Negative Reviews & Collection Development
Negative book reviews are going to exist, it's a fact of life; not everyone is going to like a specific type of book. Fans of certain authors are not going to like everything the author writes. I'd argue that those negative reviews can be just as informative as positive reviews, if not more so, especially for the reader. Often, negative reviews may provide vital information about a book that a reader may not want to read. For example, I was recently very excited to read a queer historical regency romance novel. When I was perusing reviews on Goodreads, I saw a few mention that the two characters become step-sisters while maintaining their romantic relationship. For me, that is something that I just do not want to read. Those negative reviews including that information allowed me to make the decision to not read a book that had the potential to make me uncomfortable. Similarly, the reviews provided for Angela's Ashes did the same. While these were positive, they still provided me with enough information that told me I probably would not like reading it.
The reviews provided for The Billionaire’s First Christmas fall into the middling category between positive and negative, in my opinion. These are my favorite reviews to read when I’m decided what to read because sometimes they’ll share something as a negative that I would find positive. The blog review provided mentioned the book having too much Christmas content – if I made a point to read holiday romance, this would probably be more of a plus for me.
As for negative reviews on the collection development side of things, I
would have to argue that they may not be as beneficial as positive
reviews. The Indianapolis Public Library's Selection Criteria for
Materials includes criteria for looking at reviews from
the media (popular press and/or library journals) and looking at author or
publisher credibility. This credibility criteria discusses self-published
authors or from small presses will still be considered, but are looked at more
carefully, specifically noting the search for positive reviews in local or
national publications. While IndyPL is just one library, I'd assume this is
more of the norm for larger library collection development, as well. If a book
is garnering mostly negative reviews, I would wager that libraries are not
going to want to spend money on purchasing the book unless patrons have
outright requested the title. And having to dig deeper for self-published works is probably not a priority because of the resources it takes to do so.
Garnering reviews for those self-published books or small press books is not easy. In their Submission Guidelines for Publishers (2024), Kirkus refuses to accept reviews on self-published titles for their traditional review process. However, Kirkus Indie provides the option for these authors to purchase a review from professional reviewers. While it may not be fair that this is the case, there are millions of books published each year. It is near impossible to get professional reviews on each and every book, especially with the added ease of self-publishing on platforms like Amazon. (As an aside, if anyone is in the market to read a self-published fantasy romcom series that is silly in the best possible way, check out the Villains and Virtues series by A.K. Caggiano!) Hopefully things will find a way to change to allow more self-published authors to be more legitimized in the eyes of the publishing world.
Hello Katie,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a great point about how seemingly negative reviews can still provide valuable information; like the old adage goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure"! I was entertained by the review for The Billionaire's First Christmas, when they said it was "too Christmasy", my reaction was, "Well...if I'm specifically searching for a holiday romance, then I'd want to feel like I'm engulfed in that particular holiday and romance!" lol Again though, to each his own.
I also appreciate your thoughts on reviews for self-published books. After considering it, it makes total sense that more effort would have to be put towards researching those items for potential library collection purchase, in order to make sure they conform to the library's selection criteria and mission/value statements. I like the fact that Kirkus has both a firm policy regarding these types of reviews, and also provides an alternative review solution for self-published titles.
I felt the same about the "too Christmasy" comment...it's a Christmas specific novel. It's hard sometimes to not judge people's reviews of books when they're upset with something that it's marketed as being. I've seen negative reviews about books having morally grey characters when the book summary literally calls the character "morally grey." There's something there about managing expectations as a reader, but I just don't know how to word it.
DeleteKatie, I agree about negative reviews - it's not so much the reviewer's opinion, but the examples and illustrations they provide. I think one thing I didn't like about those romance reviews was that they didn't let me know much about the book. Was the writing engaging? Were the characters believable? One said it was cozy, and Christmassy, so that's a bit of help. I don't love those kinds of novels and it didn't make me think of giving them a try. I should go find a mediocre review of a mystery novel (my favorite type) and see how I respond to that!
ReplyDeleteI had been feeling a little negative about the lack of support for buying more books from small presses (you wrote more about self-published, but I was thinking about this as falling in the same category). But your point about the limited resources (money and time) making it difficult to really know about some of those books makes a lot of sense. It leads me to encourage even more to have our patrons request books they like or from authors they like - I think that would help the collections people make decisions.
I agree with the romance reviews, needing more information about the actual story. It made me think about my own reviews I leave on Goodreads, which are more for my own reference and for my friends, and I rarely say anything about the writing style. For Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros I wrote "dragons and a shadow wielding man, what else do you need." I know that doesn't say anything about the writing style itself, but I know it convinced some of my friends to read the book. After this class has started though, I've started to think a little bit more about the reviews I leave and how they can better inform other readers.
DeleteHello Katie!
ReplyDeleteWow, thank you for that thorough response! I really appreciate your inclusion of IndyPL's policies as an example of why the review process may not look fair at face value, but eases the overall selection process for libraries, especially when dealing with budget constraints. I wrote a bit about Demand-Driven Acquisition, which goes hand in hand with your points. If you haven't discovered it yet, it may be an idea that would interest you.
I am curious, would you consider purchasing Angela's Ashes for a library collection given its reviews? I do not think I would enjoy it either, but I still think I would select it for purchasing, given its demand and its quality reviews.
Excellent point about negative reviews as well! Sometimes, you do find something that another reader hates, only for it to be an appeal factor for you. I feel that way about unlikeable characters. The more morally grey or unsettling, the better!
If I was a selector, I would 100% purchase Angela's Ashes based on the reviews. I actually work at IndyPL and using those guidelines I did link, I think it would fit well in the collection (it actually is in our collection - we have the book, e-book, audiobook on cd, e-audiobook, and a book club kit).
DeleteI really loved how you brought up the fact that Kirkus allows smaller authors the option to purchase a review. I think that that is a great idea since so many books get published it is impossible for each one to have a professional review. It does make me a bit uncomfortable though, the fact that the author has paid for the review to happen makes the credibility of the review come into question. The ethics around paying for a review just bring up so many questions/issues that I am not sure how to feel about the service at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree that paying for reviews feels questionable. They actually have in their FAQ that if an author gets a bad review, they can choose not to publish it on the Kirkus website. They can also choose to not publish a positive review, with Kirkus even suggesting using the paid reviews as a way to hone their craft. It does feel a little wishy washy on the ethical side of things, I agree. Some reviews may absolutely love the book and some may hate it, and giving the author the decision to publish it or not is where it really gets questionable for me. It actually reminded me of that author who was discovered leaving negative reviews on multiple books through fake accounts on Goodreads, while leaving a plethora of positive reviews on her own (https://time.com/6397305/cait-corrain-goodreads-review-bomb-authors/).
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