Paperback's Pondering's is a weekly discussion when I take a topic and well, ponder about it! This week's topic is about what I find very hard about blogging: writing negative reviews.
I have always struggled with guilt. I feel terrible if I offend people so I always try to please everyone. This poses a problem when writing reviews for books that I REALLY hated. I just don't know how to phrase my words in the least offensive way.
There have been times when I have actually refrained from writing a review because I cannot seem to bring myself to be that negative. I see reviews on goodreads about people raving about the book, that it makes it seem like it's not right to have such an unpopular opinion.
When I started my blog, I had trouble voicing my opinion. It still bugs me from time to time, because I'm afraid of what people might say. Now I have never gotten a bad comment on a post, so I know that I will most likely not receive backlash, but something is still in the back of my head that prevents me from moving forward.
I think that main problem I have is that when I'm so angry about a book, that I can't really put my feelings into coherent thoughts. I ramble, and misspell, and I can't seem to put anything that makes sense together. These things get me really worked up.
I see some bloggers that are perfectly confident in voicing opinions, unpopular or not, and I just wonder why I can't be like them?! I need to realize that nobody can be rude to me if I'm voicing an educated opinion, and that I need to stop overthinking things.
I mostly feel bad for the authors. They put so much work into their books, and they might even be an author that I love, and I feel like I'm letting them down. What I don't realize is that I can;t help what I don't like, and that authors know that there are going to be critics.
I want some help from you guys! How do you put together negative reviews? And do you struggle putting them up?
Emily @ Paperback Princess
I face this problem quite often. When writing a bad review, I have to separate the author from the book. I just talk about the book without any regards as to who the author is. When I do start taking about the problems in the book that are the author's fault, I tend to not think of them as a person so that I don't worry about hurting their feelings. Mainly, I just tell the truth. I used to struggle putting them up, but now I don't because I realized that it is my right, within reason, to put up negative criticism.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice! I can't help but always have the author at the back of my head, but I just need to forget about it.
DeleteI agree with everything you said. I find it hard to write negative reviews because of guilt. It is even worse if the author specifically gave me the book to review. For these reasons, I sometimes don't review books I do not like and that is why most of the reviews on my blog are positive ones. I also try to be as objective as possible when reviewing books I did not like. Fortunately, the book blogging community is very friendly and understanding, so there are not many issues when it comes to negativity in the comments.
ReplyDelete~Chioma @
Blue Books and Butterflies
I sometimes don't put up negative reviews too! I need to realize that I have the right to feel bad sometimes.
DeleteI see what you mean, it takes me a whole lot longer to write negative reviews than when I'm writing positive reviews. Personally, I feel like I have to get my opinion out there because I don't want someone else to read something they wouldn't like.
ReplyDeleteHere are some of my tips for writing negative reviews:
- Make a pros and cons list about the book
- talk about something you liked about the book before delving into the things you didn't
- explain why you didn't like something so readers understand why
- (this one is the most helpful for me) Instead of feeling guilty for not liking a popular book, think of all the people you are helping by letting them know that it sucked.
- Don't feel bad about the author, most love getting bad reviews as much as good reviews because it gives them a chance to improve and change what the audience didn't like.
I hope this was helpful :D
This was very helpful, thank you! And what you said is true: I am helping people by informing them to let this one go.
DeleteI totally agree with you on this post Mia. Feeling guilt when writing negative reviews is the absolute worst because I always feel sorry for the author. Like, I think of all the effort and hope that they would have put into that book and I feel like such a horrible person! But then, finally, it's all about writing a well-balanced review, and when ending it, just make sure that you say that even though you did not like it, it could very well be the reader's cup of tea :)
ReplyDeleteThat's true! I just need to make sure that what I'm saying is professional and kind :)
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