Goodreads: Why All My Books Get 5 Stars
Agent Michael Stearns posted an interesting blog about how he rates books on Goodreads. You can read his thoughts here.
He brings up a valid point for those of us involved in the book industry. When I first joined Goodreads, I put everything I read on there, and I rated it honestly. If I hated a book, it got 1 star. If I didn't finish reading it, I labeled it "Couldn't finish." Because if a book doesn't grab me by page 50, I move on. There are too many better books to consume. As an avid and discerning reader, I can't and don't love everything.
But as my friends list grew, and more and more of those friends started to be book industry professionals, I realized. Oh. I can't really tear down someone else's book. I mean, geez, I write them myself, I know how hard it is, how much time and energy goes into those pages, how many years of a person's life. And to be published? Someone LOVES this book. Probably several someones: the agent, the editor, the entire publishing house who slaved to get this book into the world. And not only might I accept a friend request from an author whose book I've rated poorly--forgetting that I've done that, I'll probably run into that person someday. The children's publishing world is a small one after all.
So early on--hopefully before I goofed and hurt someone's feelings, I deleted books I didn't like from my list, and made all the ones I liked five stars. My friend Liz, who I was in an honest-to-god book club with in NC (this is them), emails me. "Dude, why are you changing all your reviews to five stars? Are you sucking up?"
Me: *Hangs head in shame* Yes!
For the record though, if I have a book on my Goodreads page, I really did love it. The trade off is that my list is in no way comprehensive of all the books I've read, and if you don't see your book on there, I may have read it and loved it, and totally was too busy reading to remember to put it on there. (Don't you love how I just covered my fanny again right there?)
So the truth is, as a book industry person, I can no longer participate in a brutally honest discussion of books--at least not publicly. And I worry that some of my friends like Liz don't take me seriously anymore. It makes me a little sad, because I have book friends who live all over the world, and the easiest way to have that honest book discussion is through social networking site like Goodreads.
And the other day, I was thinking a fun blog would be: How Bad Covers Happen to Good Books. I have these like, very specific opinions about book covers, and it would be fun to start that blog. But you know, it's probably not a good idea--for all the same reasons it wouldn't be wise to publicly give bad book reviews.
It does make one feel like a suck-up sometimes.
But overall, it's not so bad. I can scream about the books I love from the rooftops. And that's fun. I love championing books. And I'm happiest discussing books I love. As a book lover, I want people to read. And the best way to do that is to talk about the good books.
I have to think that's what the people who started Goodreads had in mind.
He brings up a valid point for those of us involved in the book industry. When I first joined Goodreads, I put everything I read on there, and I rated it honestly. If I hated a book, it got 1 star. If I didn't finish reading it, I labeled it "Couldn't finish." Because if a book doesn't grab me by page 50, I move on. There are too many better books to consume. As an avid and discerning reader, I can't and don't love everything.
But as my friends list grew, and more and more of those friends started to be book industry professionals, I realized. Oh. I can't really tear down someone else's book. I mean, geez, I write them myself, I know how hard it is, how much time and energy goes into those pages, how many years of a person's life. And to be published? Someone LOVES this book. Probably several someones: the agent, the editor, the entire publishing house who slaved to get this book into the world. And not only might I accept a friend request from an author whose book I've rated poorly--forgetting that I've done that, I'll probably run into that person someday. The children's publishing world is a small one after all.
So early on--hopefully before I goofed and hurt someone's feelings, I deleted books I didn't like from my list, and made all the ones I liked five stars. My friend Liz, who I was in an honest-to-god book club with in NC (this is them), emails me. "Dude, why are you changing all your reviews to five stars? Are you sucking up?"
Me: *Hangs head in shame* Yes!
For the record though, if I have a book on my Goodreads page, I really did love it. The trade off is that my list is in no way comprehensive of all the books I've read, and if you don't see your book on there, I may have read it and loved it, and totally was too busy reading to remember to put it on there. (Don't you love how I just covered my fanny again right there?)
So the truth is, as a book industry person, I can no longer participate in a brutally honest discussion of books--at least not publicly. And I worry that some of my friends like Liz don't take me seriously anymore. It makes me a little sad, because I have book friends who live all over the world, and the easiest way to have that honest book discussion is through social networking site like Goodreads.
And the other day, I was thinking a fun blog would be: How Bad Covers Happen to Good Books. I have these like, very specific opinions about book covers, and it would be fun to start that blog. But you know, it's probably not a good idea--for all the same reasons it wouldn't be wise to publicly give bad book reviews.
It does make one feel like a suck-up sometimes.
But overall, it's not so bad. I can scream about the books I love from the rooftops. And that's fun. I love championing books. And I'm happiest discussing books I love. As a book lover, I want people to read. And the best way to do that is to talk about the good books.
I have to think that's what the people who started Goodreads had in mind.