At what point do we completely lose touch with reality, objective reality, and opt into a karma-based existence composed only of feelings and the lies necessary to prevent any hurt to those feelings?
At what point do we completely forget -- or just willfully ignore -- that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction?
There has been some -- not much, but some -- discussion elsewhere about the crapification of self-publishing. A lot of blame has been tossed around, a lot of excuses made. It's the readers' fault for liking crap. It's the culture's fault for promoting crap. It's the writers' fault for writing crap, for not knowing the business. It's Amazon's fault or Goodreads' fault or fiverr's fault.
Regardless whose fault it is, it's our business. We, the writers who publish our own writing, are the only ones who can really effect change in our business.
I've made the analogy to tending a garden, and I have to be the first to admit I do not have a particularly green thumb. Mine's more brown and wilted. But that doesn't mean I don't have at least some idea what needs to be done. And the dear goddess knows I don't lack for courage to get out there and do it.
As I've stated elsewhere, I believe the two issues crippling the author-publishing industry are quality and ethics. Lack of quality in crafting the product coupled with lack of knowledge of the market and the business of publishing has been fueled with overblown expectations of financial returns, all of which leads to unethical practices to foist the inferior product on paying customers in order to achieve those totally unrealistic financial gains. We have to deal with the ethical issues, which I've tried to address through some of my posts on Booklikes as well as my Be Still, My Heart official (more or less) writing blog. But we also have to deal with the quality issues.
There's a huge difference between a consumer-directed book review and a pre-publication manuscript critique. Reviews are for readers, and they're from readers. Once the book is published, the author needs to step back out of the conversation. Anything that's written or said about the book from that point on is not (theoretically) for the author's benefit.
Theoretically. Keep that in mind.
In reality, the self-publishing author's involvement in the post-publication conversation has become more and more prominent. Self-publishing authors are directing their post-publication publicity efforts with advertising, blog tours, author interviews, Facebook and Twitter campaigns because that is part of what publishers do. Because the SPA wears both hats, she has to switch into publisher/publicist mode once the book becomes a product in the marketplace.
Unfortunately, many SPAs are unable and/or unwilling to separate their writing selves from their publishing selves. They don't -- or can't -- distinguish between a pre-publication critique and a post-publication review. They forget -- or never knew -- that reviews are for readers and the writer needs to back off and out. They forget -- or ignore -- that reviewers are not obligated to provide editorial services along with criticisms.
I've stated many times in my "official" blog that I won't post reviews there. Most of my Booklikes blog is reserved for the kind of ranting that's not allowed on Goodreads. It's on Booklikes that I've outed the buyers and sellers of fiverr reviews, for example. And I have shown them no mercy.
What's needed, I believe, is a kind of intra-industry conversation about the bad books that are choking the business. When one reviewer after another refuses to read any books at all by SPAs out of a.) disgust at the lack of quality and b.) the risk of retaliation for telling the truth about the lack of quality, someone has to do something.
I've tried. Via the Booklikes blog I've not hesitated to call out the authors who resort to lying and cheating in an effort to get readers to buy their poorly written books. On Goodreads, reviewers are constrained by Terms of Service; the reviewer can't include significant (mis)behavior by the author in the body of the review, regardless how much evidence there is and regardless how much impact that behavior might have on the ultimate reader's experience with the book.
My intent with this blog, therefore, is to take the reviewing process one step further in each direction. Not only forward to the reader with any additional information about the author, such as challenges to critics, campaigns of rating manipulation, sock puppeting and review buying; but also backward to the writing itself.
So many of the SPAs lament that they're not getting enough reviews. They wail that they want feedback. Some of them even demand proofreading and editorial services from readers without taking into consideration that those readers may not be any more qualified to do so than the authors themselves.
Of course, those same writers shriek even louder when they get negative reviews. When it's pointed out to them that they are getting exactly the kind of analytical feedback they say they want, they complain that the criticism isn't couched in nice enough, constructive enough terms. This has been going on at least since the Dear Author blog post of July 2012. Some of us realize that behind this cry for kinder, gentler reviews is really a whine for no criticism at all. It's an entitled demand for praise. The trophy presented for showing up, the medal for effort, the blue ribbon for participation.
Changing, or even challenging, that culture is an enormous and perhaps impossible task. I'm not sure, even with a background of sorts in sociology, such a change can be effected. But Margaret Mead said it could, and I'm going to try.
So, Callin' 'Em Like I Sees 'Em, or CELISE Reviews will follow in this space. Not nice, not kind, but honest and complete. Analyses of writing first and foremost, and if I can't get through enough of it to evaluate the plot, well, that's the author's tough luck. No holds barred, except that I won't include personally identifying information. But if an author has sock puppet accounts, I won't hesitate to let you know. If I've seen an author attack readers, I won't keep it a secret.
Donations are welcome. ;-)
