Daisy Buchanan reached for her phone as she pottered around her home in July. She immediately felt hot when she saw the words "review," "mediocre" and "irritating" on the photo sharing site. Buchanan says that his body began to process it before he did. Her eyes were filled with tears. Buchanan was reading a negative review of her book. She didn't seek it out with an ill-advised name or title search, she just got it from the reader. She had been tagged by them.
Around the same time, a few miles away in London, there was a phone call. There was a two-paragraph, one-star review of one of the 30-year-old's books. In the past, Buchanan and Croucher have made pleas on social media, "Say what you like about my work, but please, please, please don't!"
The voices of readers and reviewers have never been easier to hear. Bibliophiles have been able to point out plot holes and discuss theories on an unprecedented scale thanks to Bookstagram and BookTok. One thing to tell the world that you don't like a book is another thing to tell its author.
Do you think it is? This is our brave new world. Isn't it helpful to read constructive criticism if authors accept that tags are part of the job? Writers need to hear the criticism of their work if it's problematic. Isn't it a kind thing to tag? Buchanan wrote Insatiable and Careering.
She is aware that there are valid criticisms to make of her work, but she is trying to write a book a year. When I read an angry review of a book that I finished two years ago, it really makes me think. Buchanan uses various security and privacy settings to minimize how she is tagged on her social media accounts.
Anna James is an author of the children's series Pages and Co. She argues that if an author is tagged, the focus of the discussion will be on the author rather than the reader. She says that a discussion about a book online can't be useful for readers. When readers are talking about reviews and ratings, not when trying to talk to an author, she means.
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