What constitutes an unfair book review?

[moderntimes]

Agreed. This is the point I made about the sub-genre of the "cozy" and fairly sedate mystery vs the more action-packed mystery, and a reviewer who preferred one type and therefore downlisted the other type, even if that other type book was superbly written. An honest and fair review must judge the quality of the book's plot and genre based on comparing it with other top-ranked books of the same genre, regardless of whether the reviewer prefers that specific genre.

[khudecek]

I want to say just one thing here, since we're talking about genres.

There is a difference between romance and erotica, even if the lines are blurred these days. It isn't fair to review a romance and rate it as if it were erotica. They aren't the same and reviewers shouldn't treat them as if they are.

[moderntimes]

Interesting point. How would you divide the two, romance vs erotica? I realize that a more explicit romantic novel might contain some fairly graphic passages of lovemaking and such -- would that then mean that it's no longer romance? And by the "romance" genre I am guessing you're talking about the (ha ha) "bodice ripper" stories featuring a swashbuckling pirate or maybe a shy history professor? Just asking. And thanks.

[khudecek]

I would define erotica as something along the lines of The 50 Shades of Grey, complete with crass language and explicit scenes that leave nothing to the imagination. There's no love between the characters. It's the just the physical act of having sex and attaining gratification.

Romance, however, gives the reader the idea that something is going to happen. They just don't know when and when it finally does happen, the scene is depicted with a lot more finesse than just doing the "F" thing. There is no graphic descriptions of the male or female anatomy although there's usually some admiration by both characters.

I read both but there's nothing better than a good romance. I get tired of seeing how many different ways people can do it. I don't care about it, you know. I get tired of the graphic language involved with it. Sit me down with a romance any day of the week.

[Richard Falken]

A book is more than what the author does. The quality of the book is the result of the work of the author and the publishing team. I think it is fair to take points down if one of them are weak. If the illustrations or the glue used for holding the paper together are severily lacking, I think the unfair thing to do is not to tell. People reading the review will know that the problem with the glue is not the author's fault.

Like it or not, a book is a product and should be evaluated as a complete unit. A fair review is one that is not biased while doing so. A good review is a fair one which tells the readers about the details that impact the quality of the book as a product.

[moderntimes]

Thanks for the clarification, khud. In my mind, there can very definitely be an erotic and explicit story which is not trash. It's no longer necessary for the author to end a chapter with asterisks or the dots to indicate the couple are having sex. A rousing and talented depiction of sex is perfectly okay for adults to read. Some may have Victorian hangups but hey, that's in the past.

I do understand your point, however. A book that's just meant for sensationalism is another thing entirely, trash like this "50" which I of course will never read.

A little story, a true one... Back when I was a growing teen, some pals and I were sharing a trashy novel, each one of us borrowing it to read, certain pages dogeared where the "good stuff" was found. I don't of course remember the title but I lump all those cruddy paperbacks under the group title "Nurses for Sale" (which satisfies all the categories at one fell swoop).

Anyway, it was my turn to read Nurses for Sale and I was in my room at my desk. My Dad happened to walk past the open doorway and as soon as I spotted him, I shoved the book beneath my history book and pretended to be studying. Dad came into my room, smiling. "What are you reading?" "I'm doing my history." "No, you were reading something. May I see?" And so I regrettably pulled the tattered book out and handed it to Dad. And I knew that my Dad would be furious, rip the book to shreds, and that Jimmy Stafford, book owner, would then kill me.

My Dad thumbed thru the book, nodded, and handed it back to me, leaving without another word. "Now I'm done for!" I thought. I'll be shipped off to a military school.

A few minutes later, Dad came back, holding an old, large, hardbound book. "I'm sorry," he said. "It's my fault. I should have realized that you're old enough now. But please don't read garbage, okay? Here." And he handed me the book.

It was Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller.

Dad smiled. "Now this book does NOT leave your room and it does NOT go to school, okay?" He turned to go, said in leaving, "And don't tell your Mom."

That's erotica! Same for other classics like Naked Lunch. Erotica but not trash.

