For an author reviews are this double edged sword. I love to see someone enjoys my books, it can make me squee to have someone babble how good they are. And then you get the negative review and it makes you feel like someone just shoved a knife in your back.
I do not believe in a perfect story. Everyone likes different things in story just like everyone likes different foods. I hate avocados. Blech. But if you like them cool. Same thing with story. I think The Great Gatsby was boring. Lord of the Flies was stupid. And why in the world does anyone think James Joyces Ulysses is worth reading? But – other people love them and that is okay.
So this means telling me you thought the plot was slow, the characters boring, the world stupid might make me sad, it doesn’t hurt cause other people love exactly what you didn’t like. But other reviews, oh they hurt.
Here is my normal process. I write the blasted book. I try to edit as I go as it makes me less likely to scream. I think export it as a whole document (and note most of my stories are 100k+) and I go through to check for spelling errors, grammar errors, typos, and always the dreaded comma. Seriously people why do we have one little piece of ink “,” that does like twenty things? English is annoying. But that is besides the point or is the point, one of the two.
Once I’ve done that I send it to my betas. They read it, point out my many mistakes. I fix those and then send to my editor. She goes through it once, sends it back and I go through and fix everything again (by this point I want to scream how can I make so many errors?) then I format it and send it back to her. She edits it again and sends it back. I fix them all again and then I’m done. By this time I hate the story and everything about it. I upload it and move on.
Back to the reviews. The ones that hurt are the “poorly edited” or “too many typos” or “needs a proofreader.” Those make me want to sob in horror. At this point I’ve spent a thousand or so on editing and we STILL miss things. But when you lose stars because of those issues (and we all know stars on Goodreads and Amazon means everything) it hurts.
So what do I do? Mostly I really do try to avoid all reviews. They either pump up my ego or make me want to cry, neither of which is healthy. But when I see them and they are about editing or grammar or something that I should fix it hurts.
Now I am not saying don’t ding an author for that it is valid, but take a long look. How many errors are we talking about? Hundreds? Okay there is an issue. Ten? In a 100k book? I’ve seen worse in NYT bestsellers. Understand the author is trying and decide how much it upset you. And then if you need to give a negative review do it. But I beg you, for the soul of the poor author–don’t do a 1 star if there are no other reviews at all. Give it a week, then go back when there are reviews that liked it and be honest. Just remember we are trying and this is mostly one person trying to manage everything.
Okay headed back to write now. Enjoy!
Try not to let the nit pickers bring you down. It’s a great series and I can’t wait to read the next book! Remember you’re a Dragon 😉🐉
Laughs – yes I am darn it! Dragons Unite!
I just finished all four books of your “Twisted Luck” series and recommended it to my fantasy loving bookish daughter. If there are ANY new books in this series, PLEASE let me know. I realize that it could end with book four but I am hoping not. I would love to adventure more with Cori, Jo and Sable.
Nope. I’m writing book 5 right now and it should go out to ten in the series I think. I have so many stories I want to tell and I’m hoping to type fast enough to get them all told. Look out for some anthologies I am going to be in here in the future.
I read reviews in my shopping process, and have become sensitive to those reviews which at least try to communicate useful information to either future customers or to the author.
There are so many types and tastes of readers out there that most negative reviews can be safely ignored: political / social hatreds, I wanted it written my way, you can write and I can’t and I hate you for it, etc.
The ones to look for are from those who have read the work, understand the book and the characters, and ask / comment on the whys of things.
As in: why does your Appalachian mountain character trust anyone from Fed.gov? Why does your complete outsider character use the same speech patterns and grammar as your New England professor?
I think that the worst comment I have ever left was one for book 4 of a series where the author had written himself into a place where he would have had to work harder to develop his space opera from a single hero to an ensemble, and instead, killed the series. I wrote, “your characters deserved a better fate than what you have done to them here.”
Your books seem to be open to the widest possible universe of readers. I like that, though I have only read the “Luck” books so far. Thanks.
Hi! I love your Twisted Luck series and I gave 5 stars. I did find some grammar that needs correction, (i.e, public instead of pubic), I thought that in the Kindle Unlimited as I reported the corrections that it was going straight to you. It isn’t?
Should I just e-mail next time? I thought I was helping. (T_T)
Not criticizing because how many times can you go through it and pay money and still there are some errors. It is frustrating.
Still keep on keeping on!! 💗💗💗
Errors are the bane of my existence I swear. There are pros and cons to all aspects, but probably just shooting me an email is less stressful (for me). Amazon can get cranky.
I love the Twisted Luck series and look forward to possibly another book in the series (being hopeful here.) I’ve read that series multiple times and enjoy it every time. I get caught up on the characters and the plot even though I know what happens.
I’m not sure there is a book without a single typo. I edited a lot of reports in my career and sometimes even five different sets of eyes on a document does not ensure perfection. Typos happen.
Thank you!I am working on book 7 slowly. I need to finish this UF book first, then I’ll be back on Unbalanced Luck.