Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click here to learn more or sign up.
Optional Monthly Question: Book reviews are for the readers. When you leave a book review do you review for the Reader or the Author? Is it about what you liked and enjoyed about your reading experience, or do you critique the author?
What a timely question as I head into a new era of book reviewing for myself and my dwindling YouTube channel. I can remember a time when I was hesitant to write book reviews simply because I didn’t know how, but that ship sailed a long time ago. I consider myself a constructive reviewer but I don’t critique the author when I leave a review because they didn’t ask me to.
For me, personally, book reviewing, even as a writer, shouldn’t be about pointing out everything that’s wrong with a book. And, again, if no one asked for your “expert opinion” why are you giving it? I read so many reviews where the reviewer seems to enjoy bashing books more than they actually like reading books. On the flip side, I have read reviews where I wonder if the person actually read the book or are simply leaving a review because someone asked them (or worse paid them) to do so.
When I write a review, I do it so the next reader knows what to expect. If I like it, I recommend it, and if I don’t like it, I state why. It’s very rare that I caution readers against a book simply because I recognize that the thing I didn’t like, someone else might be looking for.
I’ve read a lot of books and interviewed a lot of authors, and it blows my mind some of the thought processes out there regarding book reviews, but to each his own. I’ve had writers tell me that they refuse to review other writers’ books and yet, expect to acquire a ton of reviews for their work. If you are widely popular, I guess you can get away with that. I was shocked to hear that some writers use book reviews to retaliate against competition (but I’ve never witnessed this myself). Most of the writers I’ve encountered seem to know how not to cross the line when leaving reviews and are avid readers themselves, but I guess it takes all kinds in this industry.
For me, I’ll continue to be an avid reader who also happens to be a writer and will continue to review books for other readers. I’ll be focusing on only reading books I’m genuinely excited to read in 2024 (that means fewer digital ARCs unless I seek them out).
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Now, on to the personal updates.
I’ve been struggling to stay connected to this community and the idea of blogging altogether. Earlier this year, some people in this community said some pretty outlandish, hurtful, and inconsiderate things to me. In the defense of one of these people, they didn’t think what they were saying was bad, while the others were being intentionally hurtful. Still, it’s hard to connect to a community you feel disconnected from, even when certain people within the community have always made you feel welcome.
In any case, I’m still here. I’m not exactly where I want to be in the blogosphere or in the IWSG, but I’m here. I’m hoping 2024 will be a better experience for me. Perhaps I’ll find a way to reconnect. I’d like to return to the feeling of being part of a community. I guess we’ll see what the future holds. I’ll be making a point to visit all the blogs I didn’t visit last month who stopped by here. I just didn’t have it in me then.
Outside of this, the only other communities I’m growing are my Patreon and (as mentioned earlier, a dwindling YouTube) community. I love that I can now do public posts (free) and offer people to join my community that way. This is what I’m doing instead of a newsletter moving forward.
**Updated** I’m still making my rounds to visit people and respond to comments, but I wanted to clarify one thing. My overall experience with the IWSG has been a good one. It is the main reason I’m still blogging. I have; however, this year, had some bad experiences with individual members as well as bloggers outside this community. I don’t associate IWSG as being negative in any way, but it has been difficult knowing that there are some bloggers in this community who have been outright mean to me. Others, as I stated, were unintentionally hurtful and there’s nothing that can be done about that. I think we have agreed to disagree. Still, I can’t pretend to feel as connected to this community as I once was. In any case, I appreciate the supportive responses I’ve received so far and hope to visit more blogs tomorrow during work breaks.**
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What are your thoughts on book reviewing?
It may take some time, but I promise, I will eventually stop by your blog.
My response time has gotten slower but I’m still making my rounds.
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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
C. Lee McKenzie,
JQ Rose,
Jennifer Lane, and
Jacqui Murray!
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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #27).
Did you know you can join my community for FREE over at Patreon to receive a monthly update on the creative projects I’m working on? I tell you the truth, it’s better than a newsletter!
Thank you for making it this far down the virtual page. Kudos to you! I’d love to know what you thought of this post in the comments below. Stay safe and be blessed.
10 replies on “#IWSG Nov. 2023- Do you write book reviews?”
Hope you stay with us. Ignore the negative jerks.
Someone who enjoys bashing books has a problem.
Thanks for the encouragement, Alex. It means a lot.
I hope I didn’t say anything stupid… and if I did, I apologize right now. I hope you know I appreciate what you write and what you do. I’m a little slow to get to all the things, but I love that you have a Youtube channel and you genuinely support fellow authors. If you need to leave IWSG, I get it, but I hope you stick around.
Thank you, Tyrean. You have been wonderful to me and have been a great example of why I’m still with IWSG. I enjoy following you and other writers in this community and watching you release works. It’s an inspiration.
That’s terrible people would say hurtful things, especially writers. They are usually a helpful bunch.
And I greatly enjoyed the interview we did. We laughed so much.
Yes, for the most part, the writers I’ve met in the IWSG have been amazing. It’s tough when a handful of people can ruin an experience, but that’s on them, not the IWSG.
I too had a lot of fun with our interview. That interview is why I do what I do. I love supporting other writers.
Toi, I’m really sorry you’ve gotten nasty treatment. I hope you’ll stick around, because you have lots of good stuff to share–your reviews are good, and I really like what you have to say about reviewing here. And I so greatly prefer reading over YouTube!
Thanks, Rebecca. It hasn’t all been bad, but coupled with the many emotional traumas I’ve had this year, it was sad that there were times when I didn’t feel safe sharing within this community. Still, overall, I adore the IWSG and told the nasty people to leave me alone.
I’m reluctant to leave book reviews because I worry I might come across as harsh when I don’t mean to. Overall, I may like a book, but I may also have a few small gripes about it. Nit-picky things. And then somehow my review ends up making it sound like I hated the book, even though I didn’t.
I’ve always found IWSG to be super supportive and encouraging, and it really saddens me to hear that that has not been your experience. I believe there are more good people in this group than bad. Whatever happened, I hope this community will have a chance to make it right.
Thank you J.S. There are people within this community who’ve always made me feel safe and welcomed and they are the reason I’m still here. It’s hard to separate a few bad seeds from the group as a whole, but in the end, it’s up to me to decide if I want to be here or not. I’ve left other groups because I just didn’t want to be there anymore. For now, I want to be here. I’m glad the IWSG is here for insecure writers like me.