---

Richard, you can't downgrade a book if the binding is faulty. Most books today are what's known as "trade paperback" which is the larger 9x12 size with color cover and glued binding. They are normally made via the copyright process named "Perfect Binding" and it usually is just fine. But occasionally there will be a faulty book come off the assembly line and that single copy is unique. Just because the one book you happen to be sent by your editor for review is a bad binding, that doesn't mean that all the others of that book will be bad as well. It's a one-off incident and is due to the slip of the machinery and a slip on the packaging line, not seeing the book is a bad one.

Now if a book is poorly put together content-wise -- sloppy typography, inept editing, lots of typos and mechanical text errors, then of course you can mention this in the review. A typo-free book is the responsibility of both the author and the publisher, and if the end product is a wreck, both are to blame.

So sometimes the "product" is an overall packaging of the book such as spelling errors or layout problems (maybe not enough gutter in the binding) which points to a lack of good setup. But a single copy with loose pages is not something which is reproduced for all the copies printed.

Now I receive a lot of "galley proof" bindings prior to the book being officially released. These are deliberately cheap printings meant for reviewers and such, so that the reviews can be posted before the book comes out in full print format. All these have a disclaimer on the cover, telling me that it's a galley proof and that binding or other small errors are not to be used in a review. They usually provide the email for the editor or agent so that reviewers can send in a newfound typo, too. This is typical for book reviewers and I've got a big stack of these galley proof books on my reading shelf. That's a different thing entirely.

[khudecek]

I love the story about your dad, Modern. That is really very cool.

I do agree that some erotica can be well-written. It's just that most of the time, it isn't.

Unfortunately, the line between erotica and romance has been blurred significantly. I don't know if most people can tell the difference anymore. I got a nasty review a couple of days ago and, after my sister and a friend, went through this woman's other reviews, it was determined that she is into erotica. She didn't get it with my book and left a pretty hostile review.

Frankly, I thought her review wasn't fair nor was it constructive. It was angry but then again, every review she writes is like that. She was just lashing out. If she'd said something I could use rather than drag out her lawnmower and use my backside for the grass, I might not feel so badly about it. But, wow; she didn't have anything good to say about it and gave me two stars.

I guess when I wrote the blurb, I should have said something like, "If you're looking for a book that has sex on every page, this isn't for you!"

[moderntimes]

Your comments make perfect sense, khud, and they focus on my principal concern regarding unfair book reviews...

For the point, let's consider your very good comment about the difference between a "romance" and "erotica" -- if someone reviews a somewhat "sedate" romance (those which you prefer) and is more expectant of the erotically-slanted type, and then downrates the book accordingly, this is flat WRONG. And you correctly say that most erotica isn't well written. My thought is that most ANY books we encounter are of this same ilk, not well written, especially self-published books which have had no filtering process prior to publication. But what we as reviewers must do is to judge the book within its own sub-genre and not let our personal biases enter into the judgment.

Personal preferences are one thing, but the reviewer MUST put on his or her "reviewer's cap" and excise any personal preferences about the sub-genre from the review. If encountering a laid-back and fairly easy going romance novel, the reviewer instead must judge that book within others of its specific style and type. Then, comparing it to the best of the field, the reviewer can fairly rate the book down because perhaps the dialogue and narrative are unrealistic or too stereotypical --

"I love you, Rhett," she gasped, her bosom heaving like happy bunny rabbits cuddling under a cozy quilt, her dark eyes fluttering like frightened butterflies in the twilight of a summer day." "My dear," he said. "I don't give a damn."

Now in a parody of course something like that would be fine. But if the author is serious about writing a genuinely moving romance, ten demerits at least. (You're welcome to use that in your own books if you wish, however, ha ha)

In my own genre, mystery, particularly my modern American private eye, I have to take pains to avoid the same pitfalls, letting my detective be too formulaic and parodic. Any genre author needs to be watchful for the same.

It seems as if your reviewer has a jealous streak -- "I'm unable to write a good novel and so I'll be damned if anyone else will be allowed to do the same on my turf!"

Sorry for that. I've had a bit of the same myself on occasion and I just have to tuck it in and go forward. ALL writers will get unfair and shabby reviews, time to time. Some of them may arise via jealousy, as it may be from the reviewer whom you were unfortunately paired with. Most are simply due to the reviewer being inept or lacking in judgmental skills. It happens all the time.

