I have written many posts about reviews and reviewing, explaining why we do what we do. Some of the posts I’ve written on this topic go back to 2008 — obviously I care about reviewing as well as your opinions. We have always stressed here that we consider other readers to be our primary clients, but we also respect authors and welcome them to the site, (in fact we have guest reviewers who are published writers) and I hope that respect is reciprocated.
Publishers send us their books because they hope to get positive reviews which generate sales and that, in turn, makes their authors happy. However, we won’t compromise our integrity by watering down legitimate concerns about certain books because we’re afraid of offending authors or publishers, as we would be failing other readers if we weren’t honest.
There are 14 reviewers who give of their personal time on this site for the benefit of other readers. They are impartial, passionate, write honest reviews and take pride in doing their job. We are not cheerleaders for authors but if/when we find an exceptional book we praise it to the skies. On the other side of the spectrum if a book has many flaws we don’t give it a passing grade because we like a particular author, we indicate why it didn’t work for us.
Maybe there’s a misunderstanding on the part of some publishers and their authors about the role of reviewers. Our reviews are professional and we don’t take pot shots or make snarky comments about authors. It’s all about the books. However it seems that a few of our reviews have hit a nerve with one publisher who has decided not to continue submitting books to this site for review. Recently an email from this publisher really got my adrenalin flowing because of its message. Obviously it is a publisher’s prerogative to stop sending books to this site for review, but what I took exception to was how the email was worded because it denigrated not only the reviewers but other readers. Here is the gist of this email from Silver Publishing which said in part:
“We are taking this opportunity to assess our current reviewing relationships to ensure we are reaching out to those sites that are the best fit for our authors and their readers.
We recognize that because your site is so well known it attracts voices from many diverse personalities with strong opinions. That said, our reviews often tend to generate comments that don’t seem constructive in their intent and at times fall toward abusive and rude. Since we would never ask anyone to censure responses or opinions we are going to take a different path to avoid these situations.
Based on past review history, author input and staff consensus, at this time we are not choosing to continue our reviewing relationship with your site.”
The writer went on: “We will periodically reassess these decisions in the future”. So I guess if we change our evil ways and write only positive reviews we’ll be back in favour and our dance card will be renewed. Ummm … no thank you! I respectfully decline such a magnanimous offer.
I invite you to read the reviews posted on the site for this publisher’s books and decide for yourself if they were polite and fair, or “abusive and rude.”
I said in another post about our reviewers: “We all bring different skills and mindsets to the art of writing book reviews and I consider reviewing an art because reviewers walk a fine line between trying to tell the reader/potential buyer what aspects of a book worked for them or didn’t, and why.” We don’t tell potential purchasers which books to buy nor do we make excuses for poorly written books which appear to need the services of an editor. One critical issue stressed on this site by all the reviewers is a lack of editing expertise at some publishing houses, and if we lose a few publishers because we keep pointing out this flaw in their books, so be it. Any product that is offered for sale to the public has to meet certain industry standards, and reviews are one way of bringing the qualities or flaws of a product to the attention of the buying public. Every reviewer has her/his own criteria for rating books but most of us want to read memorable stories, not those that are like dirty bedsheets, forgotten immediately after we’re finished reading them.
This site will continue to review books by Silver authors since we have had a good relationship with many authors who release books through this publisher. The difference is we will no longer request books through the publisher. Silver authors wishing to have their M/M books reviewed on this site should send the blurb (not the book) with the page and word count to reviews [at] gayromance.org and I will circulate it to the reviewers. If someone requests the book I will contact the author to request the book in the format of the reviewer’s choice.
Authors who wish to donate their books as free books on the site can do so at any time as long as the book is a recent release. Here’s the email address: freebooks [at] gayromance.org.
This is a really disappointing move. I was going to finally place a huge order with all the books on my wishlist next week, but now I just might spend that money somewhere else. :no:
So well said Wave 🙂
Oh wow 🙁
I have never seen anything but honest, courteous reviews here
And honestly, that was my first impression what this site requires when I was just starting – be honest but be polite in the expressing it. There are times when I want to snark (not often but it happens, believe me it does) and as a reader and reviewer, my personal policy for myself is that as long snark is not directed towards the author as a person, sometimes it is warranted – sometimes the behaviour of the characters strikes me as that idiotic, research as that lazy, etc, etc, etc. But I will always rewrite it in polite terms, when I get it off my chest in private. And I am not even talking about profanity here, or dissing the author in any ways (that is always a no no for me). I will tone down the general language before I put the review on the site. Oh well, again – what Wave said.
