What to do when you hate the book you are reviewing

 

Image by Jannik Texler from Pixabay

Nobody likes a bad book review, especially the author of the book! But then again, not everybody will love every single book they choose to read. This is also true for the book reviewer – but sometimes, they can’t decide they’re not going to review the book after all. That’s when you need to adjust your book reviewing strategy.

 

Most authors and publishers who send out books to review understand that there is a chance the reviewer will not like the book. Nobody who offered me a review copy ever tore down my door screaming bloody murder because I opted not to review their book after all. What I don’t tell them is that I didn’t like the book, couldn’t finish reading it, or that I hated it. Instead, I say that I’d rather not review the book after all. And, usually, I never hear from them again. Which is fine with me.

 

But if you’re in a position where you MUST review the book even if you hated it, here are some things you can do to get that review written:

 

Write about what you DID like.

I recently stopped reading a collection of short stories I received a free review copy of (I only got this book because I was on somebody’s list of reviewers). I stopped reading it after I noticed I kept passing over a lot of stories that I did not enjoy reading. However, some of the stories in this book were pretty good, so that is something to highlight in a review.

 

Keep your review short.

I have seen very short reviews online. We’re talking reviews that are only one or two sentences. These reviews are usually accompanied by star ratings. Guess what? You don’t HAVE to justify or defend your star rating! If you give a book a two- or three-star rating and add a couple of sentences like “Interesting concept. I think it has potential.” Then be on your way, that is just fine. You did your review.

 

Change how you write your review.

I have noticed some reviewers basically summarize what a book is about. If you must leave a review but you didn’t like the book, try doing this instead.

 

There are a number of ways to handle writing a review for a book that you didn’t like. The above suggestions are just a few strategies you can use.

 

It’s a blessing to book reviewers to have the chance to decline a review or to opt not to review a book that was sent to them, but not all book reviewers are allowed this option. Should you find yourself in such a situation and you don't like the book, figure out a way to write the review that is both fair for you as well as the author of the book.

Nature That Inspires: Nature Therapy is a new poetry book about nature and ecology

 

On a recent walk, something caught my eye. I couldn’t tell what it was about this thing I saw on the ground which was tapping on my muse, but I knew I would use it in my writing in some way. I took a picture of it to save for when I could explore that notion and see how I could turn it into an idea for a story. Or a poem.

 

Sometimes I come across things which inspire me to write a poem. Like a flower.

 

My oldest works at a preschool, and there are dozens of varieties of plants and flowers on the premises. In the past, while I waited in the car to pick him up from work, I would often look at a plant, tree or flower I was usually parked in front of or next to and write a poem about it. Then there were the times we would go out to the River House, where he once volunteered, and just staring out at the river inspired me to write a poem. The same thing happened on country drives I went on with other people or hikes out in the hills.

 

My notebook soon filled up with a bunch of these poems, which made me realize: This could be a new collection of poetry!

 

I didn’t just write poems about the nature I was exposed to, though. I also wrote poems about ecological issues. I have seen and read many videos and articles about the destruction that continues to be inflicted on our planet. I have also taken note of various tweets, newsletters, articles and social media clips shining light on the continued destruction of threatened and endangered species such as bees, owls and wolves. All of this compelled me to write poems shedding light on how these species must be saved from extinction.

 

The result is my new poetry book, Nature Therapy. During the many years I wrote this book, it has seen different titles and appeared in different shapes. In fact, the total number of poems in this book are not the amount it had when I first tried to get it published.

 

The book is called Nature Therapy because I have found that just being out in nature has been extremely therapeutic. Romps through the woods, hikes on the hills, explorations along tree-lined roads and admiring rivers, lakes, ponds and creeks have all provided me with a sense of happiness and peace. Once out in nature, my troubles often fade away, and I can just bring myself back to baseline. I can sort through my thoughts, find comfort, and glean wisdom just from being outside in nature. Among flowers, fields, woods, hills and coastal areas.

 

Because I write a lot of horror fiction and poetry, some people may be surprised that I have written a book of nature poems. I actually write whatever inspires me, and nature is just one of them. Plus, I started writing all of those poems before I started writing a lot of horror fiction and poetry. I’m not the kind of writer who likes to let her work to collect dust and remain unpublished, so when I found a publisher interested in publishing my poetry books, I took the leap and submitted this one. Many more poetry books that were written years ago are waiting their turn.

 

This experience is a reminder that even if we write more of one thing at a certain time in life, that doesn’t mean there can’t be room for other things. Just because something may not be what you “normally” write, don’t push it aside and forget about it! Write it. You just might be able to find a use for later.

 

Here is  the blurb:

A gentle reminder of the solace and inspiration that nature offers, and a perfect escape from the noise.

