This post is based on a recent email conversation.
I have to say that the generosity of honest reviewers never ceases to amaze me. They spend their time for no reward other than being transported out of our troubled world into a world that only exists in the mind of someone else. And then they spend still more of their time compiling words that give away both everything, and nothing.
Honest reviewers are courageous. They talk about both the good, and about the not so good. They don’t sugar coat their words, but neither do they coat them in bile.
Honest reviewers are easy to spot, but incredibly hard to pin down. They’re easy to spot because their reviews don’t contain generic, nonsense catch-phrases that could be {and probably have been} used to describe an encounter with a particular brand of laundry soap. They’re incredibly hard to pin down, because every honest author wants their attention. {Dishonest authors have no interest in honest reviewers, their only interest is in 5 star reviews, the more generic the better, and they all seem to have lots of these.}
Honest reviewers are humble, invariably putting the needs of the work they’re reviewing ahead of their own needs. They are often authors themselves, but they seldom plug their own work, and if they do it is relevant to the review.
In this burgeoning world of self-publishing, honest reviewers hold a very high position on the publishing totem pole. Yet they seldom receive any compensation other than a “free” copy of the work they’re reviewing. “Free” is a word that should not be used, for it comes at such a significant cost of time. Honest reviewers do a lot of work, and they get nothing in pay. I’d like to see some creative way to rectify this bizarre situation, but I don’t see how without compromising their integrity at worst, or casting a shadow of suspicion on it at best. {For now, I make a point of personally thanking them if I have some way of contacting them. I also try and ensure they have the opportunity to read my up-coming work before it is published, but I question whether that is an adequate reward, or even a reward at all.}
In summary, writing honest reviews is a largely thankless task. So, to every honest reviewer, please accept my thanks. I’m sure every honest author joins me in that sentiment.