I happened to be reading an older post by one of my favorite reviewers/bloggers Jenre over at Well Read Reviews. She was commenting on how she feels when a writer doesn't respond to one of her reviews. She's a reviewer who sends the writer a little note when she does a review (a lot of reviewers don't do this, by the way).
It was fascinating reading this from the other side. I started to reply to her in the comment section (something bloggers like, by the way) and I said this:
Well, I wish I'd seen this post sooner because if I don't get pointed to a blog and a post and a review, I don't know about them until I do a periodic sweep for my weblord. But this is a fascinating post.
I come from a writing tradition where you don't acknowledge reviews. At most you send a curt little thanks! because it's all supposed to be very professional and hands off.
But here in the blogosphere that just seems weird and unfriendly. This is a different world. For one thing, reviews are much less...shall we say, standardized.
And then it occurred to me that this was actually a good topic for me to blog on, seeing that I do have a blog due today that I, er, forgot about.
So, where was I?
Oh. Here in Bloglandia, it's a bit looser and more casual. It's friendlier, but it's also the Gateway to Psychoville. Terrific smart, funny, insightful people have blogs and talk about books and writing -- and so do people who have been off their meds for way too long. Sometimes you can't always tell the difference. At first.
Initially I ignored all reviews because that's the way we did it back when I was a whippersnapper. But...these bloggers were so...friendly. So personable -- and personal -- that I started leaving little comments.
Hey, thanks for the review! Glad you enjoyed the book!
Sometimes bloggers responded, sometimes they didn't. Granted, I was often finding these reviews months, sometimes years later. I don't look for reviews of my work except in giant sweeps of a particular title and then I'm going through so fast, and reading so many, the occasional negatives are instantly dismissed in an Olive You're-Lucky-You're-an-Idiot! moment.
(Negative reviews are are always best ignored, anyway. What's the point of engaging in dialog with someone who doesn't like your work? You're not going to reason her or him out of it.)
It's a dilemma for a writer. If a reviewer contacts me and says, I just reviewed your INSERT LATEST TITLE HERE, I will usually send a quick thank you (without even looking at the thing) and file the email for when I do my quarterly sweep for website material. If I know the blogger -- if it's Jesse Wave or Jenre or Sarah or Book Utopia, I'll try to remember to leave a comment on the blog. I don't comment on the "professional" review sites. It just doesn't feel right. Mostly, unless invited, I don't comment on the personal book blogs either. These mini-reviews or thinking alouds aren't aimed at me, and I feel like it's going to make bloggers, reviewers uncomfortable if I suddenly intrude.
Granted, sometimes I'm in a chatty mood, and I'll pop in and say hi and thanks, but it's fairly rare.
I always respond to personal email. End of story. I try to respond to every comment on my blogs too, but sometimes it gets out of hand. Still, a review is a little different. Or is it? Jenre's thoughts on this were interesting to me.
Although it's certainly true that reviews are for readers, not writers, I do think -- given the sometimes heated tone of reviews -- reviewers hope to help influence writers, books, writing, publishing. They want to see more of the kind of things they like to read, and less of the kind of thing, they don't. That's reasonable.
So one of the questions for today is, suppose a reviewer contacts you with a link to a review that seems to totally miss the point? Or a negative review? I've occasionally had that happen. Someone will send a link, I'll read the review and think...hmmmm.
I've generally already thanked them by then, so it's kind of moot for me, but I often wonder why the reviewer would bring a lukewarm or negative review to a writer's attention. What is the reviewer's expectation with a negative review? Does the reviewer hope to open a dialog? Is the reviewer simply doing the professional courtesy of...here, you should know this. Is it an aggressive move? Let's face it, being able to read and run a blog is not proof of sanity. I'm case in point.
What do you think? Should writers respond to reviews? Should they comment on blogs that mention their books? Should reviewers alert writers that they've written reviews? What do they hope for from that interacton? Should bloggers alert writers to their negative reviews? And, if so, what do they hope for in the way of a writer response?
