When I was a newbie writer, I had no idea I wasn’t supposed to respond to reviews. And I did a couple of times until I was told it was a no-no. I look back at that time now, and I’m kind of embarrassed. But one of the reasons I thought it was okay is that I work in a retail/wholesale business, and we are told we ARE supposed to respond to reviews. We are supposed to try to make the customer happy in any way we can. And I’ve noticed on Amazon, for physical products, many vendors do respond to reviews.
So why aren’t authors supposed to? Honestly, I don’t have a good answer for that. I have some ideas, but I’m not sure I’m right. What I’m thinking is that books are so subjective that we can’t really respond to an unhappy reader and make things better. Either they liked it or they didn’t. But what about books that are badly edited? Should authors say anything about that or just hang their head in shame and try to fix the problem without responding? Should an author thank the reader for pointing that out and say they will do their best to correct the situation?
What even started me thinking about all this is an email I got from a company who helps businesses get reviews. It was a link to their blog post that talks about how you should never (on your own site…you can’t fix Amazon) take down negative reviews because it seems untrustworthy to do that. Which I have to agree with. They talked about how you should always respond in some way that assures the customer you’ll do everything in your power to correct the problem. So why can’t authors do that? Why are we limited when other retailers are encouraged to do it? Just something to think about.
What do y’all think?
If you were to answer reviews, would you answer every single one? Or would you only address the positive ones? If you address the negative ones, are you going to claim that the reviewer is right, even when the reviewer isn’t? If someone responds to your comment, do you answer that, too?
I had an author respond to one of my reviews, and even though I had left 5-stars, I got self-conscious about it. I felt like the author was watching me. Other people may love this technique and feel connected with the author. I can see how that would occur. It depends on the reviewer’s personality.
I don’t think an author can win by replying to a negative review. Then there was a time when I left a 2-star review on a book because the book didn’t fulfill the promise made in the description. The next thing I know, there are a ton of comments under my review telling me how stupid I was for not liking it. For all I know, this could have been the author under different aliases because that was before Amazon cracked down on that practice. But I ended up taking my review down because I didn’t want to deal with the negativity. I suppose the author “won”, but I never picked up another book by that person again, and I had been willing to give the author another chance because I did like her writing style.
When you’re working for a retailer chain, it’s a lot easier to be objective in your response to the customer because you’re only helping to sell a product you invested a piece of your heart into. I find it much harder to be objective about one of my stories because the story is personally connected to me. However, I could easily handle all kinds of comments when someone didn’t like a computer that I was representing in the past.
I guess if an author really can keep a cool head, then it’s doable, but they have to walk a thin line. It’s a delicate situation.
I was thinking of what you said about the whole editing thing. If the book was, in fact, poorly edited, I can see an author leaving a comment and saying they took care of the issue. (Though in my experience, the reviewer isn’t always right on that one. Some people reading books don’t know the actual rules for writing.)
However, I did think of other issues that might pop up. If a book is poorly formatted or has missing parts, then I think that’s something an author wants to know. In that case, a huge thank you to the person who caught it would be great. (I always hope someone will email me directly, though, instead of leave a review that I might or might not catch.)
You really have some good points here! We are more sensitive about our books, and it’s so much more subjective than a widget of some kind that we’re selling..
The editing thing is kind of tricky. There are so many times I want to actually email an author and tell them. There’s one who is actually a friend, and she could totally get me to edit her books, but she chooses not to. And I’m finding all kinds of little things (not big stuff) that show a need for a proofreader. But I don’t feel comfortable doing that. But you say you would want someone to email you? Maybe I should do that for this author. Of course, I wouldn’t say anything about bad editing in a review. I just wouldn’t review the book if it was really bad.
And since this is my blog, and I can rant, that brings me to another thing. When you see bad editing, is it a bad editor or the author refusing to make the changes suggested? Or missing the changes? One thing that terrifies me is if an author lists me as an editor then doesn’t make the changes (I don’t mean optional things, I mean real errors). It makes me look bad. On the other hand, a bad editor can make the author look bad. When a reader leaves a bad review because of editing, they don’t know if it’s the author or the editor. So, really, they should email the author instead of leaving a bad review. If it’s something that can be fixed, give them a chance to fix it.
Did I get off subject a little? Not surprising if I did. LOL
The editing issue is tricky. Yes, I would definitely prefer someone to contact me directly because then I’ll be spared the “needs editing” review, which might or might not be correct. I want to know exactly what the complaints are to judge whether or not there’s any validity in it. Sometimes the person is wrong. Sometimes they’re right. But it’s all in the way the message is delivered that makes all the difference.
For example, I’ve had people send me a message and give me a list of errors and conclude with “I’m a professional editor and would be willing to offer you my services” announcement at the end. That method turns me off because I feel like I’m being criticized. There’s nothing positive spoken about my books. It’s just, “This is wrong, this is wrong, and this is wrong.”
However, I have received some messages in the past where the person offers considerable praise for what is right with the book, and then they point out a couple of errors they found. They usually end it with how much they enjoy my work and how they’ve read other books and have enjoyed those as well. The more examples they offer of what I’ve done right, the more receptive I am to listening to what they have to say. I have taken on these people as beta readers. But these people aren’t professional editors. They’re just people reading books.
I think if someone who is a professional editor takes the time to use the approach the readers did (by going into detail over what is right with the book), then that would work to their advantage. It might not guarantee them a job, but I think it would give them a better chance of getting one. Also, if that particular author can’t use the editor, the author might pass on the editor’s information to another author they know because the author knows the editor is a nice person. The way people treat others is especially important because the book is the author’s baby.
Speaking of crediting the editor with the job, I leave that stuff out when I publish a book for that reason. I take 90% of the stuff anyone gives me, but I don’t use everything. If it turns out my judgement is wrong, I don’t want it to poorly reflect on an editor/proofreader. At the end of the day, it’s my book, and I have to stand behind it. I can’t recall ever seeing a traditionally published book mentioning who edited it. So I think it’s unnecessary. Like you said, though, if the editor did do a good job but the author didn’t take it, crediting the editor will make the editor look back. And on the flip side, if the editor was lousy and the author took the editor’s advice, then that can make the author look bad. I think the best thing to do is leave the editor spot blank. If an author has a good editor, it’s better to mention them to other authors who are looking for one.
I really enjoyed this post. It gave me a lot of food for thought.
I’ve never responded to reviews, positive or negative on Amazon or other like sites. If a reviewer takes the time to post a review of my book on their blog, I will, however, thank them on their site.
I do agree its bad practice to respond to reviews on public forums like Amazon, no matter how tempting. And for the most part, I think readers/reviewers know that an author isn’t going to respond. Other readers may comment on the review, but as an author, I steer clear of that! 🙂
I definitely learned my lesson about responding to reviews. No one told me when I was new that I wasn’t supposed to. I thought you would do it the same way you would do a physical product. I don’t know why those are different except that it’s subjective. Honestly, sometimes it’s good to not even READ the reviews. Not everyone is going to like an author’s work. And I’ve learned to grow a thick skin and even to find humor in some of the reviews. I did get really angry at one reviewer, though, when she said my book had “filthy talk”, which was a blatant lie unless she was reviewing the wrong book. I had a couple of people jump to my defense, saying she must be reviewing the wrong book. So, as upset as I was, I still didn’t respond, and others took care of it for me. Oh, but it was so tempting!
I hear you! I only ever had one review that really ticked me off, because, as in your case, the comment the reviewer made was false. I vented to a lot of people about it, but still didn’t comment back–and I was tempted! It’s great you had others jump to your defense!