AUTHORS, READERS & NEGATIVE REVIEWS
Topic: Honest or Harmful? The Truth About Negative Review
Welcome book lovers and book makers 💛
Whether you’ve written 10 books or just finished one, we’ve all been on both sides of a review.
Today we’re asking the hard questions: What helps? What hurts? What’s fair?
This is a safe space for truth, not shade.
Let’s talk reality.
We have with us @Adeyinka MO Adeleke Author of “Morountodun”. Who will answer few questions from an author’s pov.
Questions
• Where’s the line between honest feedback and bullying?
• Do negative reviews help readers more, or hurt authors more?
• Should authors be allowed to defend their book in the comments?
• What’s one thing you wish the "other side" understood about reviews?
• If you could make one rule for the internet about book reviews, what would it be?
Honest feedback shouldn’t feel like bullying, and writing a book shouldn’t feel like walking into war.
@thebookpolitics I’ll say, as a reader and book lover, I think honest feedback is about the book, not the person.
When one critique the story, pacing, editing is looks kinda honest but when you start attacking the author, the intelligence behind it, or say "this person shouldn’t be a writer" now that’s just bullying.
Then negative reviews help readers make choices, but they will hurt the authors deeply because we may forget there’s always a human behind the book. So it’s better to just be truthful and be kind with no bad or insulting words.
@thebookpolitics Yup i feel you 😔 That part hurts the most.
When people hide behind "it's just my opinion" to be cruel... that’s not a review. That’s straight up bullying.
@thebookpolitics Authors should be allowed to defend their book, but not argue but just to say "thank you for reading, here’s my intention" and leave it.
One rule I’d make🤔: "Review the book, not the human."
Writing shouldn’t feel like war.
Let’s tell the truth without drawing blood ❤️☺️
@thebookpolitics Thanks so much for having me again, always great to be here
Hello Everyone,
Adeyinka here, super stoked to be here.
I really love these questions, as a book reviewer who is also an author. I find myself asking these questions, and here is my honest opinion.
Where’s the line between honest feedback and bullying?
For me, the line is quite simple: are you talking about the book, or are you attacking the person who wrote it?
You can absolutely say you hated my book. You can say the writing didn't work for you, the characters annoyed you, the plot made no sense to you, whatever. That's your reading experience, and you're allowed to have it.
But once it becomes insults about the author, mocking them, calling them names, telling people not to support them, or deliberately trying to humiliate them, then I don't think we're talking about a review anymore.
And I also don't think we should confuse a negative review with bullying. A one-star review can be completely fair. The fact that a reader doesn't like reading it doesn't automatically make it bullying.
@adeyinka-mo-adeleke I think I see your point
so you’re saying that a casual “oh this book was really bad u I had to dnf. I don’t recommend at all” should be placed under bad review?
No, I wouldn't necessarily put that under a bad review. I think there's a difference between a reader expressing their feelings and someone actually reviewing the book.
If someone says, “This book was really bad, I DNF'd it and I don't recommend it,” that's a negative opinion, but I don't think it's automatically bullying or even necessarily a bad review. They're allowed to feel that way, i mean i can't control how a person feels.
Where I think it becomes more useful as a review is when they tell me why they felt that way. Even something as simple as “I DNF'd because the pacing was too slow for me” gives another prospective reader information.
So for me, the problem isn't really that someone says that the book was bad. The problem is when the intention shifts from sharing your reading experience to trying to hurt or humiliate the author.
And honestly, as an author, I have to accept that sometimes someone's entire review really will just be: “I hated this. 1 star.” That's their right. I just wouldn't necessarily find it useful.
@adeyinka-mo-adeleke I like this take.
As a reader, I need to know if I’ll vibe with the book. “Too slow for me or I giving a 1 star because I don’t like it” helps me as it’s someone’s feeling.
As a human, I also know there’s a person behind that book.
So yes — feel how you feel. Rate how you rate. Just don’t use it to humiliate.
That’s the line for me too.
@jhemye This is it, reviewers need to be more objective when reviewing and less abusive.
@adeyinka-mo-adeleke Exactly. But too bad some just love being cruel just because some others tend to follow it as well
But we need to be objective, not abusive.
