 Hello, my name's Jackie and welcome back to my channel. And in this video, I actually want to talk about a question that's been on my mind for a while now, and that is whether writers should review books. Now the background on this is that when I read books, I have thoughts. I have thoughts about these books that I would like to share in case other readers find them interesting or helpful. As a reader, I also read reviews. I am a big fan of good reads and one of the things I'll often do when I'm deciding whether or not I want to read a book is I will go and look for the reviews to see whether it's something that I'd be interested in. However, what I've noticed is that a number of the authors I follow and in fact a number of the author tubers I follow don't tend to leave reviews or they might leave a positive review. So they might leave a five star rating in a short line about how much they love to book, but it's either five stars or nothing. So if I look at the list of books they've read, it'll literally be they either rate things as five stars or they just don't give a rating. So it's almost like that if you don't have something nice to say, you don't say anything at all. So the question is, is this like a policy among authors where they do not review books? And if so, is this a good policy? Is this a policy that I, as someone who wants to be an author, should be following? So let's start by looking at the benefits of book reviews. Now, I feel that book reviews help people make an informed decision about whether they do or don't want to read a book. They are also entertaining or can be entertaining. And on websites like Goodreads, they actually are a part of building a community and you can connect with people who like the same things you like and feel the same way about books that you do. The same thing goes for Booktube. If you read a book and you're particularly frustrated about it or angry about it, it gives you a chance to get it off your chest. And ultimately, as a reader, it helps you make the decision about whether or not you want to read something, either because it is or isn't something you're interested in or maybe it touches on topics that are trigger warnings for you. So it's helpful in letting you know that before you go and read a book that could potentially be traumatic for you. In fact, one of the ways I use reviews is I will often go to the bad reviews of a book I want to read and I will read those so then I can figure out whether the things that other people had a problem with are they things that are going to be a deal breaker for me? Are these things that will really irritate me when I'm reading the book or do I not care so much about those things? And I'm happy to read it anyway. So what's the challenge then? Well, let's say I, Jackie, have written a book and then an author I really like goes and leaves a one star review saying it's a piece of rubbish. Now, if I read that and before I continue, I want to be clear that I don't think reviews are for authors. I think reviews are for readers. I don't think there's much value in authors reading reviews because in most, unless you're Stephen King, you're probably not going to do anything about the book once it's out. And I think as an author it might probably do more harm than good. Now, if you have like an assistant or someone who's going to go through reviews and come up with the common pieces of feedback that you then intend to put into your next piece of work, then that's fine. And that assistant will probably take out a lot of the emotion and shaming and whatever else might be in there. But in general, reviews are for readers, not for authors. However, let me give a hypothetical scenario. Where an author does read their reviews. So I, Jackie, have written a book and then one of my favorite authors goes and leaves a one star review on it saying that it's a piece of crap. Now, if I got that review from an anonymous reader, that would probably still feel like a punch to the gut. But it wouldn't hurt so much because I don't know who that person is. Maybe they were having a bad day, et cetera, et cetera. If I get that review from an author who I respect and admire, it's almost worse because, one, I can put a face to the person who's left this review. Two, it's someone I respect. And if this is what someone I respect thinks about my book, maybe I need to question what I've written. And yeah, I think those are the two big things that you know who's leaving it so there's a face to the review. And it means more because you respect this person. I think when we get into author tubes specifically, then there's another layer of it being personal, especially because there are groups of author tubers who hang out together. So you see like Kate Kavanaugh and Book Passmore and Becca Seasmith doing live streams together. So they are friends like through the author tube community but also outside the community. So if one of them left a bad review on the other book, that'd probably be really hurtful. So that's the first piece where it's a little challenging is it's more hurtful. It could mean more than a regular reader leaving a review. The second concern, I imagine, is does it open that author up to revenge reviews almost? So if I'm an author and I leave a negative review or even a mediocre review of someone else's book, does that mean they and their fans are suddenly going to come and swarm my book and leave all of these negative reviews as well? And I'm not sure if there are any other concerns but they seem to be the big ones off the top of my head. So if you can think of any other reasons why leaving a review as an author would be more complex than if you were just a reader, please let me know in the comments below because I'm really curious to have your thoughts. The other thing I've noticed is that, especially in author tube, like everyone seems to be so nice, at least what I've seen. So if you're nice and your friend has written a book and you don't think that much of it, you probably don't want to leave a review that's not good because they're your friend and you want to be nice. But the reason I struggle with this is because this goes back to the things I was saying earlier about the benefits of reviews. So there are author tubers who I follow or I've used to follow and I've read their books and their books are not great. And I, as a reader, I want to know that. I want to read a review that tells me don't waste your time with this. Even though this person does great videos, this book was a piece of crap and they really could have used some more editing or it feels like they published a first draft rather than going through the full process. As a reader, I really want to know that before I invest five hours of my time into reading this book. As someone who's an aspiring author though, I don't feel like I can share that because that's not supporting fellow authors and it's not supportive in this fairly small community. Now, again, the reviews are meant for the readers. There is no obligation for the author to read them. I wouldn't expect the author to read them but when you're all part of the same community, maybe the temptation is higher. Maybe there is more of an expectation that you read each other's reviews and maybe that makes it a little bit different to someone from the public saying this. So that's the latest ramble from me. What do you think? Do you think that writers should leave reviews of other author's books? Or do you think it's best for them to steer clear of it and let people who are solely readers do their thing? Or am I just creating a big problem where there isn't one at all? Please let me know what you think in the comments below. Other than that, as always, please remember to like and subscribe because it does really help and I will see you next time. Bye.