It’s also why I read reviews here, much as I love Goodreads for the numerous reviews per book to choose from, there are many almost bashing like reviews there, which does nothing for me in the decission to buy a book or not
This saddens me, it really does.
Last year, I spoke to a Silver author who complained that this site rarely reviewed books from Silver and they wished the publisher got more recognition from this site. Now Silver are saying they don’t want us to review their books. You can’t have it both ways. If you want the publicity for your books that the reviews on this site bring, then you have to accept that sometimes that publicity may not be as good as you hoped. Even bad publicity brings sales, as many authors can testify.
Hi Jen
We are taking this opportunity to assess our current reviewing relationships to ensure we are reaching out to those sites that are the best fit for our authors and their readers.
I really don’t know how to take this comment. This site reviews M/M books, and other than some genres that we don’t review I’m not sure what they mean about “best fit for our authors and their readers.”
This email came out of nowhere. The publisher didn’t complain to me about any specific reviews or any readers who were rude or abusive – they went straight to GO.
Whatever their reason, books by Silver authors are welcome on this site since the majority of them have nothing to do with this action by the publisher despite the publisher’s claim about author input.
I think they may have made this decision hastily (maybe not, as I understand there was a retreat or a meeting of some kind at which this was discussed and authors were present). Regardless how they reached this decision it will impose another workload on me as I will be contacted directly by Silver authors who would like their books reviewed, rather than through their Review Coordinator.
I can’t imagine that them taking this unwarranted action is going to help their business any. Personally, I buy about 75% of my books based on reviews from this site. If their books aren’t reviewed here, I likely won’t even know of their existence.
I went through the list you provided, there are more good reviews than bad. I think someone’s had their feelings hurt, is taking their ball and going home. Or at least it appears that way to me.
Good for you Wave. I don’t like sites that refuse to give bad reviews. It is a disservice to your readers and would make this site a real disappointment. Not one I would frequent either.
Laura
We will still review books by authors who release books through this publisher except now they will have to submit the blurbs to me and I will include them in the weekly list I send out.
We believe in being honest in our reviews and if we have to write the occasional negative reviews we usually back them up with quotes from the books. If any publisher expects us to write glowing reviews for all of their books then they should probably not send them to this site for review.
That’s disappointing. Not to defend their position, but I got the impression it was the comments they found rude, not the review “our reviews often tend to generate comments that don’t seem constructive in their intent and at times fall toward abusive and rude.”
But you don’t control the comments of readers. As long as they don’t truly fall into abusive, and your reviews are respectful, you have to take a bit of the bad with the good.
Oh well, it’s their prerogative, it’s unfortunate though.
That’s so funny Tam, I was about to say the same thing. I interpreted the letter that the reader comments were what bothered them.
As you say, this isn’t something that you can control. But to Silver’s credit they do go on to say that they would never ask Wave to censure comments. So they do understand how it is.
It is their prerogative to not offer their books for review, but they are missing a golden opportunity for publicity, and many of their books have received good reviews here. That’s a loss for the excellent stories that they will be publishing in the future. But then there are many other review sites that they can use.
I understood the point they were making about the comments, but this starts with the reviews.
If we write a negative review and give examples of prose or dialogue that in our opinion needed a good editor, that tends to generate what they perceive as rude or abusive comments. I have on occasion requested authors as well as readers to leave and not return because they were abusing the reviewer(s) and as far as I know insults to the authors are seldom made.
I think a few authors were upset because their books weren’t rated higher and took the opportunity to, “stick it to the review site”. However, we don’t publish or sell books – we only write reviews – so they are really not hurting the site or the reviewers.
It is unfortunate that this publisher was so short sighted. I’ve found that some negative reviews generate a lot more sales than the positive ones because readers want to read the book(s) themselves to see if our reviews were on the money. 🙂
I also thought that it starts with the reviews per that excerpt. To me “reviews tend to generate comments” implies that the writer thinks that certain type of the review generates the certain type of comments (note – they do not even say that review invites comments, they say generates), not that I see anything wrong with comments on those reviews either honestly. Honest review generates honest discussion IMO.
