On mad reviews and bad opinions

I have a thing or two to say about bad reviews. I’ve gotten a few. In fact I recently got one on Wolf Heart. Want to hear it?

This book was horribly edited, if not edited at all. I spent more time picking out mistakes in the story than actually reading it. It was a simple read with little depth, and the author seemed to love killing everybody off. A lot of the plot made absolutely no sense at all. I DEFINITELY do not recommend this book. This is also coming from someone who loves werewolf romance novels and reads them frequently. It is hard for me to say that i dislike a book, but i hated this one. This was a waste of money.

But I haven’t down voted it on Amazon. Or encouraged others to. Or went off about bully reviewers, or any such thing (and you all know how ranty I can get!)

Because it doesn’t matter. First, I, and other people, believe it’s wrong. Just as the author believes it’s right. But past that it doesn’t matter. As in, it has not affected sales at all. And it won’t. Because people who think it looks interesting will download a sample and choose on their own whether they want to buy it or not.

Any talk at all, bad or good, spreads awareness of a book. People buy books because it sounds interesting to them. Bad reviews sell books. Good reviews turn people off from books. The only thing that kills them is no talk at all.

But I’m not even sure that’s true.

I pointed out in my last post on self publishing that the book I self pubbed that has no reviews has outsold the one with all positive reviews. By a lot.

So someone didn’t like it. Someone thinks it was poorly edited and a waste of money. Maybe it was to them. A book is certainly not the worst thing I’ve ever wasted money on.

Publishing is something like traffic, in that all people see of you is this shell you’re travelling around in. Some people will be pissed just because you drive a Ford and they were laid off from the Ford plant two years ago. Some people will be pissed off at you because they’re in a hurry and you’re one more person in their way. Someone else will be getting a giggle they wouldn’t have from reading your bumper stickers or watching you head bop to 80s pop songs.

These are brief, potentially negative, potentially positive, mostly completely irrelevant encounters. Like reviews.

So what I’m saying is, don’t let these tiny, momentary moments define you or your career. Oh, you can get angry, but that’s what friends and family are there to do, to support you, console you, and sure, get snarky about bad reviews with you. But that is NOT what the reading public is there to do.

So write your best and let your work speak for you. Choose to take strength from your writing.