John Dean – Crime Writer

I have always been supportive of the review facility on the likes of Amazon. Readers have the right to express their views of a book and I respect that. Indeed, an author can learn from negative reviews.

I am fortunate in that most of my reviews are complimentary and even if a review is less than appreciative most of them explain why the reviewer holds that opinion in constructive terms.

But sometimes – and they are very rare – I receive reviews that are less constructive. I have just received one which said the book in question was ‘awful’ and contained only a few equally critical words, giving me one star – I felt fortunate to have received one!

Out of interest, I checked on the writer’s other book reviews and found a string of other reviews using similarly dismissive language.

What did I do? Nothing. I did not report the reviewer nor will I, but I publish this post because I really do think that there is more to reviews than simply slagging off a book, particularly when so many of the other reviews are so positive that you wonder if they were reading the same book (the book in question has 1,389 ratings, 4.4 out of 5 stars. All of my books receive similar scores and the few negative reviews tend to be very constructive in explaining why)

I would suggest in, conclusion, that the review facility is precious and deserves more than being used as a platform for something that comes close to abuse.