near the reviews. (I am in favor of making it easier to cite a review in Talk, where discussion can occur.)

Overall, I think good sense, good PR and good practice is that authors should avoid all unrequested contact. They should NEVER respond to reviews, never complain about them, etc. Readers hate this kind of interaction—they feel monitored, they feel on trial, or the self-censor. This happens some other places. It's just terrible.

Overall, I love authors on LibraryThing because authors are readers. But author-reader interaction is fraught with risks, and often goes south, and I'm glad LibraryThing doesn't try hard at it.

New member here(who happens to be an author). Not sure how any of this works, so I apologize for being ignorant. Is there any where I can ask for book reviews, or is that not the purpose of this site? Thanks!

Here is a page that explains how authors can use LibraryThing:
http://www.librarything.com/about/authors

>8 Kristoforh: BTW, giving your own books 5 stars is not a good look.

>10 MarthaJeanne: well, giving less than 5 stars would mean that he thinks he did a lousy job... (Actually I do give 5 stars to my books, but I explicitly state IN CAPITAL LETTERS that it is a self-review)

I certainly would not buy books by authors who rate their own books with 5 stars. Giving 5 stars means that they think their books are in the top bracket, among the very few books that are near perfect. Really?

>13 .mau.: They are the best that could have been done!

>11 .mau.:, It's not a choice between rating five stars or rating less than five stars. It's about not rating at all. I'd follow the lead of well-established, renowned authors; few rate their own books. It's a rookie move that puts a sour taste in the mouths of most readers. OBVIOUSLY, authors will rate their books five stars, so the only point in doing so is to artificially inflate the average rating, and that hurts the integrity of the whole rating system. Leaving the rating and reviewing to readers shows confidence in one's work and that one has better things to do--such as write!--than to constantly monitor ratings. Like MarthaJeanne, I avoid the work of authors who rate their own books.

I think it would be good for LT to not count authors' own ratings in the books ratings. But, fwiw, I don't think rating your own book five stars is a real problem. People don't necessarily understand that their personal data is going to affect the system, and, well, the statistical effect of rating your own book is going to be small.

This view, is, however, also colored by my deep belief that ratings are junk data overall. They are the least informative bit of book data, because the conditions of their creation are always weird and self-selected. See many previous discussions on the topic, pointing out how Marlowe is higher rated than Shakespeare, that series often get "better" (as the people who don't like them stop reading), etc. I know I'm an outlier here.

>14 Caroline77: Is it possible to review a book without giving stars? If so, I have no problem in removing them. What I am really interested in is explaining why I wrote the book.

>16 .mau.:

Note that an author's own reviews are marked as such. This was an objection once. I think it's fine for authors to review their own book—if it's so marked.

Reviews and ratings are completely separate.

Now I'm tempted to go through LT and rate everything I've written 3½ stars. That seems about right...

>16 .mau.: While reviewing without a rating (and vice versa) is possible, why would an author review their own book? Any time I see an author reviewing or rating their own books, I tend to steer clear from them - reviews are for people who read the books and not for authors telling what they meant or for authors generating publicity. But that might be just me.

>17 timspalding: I don't think I had ever seen a marked review so thanks for making sure author reviews are marked.

acorn333 (#1):

No. I don't need authors unhappy that I only gave their book four stars, or criticizing me for calling out homophobia, or whatever.

>20 AnnieMod: as I wrote above, my "reviews" of my books actually show the "behind the scene", something which cannot be found in the books' blurb.

>20 AnnieMod: Of course reviews are only marked if the authors are declared as LT authors.

Semi on the topic ... I recently got an email from an author whose book I reviewed, asking me to post the review on Amazon. (This was not a personal email, BTW, just something going out to all reviewers ... who had to sign up for his mailing list as part of the process to get the ebook downloaded. Already whined about that in another post, so that's not the topic.)

The topic is the Amazon review. I posted the same thing I posted on LT. Amazon kicked it as not meeting their community standards. The only thing I can figure out is that I mentioned that the author provided a copy for review, and Amazon says reviewers can't have received any payment for the reviews. That's my best guess, anyway.

(The book was the LTER Give My Regards to Nowhere, and the review is over here. If you see anything else in it that screams "violation of community standards", I'd love to know what it is!)

>24 LyndaInOregon:. I've gotten the same message from Amazon when reposting LT Early Reviewer reviews over there. Sometimes they let them through but usually not. I figure it has to be the disclaimer that I received the book in exchange for an honest review. But I don't think it's honest to leave it out. So I don't try to cross post anymore.

>24 LyndaInOregon: >25 tealadytoo:
Maybe it was "in exchange for" that triggered the block? One of my books has an ARC review still up on Amazon where the phrasing was simply "I received a copy of this book via the xxx programme".

I don't post reviews on Amazon myself. I never *rate* books on any site (for reasons covered above), and I don't want to run into author-as-reviewer problems. My disclaimer phrasing tends to be "I thank xxx for a free copy of this book (obtained via yyy programme). This is my honest review." No idea if that would work.

