Dissect Your Book Reviews

Reviews. The double-edged sword that can make us authors
feel like we are soaring through the skies or it can have us feeling as if we
are crashing to the planet’s surface. Reviews are challenging to get. It can be
like pulling teeth to get honest reviews from your
readers. There are unethical ways to get
reviews. Other people do review exchanges. Sites like Amazon and Kobo change
their review policy overnight, and you
lose your reviews! When you finally get those honest reviews, they might not be
pleasant. You might get a one star or a five star. Why are the reviews so extreme and what do you do with this
information? This is why we will look at
how to dissect your book reviews.

Fast-forward on the ‘How To’

As the intro mentioned, there are plenty of ways to get reviews – which we are not here to discuss. There are many discussions about the ever-changing policies on distribution sites and methods of obtaining reviews. There is plenty of advice on how to get reviews from your readers. Let’s fast-forward to say you have reviews. What do you do with them? Are they helpful or hurtful?

Looking at Reviews

I wanted to cover the idea of
not looking at your reviews briefly. Some authors I have met do believe
that you shouldn’t look at the reviews because it will tamper with your
creativity and style. Yes, this is true. If you take the feedback on the book
to heart, you will start to change your writing style to try and appeal to an individual
or group of people that just aren’t your
audience. This is why we are going to
look at how to analyze your reviews critically.

Understanding your book’s reviews

For the sake of simplicity, we will stick with Amazon
reviews. The platform is a playing field most
people are familiar with being on. Book reviews
on Amazon can help your ranking on the chosen genres and encourage people to
read more about your book. What does the review
say to you though, as the author?

Your book’s reviews tell you a lot more information rather
than what is just on the surface, most of the time. A good review is defined by the constructive criticism it
offers. The five stars and the one stars don’t help much if there isn’t a lot
of backing information in the content itself.

Knowing What to Look For

To dissect your book reviews, you need to break down what
people are trying to say. Are they expressing their personal opinion (subjectively
analyzing) the book? Alternatively, are
they providing valuable feedback (objectively looking at the book)? If the reviewer is subjectively analyzing the book
in their review, then they are expressing their opinion, and their thoughts aren’t to be taken into full consideration. Below are
some extreme examples of subjective reviews.

Good Reviews

If you are given a
bunch of five-star reviews on your book, this can begin to look fishy to
potential readers. Especially if the reviews lack any substance other than “this
book was great!” “What a page turner!”. As lovely
as these are to the ego, they aren’t going to do you any good when it comes to
your craft. If you have good reviews, look for what they think was right in
the book and why. This will tell you far more about what you are
doing right with your audience than blanket statements about how great the book
was.

Bad Reviews

The same theory is applied
to bad reviews. In a hypothetical, simplified situation, if your erotica novel has
a one-star review that says something along the lines of “there was too much
sex.” That type of one-star review is stating
the obvious about your book. This could also
be said for books that are too scary and
are in the horror genre. That is kind of
the point of the novel.

These types of reviews might come up because someone gave
your book a chance from searches or other sources, or perhaps you gave them a
review copy. Regardless, these intense one-star reviewers are most likely not
your target audience. So, don’t take this information to heart.

What Do You Look for In Book Reviews?

Now that we have covered subjective analyzations. Objective-based reviews are very similar to creative critiques – from the design world or reading groups – they will be far more specific about what worked and what didn’t work in the book. This is why the two-to-four-star reviews can offer so much insight into you as a writer. Often there’s more thought put into them. Notice how most rating systems moved to a thumbs up and thumbs down?

Some example points to look for in a review are:

What scene did/didn’t they like, and why?What characters worked? Which ones didn’t?The book didn’t
draw them in because…The writing style
was too ___ because…

The examples above are a few which
follow the same formula: a topic and a reason.
This is the basis of any good
constructive criticism or form of a debate. The same theory applies when you dissect
your book reviews instead of reading the extreme
reviews that send you through a rollercoaster of emotions.

Keep A Thick Skin

As mentioned earlier, reading reviews aren’t something you
need to do at all. They can help if you do not have a strong peer support
group. They can also be damaging if you do not know how to navigate through the
trenches of harsh words or empty praises.

If you choose to read your reviews, read them with caution.
Learn to read past the empty statements if there is no why to their what.

Additional Thoughts?

Any thoughts on your experiences with reviews? Do you read
them? If so, are they helpful to you?

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