There’s been some buzz in the blogosphere lately with how a couple of authors have handled negative reviews.

The first author to come unglued was Alice Hoffman. A reviewer for her hometown paper printed a negative review of her newest book, The Story Sisters. Most agree that she took her reaction too far when she posted the reviewer’s phone number and email address and asked people to “tell her what u think of snarky critics.” Now, I’m sure the review stung, but posting in a public forum someone’s name and email address and encouraging people to badger that person? That’s just not right.

If you want to see the all the tweets Alice Hoffman tweeted, then check out this post from Gawker. You should also check out the post at GalleyCat.

Not even 24 hours after Alice Hoffman sent all these tweets, she deleted her account and apologized for her response, though she notably never publicly apologized to Roberta Stilman.

Then ANOTHER author left a comment on a reviewer’s personal blog after reading the review of his book in The New Times Book Review and wrote this:

I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make. I will be watching with interest and schadenfreude.

This author was Alain de Botton, and Edward Champion interviewed Alain de Botton after he confirmed that Alain had, in fact, left that comment. Alain also guest posted on Edward Champion’s blog and talked about how to respond to critics.

(It should be noted that Alain de Botton publicly apologized for his actions and admitted he was in the wrong. Please do not lambaste him here, as he acted classy after realizing his mistake. Alice Hoffman, however…)

So I was thinking: How SHOULD an author respond to a negative review?

Some authors get Google Alerts for their books and their name, so they know when they are mentioned on the Internets. There are some authors, though, that don’t look at ANY reviews, positive or negative. They know how they would react to the negative reviews so they don’t bother with any of it.

Reviews can be hard to take, and venting about them anywhere but the Internet is okay in my book. I mean, Alice Hoffman deleted her Twitter account, but her tweets live on and can’t be undone even by deleting her account.

Can an author dialogue with a reviewer over a negative review?

Have you seen the site The Worst Review Ever? Authors submit their worst review ever (dur) and then answer stock questions and then people vote on how bad the review really was. I think many of the reviews aren’t that bad. At least one author has tried responding sarcastically, and she was chastised by others in the comments that she shouldn’t have acted so immature.

I’m not saying it’s easy to be an author and have to read negative reviews of your piece of art. Especially when reviewers and critics are not really on the same footing. Authors put themselves out there to be critiqued, but critiquing a reviewer over a negative review just sounds like sour grapes.

I don’t think there IS a way for an author to respond to a reviewer in a way that doesn’t make the author sound bitter. Oh, unless the author uses the old, “Thanks for reading my book. I’m sorry it wasn’t for you.” When reading a negative review, I’m sure THAT isn’t quite what the author would really like to say.

While discussing this on Twitter, one person asked why we hold authors to a higher standard of conduct than regular people. I don’t think we hold authors to any higher standard of conduct than anyone else. Bad behavior is bad behavior. Tweeting a person’s email and phone number and asking your friends to bombard them with “I don’t agree with you” isn’t okay for anyone.

I know it’s said that authors need to have a thick skin, but that’s obviously easier said than done. If someone was critiquing, say, ever blog post I wrote, I think I’d crawl under my covers and hide.

Authors, what do you think? How do you handle negative reviews?

Readers, how do you think authors should handle negative reviews? Have you seen an author handle a negative review gracefully? Or have you seen an author handle a negative review poorly?

Bloggers, how do you think you would react if someone was reviewing every blog post you wrote? And no, your readers are not reviewing every blog post you write. Just as not every reader an author has critiques their book. I’m talking about someone critiquing everything you write.

I heard from Natasha who heard from Bookninja about this story over in Russia. Apparently a writer sued a journalist over a negative review, “claiming that the author and his family had experienced severe mental suffering and that his professional reputation was damaged as a result of the review. The writer stated that after reading the book review, he experienced chest pains, headache, and elevated blood pressure. He demanded to be compensated in the amount of US$150,000.” The writer only won US$1,000, which neither party is happy with so both parties will be appealing.

Does this scare me? Not at all. I think it’s ridiculous and will no doubt be overturned by a higher court. But the best part is the end of the article:

Some have even suggested that if a book reviewer can be sued, a reader who did not like a book can sue the author for making a bad quality product.

HAHA!! How many times have I read a book and lamented over the time I spent reading it that I will never get back. How much happier would I be if I could be compensated for my time when *I* think a book is crap? If I could sue someone for books I’ve read in the past, who would I sue?

Heck, I’d sue myself over some drivel I’ve written.

