Why I give bad book reviews {Ramblings}

 

MaraG here! I got an email that I thought was is a good topic for me to actually write a post about. It reads:

 

 

The short answer to this question is:  Credibility.

The longer answer is:

(Disclaimer before I start!!! This blog is in  no way directed at any blogger that can be seen as competition of ReviewingRomance.com. Just thought I’d put that out there before anyone feels like they are singled out! We love all our fellow bloggers very much! xoxo)

You know that Bret Michael’s song, ”every rose has it’s thorn?”, well think of the romance book genre as a whole rose. the 4-5 star reviews are the beautiful pedals that give the rose it’s appeal. The 3 star reviews are the leaves that give a give a great contrast to the color of the rose petals an the 1-2 star reviews are the thorns. You can consider this two way, 1.) the rose as a whole, the bush, is beautiful in it natural state, with the good and bad or 2.) you can trim the bush, pluck off the thorns and put them in a pretty vase for display. Either is an acceptable form of display, but in my opinion, I prefer the natural, unaltered look.

Basically, what I am trying to say is that I personally believe that in order to maintain my credibility, I have to give 1 and 2-star reviews. I follow so many book bloggers and the ones that I hold in the highest regard are the ones with the most 1-stars, 2 stars and DNF’s. If I gave every single book I read 4 or 5 stars, some would probably star to wonder if I’m just kissing ass. Whose ass you ask? The authors, the publishers, etc. 

Here is the truth about blogging, specifically book blogging. You earn money through advertising. This comes in a couple forms.

1.)Affiliate sales. For book blogging, its via Amazon Associates where us, the book bloggers, can get links to books, post the links on our page and when someone clicks on that link and purchases that books, we get a % off the sales. For amazon its somewhere between 5% and 7.5%.  Right now, I generally range in the 6% area. so let’s say you purchase The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen, which today (February 21st, 2013) lists for $0.99 via the links on my site. I earn $0.05. 5 cents. Not a lot, but over the course of a month, the sales add up. I’m still a fairly small blog, so over time, I hope to earn more, right now, the money I earn in sales basically goes back in to my “allowance” to purchase books that I have not received ARC and for other blog related stuff.

2.)Advertising. Look at the sidebar on most blogs- not mine as I don’t offer advertising right now, but you will see “Our Sponsors”, “Advertisement”, etc. Someone, Author, Blogger, Publisher, etc has paid the blog owner to put their book cover, or advertisement on this page. The price on these vary blogger-to-blogger and the type of advertising varies as well.

(There is a couple other, but they aren’t as important as these two)

So where does that ass kissing come in? Well if receive a book from an author or publisher, you feel a certain pressure to not be overly bitchy on those, if you are a blogger you WANT these potential advertisers to love you. You want them to see your site and come back and buy advertising from it, thus paying some of the blogging bills. In RR.com’s opinion, we don’t feel like we are being credible if we only read books we love. Sometimes we have to “fall on those grenades” (as they say on Jersey Shore) and take one for the team (meaning readers) so we keep in check what we do love and hate about the books we read. We also make sure to not just read the books that are “new”, “hot” and “popular” so that we give exposure to someone who probably really deserves it! When it comes to the internet now, you either know how to work it, or don’t, and if you do, it pays of immensely, but not everyone is so gifted at it or understands the importance that social media has on the world. They either don’t do it, or don’t really learn how to do it effectively and they might not get the exposure they are looking for. That is why we accept review request on RR.com. Sure, we can probably miss a few gems when we pick and chose form the list that comes in, but consider that we get anywhere from 25-30 Requests for review PER MONTH. We just can’t review them all. So we pick and choose who and what we read and hope we picked a good one!

So yes, I might come off insanely bitchy on books with 1 and 2 star ratings, but also look at WHO the books are by. They just aren’t self-pubs with a bad story line, character development or bad editing. I’ve torn apart several books that are published by large publishing houses. The 1 and 2 star extends to all books on RR.com . Am I concerned with how the author feels? Sort of. There isn’t usually a part of me that likes tearing a book down. It’s not fun…. okay, sometimes it is fun if I really HATED the book. When i have a book that dips in the 1 and 2 stars, I make a point to try and provide alternate reviews by other bloggers that differ in an opinion of my own. I do it because I know my word is not god and that it is totally possible for one blogger to adore a book that I hate. Who review is wrong? Neither. This is all based on opinion, but I want to show that regardless of my opinion, that I support the author regardless. The bitchiness? That is my way of making a bad review fun. Reading bad reviews are boring enough, I am just attempting to keep you interested a little. I’m sure there is people out there that feel that my reviews are unprofessional, and I am totally cool with that. Book blogging for me is a release more than it is a job. Would I love for it to be my only job rather than working full-time right now? ABSOLUTELY. I cannot wait until the day I can get to that point. Right now, I’m just having fun and I want you all to have fun too.

If I lose you as a reader because I’ve offended you with my review, I apologize, but it’s important to me that I be myself.

If you are an author and I’ve offended you with less than glowing review of your book, I always issue you a challenge to submit another book and show me that you are more than that one book I reviewed from you before.

So random reader, I hope this answers your question. If not, feel free to email me again and ask me to ramble on a bit longer.  I think I’ve done enough for now. It’s time I tend to my roses.

–xoxo

 

 

 

P.S. Please do not hate me if that song is stuck in your head, like it is mine, for the rest of the day.