When Elizabeth Gilbert, the world-renowned author of the best-selling Eat, Pray, Love, announced on social media that she would not publish her new book, The Snow Forest, because it was set in Russia in the Soviet Union, a halo of uncertainty set in. On twitter. “You show very little faith in the public and in your own literary ability. Of course, you have not written a novel that is on the Soviet side, the Soviet Union is gone. A bad decision ”, a user reproached him. “Syria would like to know if this same energy would be brought to the books set in the United States. Part of the country is still under US occupation today,” another wondered. Others, however, applauded the action: “Thank you for supporting Ukraine. People all over the world need to see what kind of evil Ukrainians are fighting against.”
Aware that her decision would generate this debate, the author explained that in recent days she had received a "massive barrage" of messages expressing her "anger, sorrow, disagreement and pain" for the fact that she chose to write such a book and publish it on this moment, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
Many of these requests came from users from all over the world and not only from Ukraine, and they came in the form of scores on platforms such as Goodreads, the virtual community par excellence for readers. There, a large number of users expressed their displeasure by voting his book with a single star, despite the fact that it has not yet seen the light of day. "They had not read it, but they showed their disagreement," explains Gonzalo Albert, literary director of Suma, Plaza
Faced with this avalanche of bad scores, Goodreads decided to delete the book's tab and Gilbert agreed with Penguin Random House to postpone the arrival of his work in bookstores. Something that Albert does not value as negative. “On the contrary, at least in this particular case. Gilbert was able to know before publication the vision of many of his readers. Perhaps, if he had carried it out, it would not have worked as well as it should. It is something that we cannot know but, in any case, waiting for the most propitious moment to arrive is still a good thing. Never before have we had the pulse and the valuation of the readers so close at hand”.
For years editors have been aware of what is going on both on networks and on platforms where users can write a note. There are several, such as Basmo or Alibrate, although “Goodreads is the most popular. Its influence is greater in countries with an Anglo-Saxon language and culture, but in Spain it has been gaining strength in recent years, not so much among the general public but among the super-reading community”, Albert anticipates.
The editorial division of the Planeta group and other smaller labels also acknowledge that they are aware of what is going on there. The Goodreads Awards, for example, have great influence in the publishing sector. The last winner was Gabrielle Zevin with her Mañana, y mañana, y mañana, which she published in February by AdN and Edicions del Periscopi and became a bestseller. And it is that, sometimes, the future of a reading can depend on a note, for better or worse, as well as the reputation of an author.
Detractors know this and dare to blackmail writers in exchange for avoiding a smear campaign on them. There are several groups of literary extortionists that have emerged in recent years that are dedicated to bombarding false reviews, all of them negative. A practice that authors like Beth Black took it upon themselves to publicly denounce. “Either you take care of our needs and requirements with your portfolio or we will ruin your authoring career. Pay or disappear from Goodreads for your own good ”, read one of the threats that came to her email.
The commotion was such that in 2021 the platform promised to do everything possible to prevent situations like this from happening again. "As it has become popular, it has become a bit of a hostile platform, and that in the community of Internet readers we tend to be quite respectful," reflects Raquel Brune, who prefers to follow the recommendations of other booktokers like her on TikTok.
The literary influencer Esther Izquierdo, on the other hand, does give importance to the stars and admits that “before buying a book I always look at the note and pay attention to the negative comments because I like to be prepared. I only stop reading them if I see that the book has four stars or more and many reviews because I understand that it has to be good.
His colleague Aina Sebastià, whose literary reviews are also very present on social networks, explains that in the book club he goes to they do something similar: “When we propose a book, we always immediately look for its score. If it has a 3.7 out of 5 or more, we choose it. If not, we put it in quarantine.” With this rule it is not strange to end The Hunger Games on our hands. Suzanne Collins's work leads the Goodreads ranking of the best books in history. It is followed by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Pride and Prejudice.
Like publishers, many writers keep an eye on the stars that readers give their books. Andrea Izquierdo, author of the trilogy The Girl of the Zodiac and known on YouTube as Andreo Rowling, confesses, however, that she does it “with her head. I think the reviews are more for the readers than for the authors. At first, I was looking for what people were saying, and sometimes out of a hundred comments there was only one bad one, but that was what I stuck with. For mental health I stopped looking at it.
The same thing happened to Javier Castillo, who is behind great successes like La chica de nieve: “Every time you finish a book you have to rate it. It is a dynamic that does not go with me. I prefer to talk about the ones I liked and forget about the ones I didn't. We have to learn to give low-scoring books a chance. That we didn't like them doesn't mean anything. There are many jewels to discover”.
The notes can also be used to recover books published years ago —thus facilitating new reissues— and to refine other details, such as the covers. It happened with Blood and Ashes, by Jennifer L. Armentrout. This editorial success arrived in Spain with a cover that was far from the original, causing the anger of the readers. “Some were very disrespectful to the new illustrator. The pressure was such that the publisher had to make a statement announcing a new cover”, recalls Izquierdo.
Another use, although less widespread, is to order libraries. From Finestres, Ada Bruguera explains that "the bookstore has its own criteria for preparing tables and shelves" but she does say that "on rare occasions, and in a personal capacity, when we receive news about Anglo-Saxon books, I go to Goodreads to see what is said. Of course, the most advisable thing will always be to stop scoring and ask your trusted bookseller ”, she concludes.
