Amanda Hough's Blog: Writing and Editing Fiction - Posts Tagged "self-published"
Five Things Writers Should Never Do! #1
Number one…Never Respond to Reviews
If you are satisfied with the product you have put in the marketplace, reviews shouldn’t matter (sales matter). Reviews can be very exciting. Seeing the stars, reading the accolades. But, what if you get a bad review? What if you get a lot of bad reviews? What if the reviewer didn’t even read the book? Who cares! If you truly did the best you could, move on with the next book. When writers say, my book isn’t selling because of the bad reviews, I shake my head. Maybe the manuscript simply wasn’t ready for publication. Just because you can publish on Amazon or Smashwords in minutes, it doesn’t mean you should.
The bad reviews could be….just hear me out, because the novel isn’t that good. Yet!
Readers don’t care that you worked hard on it. That you stayed up late at night to finish it. It doesn’t matter that you read all the most successful authors of the genre. It doesn’t necessarily follow that you can write a bestseller. Yet! They want to be entertained (in popular fiction-generally speaking). The reader wants a few hours of escape. Readers don’t owe you anything. You owe them. If you didn’t give it to them, they have a right to share their opinion. You have the right to keep writing!
Next week’s topic…
Number two of the Five Things Writers Should Never Do!
Not read books
If you are satisfied with the product you have put in the marketplace, reviews shouldn’t matter (sales matter). Reviews can be very exciting. Seeing the stars, reading the accolades. But, what if you get a bad review? What if you get a lot of bad reviews? What if the reviewer didn’t even read the book? Who cares! If you truly did the best you could, move on with the next book. When writers say, my book isn’t selling because of the bad reviews, I shake my head. Maybe the manuscript simply wasn’t ready for publication. Just because you can publish on Amazon or Smashwords in minutes, it doesn’t mean you should.
The bad reviews could be….just hear me out, because the novel isn’t that good. Yet!
Readers don’t care that you worked hard on it. That you stayed up late at night to finish it. It doesn’t matter that you read all the most successful authors of the genre. It doesn’t necessarily follow that you can write a bestseller. Yet! They want to be entertained (in popular fiction-generally speaking). The reader wants a few hours of escape. Readers don’t owe you anything. You owe them. If you didn’t give it to them, they have a right to share their opinion. You have the right to keep writing!
Next week’s topic…
Number two of the Five Things Writers Should Never Do!
Not read books
Writing and Editing Fiction
This blog will serve as a way to share my thoughts with other readers and writers.
- Amanda Hough's profile
- 52 followers
Amanda Hough isn't a Goodreads Author
(yet),
but they
do have a blog,
so here are some recent posts imported from
their feed.
