What constitutes an unfair book review?

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Re: What constitutes an unfair book review?

Post by khudecek »

I agree, Bookowlie!
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
.

~~
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
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Post by CzechTigg »

khudecek wrote:
MarisaRose wrote: I disagree that an unfair review stems from grammatical errors as well as the original posters opinion that unfair review come from the reviewers dislike of the authors writing style. For me, if a book is full of grammatical errors and misspellings it takes away significantly from the potential of the book. If there are that many errors in the book, it should not be at the review stage, it should still be at the edit phase. What may be a great book can be completely ruined by all these errors as the flow of the narrative is constantly interrupted by seeing this errors.
How do you stop this? In this day and age of self-publishing, many authors do not use an editor when they should. When I see grammatical errors, I do hold it against the book. If you don't know the difference between "except" and "accept" and a plethora of other words that are mixed up, you need to:

A) Send it to an editor. Every author should do this anyway. You can't do a good job of editing your own work.
B). Brush up on your knowledge before even starting to write
C). Find a new hobby

I'm sorry but I've read so many books that would have been great but bad grammar destroyed the whole thing. I understand that a good editor is expensive and chances are pretty good that you won't make your money back. But, I would rather produce something that has good grammar and not have that be a risk factor in getting a bad review.
Well said (and sorry for being so quiet on here for goodness knows how long).
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Post by bookowlie »

khudecek wrote:
MarisaRose wrote: I disagree that an unfair review stems from grammatical errors as well as the original posters opinion that unfair review come from the reviewers dislike of the authors writing style. For me, if a book is full of grammatical errors and misspellings it takes away significantly from the potential of the book. If there are that many errors in the book, it should not be at the review stage, it should still be at the edit phase. What may be a great book can be completely ruined by all these errors as the flow of the narrative is constantly interrupted by seeing this errors.
How do you stop this? In this day and age of self-publishing, many authors do not use an editor when they should. When I see grammatical errors, I do hold it against the book. If you don't know the difference between "except" and "accept" and a plethora of other words that are mixed up, you need to:

A) Send it to an editor. Every author should do this anyway. You can't do a good job of editing your own work.
B). Brush up on your knowledge before even starting to write
C). Find a new hobby

I'm sorry but I've read so many books that would have been great but bad grammar destroyed the whole thing. I understand that a good editor is expensive and chances are pretty good that you won't make your money back. But, I would rather produce something that has good grammar and not have that be a risk factor in getting a bad review.
So true. I am amazed at the number of self-published books that use the wrong to/too, except/accept, and other similar errors.
"The best way out is always through" - Robert Frost
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Post by Mary WhiteFace »

Fran wrote: 04 Aug 2015, 15:44
@GandalfTheFey
How did we possibly overlook the biggest, blackest, most heinous sin of all - a reviewer who doesn't agree with us. I'd put them in the stocks & force them to read the book repeatedly until they repent of their sin. :hand:
:violence-blades: :reading-7: :text-lol:
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Post by khudecek »

Tiny_Turtle wrote: 14 Sep 2018, 10:51
Fran wrote: 04 Aug 2015, 15:44
@GandalfTheFey
How did we possibly overlook the biggest, blackest, most heinous sin of all - a reviewer who doesn't agree with us. I'd put them in the stocks & force them to read the book repeatedly until they repent of their sin. :hand:
:violence-blades: :reading-7: :text-lol:
Not to be stupid, but what do you mean? Agree with who on what? :eusa-think:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
.

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Post by Mary WhiteFace »

khudecek wrote: 14 Sep 2018, 13:10
Tiny_Turtle wrote: 14 Sep 2018, 10:51
Fran wrote: 04 Aug 2015, 15:44
@GandalfTheFey
How did we possibly overlook the biggest, blackest, most heinous sin of all - a reviewer who doesn't agree with us. I'd put them in the stocks & force them to read the book repeatedly until they repent of their sin. hand:
:violence-blades: :reading-7: :text-lol:
Not to be stupid, but what do you mean? Agree with who on what? :eusa-think:
I'm sorry it wasn't clear. What Fran said made me laugh, so I quoted the part that I found humorous and posted the emojis that I thought most closely represented a soldier standing and forcing "them to read the book repeatedly until they repent of their sin." Then, a laughing emoji at the end.
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Post by KCWolf »

LivreAmour217 wrote: 04 Aug 2015, 14:25 In my opinion, the most unfair thing that a reader can do is not finish a book and still write a review about it. If you don't finish the story, you don't have all of the necessary information to write a fair review. Sometimes a book has a dull start and picks up further in.

I also think that it's unfair to review a book from a genre that you don't enjoy. In this case, you're biased from the beginning and less likely to write an objective review.
I absolutely agree with this. We have the option, after all, of not finishing and not reviewing a book that's not our cup of tea. Just pass on it, and move on to a book you actually enjoy reading.

