I was actually asking the question of general readers, not writers pertaining to their own book, but I still think a writer can get something from reading reader reviews. Possibly this is more valid for the writer who has not yet hit the stratosphere and attracted the “let’s knock down the tall poppy” syndrome, which might have some bearing on the Hamilton criticisms.

It would be stupid to get het up over comments written by a stranger about whom you know exactly nothing, but nonetheless I think a writer can learn from thoughtful assessments by unknown readers. They are the people we write for and if what they say strikes a chord within me, the writer, then I will learn something.

I think it is fairly easy to recognise a “good” reviewer. They give reasons that explain why they hold their opinion. They confine their comments to the book, not the writer. They are coherent and rational and thoughtful and you can get a sense of whether this is the wrong book for them, or whether they have valid crits of your writing. You can even usually get a sense of how widely read they are within the genre.

(BTW, Laurell Hamilton has reacted rather oddly to criticism with a stinging, sarcastic blog entry which also seems rather silly.)

What intrigued me about her amazon reviews, and which prompted my question, was the huge gap between her popularity (that book was on bestseller lists everywhere) and the extreme reaction of the reviewers. You don’t usually see that, even with other hugely popular writers – the only other one I can think of is Jordan’s 10th book that had over a 1000 reviews and only scored one and a half stars, and his case is slightly different because each of his books are more of the trilogy type rather than books in a series, so there is more reason for people to buy.

With amazon reviews, the problem is getting a context for the reviewer.. is exactly why I don’t read Amazon reviews.

Good reviews could be good because the reader is smart… or stupid. Bad reviews could be bad because the reader is smart, or stupid. There’s no way to tell, so there’s no point taking bad reviews to heart – or the good ones either.

And if you took on all the contradictory feedback, you could easily go mad. Or never write another word without doubting and questioning what you’re doing to the point of choking.

I trust the feedback and opinions of friends and fellow writers instead. A million Amazon reviews wouldn’t amount to a speck of the value of a good friend’s feedback. And the same is just as true for book recommendations.

I have had a certain amount of public trashing. The one (amazon comment) that hurt most was being called “racist” (well, actually they said my first book “may even be mildly racist, however it is so bad you cannot really tell”). Yes, I know it was probably someone who didn’t know me (they didn’t have the spine to put their name to the comment) and the chronic political correctness malaise is that you can find fault wherever you look for it; but it was, as you say, a doozy. It had me chewing broken glass for weeks.

I can’t say, though, that I have suffered from public trashing. in fact, with one solitary exception, I have been generally pleased with the public comment on all my books, both by professional reviewers and amazon-type reviewers.

The one exception was a doozy, I will admit. “An unpleasant read” was about the nicest thing she said. Lol!! I think she might have someone who likes “nice” books and she just came to the wrong place.

I tend to use amazon to try out new authors, and like other people read the reviews more to get an idea for content than to decide if the book is any good or not. If I’m interested in the book, I’ll read all of the reviews unless there’s a lot, in which case, if they all seem to be saying the same thing I’ll ignore the rest except for the negative. How I actually decide I want to buy a book? I’m not entirely sure, lol, usually I think there’s an unique idea mentioned which catches my imagination.

Hrugaar – Maybe it’s easier to be moved to action by a negative reaction than than by a positive one?

I know there are loads of times when politics and politicians move me towards writing a scathing blog entry and I have to walk away because I don’t want to turn my blog into a political rave!

Thank you for this wonderful window on you and your life. Your girls look like great fun and are beautiful. I love my two children beyond words, so there’s that too.