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Okay, so I find myself in a bit of a situation, and I'm hoping someone can give me a bit of insight about the protocol here - or even a good solution I'm not seeing.
I was contacted through Goodreads by another self-published author who wanted to read and review Mortis Unbound, so we decided to exchange novels and each of us would read the other author's book and review it. For full disclosure, her book is of a genre that I'm not totally into, but the subject matter was interesting and I thought that I could put aside my apathy towards the genre and read the book anyway. If it weren't for the exchange I probably wouldn't have picked it up, but it's not like I was like "ew, no".
I read the book last night. Thing is, the book is intensely mediocre. It's not terrible, but if it weren't for the fact that I had agreed to review it, I would have put it down quite early. It desperately needs a good, deep editing, though I feel that if it had that editing, it could be quite good.
My philosophy when it comes to reviewing books is that if it's a book that I wouldn't recommend, I don't want to write a bad review. I would rather just say nothing, avoid giving offence and also avoid giving publicity to something I don't think deserves it. There are things about the book that I genuinely like, but I wouldn't recommend to anyone that they read it, as it is right now.
So my feel is...I have three options:
1. Give a three-star review, talk about the things I genuinely DID like, say a few things about the reasons I feel it needs work, and quietly fail to actually recommend the book in my review. Though this option fulfils my obligation, if I am too nice I fear that it will affect my reputation. I don't want someone to go out and read the book thinking that I liked it and find it isn't good.
2. Contact the author privately and offer some constructive criticism in lieu of a review. The options I'm leaning towards at this point. It offers value to the author, but risks pissing them off.
3. Drop it into the void and never get around to reviewing it. The easiest, least confrontational option, but I don't want to make commitments I don't fulfil.
I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable. I fear that for all three options I might hurt the author or even elicit a bad review in revenge. I'd love to hear thoughts.
I was contacted through Goodreads by another self-published author who wanted to read and review Mortis Unbound, so we decided to exchange novels and each of us would read the other author's book and review it. For full disclosure, her book is of a genre that I'm not totally into, but the subject matter was interesting and I thought that I could put aside my apathy towards the genre and read the book anyway. If it weren't for the exchange I probably wouldn't have picked it up, but it's not like I was like "ew, no".
I read the book last night. Thing is, the book is intensely mediocre. It's not terrible, but if it weren't for the fact that I had agreed to review it, I would have put it down quite early. It desperately needs a good, deep editing, though I feel that if it had that editing, it could be quite good.
My philosophy when it comes to reviewing books is that if it's a book that I wouldn't recommend, I don't want to write a bad review. I would rather just say nothing, avoid giving offence and also avoid giving publicity to something I don't think deserves it. There are things about the book that I genuinely like, but I wouldn't recommend to anyone that they read it, as it is right now.
So my feel is...I have three options:
1. Give a three-star review, talk about the things I genuinely DID like, say a few things about the reasons I feel it needs work, and quietly fail to actually recommend the book in my review. Though this option fulfils my obligation, if I am too nice I fear that it will affect my reputation. I don't want someone to go out and read the book thinking that I liked it and find it isn't good.
2. Contact the author privately and offer some constructive criticism in lieu of a review. The options I'm leaning towards at this point. It offers value to the author, but risks pissing them off.
3. Drop it into the void and never get around to reviewing it. The easiest, least confrontational option, but I don't want to make commitments I don't fulfil.
I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable. I fear that for all three options I might hurt the author or even elicit a bad review in revenge. I'd love to hear thoughts.
