I just read an excellent post on reviews and reviewing over on Murderati, written by author and reviewer (and Gumshoe Award nominee) Jeff Cohen. I started to write a reply, but it became so long that I decided to make a post out of it here.
Jeff writes:
The relationship between authors and reviewers is a very complex one. Having done both, I can tell you that neither is easy, neither pays especially well except at the very top of the profession, and both are done for the sheer love of the form in almost every case. I've written reviews that I wish I could take back (all negative ones, even when the film/book/play/record in question was truly awful--I was snarky and shouldn't have been), some that I would hold up for all the world to see and some that, well, I had a deadline and it was a slow week.
I've only written a couple of reviews that I wish I could take back; some too negative and some too positive. Every once in a while, I'll look back at something I've written a year or two later and wonder, "What the hell was I thinking?" I've also written a couple of snarky pieces that I regret.
In those cases, I think most of the time it was, as Jeff says, in a slow week when the deadline was calling. Not that that's an excuse, but it does happen. For the most part, though, I'm generally pleased with the work I've done.
If I write a review, I always read the book, I always finish the book, I always think about the book, and I always try to be fair to the book. I think that should be a mantra for every reviewer.
I try to remember that there's a person on the other end of the book who poured their heart and guts into it. I also try to remember that I have readers who rely upon me for my reviews, and I owe it to them to be as honest and reasoned as I can be.
I don't always get it right -- and that's the curse of being a critic -- but ultimately I think it's worth the effort. Sharing my love for books, and hopefully sharing some small insights I might have about them, is a real joy for me.
After over five years of doing this, and having written about hundreds of books, I still get a kick out of it. Sure, it's a grind, and like any other job, it can be tedious. (And it also doesn't pay well.) But I'm hard-pressed to imagine giving it up.
