I find positive reviews more helpful than negative ones. You want to find a good book to read, right? Still, I will occasionally post bad reviews on here, but only of established writers. You should know whether it is worth it before you plunk your hard-earned money down on a hardback or paperback. Plus they can take it.

For instance, when I say Eragon is a bad book, I know Chris Paolini isn’t going to lose any sleep over it. Eragon is a really, poor rip-off of The Lord of the Rings. I know Paolini was only around 15 when he wrote it, but it feels amateur. His main character just keeps wandering around bumping into his stolen plot line. I got so irritated by it I couldn’t finish it.

But what I won’t do is trash an indie writer even though a lot of the self-published ebooks out there are probably poorly plotted, horribly proofread, or just plain bad. I know it might be helpful to readers to call some of them out for what they are.

But I can’t do it. I can’t be a dream killer. While my little blog won’t hurt an established writer, it could have a terrible effect on an indie writer.

So if you ask me to review your book, and you don’t see it on the blog, it’s either in my “to read” pile, or I didn’t like it. And if I don’t have anything nice to say, I’m not saying anything at all….

(…at least publicly, you can email me and I’ll tell you privately the unvarnished truth. Honest criticism can only help a writer.)