Once upon a time, reviewers had credentials.
Film critics, for example, were expected to have earned degrees in film history or filmmaking techniques. Restaurant reviewers were expected to have attended culinary school. Book reviewers were expected to have useless MFA’s in creative writing … or, at the very least, to be frustrated, embittered editorial assistants with too much time on their hands.
No more. With the advent of the Internet — and, especially, with the launch of Amazon.com — anyone and his pet monkey can Be A Reviewer. Today, being a reviewer is as easy as filling out an online form and clicking SUBMIT; no special expertise is required.
The upside? It’s very easy to go online and find reviews of almost anything. The downside? It’s much, much harder to find reviews of products by people who know what they’re talking about.
I didn’t think about this too much until my first books came out. The most scathing review of my first book — and, therefore, the most memorable — blathered on and on for several paragraphs about the book’s awful concept, the book’s terrible advice, and the book’s clueless author. In the final paragraph, the “reviewer” concluded by saying, “After a glance at the cover, I knew this book wasn’t for me, and I’m proud to say I haven’t read a single word of it.” (Emphasis mine.)
Until that moment, the idea of reviewing a book without bothering to read it had never occurred to me.
One reviewer, betraying a lack of familiarity with how the publishing biz works, praised me at great length for making my books so affordable. (Thanks … but the publisher sets this price; the author has nothing to do with it.)
Another, in a review of my third book on Tarot, called it my first book and charged me with being a fly-by-night author who “obviously had never read Tarot professionally” and “knew nothing about the Tarot community.” (At the time, in addition to being a professional reader for more half a decade, I was vice-president of the American Tarot Association, a regular speaker at conventions nationwide, and a frequent contributor to a number of online communities.)
And so it goes.
The trend continues. Over at Amazon.com, there are literally thousands of reviews of the Kindle e-book reader — and a huge percentage of these are written by people who have never even laid hands on the device. Instead of reviewing the product, they complain about price, speculate about ease of use, whine about Amazon.com destroying locally-owned bookstores, express doubt that the product will work, gripe about extended delivery times and product availability. These are all posted as “one-star reviews,” even though it’s clear, again and again, that the “reviewers” have never purchased or worked with a Kindle.
Some brief guidelines, then, for those who style themselves “reviewers” of other people’s work:
– Before you review a product, use it. If you haven’t worked with a Kindle … if you haven’t read with the deck I’ve created … if you haven’t read the book you’re about to discuss … do us all a favor. Don’t review it.
– Do your research. There are the great websites called Google and Wikipedia. Use ’em. If you’re reviewing the book, contact the author and ask a question or two. If you’re reviewing a Tarot deck, contact the artist or designer and, instead of speculating about what was on their minds, ask ’em. If you’re reviewing a product like the Kindle, use it (and use the competing products) before posting a review.
– Support your opinions. Saying “I like this!” or “I hate this!” is not the same as writing a review. Why did you like it? Why did you hate it? If you say you prefer another, similar item (like the Sony e-Book reader or another book on Tarot by another author), tell us what that item offers that the current item doesn’t.
– Get the facts straight. There are dozens of Kindle “reviews” — many posted within the last few days — that are rife with misinformation. “The Kindle can’t read any documents other than those purchased from Amazon!” Wrong. “You can’t read .PDF or Word files on the Kindle!” Wrong. “It costs you ten cents every time you copy a document to the Kindle!” Wrong. If you’re going to review something, get the facts straight.
– Know what goes into a review. A fiction book review does not review the surprise ending of the book. A non-fiction book review does more than list the table of contents and regurgitate the marketing copy on the back. A review of a product covers functionality, your personal experience with the product, and offers insights that will help others decide whether or not the product is for them. If your “review” doesn’t contain this information, don’t post it.
– Review the actual product. One reviewer blasted the Kindle because “It doesn’t let me surf the web wirelessly.” Well, no, sweetie, it doesn’t — because the Kindle is an e-book reader, designed for reading e-books, with a little wireless functionality thrown in primarily as a means of getting e-book content on the device. It was never designed to be a laptop or iPhone replacement. Don’t condemn a product for not being something it was never designed to be.
Add comment