The Good Thing About Bad Reviews

I often feel very mean when I criticize the work of published authors. I’m trying to write a book and I know that it’s a difficult, time consuming process that involves pouring a bit of yourself into your work and, in doing so, making yourself vulnerable—taking a risk. When I point out what I perceive to be ineffectiveness or errors in a novel, I sometimes feel like I am throwing harpoons at an author’s child. But I do it anyway, and I will tell you why.

There is a significant difference between demeaning someone’s work and offering honest, constructive criticism. I always try to make sure I am doing the latter, although I’m sure annoyance sometimes seeps into my review if I am particularly flabbergasted as to how something made it to publication. And I do hold published work up to a higher standard. If something has been professionally edited and put out for sale, it better be worth buying. I expect skillful writing and good quality regardless of whether a work falls under my personal preferences.

I’ve said before that my background in creative writing and workshopping has raised my expectations considerably and made me very picky when it comes to writing style, story arc, and technical issues. My education taught me to read books as a writer, and so I take in everything with a critical eye, always asking myself how something can be better. I’ve been trained to pinpoint weak spots. My reviews are an answer to the question, “What could be better here?” Writing them helps me learn about what doesn’t work in fiction and how to fix the mistakes that I come across before I make them. If an author hypothetically were to see what I’ve written about their book, they would find suggestions rather than insults.

Honesty and respect are the keys to writing effective Bad Reviews. I think it’s important to generate honest feedback. It keeps pressure on writers to produce quality work and improve themselves over time. It also helps readers to determine what books are right for them, and really that is what reviews are for: guiding readers through an endless sea of literature.