Learning about the above mentioned facts had me wondering because I know I’ve read (and reviewed) several wonderful books by this publisher. Of course, I was also disappointed with some of their books, but I didn’t recall this being different from most other publishers’ offers. As for me, I am totally with Sirius here. My reviews are all about the book and the story. If I love a book, I’ll sing its praise to high heavens, and if I find something wrong with a book, be that story, plot, writing style, editing, or whatever, I’ll say it as I see it, and I don’t care who wrote or published either work. But I digress.
I couldn’t remember either a recent spree of “bad” reviews on the site for this publisher’s books that could’ve brought on this move, and so I sat down and did a little number crunching on the 20 most recent reviews respectively. This is what I found:
The 20 most recent reviews on the site all in all come at an average of 3.9 rating stars (regardless of reviewer, publisher or author).
The 20 most recent Silver reviews on the site come at an average of 3.5
The 20 most recent TEB reviews come at 3.4, Amber Allure: 3.7, DSP: 4.1, Loose Id: 4.1
(I confined myself to the 20 most recent reviews for each and picked a handful of publishers at random. If anyone feels compelled to expand the statistics, go ahead. It isn’t as if anyone with a pocket calculator couldn’t do the same math)
I’ll leave these numbers uncommented for now, guess they speak for themselves.
Hi Feliz
So it seems that Silver was treated fairly after all. I wonder if they did any research before sending me that email? I have reviewed books myself by Silver authors and my ratings range from 5 stars to 2 but I suppose the author of the 2 star book was not very happy with me.
No other publisher has ever withdrawn its books despite receiving its share of negative reviews, so I can only conclude that the folks at Silver are extremely thin skinned. If you sell a product you have to expect that not everyone would like it and the reviews and sales will reflect that fact.
I have done my own fair share of scrambling back looking at the reviews Silver have received. I just ended up thinking how other people’s reviews sounded far more amusing and clever than mine…….
I really couldn’t find anything that seemed to warrant such a strong reaction. It would be helpful if Silver could just mention something specific, cos it’s a bit like investigating a murder with no body at the moment. 😕
It would be helpful if Silver could just mention something specific
Raine, that would probably degenerate into hostility. I deliberately didn’t mention the name of the person who sent me the email because I didn’t want any anger directed towards this person. I assume that this decision was made at the management level of this publisher with author and staff input, and the author of the email was just the messenger.
I took a look for myself at the reviews and they seemed fair, constructive, and often very positive; ditto for the comments.
I think any theoretical damage the reviews might have done is negligible compared to the fallout from the letter the publisher wrote.
They kind of gave themselves a ‘DNF’ there.
If you can’t take the heat, Silver, then publishing might not be the right business for you. If by “heat” one means reviews that are honest reviews and not puff pieces.
**like**
This cracked me up- 😆
I mean…we all know how nice and fluffy the publishing business is- :hysterics:
Although I am not a Silver author, I know several writers who are and to put it plainly, they are *horrified*.
The email quoted says Silver considered “author input” in this decision. Please note that it doesn’t assert any sort of “author consensus.” Staff consensus, yes. Author consensus, no. I don’t know who Silver spoke to, nor do I especially care, but…Please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Some writers, at least, had no say in this. 🙁
And the author’s are who I feel bad for in this situation. I truly think Silver did not think before sending that e-mail.
No input here either, nor did I noticed any open posts asking for input. *shrug*
Kari
As I said before, we will continue reviewing books released by this publisher. As I told Josh, just this morning I sent three Silver books by different authors to a reviewer for review. However, when we run out of new books to review we will either have to buy them or the authors will have to send them to us directly since the publisher has withdrawn from the process.
Oh good. I was just afraid that, on first blush, it might appear or seem like all Silver authors agreed with this decision, when the ones I’ve talked to sure didn’t — and were never even consulted about it. I’m glad they can send review requests themselves and won’t be penalized by the behavior of the few.
WOW 😯
And I bought a lot from Silver!
Shame on them.
And you are totally right about negative reviews Wave….I have bought Scarlett Blackwell’s books on negative reviews alone.
And you are totally right about negative reviews Wave….I have bought Scarlett Blackwell’s books on negative reviews alone.