In "Nature Therapy," Dawn Colclasure crafts a collection that's both raw and refreshingly earnest. Her poetry, like a breath of crisp morning air, taps into an almost primal connection to the natural world. Colclasure's verses offer a genuine experience of the seasons shifting and the earth's quiet, persistent rhythms.

Reading this collection feels like wandering through a serene, untouched landscape—each poem is a snapshot of the simple yet profound beauty that often goes unnoticed. Colclasure doesn't just write about nature; she invites you to feel it, to revel in its purity and to recognize its relentless resilience.

"Nature Therapy" is more than just a series of poems; it's an invitation to reconnect with the world outside our windows.

Here is the book's buy link

Don't Wait to Submit

When I shared with one of my kids that I had books coming out in consecutive months this year, he nodded with appreciation. That’s right: Books releasing this year are in June, July, August, September, October, November and December.

 

Then he made a suggestion: Don’t get all of my books published so close together.

 

I am not sure why he suggested this, but perhaps he thought that this might build an expectation from readers that I’ll have a book coming out every month. (Spoiler: This won’t happen in 2025.) Or maybe he thought I would run out of books to submit (which is kinda funny, considering ALL of the books I have in either writing stage, revision stage, or editing stage). Or perhaps he thought I might run out of ideas for things to write – which is actually not possible, either, because I have loads of ideas for books in my files and plan to tackle them after I get through the first round of books.

 

Either way, while I appreciated my child’s suggestion, I wasn’t ready to take it. I’m one of those people who believes that I must do things NOW. Not later or “when I have the time” or “after my kids grow up and move out” or “when I’m rich and famous.”

 

No, I need to do things now. I can’t put things off. I can’t wait.

 

Maybe it’s because I’m 50 now.

Maybe it’s because I have had one brush with death too many.

Maybe it’s because I feel driven to DO stuff.

 

Whatever the reason, all I know is that if I am able to do something now, I will do it now.

 

I get it that not everybody feels this way. More importantly, I understand that there are writers out there struggling with insecurities and uncertain about whether or not they are ready to submit their writing.

 

It’s tough getting over the anxiety and dread of submitting your work for publication. I struggled with this before I became a freelance writer. I read ALL of those articles that were published and thought, “I could never write like that.” So I practiced first. I wrote practice articles. This gave me enough confidence to submit my writing. After several months of persistently submitting and querying, I finally got published.

 

You have to have a lot of faith in yourself to submit your writing out there into the world. But most of all, you have to have a lot of guts to get your work out there. I often say that writers need to have thick skin and this is especially true in making the leap to submit your work.

 

Don’t wait for the right time; now is the right time. Go for it. Submit your work, query that magazine, pitch that agent. Tomorrow is never promised, so if you want to get your work published, then get it out there so that it can get published.

The Surprise Book: Shadows is a Collection of Flash Fiction Stories That Lost Then Found a Home

 

Earlier this year, I was comfortably employed at a publishing company, working as a YA Editor. This company had many imprints, and one of the editors put out an open call for flash fiction collections. Up until then, I had been writ8ing flash fiction and submitting the stories out to publications as part of my work as a freelance writer (which I still do today). However, once I saw this call for submissions, I decided to go for it. I did have some flash fiction stories lying around that hadn’t been published yet. (I prefer to have NEW material in my books of stories, although one story in my forthcoming YA horror collection of stories was previously published.) I also started writing new stories for this book. The call had a limit of 20 stories, with each story being no more than 1500 words, so I decided to aim for the maximum amount of stories. Once it was finished, I submitted it and waited.

 

Then the news came that this publishing company shut down. All of my books and pending books with them were now homeless!

 

Still, I bided my time. Experience has taught me that if I just sit tight, I would find a new publisher for this book.

 

Thankfully, I did. A fellow author shared about a publishing company in the UK on Facebook. He said some good things about them so I checked them out. I liked what I saw so I submitted my flash fiction collection. Three days later, an acceptance for this manuscript was in my inbox. I was thrilled! They also accepted a micro-chapbook of poetry, as well as a novella. I have more books slated to go to them, especially for their new imprints.

 

Shadows was published by Unveiling Nightmares on July 6 and I’m very pleased to see this book not only find a new home but also get into print. Many thanks to Crystal Baynam for accepting and editing the book, as well as Christy Aldridge for the fantastic cover! I’m very happy with my experience with Unveiling Nightmares and I look forward to working with them again on future books.

 

I call Shadows my “surprise book” because it wasn’t a book I planned to write. Before the year started, I made a list of what books I would submit. (That is a list that has seen many updates!) This book was not on the list. I hadn’t written it or planned to write it. It never even occurred to me to put together a collection of flash fiction stories. That call for submissions is what put the idea for this book into my head. It also prompted me to write more flash fiction stories just for this book in order to bring the total to twenty.