For instance, I could never read a book about football. I would be bored, and automatically annoyed and my review and rating would only reflect that. I also know very little about football, so I wouldn't even be able to tell you if any of the information in the book is accurate.
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Post by KCWolf »

bookowlie wrote: 22 Nov 2016, 13:45
khudecek wrote:
MarisaRose wrote: I disagree that an unfair review stems from grammatical errors as well as the original posters opinion that unfair review come from the reviewers dislike of the authors writing style. For me, if a book is full of grammatical errors and misspellings it takes away significantly from the potential of the book. If there are that many errors in the book, it should not be at the review stage, it should still be at the edit phase. What may be a great book can be completely ruined by all these errors as the flow of the narrative is constantly interrupted by seeing this errors.
How do you stop this? In this day and age of self-publishing, many authors do not use an editor when they should. When I see grammatical errors, I do hold it against the book. If you don't know the difference between "except" and "accept" and a plethora of other words that are mixed up, you need to:

A) Send it to an editor. Every author should do this anyway. You can't do a good job of editing your own work.
B). Brush up on your knowledge before even starting to write
C). Find a new hobby

I'm sorry but I've read so many books that would have been great but bad grammar destroyed the whole thing. I understand that a good editor is expensive and chances are pretty good that you won't make your money back. But, I would rather produce something that has good grammar and not have that be a risk factor in getting a bad review.
So true. I am amazed at the number of self-published books that use the wrong to/too, except/accept, and other similar errors.
In this day and age, even traditional publishing houses have cut corners when it comes to editing. Sad but true. For instance a few years ago, my boss loaned me a book that was absolutely riddled with errors and it was published by a large publishing house. The author himself is deceased, so it was all up to the publishing firm to clean it up and they missed a lot of typos and spelling errors, and got character's names mixed up.
I have a paperback of one of my favorite authors where the same page appears 3 times. A total printing mishap, I'm guessing. But, it also occurs in the audible edition. For Pete's sake, how does that happen? :doh: Sometimes in TP books, I get a word that is repeated 3 times.

Although someone I know of who is an editor and publisher who often calls out self-publishing authors on their errors has often said: "All books have typos, it's just the nature of the beast." I think that's true. But, in my opinion, if you're coming across more than a few, or one really huge one that is so bad it makes you give up on a book than there's definitely an issue of not enough editing.

I know personally, some self-pub authors who spend a lot of money on editing, book covers art, etc. And, those are the ones who are the most successful. They're also the ones whose books you don't realize are self-published unless someone tells you, or you've researched it and found it to be so.

Sadly, there's a flip side to all of that. Self-publishers should be aware of charlatan editors who charge up to 2,000 dollars for editing services and then produce 10 dollar work, probably by just running it through spellcheck or something. There's always someone out there who wants to rip off the little guy.

The take away here is to do your research and always get a sample edit first. Also, get recommendations from other people. :techie-reference: :tiphat:
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Post by khudecek »

Although someone I know of who is an editor and publisher who often calls out self-publishing authors on their errors has often said: "All books have typos, it's just the nature of the beast." I think that's true. But, in my opinion, if you're coming across more than a few, or one really huge one that is so bad it makes you give up on a book than there's definitely an issue of not enough editing.

I know personally, some self-pub authors who spend a lot of money on editing, book covers art, etc. And, those are the ones who are the most successful. They're also the ones whose books you don't realize are self-published unless someone tells you, or you've researched it and found it to be so.

Sadly, there's a flip side to all of that. Self-publishers should be aware of charlatan editors who charge up to 2,000 dollars for editing services and then produce 10 dollar work, probably by just running it through spellcheck or something. There's always someone out there who wants to rip off the little guy.

The take away here is to do your research and always get a sample edit first. Also, get recommendations from other people. :techie-reference: :tiphat:
[/quote]

That's great advice.

I've been fortunate enough to land two book deals in the past few years with indie publishers. The first book came out okay, I hope. Honestly, I haven't read it since it was published in 2015. I didn't get any remarks about needing to go back to the editor in reviews, so I guess it was okay. My second book is still in editing and I'm waiting to get it back.

I don't know how hard it is to find a good editor. Like you said, you could pay an exorbitant amount of money to get it edited and have it end up being ten dollar work. I read ARCs for a few authors (Advance Reader Copy). The one author writes some great stories, but when I review them, she's already got them published. At that point, she's looking for stars and words. I give her both. As I mentioned, her stories are great, but there are always editing problems. Not serious ones, but enough to drop a star.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
.

~~
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
Latest Review: "See Bride Run!" by Charlotte Hughes
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Post by joellas »

moderntimes wrote: 03 Aug 2015, 21:06 I've read the occasional book review here and elsewhere that I regard as unfair. Generally these unfair reviews are such due to these items:

1. The reviewer doesn't like the type of book that's being reviewed. For example, if the reviewer prefers "cozy" mysteries (the Agatha Christie type) and is reviewing a more violent or hard-boiled story, the book will be downgraded simply because this isn't the reviewer's cup of tea.

