Amy Andrews's Blog - Posts Tagged "debate"
Damned if I do. Damned if I don't.
I actually had a couple of other titles for this blog planned before settling on the one above. Catch 22 was one. Between A Rock and a Hard Place was another. Authors Are Readers Too was also considered. But, in the end, I think the current title best sums up the quandary and the frustration that authors find themselves in over the R word.
Reviews.
More specifically reviews of books written by friends of the author. I can totally see both sides of the debate that’s raging (and will no doubt continue to rage) at the moment. How can readers, who base their decisions to buy or not on reviews, truly trust a review written by a buddy of whatever author they’re considering? I can see why people are talking about it and blogging about it and why Amazon had taken a stand over this.
But I can also understand the other side too. Because authors are readers too. Who love books and want to share that love with others.
But yeh… how can readers tell what’s genuine and what’s manufactured? What reviews are real and which ones are “back scratchers”. It’s why I make it a personal policy to not review author friends/acquaintances books. Which btw makes me feel really crappy especially when I know that reviews can be important for sales and that author friends have reviewed my books and are probably pretty pissed at me for not reviewing theirs especially when they know how much I enjoyed them because I've sent them an email telling them that!
So yeh….Damned if I do. Damned if I don’t.
It’s probably a cowardly stance but it’s just my way of trying to keep myself out of the muck and the vitriol that this debate tends to gets itself bogged down in.
But what happens when a friend of yours writes a book that you love and you want to tell everyone about it? Is it fair that I shouldn’t be able to do so because we happen to be friends?
I’d like to take for example an author friend of mine – Carol Marinelli. I’ve known Carol for about seven or eight years. We both write for Harlequin’s Medical line and we chat online and see each other once, maybe twice a year at conferences and for damned sure one of the biggest hangovers of my life has her name on it. We laugh so much when we’re together and talk until we’re hoarse. I simply adore Carol - despite that hangover!
I remember the first Medical I read of Carol’s, back before I’d ever met her. Back before I was published and I was reading widely in the line I was targeting. And I knew, I just knew she was, or at least had been, a nurse. And it wasn’t in the big stuff – pass me the epi stat! etc etc – it was in the little things. The way a nurse would do a certain thing, or say something a certain way. The nuances of her characters. And I was hooked.
Fast forward to now and I’ve just finished reading Carol’s first self-published title - What Goes Around - and I’m still hooked. It’s a beautiful book, written just the way Carol talks – I swear I can hear her narrate it in my head. Be warned - it’s nothing at all like her category romances. It’s a big book full of gritty issues and flawed people that yeh, sometimes I just wanted to slap. But she had me rooting for them every step of the way as well and that is the essence of a good story teller. Being able to make a reader care about a character that is not always easy to care about.
But I can’t write a review and say these things because the debate has forced me to make a decision about not reviewing. And that’s a shame because this book deserves my accolades and Carol and her book don’t deserve to be penalised because many authors do the same as me – we keep out of it.
All that’s really left is for me to talk it up on social media which I fully intend to do because yes, Carol is my friend but her book is bloody brilliant and I want people to know about it and find it and read it.
No doubt that is frowned upon as well. So again…I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.
Clearly there’s no solution to any of this. This blog is just a voicing of my frustration. Another viewpoint to add to the mix.
Oh, and if you want to read a really good book, you can find it here.
http://www.amazon.com/What-Goes-Aroun...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
Reviews.
More specifically reviews of books written by friends of the author. I can totally see both sides of the debate that’s raging (and will no doubt continue to rage) at the moment. How can readers, who base their decisions to buy or not on reviews, truly trust a review written by a buddy of whatever author they’re considering? I can see why people are talking about it and blogging about it and why Amazon had taken a stand over this.
But I can also understand the other side too. Because authors are readers too. Who love books and want to share that love with others.
But yeh… how can readers tell what’s genuine and what’s manufactured? What reviews are real and which ones are “back scratchers”. It’s why I make it a personal policy to not review author friends/acquaintances books. Which btw makes me feel really crappy especially when I know that reviews can be important for sales and that author friends have reviewed my books and are probably pretty pissed at me for not reviewing theirs especially when they know how much I enjoyed them because I've sent them an email telling them that!
So yeh….Damned if I do. Damned if I don’t.
It’s probably a cowardly stance but it’s just my way of trying to keep myself out of the muck and the vitriol that this debate tends to gets itself bogged down in.
But what happens when a friend of yours writes a book that you love and you want to tell everyone about it? Is it fair that I shouldn’t be able to do so because we happen to be friends?
I’d like to take for example an author friend of mine – Carol Marinelli. I’ve known Carol for about seven or eight years. We both write for Harlequin’s Medical line and we chat online and see each other once, maybe twice a year at conferences and for damned sure one of the biggest hangovers of my life has her name on it. We laugh so much when we’re together and talk until we’re hoarse. I simply adore Carol - despite that hangover!
I remember the first Medical I read of Carol’s, back before I’d ever met her. Back before I was published and I was reading widely in the line I was targeting. And I knew, I just knew she was, or at least had been, a nurse. And it wasn’t in the big stuff – pass me the epi stat! etc etc – it was in the little things. The way a nurse would do a certain thing, or say something a certain way. The nuances of her characters. And I was hooked.
Fast forward to now and I’ve just finished reading Carol’s first self-published title - What Goes Around - and I’m still hooked. It’s a beautiful book, written just the way Carol talks – I swear I can hear her narrate it in my head. Be warned - it’s nothing at all like her category romances. It’s a big book full of gritty issues and flawed people that yeh, sometimes I just wanted to slap. But she had me rooting for them every step of the way as well and that is the essence of a good story teller. Being able to make a reader care about a character that is not always easy to care about.
But I can’t write a review and say these things because the debate has forced me to make a decision about not reviewing. And that’s a shame because this book deserves my accolades and Carol and her book don’t deserve to be penalised because many authors do the same as me – we keep out of it.
All that’s really left is for me to talk it up on social media which I fully intend to do because yes, Carol is my friend but her book is bloody brilliant and I want people to know about it and find it and read it.
No doubt that is frowned upon as well. So again…I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.
Clearly there’s no solution to any of this. This blog is just a voicing of my frustration. Another viewpoint to add to the mix.
Oh, and if you want to read a really good book, you can find it here.
http://www.amazon.com/What-Goes-Aroun...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