Maybe someone at this publisher will see your comment and realize that negative reviews are not always a bad thing. We usually say what elements of a book we don’t appreciate if we give it a negative review. But if that same element turns you on, then of course you’ll buy it. 😀 Scarlet Blackwell should send us some of her royalties. 😎
I really don’t understand what positive outcome Silver could possibly be expecting from this decision. When you consider that both positive and negative reviews tend to result in increased sales (and that’s not news, my impression is that’s been pretty widely understood by a lot of people for a long time), where is the advantage in requesting no reviews? 😕
Especially when the reviews and comments on this site tend to be respectful. And no less favorable for Silver than any other publisher, as Feliz’s numbers show. I’d really like to know the rationale behind this decision. I’m trying, but I just can’t make sense of it for myself. 😕
And as other reviewers have already mentioned, I’m quite happy to continue reviewing Silver books if the authors want to make them available to us. 🙂
My wild guess will be that the fact that both positive and negative reviews may result in increased sales are not understood by as many people as you seemed to think Jess 😀
Otherwise I am just as lost as you are.
It’s Silvers loss in the end, and possibly their authors, which is sad. Unless I read a review I don’t know about books being released as I only browse actively one publisher (not Amazon btw), even though I buy books from dozens of publishers.
I think the most unfortunate thing here is that all Silver writers are being tarnished by the same brush. This does not sound to me like a vote that went through the rank and file. I’m wondering if a handful of (inexperienced) authors raised hell about some unfavorable reviews and the publisher overreacted?
Will you still review Silver books if they’re sent in by individual authors?
Absolutely, Josh, and we completely welcome that. They can send us a message with the specifics to reviews [at] gayromance.org. The authors should not suffer for a decision that seems to have not been a consensus. They can also give away books here, which generates interest as well.
Josh
Today I sent three books published by Silver that I had in my pending file (they are part of the same series) to a reviewer. I know that she will review them in the same professional and thoughtful way she has done in the past, despite this email from the publisher.
I have no problem with authors sending us their files for review directly – a few of them already do. I myself have bought a lot of books from Silver similar to purchasing self pubbed books on Amazon, but I’m not sure if I’ll continue to buy books from this publisher unless I know the author. One of the reasons we have been reviewing a lot of books published by Silver is we have been trying out authors new to M/M, and Silver has a lot of new authors. However because these authors are new and inexperienced their books need a lot of editing and I think they are not being supported in this area.
Authors are free to send us their books for review or giveaways, whether they publish with Silver or any other publisher – the change is that this publisher will no longer be sending their books here for review.
Considering the fact Silver has at least 200 authors on their roster — not sure how many are m/m — how can a majority decision be made when only like 10 authors and a few employees from the Silver writer’s retreat allegedly had input into this process?
I wish Silver had put this to a vote so ALL their authors could have weighed in.
It is hard enough for a new author get to reviews these days (good or bad), but to eliminate one of the biggest web sites out there that might get you book noticed, seems like a bad business decision to me.
I will still review Silver authors I like (Amber Kell, Pender Mackie, Cleon Lee, Kendall McKenna, etc.) and if any other Silver authors want to send me their books, I am happy to read and review them.
Silver sounds like a hierarchal organization that doesn’t believe in consulting the “masses” (i.e. its authors that are financially affected by its decisions) but prefers to make its management and policy decisions using a “top down” approach. I thought that business model went out decades ago but how else can you rationalize what happened?
They never emailed me about any complaints before this email was received. They must have some pretty serious issues with this site to make such an important decision to withdraw their books immediately. However, all is not lost, Silver authors can submit their blurbs for review to reviews [at] gayromance.org. See the penultimate paragraph in my post.
I didn’t comment on this before, simply because I didn’t think it was necessary. I imagine that if a rude and abusive review is ever written by a reviewer, it would never be published on the site (at least not before significant editing). We are not in the business of insulting authors and publishers, but honestly reviewing books for the readers.
It was an unprofessional decision on Silver’s part and I do feel bad for the authors who had no part in this whole thing. I wouldn’t mind reviewing books sent by authors themselves.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been hanging out here a long time — mostly in lurk mode lately, but still here 🙂 — and I have yet to see a post of any sort or a comment thread that was not thoroughly professional and respectful. Sure, discussions get heated sometimes, but the flaming and name-calling that pops up nearly everywhere else just doesn’t happen here. Reviews of my own books here — and they haven’t all been glowing! — have ALWAYS been professional, articulate, and well thought out.
