The bad review

As much as I love reading, every so often I'll come across a book that I really don't like. Obviously, in some cases it's just not to my taste, but with the easy access to self publishing that the ebook revolution has brought about, sometimes it's just that a book isn't very good. When I come across a book like that, I'm always left wondering if I should write a review or not? Is it fair to write the bad review?

It would be pointless of course, if every review I ever wrote was completely glowing and only pointed out the good stuff. I'm not interested in that, but when it's the case that I really struggle to find anything positive at all to say a book, I'm really left wondering if I should write a review? Is it really fair? 

The thing is, someone has spent hours, days, weeks, months, working on their book. Then I, who can't seem to actually manage to write anything of any length, come and attack and destroy in one fell swoop. Not that I have ideas that what I have to say will influence people that much, but for the writer I'm sure that bad reviews can be soul destroying.

If you're a business that receives a bad review, then you can at least do something about it, make sure that the problem doesn't happen again, sort it out for the unhappy party. But a writer won't have that opportunity. They could always learn from the comments of those who don't enjoy their book. But, that bad review is still out there, about a book they've already published.

I suppose the answer is, that if you're a writer you've got to develop a thick skin, to realise that not everyone will love your work and that not every review is going to be glowing. But, for the time being at least, I don't really want to be writing the bad review. So I'm going to just stick to the books that I either really like, or at the very least have got something positive to say about them. I'll leave the ripping apart of writers work to someone else.