I'm Hesitant to Read My Reviews

I don't remember how I found Pen Pinery, maybe via a Reddit post. At the time, it hosted all genres. But now---seriously? 

"The platform announced the "Romance-first pivot" in January 2026 after realizing romance authors were underserved by general ARC platforms."  

Just my luck, I uploaded my book not knowing what the site would soon become.

What Pen Pinery functions as is an ARC reader hub. According to Google, the site has a network of over 100,000 ARC readers (now that it's switched to romance). I have no idea how many it had previously, but probably not many. When I was researching it, I was assured that it wasn't solely for pre-published books. That was good, because I was really only aiming for reviews.

Time passed and I'd occasionally get a nudge from them that no one had chosen my book to review. "Do you need to update your blurb?" Okay, whatever. It wasn't the blurb. Eventually a couple users chose it, with one commenting that the cover "could use some work". He was right. I'd been using a Canva-designed cover that was pretty awful in hindsight. So, after purchasing a cover from Miblart, that was the one thing I was able to update. It helped---a little. I think I found 8 readers in total. 

With no reviews forthcoming, I wrote the place off. Then a couple of months ago, I received notice that Running From Herself had gotten two reviews. 

Those emails are sitting unopened in my in box.

I was tempted to open them tonight, but then I thought, why upset myself? I react poorly to criticism of my work (i.e., of "me"), because my work is me. Who else would it be? It may be because I get so few reviews that I remember them---distinctly. I still haven't gotten over the Goodreads reviewer who insinuated that I don't understand "big words". She's a teacher, you  know, she was quick to include, and she sees it all the time with her students. Hey, if I'm unsure about a word, I look it up! At least I'm smart enough to do that.

See? I've yet to get over it.

Everyone says, of course, that an author shouldn't read his or her reviews. Reviews are for readers. I quibble with the logic of that. If my book's not selling, why wouldn't I want to know the reason? Is a bad review driving potential buyers away? If you've got a thousand reviews, one bad one doesn't matter. If you've got about eight, well, there you go.

That's not why my novel isn't selling, but my point still stands. (That particular review was for a different book.)

So, despite wanting to clean out my in-box, I think I'll leave those two review emails alone. There are telltale signs anyway. I didn't see a spike in sales after the reviews were posted, or even a spikelet. Plus, now that the site is 100% romance, those reviews might not even exist anymore. 

I suppose the site owner made a sound business decision by narrowing his focus, but he ruined the site; sorry. Soon every book-related site will be completely romance-driven. A writer can't catch a break nowadays. But now I've veered off topic.

So, yay or nay? Do you read your reviews?