Status: It's Monday morning, and I need to get started on Crusader, but I have to get something off my mind first.
I began this morning of writing responding to an email from someone who had written to me yesterday to compliment me on the Sanctuary Series. I exchanged a few emails with this person, was appreciative of the questions they'd asked, told them I enjoyed hearing from them. I did enjoy hearing from them. I enjoy hearing from anybody who's read my books, because I feel like we've got some common ground we can talk about, which is why I publish my email address in every one of the ones I publish. It's not just an email address I check every six months, either, that one (cyrusdavidon@gmail.com) sends an alert directly to my phone every time it gets an email. I have my phone with me constantly and try to respond as quickly as possible whenever someone contacts me there, on Facebook, on Twitter. I really like engaging with people who read my books.
But this brings me to an interesting topic. Because I started today writing a response to this series of emails that began with compliments of my book and then I went on to check a Writer's Board that I spend time on, and found a topic about dealing with bad (1 and 2-Star) reviews for your book. Now, there's a topic about this every week, but this one caught my attention and I browsed it really quickly. But it got me thinking about reviews in general, and how they affect our buying decisions.
I know they have some influence on some people, but it's unclear how much. Other writers seem to think that if they get a single 1-star review, it's GAME OVER, MAN! - no one will buy your book, ever.
As long as the ratio stays the same for positives to negatives (10:1 on Defender), I'd like about a million bad reviews. Because that would mean I'd have 9 million good reviews. Defender has been downloaded over five thousand times in the last month or so, and yet I've received only two reviews in that timeframe. One was a 4-star (on Defender itself) and one was a 5-Star (on Champion, but he mentions the entire series). Over five thousand free downloads, a ton of follow-up sales, but two reviews?
I'm thankful for both of them (and that they're both positive) but I'm also surprised. I'm pleased that people appear to be consuming my books, but I'd heard from other writers that free books like Defender were most likely to be struck down with bitter, spiteful 1-star reviews. Yay for me that it hasn't happened like that, but what drives that, I wonder? Does something completely have to blow your mind (good or bad) to rate a review? Does it require you to be a "raving fan" before you consider leaving a review?
I tend not to write bad reviews, largely because I believe W.H. Auden was correct. I don't feel any better after writing a bad review, I only feel cattier, and frankly I'm good enough at that without needing to practice.
But I don't begrudge someone the need to vent about how bad a book is, even if it's one of mine. I've had two bad reviews thus far, and one of them, found here in its entirety, made some valid points about the first edition of Defender. "Awkward word choices...repetitive sentence structure." Both true of the first edition, though more likely to be noticed by a discerning reader. I'd had other total strangers review that edition of the book and none of them mentioned those as being problems. When I went through Defender again, though (with my new and improved skills from writing several books) I decided to correct what I perceived as the most egregious of those errors. Did I succeed or fail? I don't know, it's up to you to judge. This same review had issues with the story, though, and that I didn't change a whit. Too many people had told me they enjoyed it.
I once believed reviews were vitally important, and paid a review service to (impartially) match my book Defender up with readers to give it fair reviews. How do I know it was actually impartial? They're the ones who matched my book up with the person who gave it the 1-star review. They promised 10 impartial reviews, and I got 3 5-stars (and found Amy from Read to My Heart's Content Blog who has reviewed every subsequent book, as well as Cheryl M. and Mindy), 6 4-star reviews and that lone, soul-crushing 1-star. That person really, really didn't like the book. Oh, my, did they not like the book.
I'm not going to link to it, because it's not hard to find, but I managed to come up with a creative use for this one, too. Sanctuary fans, if you ever wonder where I got some of the stuff that Chirenya throws in Cyrus's face in Champion...read that review. I didn't have to be terribly original, I just borrowed from the person I found who apparently hated him most. I can find a use for most any type of criticism, even if that person didn't intend it to be used as such. Is that a good way to deal with negative reviews? Well, it was the healthiest thing I could think of.
I don't want to minimize the impact of these things on me, but I sold financial products to people in their own houses, so it's not like I haven't had people say bad things to me before. To my face. While swearing. At the top of their voice (it wasn't my fault, I swear). As long as people keep enjoying (and buying, I'm not too proud to say) my work, I'm willing to take the occasional hit from someone who doesn't like my books.
But if you've read my books and wanted to leave an honest review on Amazon, that wouldn't hurt either. And maybe, with enough of them, we could see if good reviews do have an impact on book sales. I'd let you know if it helped - you know, as an experiment. Because I'm a humanitarian like that, answering questions that affect us all. No ulterior motives at all. Nope. None.
