I do have to say that any author who thinks he or she gets some sort of free pass by being published (got that much from Alison’s blog today and her links) needs a reality check. We’re all vulnerable. I view myself as one book away from being “formerly published” at all times. I’m not sure if the author’s statement was a product of ego or was just blown out of proportion, but – wow – look around at some of those authors who get dropped by their publishers. It’s not hard to find them.

And, any author who bashes his/her editor publicly is not thinking very clearly. Would you go to your office Christmas party, stand up on a table and call your boss names. Ummm, no. Some things are common sense.

I also think all of this is very different from a review site reviewing books. Maybe that’s where we part ways on this issue. An author thinking she has some kind of entitlement to slide her books by her editor = unprofessional. An author who says nasty things about her editor on the publisher’s webstie = unprofessional (and kind of stupid). A reviewer reviewing in a honest and real way on a site dedicated to reviewing = professional and a positive for the genre.

But, that’s me…

I am curious about whether you saw the dust-up on eHarlequin yesterday when a pubbed Harlequin author made some blanket comments about the line she, herself, was trying to write for. And the senior editor of that line (who had obviously taken offense) stepped in.

That, in my opinion, was a situation like what I’d described in one of my long comments here. Editors do watch & pay attention (I know that editor reads that thread all the time and as soon as I saw those initial comments I started to cringe.)
Sometimes making public statements about other people’s books can have negative repercussions. This was not a review forum like you host, it was actually on the publisher’s own website (bad move, always!) So I know it’s not the same situation. However, it did provide an interesting example that seemed germane to this very conversation. (FYI: It’s on the “writing for Blaze” thread.)

Leslie

In a little plug…while it’s true I didn’t love Ann’s LAYOVER, other people did and she got some great reviews. Ann’s writing interested me enough to pick up her next book, COFFEE, TEA OR LEA?, and I really enjoyed that one. Likewise, Leslie got great reviews for SHE’S GOT THE LOOK elsewhere, but I did enjoy her Blaze DON’T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS.

See, part of the point of PBR is to start a discussion – to get people interested in talking about the strengths and weaknesses of the genre and thinking about authors they might not have heard of or read before. People write in about stuff they liked/disliked and why they disagree or agree. Discussion is good.

First off, it seems to me that romance is the only fiction genre that doesn’t have an outlet for critical “peer” review. As Tod said, the LA Times, NYT, Washington Post, etc., all feature book reviews written in a large part by authors. Yes, romances are reviewed in PW and by Kirkus and Booklist by reviewers under editorial guidance. But for the most part we get RT. A fanzine. We have online review sites. But we don’t have critical peer review.

Why not? Why not romance if mystery/suspense, etc.? Why would anyone think “bad karma” and “career jeopardy” when authors like Joyce Carol Oates and Phillip Margolin, et al, can review? Why is romance so different? Or is it not so much romance as it is women? As much as I prefer to ignore trolls, the above anon who mentioned “the mean” may not be far off the mark. Not saying we can’t take it as female authors, but it’s just not something that fits with the RWA mindset of peer respect and peer support – but never addresses peer critique because that somehow seems to nullify the respect and support.

Secondly, the competition thing. I get where a lot of this comes from, especially with authors who started in category. We can actually find out where in the month our book ranked in comparison with the others in our line. I never ask, and I think I’ve been told where I rank only three times. It doesn’t matter to me. And I never think of myself as being in competition with other Brava authors. We write so many different things that readers are going to buy by subject matter or by author long before they’ll buy the entire imprint. Especially at $14 a pop.

Lastly, HelenKay and Wendy did review one of my books. I didn’t have a problem with it at all. It never occurred to me that HK would be trying to further herself by finding problems in my book. That’s just not a thought that would cross my mind. Paperback Reader reviews books critically. They don’t gush or squee. They’re not fangirls supporting everything their favorite authors write. They talk about what for them makes a book work. None of us are perfect, and it does the genre as a whole no good to turn a blind eye to the faults. Critical discussion can only serve to improve, imo.

Which brings me to Leslie’s comments about not liking something that gets glowing feedback from most other readers. That doesn’t make her critical analysis any less valid. If she can point out, for example, where a doormat heroine remained a doormat heroine, then that’s showing where that book failed for her as a reader. I recently talked about a Jessica Bird (J.R. Ward) book I read, where I had big problems with the police action in it. I loved the rest of the book, but felt the police action was totally unbelievable. I gave reasons why. Should I not have done that? Why not?

I did the same with Joe Konrath who had one of his detectives shot and keep on working. I couldn’t buy that either. Why? Because my sister, a detective, was shot two years ago and was off work for months. Joe told me it was all fiction, and that’s fine. But my disbelief was not suspended in either of these cases. As a whole, the books worked, but those individual parts did not, and I have no problem saying so and backing up my thoughts with my reasons!