Just us thinking....

I just read the post that Lauren Dane did about Good Reads. Now I will be honest. I have never been a part of Good Reads and now I will never go over there. How does this work, that they can give a bad rating in a book that isn't even published yet? Doesn't make much sense to me. Now I know people will write bad reviews and bad mouth authors. I will tell you this right now, I will never bad mouth a author. I do not write books, I do simple reviews on whether I like a book or not. I will never write a negative review, when I do a review I will tell you what I think of the book, I am not going to tell you if it is a wall banger or not. After all just because I don't like a book doesn't mean you aren't going to like.

I do not feel it is right for anyone to bad mouth an author. That author works very hard to write a book and give us some enjoyment. Not all authors are going to be perfect every time, and if the book isn't perfect you should not be bad mouthing the author. We all have bad days and not every body is going to be happy.

So I will say it again. I will never write a bad review, but I will write honest review of what I think of the book. I will never bad mouth a author or put down their work. If you want to read a negative nasty review or somebody putting down a author you will not find it done by me. -- Debra

Dani's Thoughts -- Debra and I have had many discussions about reviews -- in fact I've also had them with my good friends Sue K and Tisa. What storyline works with one person may not work for another. There are times when I will read a fantastic review on a book - run out and buy the book - read the book and then think, how did this book get an A or 4 1/2 star rating? I read a review were the reviewer gave the book a lower grade because of the heroine's name, another the hero is the same age as her daughter or the hero has the name as her son? Red hair? The list can go on and on. But to give a book a bad review that's not even out!?!?!?!? Or that you just read one chaper!?! WHY!!! Sometimes it can take 3 or 4 chapters to actually get into the story.

When I talked Teri and Debra into doing a blog I knew that they might not always agree with my review -- but like Debra said -- we will write a HONEST review. I do have to admit that writing a review is HARD and it's not as easy as it seems. Teri Chiming in.....Can someone please explain to me " it is not a requirement that a user read the book before rating it." Ok.....How does this work??? You just can't go out there and rate a book you know nothing about! Well,I guess some people do, but again I ask, how does that work, in wanting your website to be creditable and all that? It is creepy and scary that people can rate a book that has not even been released as an ARC. Don't these folks have something better to do than this? By the way, I was looking at a book over on B & N that doesn't come out for several months yet, but it had double digits of voters who gave it 5 stars. No review, but 5 stars!!! Whatever happened to that old saying, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all?? You know people, what goes around comes around, and some day you will get yours. It's the law of the jungle. A lot of time and energy goes in to writing an honest review, telling you what works for me and what doesn't. If you must criticize something, this can be constructive feedback if done well by the reviewer. When I review a book, I say what worked for me, and what didn't. We aren't all alike, and what works well for me may not work well for you at all. We don't all like the same thing when it comes to books. Heck, my mood can switch when the wind changes directions, so on any given day I may like the book better or not, depending on the darned wind direction! What I will promise to always do when writing a review is to be honest, tell you what I did (or didn't) like. Never will I be hurtful in any way to an author. What I really want to say, is this whole issue at Good Reads rating books that are not out yet, boils down to respect. They don't know the meaning of the word, therefore it's not a place that will ever appeal enough for me to visit again.