Hello dear writers. I'm not sure if you guys do these kind of things or not but I thought it would be a good idea to give it a shot. If any of you have a Wordpress page or something similar I was thinking I could read your short story and give it a fairly good review on my Wordpress page while you read my short story and also review it fairly well. It's a good idea for those who'd like to have something solid to back your work up with. How does it sound? Tit for tat
Yeah, I don't know. I'm all for the idea of reviewing each other's work (not that I have anything on Wordpress), but I only want a good review of anything I've written if it's genuine. I don't want someone to feel obligated to give me a good review; I want to earn it. And, I certainly wouldn't review something in a favorable light if I didn't believe it to be good.
I'm not talking about "fixed reviews" and it didn't cross my mind until after I made this thread but what I can see myself doing is a fair review. For example, I read a story and understand the idea behind it, keeping what I dislike about it to myself and focusing on the strong points of the story. That's not low or shady at all. In fact, that's the opposite of what journalists and reviewers do these days.
It's not genuine if you're not giving a full review. Reviews are important to me, and they mean nothing to me if I've basically paid for one by giving a "fairly good" review to someone else for it. You may not see it as shady, but it sounds clearly dishonest even by your own wording.
You are fundamentally talking about fixed reviews. Keeping the bad to yourself and only talking about the good is by definition, an unfair review. It is not an unbiased or equal representation of the piece as a whole. You're delusional if you genuinely think otherwise. If you don't genuinely think otherwise and you're simply hoping that someone else shares your unprincipled views and would rather cheat their way to the top than earn it...then look elsewhere. Or admit that you're playing dirty and start working hard like the rest of us.
Nine-tenths off topic, I remember a discussion among some perfume bloggers about reviews of little indie perfume brands. If Chanel put out garbage, we were totally fine with trashing it. If a little struggling independent house put out something bad, there was a tendency to just not review it at all.
That is.... so true. If I buy some product on Amazon and it's not what it's supposed to be - I say so. If I buy a book on Amazon and hate it - I say nothing at all. I don't want to add to the hate, I don't want to influence people because it's not 'my thing'. If I love it I'll shout it from the rooftops, but if I don't? No. I'd feel awful. I apply the rule of Thumper... "If you can't say nothing nice...."
I tend to operate the same way, but I have trouble reconciling it sometimes because I appreciate thoughtful negative reviews of products. It helps me make an informed decision. So, in that regard, I sometimes feel guilty about my unwillingness to make negative reviews.
I stand by this idea. I don't want praise; I mean, it is nice to hear and all, but it doesn't help me develop as a writer. Learning how to push the ideas of narrative, poetics, literary devices, rhetoric, content, and -most importantly- targeted-audience enjoyment is what I'm am after. I don't get that unless someone really dives into my work. I can only act on the feedback that I receive, and if the feedback is shallow, sugar-fluffy, slanted, or censored in any way, I gain no benefit. Now, if you want a 'gloves-off' critique partner, I'm that guy all day.
I totally agree with both of you @Spencer1990 and @OJB I have no problem with someone criticizing my work because I can't fix something if I don't know it exists. And here, in the workshop, where it's supposed to be critique, I have no problems being honest, but where it's going to influence their livelihood? Their career? I have a much harder time doing that to someone.
"It's possible to train a competent writer to become a good one." I don't think people should fear negative reviews too much, at least at the entry level. This craft is learnable, so if you write something and people still don't like it, that's fine. You'll get better. For sure, I'm still on the downward slope of the Dunning–Kruger effect, and it would be nice if a bunch of reviewers read my serial and told me I had mastered the art, but it's just not realistic. If I'm trying to get better, it doesn't do me much good to get a fake good review, and it won't help your marks in general because people tricked into reading by sugar coated reviews will be pissed off and write their own.
Do reviews really matter when it comes to short stories? I'm not very familiar with Wordpress, but I believe it is some type of blog site. It's not a place I see myself looking for short stories to read. And if I was, I am just as likely to pick a story with a catchy title than I am one with good ratings. I just have a hard time believing that Wordpress has the best stories or even is the best option to self publish them. I think you're looking at an uphill battle for readers and recognition. I know it seems like it's impossible to sell short stories to well-known and respected literary journals and magazines, but it's not. It's hard, but it happens. And that is really to way to have your work reach the maximum readership.
I am fully aware of that. There are plenty of genre publications and other publications that consider and publish genre work. I do know that @Alex R. Encomienda writes some literary stuff, and I was just trying to be encouraging. This isn't the first thread where he's wondered about ways to get his writing out to more people. I think when it comes to short stories, it's better to have someone else publish (and pay you for) them. People here didn't like his idea for swapping positive reviews. I think the real way to have any sort of success as a short story writer is to break into publications that already have solid reputations. And I just wanted to say it's not as impossible as some people think.
For some genres, yes; for other genres, I don't think so. But if you know that Alex is looking for literary, that makes sense. I didn't know that about him.
But lying to them by not telling them does influence their career. It makes their reviews, and many of the sales that are based on a lack of negative reviews, lies, because the full picture isn't given. It also lowers the bar, hurting other authors in the long run.
I do find it harder to leave negative reviews for books now that I write. Before, I was writing the review for other readers, and I thought of authors as these lofty beings who'd be far too busy to read reviews. Now, I'm very aware that there's an author behind the words who's almost certainly going to read the review. Having said that, I still give low ratings and explain why in reviews. I phrase them differently than I used to, but I think it's important to do it. For a start, I am highly suspicious of any book with only rave reviews. It screams 'author's friends and family.' Second, when someone is only ever positive and complimentary, how can you trust their opinion? Nobody likes everything they read, so that reviewer who only leaves 5*s is being disingenuous somewhere. It's the same with critique here and on other sites: if somebody is always positive about workshop pieces, it means nothing when they're positive about mine.
This. You can't fix what you don't know. If I wanted slanted, censored and fluffy, I'd hire a publicist to write them.
There is a difference between a critique and a review, though... critiques are private or at least not publicized, and they're done of work-in-progress. Reviews are public/publicized and are done of finished work. I'm not saying you can't learn from your reviews, but there's the old "Reviews aren't for the author" line amongst many reviewers. A critique that pulls punches isn't useful, I agree. But reviews that pull punches? They're not useful to my improvement as a writer, but they may be useful to my sales. All that said, I leave critical reviews of books. I don't personally attack the author and I'm specific about what I enjoyed/didn't enjoy and I'm careful to express it all from the perspective of being an individual reaction, but... I definitely have negative reactions to some books!
