[reblogged from 38 Caliber Reviews]
What am I worth? What are authors worth?
Honest reviews.
I know that for some people a review needs only to be about the book but not for me. I have no interest in a book no matter how good it is if the author is a convicted of certain crimes, or books promoting sympathy for pedophiles, or authors like Anne Rice and Laurell K Hamilton who like to write long posts about how smart they are and how dumb the people who dislike their current books are.
I also do not like author who trivialize rape or the Shoah to try to make people feel sympathy for their "pain", "pain" that is almost always caused by their own poor judgment. Getting a negative review is not like getting raped, getting several bad reviews is not like being in a concentration camp. Those authors who make these comparisons need to stop writing because they are either too thin skinned to take any criticism or they will continue offending readers until they realize they haven't sold a book in a year and wonder why, oh Lord, why.
I also want to know who is buying their reviews from places like Fiverr, or are exchanging reviews, who has sock accounts everywhere, who has family and friends writing their first 6 or 7 five star reviews. I don't mind the latter as long as they disclose their relationship, but to not disclose the relationship smacks of deceit and is in violation of the TOS of certain sites.
I want to know about authors who collude to vote each other's book up to the top of lists or up vote positive reviews while down voting critical reviews, I want to know which authors try to convince, harass, or guilt reviewers into changing their ratings.
I want to know all of this because I do not want to support authors who do this kind of thing. I think any reader who wants to know about any of this or include any of this in their reviews should be able to. I believe that authors are their product to a certain extent and like I would research any person I hired to work on my house, I want to know who I am supporting by buying their books.
I don't want to read a subpar, sloppily constructed book any more than I want a plumber who can't figure out how to turn off the water supply. I don't want to read a book, no matter how well written, by someone who thinks my sex makes me somehow less than he is, I threw out an electrician my contractor hired because he wouldn't answer my questions.
I believe I should have the right to know these things, I believe I am worth more than someone who does any of the above mentioned acts. I believe that if an author does something which would prevent me from buying or recommending their book(s) then I should be able to include that in my review because I also believe I am not alone in this.
We can all say or do or believe whatever we want and we can all choose to disagree and not support by word or finance the words, action, or beliefs of someone else.
I believe I should be able to say in my reviews exactly why I will or will not recommend any book, I believe anything less is dishonest-to myself, to the author, to anyone reading my review, and to all those other authors who however they are published who are law abiding, honest, hard working, professional, or smart enough to act that way in public.
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