IMHO this was not a good decision on Silver’s part. I feel bad for the authors, because yeah, all reviews are good publicity, no matter whether they’re good or bad. Even just seeing your book on the list is a subconscious nudge for readers. Hell, I’m thrilled that my next Samhain release MIGHT have a shot at an online RT review or a Publisher’s Weekly review, because even if they hate it, that’s huge. Getting it out there is the important part. What’s actually said is completely secondary. Although naturally, we all have those happy squee moments when someone loves our books 😀
Thanks for the vote of confidence Ally.
What was so surprising was that this email came without warning. This was the first communication I received from Silver in a couple of years other than emails from their Review Coordinator forwarding books for review. If they had any problems with this site the sensible thing to do would have been to communicate with me about it rather than sending out this infamous email. Now the die is cast and there’s no going back.
Authors know that not every review will be favourable and it depends on the reviewer – it’s the luck of the draw who requests a book first. If that person loves your style and the plot then the review will be positive, if not …… 😮
I don’t think any of us have a problem with Silver writers, or that more than a few have a problem with us. I certainly plan to read and review whatever Silver-pubbed books catch my interest.
This may have been a case of least said, soonest mended, because now a lot of readers have been clicking through to see what sort of horrible things might have been said and may have come away with a more negative view of this publisher’s books. I went back to check what I said, and was reminded of this issue and that. Not that any problem is exclusive to one pub, but we’re talking about one pub here, so the connection gets made.
I hope part of their “periodic reassessment” is to address the internal issues in stories that gathered the undesirable comments. I start every story with the hopes of enjoying it and being able to say so in the review.
I certainly plan to read and review whatever Silver-pubbed books catch my interest
I’m totally with you here, Cryselle. Some of my favorite authors have published with Silver, and I totally plan to continue to read their books–and to review them, here or elsewhere.
This is definitely their loss, not yours. I feel sorry for their authors though.
And I don’t think I’ve ever read a review on this site that was anything other than well thought out and articulate. And if it is the comments they’re referring to, well, I think most people can spot the difference between an official review and a snarky comment — not that I’ve seen any here that I can think of anyway…
Keep up the good work!
Lisa
The authors can still send in their books for review as they have done in the past. I have said that before and I will repeat it here. We have no problem with authors who publish through Silver even though some of them have issues with our reviews.
Just wow. I rely on Jessiewave for the honest reviews, A subject that is picking up increasing amounts of customer frustration at Amazon (rumors of publisher/author manipulated reviews abound).
Frankly, I don’t understand and the frou and hysteria over lower rated reviews. Personally, I frequently find those to be the most honest about what the reader likes and dislikes, and therefore the most helpful when choosing new books. And just because one reviewer didn’t like X in the book, doesn’t mean X is a deal breaker for me…I might even prefer X. But readers that keep getting burned by manipulated (and less than honest) reviews, will shop elsewhere.
Disappointing on the part of Silver Publishing, b/c this gives the appearance that the would rather manipulate reviews than improve their product.
HI. Just a note to say that this has to do with only ONE author…the author in question. A.J. Llewellyn and myself knew nothing about this. Jesse wave is free to review our books at any time and I invite you to do so. I am in the process of writing to the publisher to make this clear.
Thanks
D.J. Manly
Thanks DJ
A few authors who publish with Silver have written me to say they were not consulted about this decision, so it seems that it was either made unilaterally or some authors thought their books should have been rated higher here. However this decision was made we will no longer be requesting books for review from this publisher. Reviewer are free to review books on this site sent in by Silver authors.
Oh good lord! Did you put the “kick me” sign back on your butt? I love this site because of the fairness and civility in the reviews, not to mention the Friday guys. I don’t go anywhere else for my reviews and I don’t feel forced or coerced into buying or not buying a book. You people are so much fun and I feel kind of at home here. I’m not a writer so it’s kind of hard to express myself coherently, but lurkdom would be a dreary place without you guys “sniff”. Keep up the good work.
The reviews here are excellent and if concerns/niggles are of a personal preference, the reviewers make it very clear.
Keep up the good work and I will do my part by checking in every day! 😀
I don’t really have anything to add, because Wave and earlier commenters have already said it so well. But I do have one request: Wave, since the site is totally open to reviewing and/or giving away books by Silver authors as long as the authors provide the copies, would you mind updating the post to indicate that?
I think that would help make it clearer that the issue is really on the publisher’s end, not the authors’. I know Lynn already said it in the comments, but I think it could be good to have that tacked on to the original post. 🙂
Wave, since the site is totally open to reviewing and/or giving away books by Silver authors as long as the authors provide the copies, would you mind updating the post to indicate that?