For a glorious literary shutdown, I'm always reminded of the wonderful interchange between Norman Mailer and Truman Capote. It's a good comeback to keep in mind and realize that even the great writers screw up. Mailer and Capote were on some PBS discussion forum, and Mailer was ranting about the extensive narrative in his recent novel (and I can't remember Mailer's extensive statement so I'm paraphrasing it, but I do absolutely know Capote's comeback):

"You see, Truman, in the central narrative of my novel, I talk about the essential angst of the principal characters, how this inner turmoil has affected my protagonist, how the drama of the spiritual and emotional forces at play affect each one of them." (and so on and on and on)

To which Capote responded: "But Norman. That's not writing. That's typing."

[khudecek]

All good points, Modern. I don't take exception with any of them, although I secretly wish you would give a little with your views on the self-published work. I know a lot of it is shoddy but there's some good stuff out there, too. Unfortunately, the bad seems to outweigh the good. I've been stung more than once but I've also read some really good work. That's a debate for another day and I respect your opinion.

I had to laugh at the Capote/Mailer thing. I'd be willing to bet that Mailer didn't appreciate Capote's response.

[moderntimes]

No, Mailer just shut up and said nothing. He'd been had.

Well, let's compare your assessment of the erotically-themed romances with my opinion of self published books. On each item, one of us thinks the field is scant for quality. Which evens out, as I see it.

I've found too many self-published books are just not worth my time or money. They're shabby, full of errors, and poorly constructed. This isn't to say that there aren't gems among them but I'm not a fortune seeker either, and I just am too busy with my own writing to spend my energies sifting thru pages of misuse of "their" vs "there" vs "they're" and other homonym mistakes, bad dialogue, jerky pacing and rhythm, things which I can only read maybe a chapter of.

The pub where I occasionally hang out, there's this guy who wrote a "great" novel about our local Houston firefighters. Good premise. And so, "for some odd reason" (duh) being unable to find a publisher, he had it self-published, and he's got this huge box in the trunk of his car from which he hawks copies to anyone who'll give him 3 minutes. I'd brought my new novel (professionally published by a non-subsidy press) to give a copy to a pal, and he glanced thru it. And I read about 10 pages of his book. Maybe 20 typos and other mechanical errors per page. Reading more would be like sticking my finger into a meat grinder. Eeek.

He apparently doesn't know how to write error-free copy or he doesn't care enough to ensure that the errors were edited out. Now I know that Scott here is very forthright about self publishing but he also makes it very clear that anyone who ventures this needs to have the book proofread professionally. Unfortunately too many wannabes are either too cheap to pay for that or don't think it's necessary. But it is.

Understand that I've spent ages working in high-tech specifications and tech writing and that I've had to develop a meticulous passion for proofreading. I of course occasionally make a tpyo (ha ha) in my posts but those aren't being published, either. I pore thru my books to find the smallest problem, and yeah, I still make mistakes.

A fairly well known author with whom I correspond has been an inspiration and has provided me some superb advice. Recently, just before my 1st of 3 published novels was released, he warned me jokingly to never read my own book, or I'd soon regret it.

Well, I didn't take his advice, and plowed thru the new paperback copy of my novel, and as I was zooming thru the book, damned if I didn't find a low-level grammatical error: "Ken smiled as he listened to David and I argue." (which should of course have been "me" argue) and I literally groaned aloud. My girlfriend heard me, and said "What's the matter? Passing a kidney stone?" I said "No, but it felt like one."

Now this is the only typo (grammatical error, actually, as I'd just zoned out on that one) I've found in my 70,000 word book and it slipped past the editors too. But the shame and regret I felt were authentic. My bad.

Anyway, good chat as always. If you'd like to see a bit about my own detective novels, PM me for my website. And the 1st book's review will soon be posted in the forum review section.

And yeah, I could haul some of my books around and try to sell them to friends but that's way too pushy. When they ask, I give 'em my business card with my website and tell them that the books are on Amazon, paperback and Kindle both. I'm happy and kinda proud to tout my books a bit but I won't cross that line of busking them myself.

