Authors are reportedly being hit by negative reviews on the book review site Goodreads before proof copies are even circulated, with the review site allegedly failing to remove reviews.
Crime writer Jo Furniss was one of several authors to share her recent experience of the Amazon-owned review site with The Bookseller: “A lot of authors share the soul-destroying experience of seeing their books trashed before they are even available to genuine readers," she said. "Worse, like me, they feel they are given no protection by one of the biggest platforms in the industry. What is Goodreads doing to protect authors from online abuse?”
In her comment piece for The Bookseller, Furniss wrote: “It is months until the publication of my next thriller, Guilt Trip (Bonnier Zaffre). The novel is not available anywhere yet. Not even advance review copies. So why does Guilt Trip already have a single two-star rating on Goodreads?
“That was my thought process when I skimmed over the title recently while on Goodreads doing pre-publication admin. I’m not a masochist, I don’t usually linger over bad reviews. But an impossible mystery intrigues me, so I clicked."
After responding to the anonymous reviewer’s low rating, Furniss explained they then complained about the comment – which prompted an email from Goodreads explaining that it advises authors to "refrain from confronting users who give their books a low rating". Her comment was then removed. She added: "That was on the 8th May. I followed up on my report of their behaviour and got a reply saying Goodreads will investigate. I followed up again and got no reply. I have heard nothing since [though the review has been removed after The Bookseller contacted Goodreads]."
She explained that she "doesn’t care about one petty review", and said that: "It’s no more than a gnat bite on the thick skin you need for this business." Furniss said that she cares more that she "doesn’t get the same protection as the troll", adding: "Their actions are a form of online abuse. When Goodreads fails to respond to reports of harassment from members against authors, they let the abuse continue.
“Also, book ratings do matter. Otherwise, why are we all here? One friend who writes crime for a digital imprint was advised by an editor to retire a long-running series because the average rating for the most recent instalment slipped below 4.2 stars. So every keyboard-licking troll who fires off a volley of one-star ratings for their own strange and probably sad reasons, has the power to affect a writer’s career.”
Long-time romance author Milly Johnson said: “I had a one-star rating for a book that hadn’t even been seen by my copy editor. When I raised it with Goodreads they wouldn’t interfere as they said the reviewer had a perfect right to predict if they’d enjoy it or not. I’m afraid at that point I washed my hands of them as a serious review site that should have some code of conduct. We all get bad reviews but at least we should expect any review to be fair."
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Fellow author Kathryn Whitfield said: “I had [a negative] review for my debut novel [The Family at Number 11 (Headline Accent)], long before it was available anywhere (it was published June 2023). It was not on NetGalley and no proofs had been sent out at this point. I reported this to Goodreads, who said they would investigate and take appropriate action but the review is still there, over two years later."
She added: "I am quite a resilient person and was able to shake this off, but it was pretty crushing for this to be my very first experience of reading a review. It would have been quite simple for Goodreads to take this down, as there was clear evidence he could not have read the novel.”
Leonie Mack, who has received a mysterious rating for her latest novel Head Over Wheels (Bedford Square), said: “Just yesterday, I had a one-star rating on a book that’s not out yet, from a brand new account listed in the Russian Federation that has no other reviews than my one-star rating.
“I’ve reported the account, but I can’t report the rating itself, as there’s no review. It made my ratings average drop from 4.31 to 4.21. In commercial fiction (particularly my genre, romance), where there are fewer professional reviewers active, readers rely possibly too much on Goodreads reviews that are completely unverified.”
Goodreads reviews have long been associated with review bombing, for example in 2021 Time revealed how some authors were allegedly victims of extortion, facing demands to pay scammers to avoid bad reviews on the website. In 2023 the Guardian also reported authors were actively "staying away" from the site. Later that year, Goodreads announced changes later that year to prevent review bombing, shortly after Daphne Press backtracked on Cait Corrain’s debut deal after the aspiring SFF author admitted to posting negative reviews about other books on book recommendation website Goodreads under multiple accounts.
The Bookseller contacted Goodreads for a comment on the recent allegations from the authors and provided relevant screenshots. The site did not provide a comment directly but The Bookseller understands that it has a code of conduct to prevent fake reviews or harassment. The Bookseller was told that when a concern is raised about content or behaviour, Goodreads investigates against its reviews and community guidelines and takes appropriate action and the relevant reviews are no longer visible on Goodreads.
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