Lynn and I have said that in the comments but I’ll also update the post.
Thanks Wave! You hadn’t yet posted that comment when I made that request. 🙂 But I do think this is a post likely to attract a lot of attention and comments, and not necessarily everyone will read all the comments, so I was afraid it might sort of get lost if it’s not in the post too. And I think it’s an important point (obviously 😆 ).
Correction. I would like to state that I was informed it had to do with one author but apparently I was misinformed. It is on the behalf of Silver Publishing and a disagreement with Jessiewave. Also the letter posted is only part of the letter. The publisher had it’s reasons which I have nothing to do with. Also, I communicated with my publisher and was told that the publisher has not forbidden any authors from giving its book to this site for reviews. We are free to do so.
When these things go live, there is so much misinformation, and partial information, I caution everyone to take everything with a grain of salt. I include myself here.
I hope readers will continue to read the authors they love and let the parties concerned work it out for themselves.
Cheers, D.J.
Right, and this is what Wave stated in her post that this is what the email said *in part*. She never claimed to post the complete email.
Dj
We have always accepted books sent in directly by authors. Nowhere did I say that I was not going to review books by Silver authors – what I said was that the publisher was no longer going to provide books for review as they have in the past.
The process with Silver was the same as with other publishers. – I send out blurbs of all the books released by individual publishers to the reviewers and when they request a book for review I contact the Review Coordinator and request a review copy. That process will no longer apply with Silver – that’s their decision. This change will mean an additional workload because Silver authors will have to contact me or Aunt Lynn directly each time one of their books is released, rather than the streamlined process that was in place in the past..
I really am surprised by Silver Publishing. I regularly read the reviews posted here and use them as a basis for my buying habits. Since money is an issue for me, I only buy books really feel I will like and reviews here go a long way to making my decision to buy. The reviews don’t need to have a high rating for me to decide to buy the book but the reviews do tell me what the reviewer liked and did not like and I decide whether or not those issues would bother me or not. Negative or snarky commenters have never swayed my decision to buy or not buy a book. Some of Silver’s authors have become auto buys for me because of the reviews from this site. I am afraid some wonderful new authors at Silver will be overlooked because of the new policy that Silver has decided on.
Everyone has their boundaries. Maybe some individual authors didn’t want to be available to this site- who really knows?? {shrugs}
Sorry about the more work for you and Lynn- 🙁 That sucks lemons!!
In a world where everyone one has to go home with a little trophy even if they lose, finding a site that reviews “the good, the bad, and the ugly” is refreshing and needed!
Given the shear amount of material being published, I need some way to sort the chaff from the wheat so I’m not wasting my money. This site is how I do that.
I really appreciate the reviews found on the site. I tend not to read the comments because that’s not what I’m after. I want the ranking and synopsis and that determines what books are put on my “to be bought” list.
So thank you to all the dedicated reviewers on this site! I greatly appreciate your comments! :loveyou:
So thank you to all the dedicated reviewers on this site! I greatly appreciate your comments!
Thanks Kris. It takes a lot of time to read and review a 300 page book, and it’s nice to be appreciated. I think some publishers think that a free book is worth the time we spend reading and reviewing it. Well from my perspective that’s not even a pittance of what my time is worth (and I’m sure the same goes for the other reviewers). We do this because we love what we do. We can all afford to buy the books we review but we like to give back to other readers. 😀
What reviews are Silver talking about…I went back and read some and there were no comments that were abusive and rude. 😕
And if it was because of a disagreement with Wave and Silver…then why say it was because of reviews and comments. 😕
This makes no sense.
The thing is Jaime, I have had no disagreement with Silver. They have not submitted any specific complaint about the reviews or the readers. I’m as surprised as everyone else because this is the first time they have expressed any dissatisfaction with the reviews on this site or the readers who commented on these reviews. I think someone has a personal agenda or maybe one particular author was angry because his/her book was not rated as high as they thought the book deserved and they complained to the publisher.
Well then that is just sad, their loss though.
Wave, you Aunt Lynn and all the great reviews are awesome and do a fantastic job. :bravo:
shoot, I meant to type reviewers are awesome but the reviews are awesome too. 😀
Any product that is offered for sale to the public has to meet certain industry standards, and reviews are one way of bringing the qualities or flaws of a product to the attention of the buying public.
