What should you do if a reviewer obviously didn’t read your novel? #WriterWednesday #AmWriting

There is a lot of discussion amongst writers about what to do if you get a bad review. Spoiler alert: Do nothing (except dip into that bottle of wine). But what should you do if a reviewer obviously didn’t read your novel? Should you even care? A review is a review, right? And if it’s a positive review, then it’s all good, isn’t it? No, not exactly.

First of all, let me explain what I mean by a review that makes it obvious the reviewer didn’t read the novel. I’m not talking about a review which is very short or generalized. Those types of reviews are fine. In fact, I often think those reviews are more genuine as they tend to be from readers who purchased the book and not bloggers/reviewers/writers who read the book as a courtesy to the author. I’m also not talking about reviews that quote the summary and then end with ‘awesome book’. Yes, that does seem suspect, but it’s not blatantly obviously the reviewer didn’t read the book.

There are two situations in which I feel it’s obvious a reviewer didn’t read a novel. And both are, well, obvious. In the first instance, facts regarding the story (plotlines, character names, locations, etc.) are misquoted. The second situation is one in which the reviewer refers to a different author in the review. Can you say ouch? Here’s an example of a review for my novel Searching for Gertrude:

I don’t need to tell you that the remainder of the review was extremely general and could have been written about any historical novel. There is no reference to the time or place of the novel, the characters, nothing to make it seem as if the reviewer actually read the novel. Normally, I’d be somewhat okay with that. Not everyone can be a great review writer. It’s hard! Especially if you write a lot of reviews. How do you keep each review sounding fresh? So, yes, I get it. But using the wrong name for the author? That I’m not okay with. I fear it gives potential readers the impression that I’m buying reviews, which is an impression I definitely don’t want! What should you do?

And because I’m a recovering lawyer, my answer is … it depends. If this review were on Amazon, I’d probably spend a week or two coming up with some witty reply to the reviewer, because it could just be an honest mistake. If this review were on Goodreads, I’d send the reviewer a private message along the lines of:

‘Thanks for reading my novel! And taking the time to write a review. I really appreciate it. Just thought I’d mention my name is actually Dena. I know it’s confusing as I use the initials D.E. as my author name. What was I thinking?’

But this review was part of a review tour that I’d paid a blog tour company to organize. Should I say something in this instance? After all, she did post the information about my novel on her blog. I can’t force her to read my novel. I can encourage, sure, but force – no. In the end, suffering from a horrible bout with bronchitis, I decided to do nothing. At that moment, I couldn’t come up with any quick action and I was, frankly, too sick to deal with it. By the time I’d recovered three weeks had passed and I felt it was too late to take any action. I’m mostly okay with that decision. She didn’t post the review on any other site than her blog, so it’s not like potential readers will see and go ‘What the heck?’

What about you? What do you do when a reviewer obviously didn’t read your book?