[khudecek]

I believe in editing, too. I did an Author Interview awhile back and here is what I said about editing:

If you can offer one piece of advice to an aspiring author, what would it be?
Edit. Edit until it drives you crazy. Edit until you hate what you’re reading. Edit until you want to drive a stake through your protagonist’s heart. Then go back and edit some more.

I have to agree that many people who self-publish don't go through proper editing and many don't have a firm grasp on grammar and punctuation. I don't get it right every time, either but I strive to. When I ghostwrote a novella for a guy, he sent me back his version of the story, which translates to, "I made some changes. See if there are more that need to be done." It was a train wreck. He'd changed sentence structure, grammar, went overboard with commas, wrong words...It wasn't 100% when it left my desk but it was far worse when I got it back. When I pointed out what was wrong, he got angry and defensive and told me, "Nobody can write to suit me." My response was, "Then why did you hire me and ask me for my input?" It went to market laden with errors.

I didn't review the book. I was too close to it and I was angry and defensive, too. It was better to just walk away.

[moderntimes]

Wow, khud. You kinda reinforced my steadfast promise to myself to not get involved in ghost writing or even editing for a newbie writer. I occasionally take one-off contract work on tech documents but those are different. There's no real difference of opinion to engineering and scientific typography.

I'm sure that many of us here have also been approached like this: "I understand you write novels?" (they'll of course say fiction novels, not knowing that all novels are by def fiction). "Yeah. I've got three coming out and I'm working on the fourth." "Well, I've got some good story ideas. What say I give you the ideas, you write the stories, and we split the profit 50-50?" To which I reply "Tell you what. You write your ideas, I'll write mine."

[Richard Falken]

Richard, you can't downgrade a book if the binding is faulty. Most books today are what's known as "trade paperback" which is the larger 9x12 size with color cover and glued binding. They are normally made via the copyright process named "Perfect Binding" and it usually is just fine. But occasionally there will be a faulty book come off the assembly line and that single copy is unique. Just because the one book you happen to be sent by your editor for review is a bad binding, that doesn't mean that all the others of that book will be bad as well. It's a one-off incident and is due to the slip of the machinery and a slip on the packaging line, not seeing the book is a bad one.

Of course you don't downgrade the book for a single faulty copy. But if a significative number of books of that edition has binding problems, then I think it is a problem worth mentioning. I have seen some lame bindings around and some book editions in which there were generalized integrity problems because of this.

I'd say that if your friendly book seller tells you that he is being returned 20% of a certain edition of a book due to major breakage, that is worth downgrading the book. And probably hanging the press staff from a tree.

[moderntimes]

Well, the books I receive for review come from my editor who gets them from the publisher. I've yet to have a shabby bit of work and I've reviewed dozens. Also, a couple years ago I was on the "best private eye novel" award committee (I'm a member of the PWA -- private eye writers of America) and I was sent 58 novels to read -- whew -- and none of them was faulty.

I'm not on cordial terms with my local bookstore either -- Barnes & Noble, etc. -- so there's no way I could ever know if a bunch of produced books were badly made. This would of course spark lots of griping from the store, having to return a bunch and stock new ones. But that's kind of out of my bailiwick.

Have you had this happen to you -- knowing that a bunch of books were mis-bound? Regardless, you really cannot downgrade the review for something the binding company did to screw up. Especially these days, where very few publishers still operate their own presses -- I really don't know if even the major houses (Simon & Schuster, etc) have their own press nowadays. Most all book printing is POD (print on demand) and handled by large print "warehouses" in the Southeast US.

Remember, a positive or negative review affects the author's reputation as well as the wallet. It cannot be faulted toward the author that the print company messed up a run.

But you may have had a bunch of faulty print jobs arrive on your review desk. It's just not been something I've seen.

[Richard Falken]

Have you had this happen to you -- knowing that a bunch of books were mis-bound?

Yes... and when you looked at the way they were bound, it is not surprising they broke appart so easily. The biggest offender I am thinking of came from a medium size press specialized in digital printing.

I frequent a corner book store and I get on well with the owner. He also has lots of contacts in the literature world (amazing, given that the store itself is less than 30 square meters and does not have much activity) and doesn't bite his tongue. If he thinks some product is rotten, he is going to tell you so even if that means losing that sale.