This sums up why I continue to check the reviews here. As a reader and a buying customer, I am infinitely grateful for review sites that let me know exactly what I’m getting into when I make a purchase. Hushing not so positive comments is not the way to go, publishers…
As always, thanks for being gracious, Wave, and please never stop doing what you’re doing! Many semi-lurkers (like myself) deeply appreciate all the hard work you and all the reviewers put in here on this site.
Thanks S.
To be honest this is the first time that a publisher has “disinvited” 🙂 this site and asked us not to review their books. Usually they request that we do review their books. What made this email more surprising was that there was no previous communication from the publisher complaining that our reviews were unprofessional or snarky or that the commenters were rude and/or abusive.
As I said in the post, we write our reviews for the readers/purchasers and this one hiccup won’t result in changes to our review process. We don’t exchange free books for good reviews since that’s cheating and collusion and there’s enough of that going around. In addition, many of us still buy the books we review.
Thanks for delurking S. 😎
Hm. Strangely self-defeating decision.
Seems to me that readers would find a site mighty suspect if it did nothing but dole out glowing reviews — and, as a result, would start ignoring that site. Fans of this genre aren’t stupid enough to buy into an endless torrent of squee. Look what happened to Harriet Klausner’s reputation at Amazon. 🙄
This is so short sighted on Silver’s part. I wonder about the people who were instrumental in making this decision. Obviously they have no knowledge about marketing something I used to do at one time to make a living. I can tell the Silver people that even a bad review is worth the book being noticed, because readers who would not otherwise know of a book’s existence become aware of it through the review and maybe that triggers the urge to buy it.
Anyway it’s their loss if they want to capitulate to a few authors who are pissed because they didn’t receive stellar reviews on their books.
With the increase in m/m books published, I’ve come to rely more and more on this site for recommendations. I hate to admit it, but without reviews, I probably won’t make the effort to go to Silver’s site to check their titles. I will likely miss out on some good books due to this decision. Although it’s more work for their authors, I hope Silver authors will send their books in here for review!
Hi Kel
We can’t keep up with the number of new M/M releases and this is a pretty big site with 14 reviewers, so I can imagine what it’s like for a reader.
Like you, I hope the authors will send their books here for review.
I dont ever read anything because its specifically from one publishing house ( with the exception Riptide, just cause I love Aleks :)) Having said that, I normally tend to agree with the reviews that are put out here, with some exceptions, which is to be expected. I normally check here and then at Goodreads to corroborate my buying decision. What is Silver going to do about the reviews at Goodreads? Sue them?
What is Silver going to do about the reviews at Goodreads? Sue them?
That was very good Sona. 🙂 Don’t give Silver ideas – they just might do that. 😆
Have you heard anything further from them after this little debate?
No, nothing.
They are a strange publisher, oh well, no reviews means I’ll stick to the ones I know I like, the rest must hope you take the book if they send it themselves or I’ll never know about them
I find it interesting that it’s Silver. I actually started to check if a book I’m interested in is published by them – especially if it’s a new author – because I had been so dissapointed lately. It is like some of the books never have seen an editor. It is really a sign of neglect when someone like me – who isn’t even a native speaker – finds mistakes, lousy grammar and word repetitions. Or, sorry to say it, just a boring and predictable story. I stuggled through several “Silver” books, wishing that someone would have told the author that the constant use of a Gerund is not a sign of superior language skills. I got more and more the impression that every person who wants to be a writer just needs to send a book to them, they’ll publish it, no matter how good it is. That was the reason that I decided to buy only “Silver-books” from authors I already know.
It’s actually very sad because I’ll probably miss some good ones now.
And about the reviews – I count on this site to be objective. Since I’ve noticed how reviews are manipulated on amazon and goodreads (damn..you have fb-friends? Ask them to write enthusastically about your book…bang…several 5 star reviews).
Thanks Sunne for affirming some of the problems we have with some of the books published by Silver.
A couple years ago I forwarded to them an email from Aunt Lynn pointing out the problems we were having with their books, especially the lack of editing. They said that they were hiring new editors, but it seems that the new ones are not much better than the old ones. Perhaps the issue is that their editors are not accredited.
It is not our job to teach this publisher their job – our job is to review the books and talk about whether the characters were believable, were the plots coherent and credible, were the books satisfying reads, did the endings seem rushed, were the books memorable so that we would want to re-read them, how were the prose and dialogue etc.
We don’t hand out 5 star ratings. They have to be earned.