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06Jan2012
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My Goodreads Pledge
Goodreads. Oh, goodreads. I love goodreads, but it’s been a tumultuous, scary place lately, for both writers and reviewers. Scarier still, I’m both—with four years of reviewing under my belt and a novel forthcoming in 2013.
A few people have asked what we can do to heal the damage that’s been done over the past year or so in the YA community. Initially, I thought I might draft some ethical guidelines for community participants, some suggestions or pronouncements on behavior. But when it comes down to it, I think people (both authors and reviewers) have faced too much criticism and judgment lately, and I don’t want to do anything that might be perceived as adding to the pile on.
But I figured what I could do is to talk about the kind of behavior you could expect from me, going forward, as both a reviewer and an author. Some of this might seem simplistic or self-evident, but I think it can’t hurt to say it, to let you know who I am, and where my values lie. I care about my many author and reviewer friends, and those that I’m sure to encounter there in the future. I wanted to pledge the following to you, because respect, integrity, and accountability are important to me.
As an author:
- I will not make disparaging remarks regarding consumer reviewers (either individually, or as a group) in public venues such as twitter or blogs.
- I will not attempt to game online ratings systems in favor of my own works or works by my associates.
- I will respect a reader’s right to hold and express critical opinions of my work. I understand that statements of diverse opinion are important for consumer purposes, for reasons of building reader community, and for productive discussion within the young adult community as a whole.
- If I choose to interact with readers about reviews, I will comport myself in a professional manner. I will refrain from making disparaging remarks about a reader’s intelligence, education, age, gender, sexuality, political beliefs, or appearance.
- I will not stalk, harass, or bully individual reviewers or those who associate with them.
- I will refrain from offering unsolicited career advice to reviewers.
- I will not lecture or condescend to reviewers who disagree with me or dislike my work.
- I will use reporting methods available to me to report hate speech made against me, as well as libelous or slanderous remarks. When encountering such speech, I understand that it is both safer for me and legally prudent to allow site moderators or my lawyers handle such incidents rather than addressing them myself.
- I will respect the right of other parties to engage in private discourse regarding reviews. I will refrain from making private conversations public against the wishes of the participants.
- I will take ownership of my mistakes. I will recognize hurtful actions I have made and apologize for them, rather than attempting to justify or excuse hurtful behavior.
As a reviewer:
- I will respect an author’s right to make a living off their creative works. Although I may choose to negatively review a work or may choose to refrain from reading a book myself, I will not participate in, organize, or encourage blacklists of authors or titles.
- I will refrain from making assumptions about an author’s financial status. I will not allow perceived wealth or connections impact my discussion of a work.
- I will do my best to evaluate a work on its merits and weaknesses alone.
- I will respect an author’s right to a private life. I will refrain from making disparaging remarks about his or her family, personal life, appearance, or religion.
- I will not attempt to game online ratings systems in favor of my own reviews or reviews by my associates.
- I will respect the right of other readers to disagree with my critical assessments. I understand that statements of diverse opinion are important for consumer purposes, for reasons of building reader community, and for productive discussion within the young adult community as a whole.
- I will not stalk, harass, or bully individual authors or those who associate with them.
- I will not participate in or encourage hate speech, libel, or slander. I will speak up against instances of hate speech, libel, and slander in an attempt to make the critical community a safe space for all participants. When appropriate, I will use reporting methods available to me to report slanderous speech.
- I will respect the right of other parties to engage in private discourse regarding reviews. I will refrain from making private conversations public against the wishes of the participants.
- I will take ownership of my mistakes. I will recognize hurtful actions I have made and apologize for them, rather than attempting to justify or excuse hurtful behavior.
If you feel similarly, that goodreads and the community there is important to you (either as an author or a reviewer), I encourage you to figure out where your values lie, to make your own promises, and to hold yourself accountable to them.
One last thought. I’m a member of another community, metafilter, which has a policy called “Brand New Day.” Under this policy, any member can join under a new user name in order to shed the drama and baggage of the past. I think the YA community as a whole could use a Brand New Day—one without the weight of old grudges, arguments or drama. It’s a new year, and in my eyes, at least, we all could use a chance to wipe the slate clean.
I find nothing to disagree about. I'm a writer but I also review books so there is a lot that I can borrow from your pledge.
I look forward to reading it.
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In other words, you'll be classy. Love this!
Thanks, Kelly.
Pretty comprehensive pledge. I especially like the part about acknowledging and taking responsibility for one's actions. That's often a piece that's missing.
Thank you–I think it's really important to acknowledge the things we've done wrong in the past so we can endeavor to act differently in the future.
This is such an inspiring post. So classy and transparent. Thank you for posting it! Would you mind if I copy the blogger section and put in on my blog (with links to you), and add some promises of my own? I agree with all of them.
