Thoughts About Reviews

With my latest novel, With Full Malice, some of the bigger reviewers, Kirkus, International Thriller Writers, Gumshoe, etc, posted reviews, and of course I was thrilled.

However, one of my previous novels, Beyond the Quiet, first published with a smaller publisher, has been slammed pretty hard on Amazon. Funny, tho. Reviews on B&N praised it, but most of the ones on Amazon trashed it. At first it bothered me, but now it's not so bad. Seems people either love it or hate it. Most didn't like my detailed sex scenes, yet erotic novels are so popular now. I'd never opened bedroom doors so widely before, but I truly wanted to explore this woman's awakening. I don't know if I'll go that far again, but it's been an experience I wouldn't trade.

After all, writing & publishing is truly a learning experience, and I treasure it all.

So when you receive good reviews, rejoice, and if you receive some that aren't so good, read them, think about it a short time, then move on and stay true to your storytelling self. After all, no one else can tell your story like you can. And remember, no one will love everything you write. And that's ok. It's the nature of the game.

Good advice, Brenda. Thanks for sharing.

Many times it does comes down to the opinion of the reviewer. The editor at Suspense Magazine said I need to keep my reivews positive for them because just because I may not have enjoyed the book, someone else will. So for them I try to keep the opsitive aspects mentioned. Good post. Thanks.

Glad you agree, Abe. You're experienced in many phases of life, so I value your opinion.

And Stephen, yes, it does depend on the reviewer. Some books by favorite authors have left me cold, and at one time I thought I had it figured out - that I simply couldn't connect to the storyline. Then I'll scan an opening page by a writer with a storyline I didn't think I'd like, and suddenly I'm hooked.

So what's the answer? Is it the writer's skill? Curiosity? I really can't say. But Beyond is selling very well. Maybe it's curiosity about all the negative reviews, but whatever it is, as long as it keeps selling, I won't complain.

Besides, it's still my favorite.

I used to get very upset about bad reviews. However, then I published a short story collection and individuals' favourite and least favourite stories within the collection varied so greatly, that I realised just how much personal taste varies.

I have three bad reviews on my book of short stories, and they don't bother me in the least:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Four-Short-Stories-ebook/dp/B004NIFTHY/

However, I received four one-star reviews on one of my novels that caused me to remove the Kindle formatted book from Amazon. The book is still available elsewhere.

The reviews themselves didn't bother me, but the star ratings did. A group of Amazon reviewers, who are obsessed with undoing four and five star reviews, upvoted the one star reviews so that they would stay permanently at the top of the review page, and downvoted the two four-star reviews so that they would stay permanently at the bottom. I don't have the support of shills that they assumed I do. I wouldn't dream of asking friends and family to up and down vote reviews on any of my books in order to change the arrangement of the reviews on the page. I don't see the point. How can an author feel any satisfaction from the support they receive from their readers if they have instigated that support?

Finding myself between a rock and a hard place, I decided to remove the book. I'm glad I did.

I should add that the book was available for free download (all the one-star reviewers reviewed a free copy) and had 4,636 downloads. I never expected the book to reach even a thousand readers; the fact that four times as many readers were give the opportunity to read the book was way beyond my expectations. Selling even a few hundred extra copies would not provide much income and make very little improvement on the number of downloads (paid and free), so I don't feel that I have lost anything. More importantly, the bad reviewers and their upvoting supporters gained nothing at all.

Shelagh, that is terrible! You shouldn't have had to feel you needed to remove the book. 4,636 are very admirable promo statistics and it sounds as though other people enjoyed it.

I can relate to how you feel though. There have been several times when bad reviews have made me feel like removing entire books, but I'm always pushed through and things have turned out okay in the end.

As for getting your friends to vote on reviews, I think you should have done, because they would only have been undoing the spiteful behaviour of the troll that got the 1 star review back to the top.

The funny thing is, Rosen, they were trying to stop the book from making sales; I did it far more effectively than they did!

Don't let them bully you. I had a five star title and somebody who obviously hadn't read the book left a 1 star review. I was very upset but that review now has 1 helpful vote, from 24 votes.

LOL! That will keep the one-star review at the bottom of the review list!

Reviews can be surprising. The rating by people you think will give you a high rating is often the ones that give the lowest. Some take the rating very serious and rate honestly while others may give a high rating simply because they are a friend and want to help. From a personal viewpoint, a rating by someone who is well-read provides the author with more validity to the worth of the book.