>20 AnnieMod: I do occasionally post a "review" of my own books, but only to flag up a limited-time price drop or free promotion. I've seen other authors use that space to chat about some aspect of their book. Though rating your own book feels off. I guess if you're on a site with an algorithm that suggests books based on your ratings, you might do that to find books similar to yours. Though that seems a stretch!

And to get back to the original question >1 acorn333:, I'd feel very uncomfortable if an author replied to a review I'd written. It would be different if I'd tagged them on social media and they replied there, but in that case I'd be signalling I was open to conversation.

I agree that author responses to reviews are generally a bad thing. Authors, understandably, can get very attached and protective about their work and lose their objectivity.

Several years back though, on another site, I read a very humorous, but highly snarky review of a particularly cliched Harlequin Romance. It was well done and very funny, and savaged the book. The author replied with an even more hilarious response in which she mock-defended some of her choices and suggested even more outrageous plot elements and titles. She definitely took the review as good fun and responded in kind.

>27 tealadytoo: Excellent, I hope I can be as graceful if and when people start trashing my book - in the April early review batch (eek).

I'm popping into this conversation a little late, to mention that, whatever one thinks of authors responding to reviews, when it comes to your contact information (i.e., your email or snail mail address), Early Reviewer policy explicitly states that authors and publishers can only use it to distribute books to you. Or, in some cases, to communicate with you about distributing books to you, where multiple formats are available.

You should not be receiving emails for other purposes, nor should you be automatically signed up to other services, mailing lists, or author newsletters. If this should occur, please reach out to me with the specifics, and I will contact the author or publisher, to clarify matters with them.

As members of the site, authors and publishers can reach out to you via LibraryThing messages, if you permit such messages, but it should not be to press for reviews. The ER program already sends bi-monthly reminders messages (as you all know) about reviews.

ETA: I also want to clarify that our policy requires winners to post their reviews on the LibraryThing site, in order to receive credit with the program. While you are very welcome to post your reviews on other bookish sites, it is not a requirement, and if it presented to you in that light by authors or publishers, again, please reach out to me with specifics, and I would be happy to look into it.

>24 LyndaInOregon: I have been in contact with this author, and I do believe that these issues have been clarified. I am sorry that you were required to join a mailing list in order to download the book in question. That is against our policies.

>6 gilroy: I just came across your reference to authore-behaving-badly. I checked the page and looked at several entries but was unable to see anything indicating author behavior, good or bad. How doi access the information regarded as bad author behavior.

>13 .mau.: I agree. In my rating system, a rating of 4.5 stars is high praise and ratings of five stars are rare.

>29 AbigailAdams26: in my case, it is the publisher who contacts me after I have reviewed one of their books won through the Early Review program. The reason for the contact is to ask if I would like to receive a review copy of another of their soon-to-be-released books. The request to post my review in some specified place usually accompanies the copy of the book awarded through the ER giveaway.

>31 Tatoosh: You need to search the author names through Google or Dog Pile.
It usually relates to how those authors reacted to bad reviews, either on GoodReads or elsewhere online.

>33 Tatoosh: In terms of requesting reviews elsewhere, that's fine. I tell authors and publishers that if they desire reviews on specific sites, other than LibraryThing, they are free to request them, when dispatching copies to their winners. As long as it isn't a separate communication, and is couched as a request, it's fine. I do reiterate to them that such non-LT reviews are not required by the program.

In terms of publishers reaching out to offer other books, I assume that this is long after the official giveaway? Such messages are against our policy, unless they are sent via LT message, as authors and publishers are explicitly told not to use members' private contact information for any other purpose than the distribution of the book. That said, if such communications are welcome to the member, they can respond as they see fit. If not, they can contact me, and I can clarify with the publisher or author.

>35 AbigailAdams26: Hi Abigail

I do not recall a publisher offering me a chance to review a book that was listed in the LT ER offerings. The books offered ore always in the same genre and in some instances by the same author as an ER book I reviewed previously. I often decline because some of the publishers require me to use their proprietary book reading app and so far all have been less full-featured than Libby and the Macintosh Books app.

>12 MarthaJeanne:
Author here and also an avid reader.
I give five stars to any book I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm not here to judge the quality of other people's books. If a book was a great read, it's five stars.
I find the rating system is very subjective.
I've had to talk myself into not being upset over three star reviews that seemed very positive. It's just a different way of rating.
If I was to rate my own books (which I don't), I certainly think I'd give them five stars because I enjoyed writing them and reading them (over, and over, and over again - editing is exhausting).
Your book is your baby. How can you not love it?

>37 Debbie.Iancu-Haddad: The point of star ratings is absolutely to judge the quality of other people's books. It's not an objective judgement, but it's still a judgement. What else would the point of star ratings be?

>38 norabelle414: but the judgement is relative, not only because different people have different tastes, but also because different people have different ways of rating. I tend to be generous: a three-star book for me is something I won't read anymore (a two-star book is one I finished by steer willpower), for someone else it could be a really good book. I think it's what >37 Debbie.Iancu-Haddad: meant.