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There was an interesting question raised on Twitter today by someone I follow.
It went something like this:

“If you’re a writer, and still review books, do you leave negative reviews?”


Well, I sat there for a good minute and thought this through. It affects me in some ways because I’m both an author and a reviewer. When I was about to publish a few months ago, I had a few people approach me and ask something similar, except it was in a more condescending way. This Tweeter was just curious about how authors/writers go about reviewing, if at all. When I was approached in a different manner about this, I was told it would be wrong of me to continue my blog as an author or aspiring writer. I was told I should shut it down and that if I ever left any kind of reviews again, no matter what I thought, they should be positive.

Um.
No.
Absolutely not.

But, Pixie, aren’t you worried that if you leave negative reviews, it’s going to backfire on your own work?

I responded to the above Tweeter’s question earlier. My first response had been a simple: No, I’m not worried at all. Before I published, I was a blogger/reviewer. I will happily continue doing what I do. Then tweeter asked if I thought it would impact my own reviews. I knew they were curious, and it was quite the interesting conversation. Enough so, that it’s made me create an entire post around it.

When they responded with that question, I had to stop and think again. Am I worried about a backfire? Will some fanatic of another author that I negatively review get mad at me and then go negatively review my work as payback? Or will a publisher look at me and think “unprofessional”?

Here’s my response:

If they do, then they do. It doesn’t bother me. Because guess what? Negative reviews don’t bother me. I won’t turn into a raving lunatic. I won’t attack you. You don’t have to wait around and see if you can get me to snap and see if I’ll be like some of those “others”, if you know what I’m saying. I’m just an honest person. If I don’t like what I read, I’m going to say I didn’t enjoy it. I’m going to say why. And that’s that. Why should I sugar-coat my ratings and reviews to please everyone? Why should I give up reviewing at all if it’s something I love doing?


So what do you think?

Do you think it’s okay to be an author and a reviewer?


With Love,
Pixie