And supporters of the genre are supporting GOOD work in the genre, not everything in the genre. We all want to see quality work out there to represent us.

Absolutely agree. Hell, I’m not the arbiter of literature, but I think I can tell bad research from good–and whether someone has tried or not. Eventually, I know that there will be gay historicals which mirror the unrealistic wallpaper het historicals, but I hope I can dissuade them from happening for a little while longer!!

And about it all being about opinion, yes! So many authors and fewer publishers tend to forget this. I’m one person in a small pond and no-one’s heard of me in the scheme of things. It’s just my opinion!!

Thanks, Brenna.

Now, I could tell you about the “reviewer” who not only couldn’t tell you what the book was about but further tried to claim I’d plagiarized two bestsellers in NY in it (who incidentally are friends of mine and laughed their arses off at the idea of me stealing from them)… But, that’s an entirely different subject than what we’re discussing here.

And supporters of the genre are supporting GOOD work in the genre, not everything in the genre. We all want to see quality work out there to represent us.

Never mind that all reviewing is somewhat subjective. A balanced review hits the good and bad about a book. Never mind that some reviewers read outside their comfort zone and can get past the fact that it’s not to their tastes, and some can’t. That’s not all the book and not all the reviewer. It’s a subjective bad mix…and it doesn’t bother me TOO much to see a reviewer say, “If you like X, you might like this, but I didn’t care for either.”

In the end, all reviews are an opinion…unless the reviewer gets major facts wrong or goes from balanced review into personal attacks. But, how often do we see those sort of reviews? I can count the number in the last few years on one hand, discounting a few blogs that do it for fun, because they need discounted, IMO.

Brenna

I’ve had a lot of disgruntled authors lately, so this was probably just the last straw (although I’m sure it won’t be, sadly) – one of whom was similar in tone “i didn’t give you this book to review so I feel blindsided by your unfavourable comments, and how can you give bad reviews when you are a supporter of the genre.” The illogic in that sentence makes my head explode.

I hope you had a great birthday!

Second, anyone who assumes the only way a book gets reviewed is by the publisher or author sending out a copy for review is a fracking idiot. No question. I review books I purchase, that I win in contests, that authors give me… Anything I read is fair game, and the first person to accuse me of pirating a book I review will find out how unfun that proposition will be.

But finally, there are a ton of responsible authors and publishers out there who fight the REAL pirates. Please, don’t let one idiot of a bad apple spoil your opinion of the whole bushel. If anything, we want readers and reviews ON our side, reporting the pirates to us so we can handle them, educating other readers in what piracy is, and generally part of the solution instead of the problem.

Oh, and happy birthday! I just celebrated my own, as well.

Brenna