People confuse CRITIQUE and REVIEW on Wattpad often. Let's talk about what a review is.

Before you read below, let me know what you think a review is and who it's for.

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So, what are reviews? Who are they for?

Reviews are for finished works and they are for readers. As an author, you can go and read reviews but know that these reviews might not be something you like to hear.

A review might say "this book had a slow plot and idk why so many people like it. Bleh." Or reviews might say "I loved this and it was super awesome!!!" and gush to the moon and back about your book. Others might be critical about some parts of the book but also say what they liked about it. Some might even say they wished the author did this or that, kind of like suggestions but not thinking the author will actually respond.

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Story Time

I often see review books on Wattpad, and I used to have one, too. This was years ago. I thought I would give some honest reviews on the first 5 chapters of a book. At most, 5 chapters can tell you if a Wattpad book will be good or not (in my experience). 

So, I asked people for their finished books for reviewing. For them it would be a chance at getting their books to more readers. (Emphasis on finished, we'll get to that later.)

I then went about looking for some gems. What I didn't realize was how some authors thought I would only gush to the moon and back.

I wrote a review (I was critical of it because the plot was convoluted. I gave "suggestions" to where I wish the author had explained more or given more details). 

I said "you don't have to take my word for it" meaning that despite my sometimes negative reviews, readers could go decide for themselves. Today, I do that for every book review I give. 

I even stated that "although this wasn't my cup of tea, I did like..."

I also made clear several times how my opinions were subjective.

So, I got a response from the author (I was expecting a 'thank you for the review' at the least). 

What they wrote was how they want this review to be taken down or rewritten because now no one would ever want to read their book and they said I was mean.

I was so taken aback :O I had no intention of doing that!

So, I messaged the author, apologized if I hurt them and said that a review is for readers not for authors.

They said, yes, they were hurt and told me to change the review because otherwise no one would read their book. At the time, I succumbed to them and really mellowed down my review to their satisfaction (which I should not have had to do). I did continued reading beyond the 5 chapters to see if I could dig out something great to say about the book.

But sadly, their writing did not improve with time and was still convoluted (in my opinion) and looked more like a draft (I asked for finished works, not works riddled with grammar issues), but they were also getting readers, so I guess some people liked their work. 

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Anyway, point here is you can't expect every single person in the universe to be in love with your work as much as your loyal readers. If you ask for a review from someone who is not your loyal reader, you might get a slightly negative review. 

You can't manipulate reviews to make people read your work. That's false advertising and the reviewer will lose their credibility, too.

There are people who will be interested in the premise of the story and read it despite the negative reviews. There are also people who will read a book because of the negative reviews.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is a good example. Some people loved it, and some people hated it. I had heard it was polarizing, but I read it because the story premise interested me, and I was more towards the "I relatively enjoyed this" camp. 

So, you see, readers can decide for themselves. 

If you go to a review book with the intent to submit your book for a review, I would suggest you check out other reviews to see what kind of reviews are given. If it's gushing every single book to the moon and back, and that's what you want for a bit of validation, that's fine. Go for it. Not saying it's bad. I sometimes need a dose of the good stuff to keep motivated :P

But if you want honest reviews, those are going to be critical of your work because they're not there to give you praise and validation. They are going to be real. Personally, I'd rather find tidbits of praise in an honest review. It's like finding a treasure :)

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Was your idea of a review close to what I talked about? Are there any questions you have or anything you'd like to add to this discussion? Or maybe there's something you disagree with me about? As long as you're kind to me and others, feel free to speak your mind ;)

LET'S TALK! :D ====>>>>