Of course, I read it just now and I see well what you’re trying to say. And I agree.

Let me tell you what happened to a friend of mine recently–she got a blurb request. Normal stuff…yes. but the debut author sending her the request was someone who’d written unsavory blogs about two of her books.

Needless to say, the answer was no. If said debut author thinks this is ‘unprofessional’ then she need only get back to us in a year’s time when other aspiring writers are picking apart her *perfect* book.

The thing is: this business is hard enough without having to turn on each other. I read books I don’t like all the time. I just don’t go on the internet and publicly rip them to pieces–why? Not because I’m trying to be nice to everyone…but because I’m too busy doing positive things that will help my own career to take time out to insult a fellow author, her editors, and her publishing house.
Really–people are watching.

Too often aspiring writers want to analyze how published books are SO WRONG because their [unpublished] books are SO RIGHT. I dig that. I wrote many novels over 14 years before I ever got published. But behind all that self-centered writer stuff, I always remembered that this is a business. People talk, other people listen, and the cookie does eventually crumble.

Brave of you to write a blog about this, Robin.

Lady T, glad you liked that video! He definitely comes out ahead in that whole scenario.

Farida, that’s the downside of all this public access: we can hit send faster than we should sometimes. We need a delete key for life.

http://blog.sarahlaurence.com/2009/05/blog-ethics-and-mentoring.html

I want my blog to be a positive space so I only review books that I like, although I do report both their strengths and their weaknesses. As an aspiring writer myself, I hope that others will treat my work with the same respect and honesty.

You might be interested in my post Blog Ethics on just this subject and other moral issues in book blogging.

I’ve reviewed your book on my blog today.

Carli, I agree with you that sometimes a critical review shows you where you need to work harder with your writing. That’s certainly been true for me. And you’re also right that if criticism makes you want to quit, then maybe you should quit–because the more books you have out there, the more you’re going to hear about whether or not people like them.

But I like your method of critiquing friends’ work. There’s a kind way to do it and a harsh way. We’re all just humans. We all want the love. There’s a way to say, “Um, this isn’t so great here” without going into total meanness.

sometimes bad reviews are good, it makes you realize that you have to work harder and it helps you for your next book. but if you’re someone who lets bad reviews stop you from doing what you love, then maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place… not to be mean or anything

and i know what you mean about karma, i’m always harsh to myself, but when it comes to my friends then im just like, its really good but a certain part could use more work, and whenever i have them read my stories i tell them to be as mean as they want, they never are very mean