Dear Author,
Why does reading reviews stop me writing?
Answered by MISS Spartacus 2U
I published my first novel in 2008 and uploaded it to Amazon. It even had a glowing editorial review from an erotica review site, but the real test, in my opinion, was public opinion. My early customer reviews were very good…until that day…
Someone left a 1-star review saying “X-title by Y-author is much better and blah, blah, blah.”
It hurt, and I was annoyed because reading their review told me that 1) they hadn’t read the entire book. OK, fair enough. But 2) this “reviewer” was missing the point so bad, I thought the person might lack reading comprehension skills. Regardless, the review was a complete buzzkill and deflated me despite having nearly a dozen glowing reviews at the time.
This is the risk when reading reviews about your book. This makes you want to stop writing. But you should keep going. Why? There’s more than 8 billion people on this planet. The odds are in your favour that more than one will like your work.
Plus, something totally amazing and unexpected happened in my case.
This was back when you could give a thumbs up or down on an Amazon review. Flame wars could take place in the review’s comment section. That is exactly what happened on my 1-star review.
Another reader, a complete stranger, started attacking the reviewer and challenging their criticism.
This happened in real time. Before. My. Eyes. I’d refresh the screen to see these ladies trade digital blows. But my unknown warrior delivered the coup de grace and busted the reviewer for trying to steer readers to their book by leaving bad reviews under an alias. Basically, this was an early form of 1-star-review-bombing. My defender had been doing her homework in the background. I would not be surprised if she’s an internet sleuth today. She shut down the critic and the flame war ended.
Reading your own reviews is a form of masochism, in my opinion. Do yourself a favour. Get a trusted friend or family member to read your reviews and summarize the good, bad, and the ugly in a way that doesn’t make you feel attacked. Get them to find good pull quotes for you to use in your marketing.
My husband did this for me the first year the book was out. It helped me know that I had an appreciative audience out there somewhere, even if some don’t like my work.
Last time I checked, the book has over 100 reviews with an average 4-star rating.
MISS Spartacus 2U is a retired freelance editor who is about to re-launch her pen name. Stay tuned!
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