 

Here is the blurb for Shadows:

 

What sort of horrors lurk in the shadows? What monsters are waiting to attack?

 

Shadows is a collection of 20 flash fiction stories bringing our worst nightmares to life.

 

From Halloween scares to Christmas creepers, these terrifying tales will take you into worlds of fright.

 

Shadows offers stories of ghosts, zombies, demons and werewolves. But not all monsters are creatures of the imagination. Be careful who you trust; within these pages are people just as monstrous and evil.

 

Here’s the buy link

"You Didn't Even Know Him"

These words were said to me after I told someone that I wrote a poem in memory of a child who died from cancer. This person DID know the child, quite well, and I was hoping he would read the poem to let me know if I had got it “right.” This is something I do for people who knew or are related to a person who I wrote a memorial poem for. He has yet to read it.

 

When I ask the person to read the poem, I am not looking for praise or attention. I ask them to read it just to see if I wrote about the person the poem is about correctly. A friend of mine lost her mom, and after I wrote a poem in her memory, my friend read the poem and said it was spot on. I got the same response after a cousin I didn’t know had passed away (his sister read the poem and loved it). So it’s mainly to see if I got the information about the person right. I would also like to know if they are okay with this poem being written.

 

And in the case of the child who died from cancer, I would like to know from his mother if it’s okay for this poem to be written. I would also like their permission for this poem to be published, as all of these memorial poems that I write are for a book of poems I plan to submit for publication next year.

 

The task of writing memorial poems for people I didn’t know has been a challenge. I have written memorial poems for celebrities and public figures – Michael Landon, Princess Diana, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Michael Jackson and Paul Reubens – but in the writing of those poems, I wrote about what I knew of their lives and careers, their work, their influences and how they fared through tribulations. Research is also done to help gather information. But I have also written memorial poems for other people I didn’t know at all or very well – family or friends of friends or someone I heard about. In the case of the child who lost his battle with cancer, he was someone I heard about. I was so saddened by this news and so moved that I wrote the poem. It remains to be seen if I will be able to include it in the book.

 

The news of a child passing away because of cancer is very sad. It can affect everyone. It can especially affect anyone who has lost a family member or child to cancer themselves. It is a very sad, very heartbreaking thing.

 

In my case, not only was I saddened by this news but I was also angry. I was angry that cancer stole the life of yet another child. I was angry this child won’t have the chance to grow up. I was angry that this child was forced to endure a wretched disease at so young an age instead of enjoying being a child.

 

This whirlwind of emotions drove me to write the poem. I didn’t try to personalize it, because, it’s true; I didn’t know this child in any way at all. But his death moved me. His death drove me to write. So I just tried to make it a poem for all children who pass away because of cancer.

 

The inspiration for that poem came from his passing.

 

The thing of it is, though, that this comment hit me pretty hard. I have been conflicted about writing these poems. Those very words the person said to me could very well be the same words someone reading one of the poems might say after reading it (though they might substitute “him” with “her”). I have been struggling with this task. I write these poems not because I want attention or to interfere with someone’s grief. I write these poems because I felt compelled to write them. So many people pay tribute to others they don’t know in some form or another. For me, it’s with poetry. When my cousin died, I wrote a poem about him. When my friend broke down into tears over the news of his friend’s death, I wrote a memorial poem for the friend (and his mother later emailed me saying she loved the poem). Heck, there are even poems written in memory of dogs I have had.

 

Am I wrong to write these poems in memory of people I didn’t know? I have no clue. The people who DID know them might feel like their privacy has been violated. They might want to know who the hell I am to write such a poem about someone I didn’t even know.

 

And there are those who might feel that it’s impossible to write anything about someone you never knew in a way that captures who that person really was. (Authors of biographies of people from the past might beg to differ.)

 

But I felt compelled to write those poems. Their deaths moved me. I was saddened by their passing. So I wrote those poems.

 

I didn’t even plan to turn this into a book until much later. I mean, right now, there are 50 poems in that book so far, with more which I plan to write. I COULD just keep them to myself, but how would that honor the person who the poem is for? Some people might read the poem and feel moved or happy by the memories it evokes of that person. And some of the people I wrote about may never be known to others if it weren’t for getting a poem about them published in this book. One person I wrote a poem for had a LOUSY obituary written for him, so I wrote my poem in response to this, because I KNEW this person, and if he was to get a proper obituary, it would be that one. Another person I knew didn’t get an obituary in the paper at all. So I wrote the poem. And, anyway, he was my friend, and I was saddened by his passing. Gone too soon.

 

My collection of memorial poems does include poems in memory of people who I did know, but there are also poems written in the memory of people I didn’t. I only hope, for the poems that won’t be read before publication, that I get the poems about those people right, and that their loved ones might appreciate and be okay with what I wrote.