Why I No Longer Review Books as an Editor

Welcome to The Modern Editor Podcast, where we talk about all things editing and what it’s like to run an editorial business in today’s world. I’m your host, Tara Whitaker. Let’s get to it.

Hello there. Welcome to today’s episode. So this episode is honestly brought to you by Threads, for better or worse, and what I’ve seen being posted lately, among other things.

But we’re going to talk about reviewing books as an editor. Now, things have changed a lot in the past decade since I was a book blogger, which we’ll get into. And for the newer editors out there, I want to talk about the different approaches to doing this, to editing books and reviewing books in today’s world.

But before we get any further, I need to throw out some disclaimers here, because I know this can be a sensitive topic. I’m going to talk about why I stopped book blogging, or reviewing books, which is the more modern term. I know I’m aging myself by saying book blogging, but whatever, I’m old. I’m going to talk about why I stopped after I became an editor.

This is not me telling you to stop or telling you what to do at all, or wagging my finger or anything like that. This is simply me sharing my thoughts. I know a lot of editors who review books and that works for them and it’s 100 percent fine. Judgment-free zone, as always. We’re not shoulding here other than you should do what feels right for you and your business.

So I’m going to share my insight and my knowledge with my experience and you can take what works for you and leave the rest. All right. No judgment. I’m serious. This is not any, I know, especially Threads right now can get a little tense and lots of people have opinions. I’m just sharing my experience with this.

Okay. So a little backstory to give you some context here. Back in July of 2010, so fourteen years ago, I was in a job that I wasn’t super thrilled with and I needed a creative outlet. A college friend told me about book blogging (special shout-out to Shanyn) so I decided to start a young adult book blog.

And overall, the experience was absolutely incredible. I met so many friends that I have to this day: authors, editors, publishers, agents, cover designers. I mean, everyone, so many cool people in the industry. I got to read so many books, and it’s how I got my start in editing as well. So I’ll always be grateful for my book blogging experience.

So fast-forward a little bit to February 2013. I had an editing side gig. I took it full-time. And then in December of 2014, I stopped book blogging. So I continued to blog for almost two years while I was an editor. Now it was very sporadic, but I still did it. And there are a lot of reasons why I stopped blogging which, that’s probably a whole separate podcast episode.

But for today, the book blogging community had changed a lot. Not exactly for the better. There was a lot of tension going on, and I’m not a fan of participating in drama. But more so, I was having a really hard time reading for fun after reading for work all day. So when you don’t read books to review, you have no reviews or content to post, and your blog just kind of sits.

Then you feel guilty for not blogging, and no one interacts with your content because you don’t have any new content. You know, it’s a whole big spiral. Same with social media content or podcasts or any other type of content you put out there. It just became a source of stress and guilt for me as opposed to the fun that I used to have with it.

And it always felt odd to me to review books after I became an editor. And I’ve tried to sit with it and figure out exactly why. And I’m going to try and explain that here as eloquently as possible. It almost felt like I was publicly critiquing potential clients. Now with my blog, I had made the decision that I was going to post positive reviews.

I wasn’t going to post anything that I deemed a one- or two-star book. Which, that’s a whole thing, too. I can’t remember if I did three star. I don’t think I did. I know I put two and three stars on Goodreads, but I didn’t put them on my blog to my knowledge. Granted, this was a long time ago, but the vibe of my blog was positive.

So I struggled with, okay, if I read a book and I don’t like it, how do I be authentic and say that? And also not hurt the author’s feelings. I was very, very cognizant of that. And I still am when it comes to editing, because I’m not reviewing anymore. I never want to hurt an author’s feelings. Like that just, that’s just not the vibe, right?

So am I being authentic by not posting books I don’t like and only posting the positive? Am I being truthful? But I’m also not hurting anybody’s feelings. Like, I really grappled with that and I never wanted to post something that wasn’t glowingly positive and have a potential client see it and be like, well, wow, they just, you know.

They just critique this book. I wouldn’t want them critiquing my book. Why, they wouldn’t hire me. And at that point, I was very, very concerned about everyone liking me and everyone wanting to hire me as a new editor. So I had all of these thoughts and feelings swirling around. And I am not as confident in my writing as I am speaking.

And with a blog, you’re writing. Not necessarily now with BookTok and BookTube and all these other platforms I’ll talk about, but I wasn’t very confident in my writing and I never wanted to accidentally write something in a way that came off not how I intended it to, and hurt someone’s feelings or potentially drive away a potential client.

So those were really the biggest reasons why I stopped. And just to throw it out there, again, this was a long time ago, we we didn’t get paid for reviews as book bloggers. That was nonexistent. It was frowned upon back then. We got quote “paid” in ARCs, or advanced reader copies. And sometimes you’d get swag included, you know, like bookmarks and stickers and stuff like that.

And I was able to attend publisher hosted events at BEA, which was BookExpo America, which no longer exists, but I never received any money for anything that I reviewed. And I never reviewed my client’s books after I started editing, to my knowledge. Again, don’t quote me. The blog has been taken down, so I can’t go back and like, specifically look, but in my opinion, there is a conflict of interest with reviewing your client’s books.