I’ve been amusing myself the last few days imagining how this whole suing-over-bad-writing would happen. I can imagine witnesses and cross examination and a judge. What do you think would be better punishment than the author paying you for your lost time?

*incoherentmumblingiwoulddefinitelysuenicholassparksandhewhowillnotbenamed butcanbefoundhere*

I know this has been discussed before, and I certainly don’t want to beat a dead horse (that’s just cruel), but I think this subject warrants a discussion based on recent happenings.

Last night on Twitter, Amy pointed out a post over at Babbling About Books And More entitled Reviewer Beware! No Books For You! The gist of the story is that Emmy, a book reviewer, received an email from a person who runs a site she reviewes for saying that publishers and authors have requested Emmy not be given books to review based on a few of her harshly negative reviews. Emmy has never claimed to be a professional reviewer, and her reviews tend to be her emotional reaction to the book as opposed to discussing plot, characterization, etc. To her credit, I think her reviews tend  to work for the genre that she reviews, which is romance/erotica.

(Edited to add: Thanks to Natasha for clarifying something that might not be clear about the situation (read Natasha’s full comment below): “Emmy was being asked to either tone down her reviews or no longer receive books from certain publishers because of the reviews she posted on a review site, as opposed to her own blog.”)

An interesting discussion ensued on Twitter, at the base of the discussion whether publishers have the right to deny books to bloggers who write excessively negative reviews. A few other issues came up that I wanted to discuss as well, so I’ve sectioned the issues out.

Can publishers and authors refuse to send books to bloggers who don’t write good reviews?

Publishers and authors can do whatever they want. After all, they’re the ones wielding the free books! I WISH publishers and authors were more discerning in who received free books. There was a point last year where all you had to say was “I have a blog!” and you’d get inundated with free books. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I think that is slowly changing.

I don’t think this is a bad practice on the part of publishers and authors. Publishers and authors should be more discerning in who they give free books to, largely because not everyone enjoys every genre of book.

Book bloggers are not professional reviewers

Good point. But is it wrong of publishers to expect professional behavior in return for sending a free book?

I think that in accepting a book for review, you’re entering into a business relationship with the publisher/author, and should behave as such. Saying, “I’m not a professional reviewer” is a cop out. The reviewer is essentially saying, “I want a free book but I don’t want to be held to any standard of conduct.”

It’s my blog! I can say whatever I want!

True. But what I don’t understand is when snarkiness became okay. It angers me to no end that society is going the way of “whatever you do is okay and no one can criticize you”. I’ll be the first to admit snarkiness is funny, but snarkiness directed at a person or a person’s work is rude, cruel, and unacceptable. Good for you if you pride yourself on being so honest that it comes out snarky. But frankly, I don’t think you would say your snarky things to the recipient’s face, so I just find it to be cowardly.

Specifically, Emmy used the words “craptastic”, “suckage”, and “OH MY GAWD MY EYES!!1!! *gouges out with rusty spoon to stop the pain*”. But don’t think I’m picking on Emmy! I bring up those examples from her reviews because she was the one who received the email about her negative reviews. To be fair, I wrote a particularly scathing review that is a little harsh when I re-read it, but believe me, the book really WAS that bad.  If I read that book today, would I write the same review? Maybe, maybe not. But I’ve written other reviews of books I didn’t enjoy (Bunko Babes and The Darker Side and Out Stealing Horses to name a few), and they certainly aren’t cruel. They’re honest, even very  honest, but never cruel.

I think that bloggers can “say whatever they want” when they only review books they’ve purchased themselves. When you purchase a book yourself, go ahead and trash it as much as you want (though I still don’t think that’s acceptable behavior). But when you receive books for free and trash the books and then wonder why no one sends you books when all you were doing was being honest  and you have a disclaimer that you’re brutally honest, wah wah wah, don’t come crying to me.

Why do professional reviewers in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and the NY Times get a pass on being cruel but book bloggers don’t?

I think people who review for PW, Kirkus, the NYT, etc, can be cruel because authors don’t have a choice. Those publications give them so much exposure that they take what they can get. But bloggers? Boy, do authors have a choice! And when people have a choice, they have the ability to somewhat dictate how things happen, because they’re confident they’ll be able to find someone who will  follow their guidelines.

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I’m interested to know what you think about this. Can a review be too harsh? Do reviewers have any obligation to write reviews that aren’t cruel and rude when they receive books?

If you don’t have a blog, I’d especially like to hear from you! Do you think bloggers should have an unwritten code of conduct? Do you think publishers have a right to demand book bloggers not post malicious and cruel reviews?