Author Reviews (Part 1)

 I am right on track with my editing! I have twenty six pages left to edit and the last chapter is really well written already since I spent so long rewriting it. I've reduced the word count from its original 80,000 to 65,000. I might try to do a bit more before I am satisfied but I'm scared of losing too much. But as I'm rewriting scenes I can't help but want to get back into writing. As much as I love editing (which isn't really that much) I love doing my first drafts. 

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There are two important topics that come up when you talk about author reviews. The first is whether an author should review other books, and the second is how authors handle reviews for their own book. I'm going to tackle the former today.

It used to be that an author was a faceless entity writing books with no other connection to the reader. But with the advancement of technology it becomes incredibly easy for them to take part in the social aspects of the book community. Every author writes because they love stories so they are as part of the reading community just as much as the writing one. They all grew up reading books and deciding which ones they liked and which ones they didn't.

It has started to occur to me in the last year or so that when you become an author, you might not be able to express said opinions as thoroughly. Let me explain. If a reader is not an author then they don't have to worry about what they say affecting any type of future relationship because for them, their only interaction will be in buying the book.

But for an author, they can't express negative opinions about a book because it might reflect poorly on them later on if they are involved in any kind of drama. When you're an author there is an unwritten rule that you are part of a community of writers who are meant to support each other.

Even though I self published a novel, I am nowhere near that level where I would need to worry about something like this because it is unlikely that anyone would notice if I were to rip apart a story. But I still feel like there is something holding me back now, that when I review a book on Goodreads I can't give in anything less than three, four, or five stars. So when there is a book that I dislike I simply don't rate it, or even say that I read it.

So is that fair? Should I only say which books I enjoy and hide the ones I don't?

I have been following some of my favourite authors for years now and I've always wondered why they have barely any books on their "shelves" on the website. Or if they do read a book, they only write a review and they never rate it. And only for those they have great things to say.

Now I understand that they are reading books - but perhaps they are unable to freely share those feelings with the reading community.