2. The reviewer downgrades the book due to typographical or other mechanical errors. These are principally the fault of the publisher and the editing staff, not the author. Of course, the author gets final review of the galley proofs prior to the book going to press, but mechanical errors should generally be outside of the review's scope.

3. The reviewer doesn't like the author's style. Now this is more subjective but if the reviewer prefers, say, a more abbreviated and zippy narrative and the book has longer sentences and more complex passages, and downgrades it accordingly. Understand that the narrative may be fine from a quality standpoint, it's just not what the reviewer prefers.

All these are unfair, as I see it. The reviewer should rate the book on the skill of the author and how the author portrays characters or situations, how scenes are accurately and vividly described, how the book has rhythm and balance, whether the characters are believable, and of course, for a "factual" novel (like a modern spy thriller) whether there are "gun goofs" or other mistakes that show that the author hadn't done his/her homework on details.

In other words, the quality of the book, its impact on the reader, how the themes are worked throughout the book, if the events are realistic and not contrived, whether conversations sound realistic, all these things contribute to the overall rating of a book, and the reviewer must distance personal likes and dislikes totally and approach the book from a very objective stance. Now, yes, of course the reviewer must comment upon how the novel impacted the reader, but still, that impact must be viewed from an unbiased angle. Personal likes or dislikes about a certain style cannot enter into judgment about the book's overall rating.

How say you? Do you agree? Do you have other complaints about how a book might be unfairly reviewed?
I agree with some but not all the points above a badly edited book with too many typographical errors will always give the reader pause and does not really reflect well on the author. Also reviewing is a subjective and personal thing going it is an opinion I believe it is not possible to review a book without your opinion showing through. Personally I can't review books on genres I dislike I wouldn't even know how to rate such books
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Post by dianaterrado »

I very much agree with your first point. Why read a YA if you'll expect the characters to act all mature and worldly with their sh*t together? I'm using this an example because I've seen a lot of reviews go this way.
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Post by Joe Hadithi »

Like in writing, the reviewer (I think) should always separate himself from his work. That would allow for a non-biased review but unfortunately, we cannot all manage to do that.
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Post by Florence Nalianya »

It's kind of hard to tell cause sometimes you do your best to do a review that you feel is your whole but still be ranked lowly meaning it isn't good. It all depends on the moderator.
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Post by Florence Nalianya »

this query should be answered by editors cause sometimes you give you review the best but it is brought down by grammatical errors rather than the weight of the story you put in.
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Post by Juliet+1 »

moderntimes wrote: 03 Aug 2015, 21:06 I've read the occasional book review here and elsewhere that I regard as unfair. Generally these unfair reviews are such due to these items:

1. The reviewer doesn't like the type of book that's being reviewed. For example, if the reviewer prefers "cozy" mysteries (the Agatha Christie type) and is reviewing a more violent or hard-boiled story, the book will be downgraded simply because this isn't the reviewer's cup of tea.

2. The reviewer downgrades the book due to typographical or other mechanical errors. These are principally the fault of the publisher and the editing staff, not the author. Of course, the author gets final review of the galley proofs prior to the book going to press, but mechanical errors should generally be outside of the review's scope.

3. The reviewer doesn't like the author's style. Now this is more subjective but if the reviewer prefers, say, a more abbreviated and zippy narrative and the book has longer sentences and more complex passages, and downgrades it accordingly. Understand that the narrative may be fine from a quality standpoint, it's just not what the reviewer prefers.

All these are unfair, as I see it. The reviewer should rate the book on the skill of the author and how the author portrays characters or situations, how scenes are accurately and vividly described, how the book has rhythm and balance, whether the characters are believable, and of course, for a "factual" novel (like a modern spy thriller) whether there are "gun goofs" or other mistakes that show that the author hadn't done his/her homework on details.

In other words, the quality of the book, its impact on the reader, how the themes are worked throughout the book, if the events are realistic and not contrived, whether conversations sound realistic, all these things contribute to the overall rating of a book, and the reviewer must distance personal likes and dislikes totally and approach the book from a very objective stance. Now, yes, of course the reviewer must comment upon how the novel impacted the reader, but still, that impact must be viewed from an unbiased angle. Personal likes or dislikes about a certain style cannot enter into judgment about the book's overall rating.

How say you? Do you agree? Do you have other complaints about how a book might be unfairly reviewed?
I'd like to add a fourth category. With nonfiction, the reviewer may downgrade their rating of a book simply because they disagree with the content of the book. As an example, a book titled "Debt Cleanse" was given only one or two stars on Amazon by a number of reviewers for the stated reason that they disagreed with the author. They felt he should not be encouraging people to avoid paying what they owe no matter what the circumstances. In essence, they were saying that he never should have written the book. Definitely unfair.
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