Ain't I a sweetheart?
I began this morning of writing responding to an email from someone who had written to me yesterday to compliment me on the Sanctuary Series. I exchanged a few emails with this person, was appreciative of the questions they'd asked, told them I enjoyed hearing from them. I did enjoy hearing from them. I enjoy hearing from anybody who's read my books, because I feel like we've got some common ground we can talk about, which is why I publish my email address in every one of the ones I publish. It's not just an email address I check every six months, either, that one (cyrusdavidon@gmail.com) sends an alert directly to my phone every time it gets an email. I have my phone with me constantly and try to respond as quickly as possible whenever someone contacts me there, on Facebook, on Twitter. I really like engaging with people who read my books.
But this brings me to an interesting topic. Because I started today writing a response to this series of emails that began with compliments of my book and then I went on to check a Writer's Board that I spend time on, and found a topic about dealing with bad (1 and 2-Star) reviews for your book. Now, there's a topic about this every week, but this one caught my attention and I browsed it really quickly. But it got me thinking about reviews in general, and how they affect our buying decisions.
I know they have some influence on some people, but it's unclear how much. Other writers seem to think that if they get a single 1-star review, it's GAME OVER, MAN! - no one will buy your book, ever.
As long as the ratio stays the same for positives to negatives (10:1 on Defender), I'd like about a million bad reviews. Because that would mean I'd have 9 million good reviews. Defender has been downloaded over five thousand times in the last month or so, and yet I've received only two reviews in that timeframe. One was a 4-star (on Defender itself) and one was a 5-Star (on Champion, but he mentions the entire series). Over five thousand free downloads, a ton of follow-up sales, but two reviews?
I'm thankful for both of them (and that they're both positive) but I'm also surprised. I'm pleased that people appear to be consuming my books, but I'd heard from other writers that free books like Defender were most likely to be struck down with bitter, spiteful 1-star reviews. Yay for me that it hasn't happened like that, but what drives that, I wonder? Does something completely have to blow your mind (good or bad) to rate a review? Does it require you to be a "raving fan" before you consider leaving a review?
I tend not to write bad reviews, largely because I believe W.H. Auden was correct. I don't feel any better after writing a bad review, I only feel cattier, and frankly I'm good enough at that without needing to practice.
But I don't begrudge someone the need to vent about how bad a book is, even if it's one of mine. I've had two bad reviews thus far, and one of them, found here in its entirety, made some valid points about the first edition of Defender. "Awkward word choices...repetitive sentence structure." Both true of the first edition, though more likely to be noticed by a discerning reader. I'd had other total strangers review that edition of the book and none of them mentioned those as being problems. When I went through Defender again, though (with my new and improved skills from writing several books) I decided to correct what I perceived as the most egregious of those errors. Did I succeed or fail? I don't know, it's up to you to judge. This same review had issues with the story, though, and that I didn't change a whit. Too many people had told me they enjoyed it.
I once believed reviews were vitally important, and paid a review service to (impartially) match my book Defender up with readers to give it fair reviews. How do I know it was actually impartial? They're the ones who matched my book up with the person who gave it the 1-star review. They promised 10 impartial reviews, and I got 3 5-stars (and found Amy from Read to My Heart's Content Blog who has reviewed every subsequent book, as well as Cheryl M. and Mindy), 6 4-star reviews and that lone, soul-crushing 1-star. That person really, really didn't like the book. Oh, my, did they not like the book.
I'm not going to link to it, because it's not hard to find, but I managed to come up with a creative use for this one, too. Sanctuary fans, if you ever wonder where I got some of the stuff that Chirenya throws in Cyrus's face in Champion...read that review. I didn't have to be terribly original, I just borrowed from the person I found who apparently hated him most. I can find a use for most any type of criticism, even if that person didn't intend it to be used as such. Is that a good way to deal with negative reviews? Well, it was the healthiest thing I could think of.
I don't want to minimize the impact of these things on me, but I sold financial products to people in their own houses, so it's not like I haven't had people say bad things to me before. To my face. While swearing. At the top of their voice (it wasn't my fault, I swear). As long as people keep enjoying (and buying, I'm not too proud to say) my work, I'm willing to take the occasional hit from someone who doesn't like my books.
But if you've read my books and wanted to leave an honest review on Amazon, that wouldn't hurt either. And maybe, with enough of them, we could see if good reviews do have an impact on book sales. I'd let you know if it helped - you know, as an experiment. Because I'm a humanitarian like that, answering questions that affect us all. No ulterior motives at all. Nope. None.
Ain't I a sweetheart?