Never Be Ashamed Of Your Book Opinions

Have you ever been criticized on your review? Or for writing it the way you did?

   Bloggers write reviews to help other readers find what to read next or whether they should a buy a book or not. We help generate sales because lots of people do look at reviews. Reviews are our own thoughts and opinions on books. And we should never feel bad about our opinions because that's all they are. Opinions. 

   We should never criticize someone for how they do their review. Or for thinking the way they did.

   Someone might say that the writing wasn't good enough for them. Or the characters were very bland. They have the right to feel that way if that's how it appeared to them.

   Sometimes I worry when everyone seems to be loving a book and I'm the only one that didn't like it. But that's okay because we're never going to love every single book we read. We shouldn't be ashamed of that. It's okay to be that 1%.

   Don't be afraid of writing negative reviews. I've actually seen people say that negative reviews makes them more interested or curious in checking a book out. And some people don't actually pay attention to what the reviews are saying because they want to go into it without knowing anything at all. I typically check out the positive reviews and I'll look at negative reviews when I'm done with the book.

   I always worried whenever I saw critics give movies a low rating. But I tell myself that's their opinion on it and maybe I'll love it. And that has been the case for lots of movies. That's how I am with books.

   I would never tell anyone what to do with their review. The only thing that would upset me is if bloggers start bashing the author because that's never okay! I understand that we have to be critical with the book but there's a fine line between opinion and hate. We're supposed to review the book, not the author. We should always be careful when we are stating our negative thoughts. Sometimes, I worry if maybe I'm being too harsh or if it sounds mean.

   I've also heard cases where bloggers got comments on their reviews they've posted on Amazon and said it's not good enough or that it's wrong to give it a low star. We all have our style and systems on how we rate books. 

   We are allowed to speak our opinions. We all have different ways of expressing our thoughts. And we OWN our blog and we're allowed to review the book the way we do. I still remember that author that created that bingo card that slammed reviewers. One of the things on that card was "reviewer expresses opinions only in gif form." And I'm just like, what's wrong with gifs? Sometimes I use them because I think it makes things more fun. Or I see some people do gif reviews before they write their full length review closer to a book's release date.

   Don't ever let someone get you down for the reviews that you write!

What do you guys think of this? Has this ever happened to you? Leave your thoughts on the matter in the comments.