You are excited because you have just received your first book to review.
You quickly start reading the book with bated breath because you can barely
contain your excited. Ten pages into the book you find that you are struggling
to move on to the next page. With each page you become more disappointed with
the writer's craft. You shake your head at the poorly written plot and the
conflict that you are waiting to see develop but seems nonexistent.
Finally, at page 100 you give up. You just cannot keep going. You have 100
pages left and it is too painful to continue reading. Then, you remember that
you have a write a review on the book.
What then? How do you review a book
that is poorly written? That is a dilemma that a number of bloggers face. Today I want to address
that issue. Here are some tips on how to review a poorly written book:
Your Audience
Always remember that your loyalty is to your audience; it is not any
company, author, friend, etc. Bloggers tend to develop a relationship with
their core followers; while your core followers depend on your honest points of
view on the products, services that you review on your blog. So, your loyalty
is to your audience. You must always remember that you should always the
true to your readers.
Integrity
In business and in blogging integrity is everything. It is important
that you state before accepting any product (book) or service to review that you
will give your honest opinion (no matter what). By doing this, you are making
it known that you will not write a great review of a book that is sub-standard
because you are being paid or you are requested to do so.
Decline
After reading the book you can decline to review it. This is easier if the book
was given to you by the author.You
should contact the author and explain your experience and decline to write the
review or explain the type of review that you plan to write. I find that the
author will understand because he/she does not want a bad review to be
published.
Be Unbiased
You can also publish the review with your honest opinion. You can state to
your readers that although this is your experience it might not be the same for
them. If the book is from an author they are familiar with you can suggests
that they can read the book and share their own experiences.
I always feel so bad when an author has given me their book to review and it turns out to be just terrible. Yet at the same time I think it is important to be honest in my reviews. You have offered some great tips here. Thank you for sharing.
I always feel so bad when an author has given me their book to review and it turns out to be just terrible. Yet at the same time I think it is important to be honest in my reviews. You have offered some great tips here. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Melissa about being 150 honest. Thank you for your comment.
ReplyDelete