So if you’re going to do that, if you make that choice, I would make sure that you disclose that you edited the book in your review. Now, if it’s on a platform like Amazon, I’m pretty sure it’s going to get rejected because Amazon has its whole, you know, criteria with reviews. But if you’re going to post it on Instagram or TikTok or anything where it, you know, they’re not monitoring close relationships between the author and whoever’s reviewing, just make sure you disclose that you edited the book.

And speaking of, like, TikTok and all that, things have changed so much since I blogged, and there’s so many things to consider now. Back in the day, really, you had a book blog that was, you know, self-hosted on Blogger or WordPress or, you know, something like that, and then Twitter, and you promoted your book blog on Twitter.

Then BookTube came about. That was more, I can’t remember exactly when, but I tried to BookTube. There’s some embarrassing YouTube videos out there somewhere. Please don’t look for them, but they’re somewhere. Um, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t get into it at that point. You know, then Bookstagram started taking off and now BookTok and AuthorTok have taken off and completely and changed how book reviews are done.

And Threads is getting more popular and BlueSky. You know, authors are now paying influencers for reviews and videos, which influencers, were they even a thing in 2010? I don’t think they were, but they were definitely not like they are now. And it’s way easier to go viral these days than it was to have a blog post go viral on Twitter, you know, which can be a good thing and a bad thing, as we know, can be a good thing to have, uh, for authors to have their books go viral.

I’ve seen so many authors really do well on TikTok using the platform and then also, you know, you can have the opposite, where there’s lots of drama. So the landscape of reviewing books has changed a lot. So if you’re going to review books as an editor today, I’m going to pose some questions for you for things to keep in mind.

Now there’s no right or wrong answer to these, and I’m not saying do it or don’t do it. Just some questions so that you know for yourself how you’re going to approach this. And be mindful of what you’re doing because book reviews and editing are very closely related. And I would hate to see a new editor starting an editing business not do well because of just not knowing how the landscape works.

And now, I don’t book review anymore. So, I am not going to sit here and say I’m an expert book reviewer at all. I’m ancient in terms of book reviewers. There are plenty of people out there who are more knowledgeable about how to review books in today’s world. But I’m still going to pose the questions that helped me decide, because those are still relevant no matter how the platform changes, or if you’re using TikTok whatever. These are still going to help you decide for yourself.

So, have some guidelines or some boundaries in place. So will you post books you didn’t like? Are you going to be critical or not? And how critical are you going to be? I will never advocate for just blasting a book anywhere online or elsewhere. I think that’s just rude, but careful critique, you know, is different.

So are you going to post that or are you going to keep it positive? Or where’s that line? Is it certain stars, number of stars? Is it some criteria you come up with on your own? You need to keep that in mind for yourself. Will you post about books in the genre or the niche you edit? So if you are a romance reviewer and you edit romance, are you going to continue to review romance books or are you going to only review, I don’t know, mysteries or something else? Again, no right or wrong answer. Just you have to decide.

Are you going to review your client’s books? Remember what I said before. I do think there’s a conflict of interest there. Keep in mind objectivity and authenticity and disclosure if you do decide to do that.

Are you going to use reviews as part of your marketing strategy for your business? And if you are, in what way? And then are you going to have separate accounts on platforms for book reviewing and editing? This is always a question I get from editors who have a personal Instagram and then do they want to do an editing Instagram, or they have an author Instagram account should they have a separate editing account.

Same thing with book review or Bookstagram and editing. There’s no one right answer. Some people have one account and do everything. Some people have separate accounts. It really depends on what you want to do. If you want to maintain multiple accounts. If you want to only do one. If you want to put everything together.

Same with a website. I’ve seen it all different ways. So it’s just what works best for you. The other thing I will say strongly is please do not tag authors in reviews, especially negative ones, ever. I don’t understand the thought behind that. What author in this world wants to be tagged in a negative review?

Like, please don’t do it. Some people say reviews are for readers and not authors. I can see that perspective, but some authors do read their reviews and take them into consideration. My last podcast episode with Alex Temblador, she does read her reviews so she can update her book if needed. So I would always go with the assumption that the author is going to see your review.

Ask yourself, would you say it to their face? I think that would take away a lot of the crap we see online, is, would you say this to someone’s face? Chances are, probably not. But I know if you’re listening to this, you’re not going to be disrespectful. So, I know that probably didn’t need to be said, but I had to throw it out there. Please don’t tag authors in negative reviews. Please. Please don’t do it.

So there’s just some food for thought on reviewing books as an editor. I personally chose not to ten years ago, but you have to make the choice that’s best for you and your business. I’m of the opinion that as long as you’re being respectful and honest and doing it with integrity, you do you.

Just keep in mind, remember you’re part of a larger community. And keep in mind that you’re contributing to that community or those communities, because there’s multiple and what you’re putting out there into the world and assume that everyone will see it. Obviously not everyone in the world will see it, but go with that assumption because it has helped me a lot.

You know, I’m not posting horrible things online. Like, that’s not how I roll, but sometimes I do have to sit back and go, okay, would I say it like this to someone’s face? Am I contributing to the community in a positive, constructive way? And remembering that I am part of a larger community and the communities are big and yet they are very small. So just keep that in mind when you are reviewing books as an editor.

And that’s it for today. So until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and remember to trust your instincts.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode. If you enjoy The Modern Editor Podcast, I would be so grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes. And as always, you can head to TaraWhitaker.com to connect with me and stay in touch. We’ll chat again soon.