Critique the craft, not the creator.
That’s how we all grow — readers, authors, everyone 📚
Do negative reviews help readers more, or hurt authors more?
Honestly, I think they do both.
As a reader, I actually read negative reviews. Sometimes they're the reviews that help me decide whether I want to read a book or not. For example, if someone says, "The book was too slow for me," I might think, okay this isn't for me, i actually hate books that the plot takes time to develop.
Someone else might say, "I hated that the romance took so long to develop," and I'm there thinking, oh, that's actually my thing. I really love slow burn romance.
So I don't think negative reviews are inherently bad for a book. They can help the right reader find it.
But as an author, I'm not going to sit here and pretend a negative review can't hurt. Of course it can. You've spent months or years creating something, so seeing someone say they hated it can sting.
I think that's just part of putting your work out there, though. Authors have to learn to separate "this person didn't like my book" from "this person thinks I'm a terrible writer." They're not the same thing.
@adeyinka-mo-adeleke like that point of author’s knowing to separate which from which
Cause sometimes a book might not just be it for me and be the greatest work of art to my friend
@thebookpolitics Exactly, authors need to know that their books would not resonate with everyone and that is absolutely fine.
Should authors be allowed to defend their book in the comments?
I think authors should be allowed to clarify, but I don't think we need to defend ourselves against every opinion.
If someone says something factually incorrect about my book, for example, "This character never did X," when they actually did, I don't think there's anything wrong with saying, "Actually, that happens in chapter..."
But if someone says, "I hated the ending," what exactly am I defending? You hated the ending. Okay.
I also think authors need to be careful because the moment you start arguing with every negative review, you're probably going to make yourself miserable.
Not every reader needs to be convinced that your book is good. Sometimes you just have to accept that the book wasn't for them and move on.
@adeyinka-mo-adeleke that trying to defend oneself can quickly make one miserable even invite ragebaiters
@thebookpolitics Right, an author friend fell down that rabbit hole recently, and it really messed with her, I'd advise against replying to every opinion about your book, in the name of clarifying misconceptions
What's one thing you wish the "other side" understood about reviews?
As an author, I wish readers understood that there is a person behind the book. You don't have to like my book. You don't even have to be nice about the book. I think honesty is important. But you can be honest without being cruel.
And as a reader and someone who reviews books myself, I also think authors need to understand the other side: a reader doesn't owe you a positive review because you worked hard on your book. Writing a book is hard. Absolutely. But that doesn't mean everyone who reads it has to enjoy it.
I think both sides need to understand that.
Authors need thicker skin, and readers need to remember their humanity.
If you could make one rule for the internet about book reviews, what would it be?
Review the book not the person. That's probably my biggest rule. Tell me the plot was terrible. Tell me you hated my characters. Tell me you didn't like my writing. Give me one star if that's genuinely how you feel.
But don't turn the review into an attack on me as a person. And I'd probably add one more thing:
Don't review a book with the intention of hurting the author. Review it because you want to tell other readers what you thought about the book
@adeyinka-mo-adeleke Yes this and we can simply say the plot didn’t work, the characters annoyed us, the ending broke us. That’s fair.
But the moment it becomes “you’re a bad writer / you should stop” — we’ve crossed the line.
And that second part: don’t review to hurt. Review to inform. That’s it.
Thank you for saying this so clearly ❤️
@adeyinka-mo-adeleke A huge thank you to you for gracing SAUCE DROP EP 2b🙏
Thank you for your honesty, your vulnerability, and for reminding us that writing shouldn’t feel like walking into war.
Authors and readers heard you. And we’re better for it.
#SauceDrop #AuthorsAndReaders #TruthNotShade
@adeyinka-mo-adeleke this was really eye opening and unbiased take coming from you being an author and a reviewer too was just top notch🫡🫡
wouldn’t have worded it better until you’ve tasted both worlds
@adeyinka-mo-adeleke like the unbiased take
authors remembering that their is a human behind that work
readers trying to not get too emotional but I mean it’s hard work not to
@thebookpolitics People just need to remember their humanity in whatever they do. That's all i ask
Love this conversation. And i also think it applies to other art forms as well.