Thank you–and I don't mind at all. I look forward to reading your post!
I agree with most of this, but I can't agree to never blacklist an author who behaves in a way I find ethically wrong. There are authors I wouldn't want to financially support and while I would never start a campaign against them I'm not going to be silent as to why so that they're sales won't suffer.
Of course that's your right and your decision, Lucy! It's just something that very much doesn't feel right for me, for a variety of reasons–an author's stance could change, calls for boycotts can be made based on insufficient or incorrect information, readers might miss out on work that might very much help them in some way because they are encouraged to avoid an author's work. There are many authors I don't agree with (Orson Scott Card is a good example), and some whose work I avoid because I disliked previous work (which I have no problem stating) but when it comes down to it, I just don't feel it right to participate in encouraging people to systematically avoid an author's work.
Again, though, I understand if you disagree, and you're certainly entitled to that!
I think I'm on the same page as Lucy–but your response makes a really good point about authors changing their minds or the risk of basing calls for boycotting on misinformation. I guess I could see myself campaigning for clarification from the author, though. I spend so much time and energy talking to my students about certain types of language and speech that I view as hateful that if an author I was reading seemed to endorse that I could see myself feeling compelled to speak out. In this day and age, it would be fairly easy for the author to set the record straight and/or apologize if he or she wanted to (blog post/FB post/even a tweet, I guess) so maybe that would be a better goal than actually getting people not to buy that person's books.
Such common sense! So many of the guidelines would be good rules for life.
One thing I've found especially disturbing lately is the dogpiling going on– someone can make a comment that's fairly innocuous, but if someone disagrees with it, things turn hateful pretty quickly. Hopefully things will calm down soon and people won't be looking to get offended so much.
I know bad reviews must hurt, but there's nothing for an author to do except vent privately to trusted friends and move on, keeping in mind that not everyone is going to like every book.
This is so sensible and respectful to everyone. I'm impressed.
Thank you, Elissa!
I agree with everything, except of course, I do blacklist. I understand why you wouldn't, but I do try and make sure only the really *special* cases make it to that list. Great blog post. This is why I have so much respect for you as a reviewer and soon-to-be published author.
It's so hard. There are items on here that other friends disagree with, too. But when it comes down to it, I want to be sure that I'm acting out of a place of good intentions and forgiveness. I also want to be a little better, more forgiving, and kinder than I have to–because I believe it's what the community needs. With something like a blacklist, for me to participate it would come out of holding on to emotions I suspect are better let go, if that makes sense. Like I said to Lucy, you have to do what you have to do yourself. It's up to all of us to follow our own moral and ethical compass!
Phoebe, I love this. You're such a good example of someone who is both, unapologetically and really classy-like, a writer and reviewer. You know the troubles I've had with wanting to be both and I'm so glad you're not only reviewing and writing, but also making this awesome pledge… it has me thinking of how I conduct myself online and how I want to conduct myself in the future.
Thank you so much, Jordyn. That really means a lot to me.
This is superb.
Frankly, I don't understand how people could engage in venues like this with any other kind of attitude. Except in cases where crass humor is part of the writing finesse (Zero Punctuation is a great example), I expect reviews to have that certain respectful distance that any English major would associate with literary criticism, albeit hopefully with more creative flair.
As for disparaging reviewers for their opinions or personal details, I don't quite see getting into that – isn't that the whole point? You gain far more from reading a review with a healthy knowledge of the reviewers tastes (usually due to prior reviews) than in a vacuum or with some blind prejudice towards their work. Why belittle or attempt to scare away someone who's opinion, even if wholly unshared, gives you more understanding of the work than a blind "it sucks!" from amazon.com? This is part of why I love podcasts for my video game reviews – even if I don't share the staff's opinions or backgrounds, I hear so much of their personalities that I can make a better judgment for myself on whether to invest in a certain product.
Ooh, agree with you completely on the importance of personality. It's key, and in order to figure that stuff out, you need nuance and complexity.
Also, Dave Brown comments make me happy. <3
I absolutely love this pledge/set of guidelines! I think it's absolutely fair and, in an ideal setting, would make both parties happy. Although there will always be reviews that really hit hard and leave a sour taste in your mouth. But only as sour as the taste it left in the reviewers mouth, haha. I admit I have seen some really harsh reviews, and I have written some myself, but it is NEVER personal. And I try my best to point out at least one good thing about the novel/writing. I am glad that authors are actually taking this matter and attitude seriously. The amount of effort you put into these controversies is like the effort we put into a really long and detailed review; even if the rating is not that great, we still care enough about literature in general, to review. And that's the point isn't it? We all have our love of literature in common.
At least, I hope so.