Take Reviews with a Grain of Salt

This is primarily for writers, but if you aren’t a writer and find this topic interesting, welcome to my ramblings!

The person might be reviewing the wrong book.

Sometimes a person will confuse one book for another. I don’t think this happens a lot, but it is something to be aware of since it’s happened to a couple of people I know.

One person had just published Book 1 in her series. She hadn’t written Book 2 yet. The reviewer left a 1 or 2-star review on her book. At first, the review seemed to be for her book until the reviewer ended with, “And I also don’t care for Book 2.” (That’s not the exact wording, but you get the meaning.) As soon as we saw the comment about Book 2, we knew this wasn’t the book the reviewer had in mind. It couldn’t be. Book 2 wasn’t even published yet.

Another time this happened was for another author I know. I don’t recall the details on this one. I think it had to do with the wrong plot. The author knew it wasn’t her book because the plot was wrong. (If it wasn’t the plot, it was the type of character featured.) All I remember is how this review brought the author’s book rating down with that 1 or 2-star review.

Not everyone knows the grammar rules.

Sometimes people think they know the grammar rules but don’t, and when they review our book, they are giving the book a low-star rating due to “poor editing”. The problem is that people reading the review haven’t read the book, so they will assume the reviewer knows what they are talking about. In another video I went into a longer example of a complaint I received about a decade ago now where the person said I had no idea how to properly use commas. It turns out she was the one who was wrong. Since then, I have wondered how many people believe certain rules about grammar that are not actually correct. Whenever I see a review that mentions “poorly edited”, I will read the sample to get an idea of how accurate that reviewer is. That is how I get around the issue as a reader. I don’t think most people will do this, though.

And before anyone thinks I am the “Queen of Grammar”, I have a couple of people who go over my stories before they are published who have strengths in the grammar area. They will point out areas where I get things wrong. I am aware that it’s very easy to get this stuff mixed up. The English language can be tricky.

The person might not be a fan of the genre you’re writing in.

When a person who is a fan of a particular genre, they will read the book through the lens of that genre, even if they are reading. I don’t know if this can be helped. We all have certain character types, plot devices, etc that we lean toward. I don’t think we are aware of this. But these things will establish expectations we have while reading a story. I honestly believe this happens on a subconscious level. So I don’t think anyone is wrong when they are disappointed in the story when it doesn’t live up to their expectations. The problem comes into play when the reviewer puts the expectations of their genre into a book that is in a different genre. Because it’s very possible that this book did meet the expectations of the genre this author wrote for.

Let me give an example I did not think of in the video. (It piggybacks off of it, though.)

We have a romance reader who is reading dystopian fiction. There is a love story in this dystopian fiction, but one of the main characters dies. That romance reader will be disappointed because a romance reader wants the “happy ending for the couple in love”. That is an expectation in the romance genre. However, in dystopian fiction, this is not an expectation. The romance reader might 1-star the book because of the main character’s death, but this does not mean the book is bad. This book could have very well delivered on its promise to people who love dystopian fiction. After all, dystopian fiction tends to be darker and more on the sad side. I mean, there can be a happy romantic ending, but it is not an expectation of that genre. So reviews from romance readers who are unhappy with the book should be taken with a grain of salt.

Now, I did use an example in my video that flips this scenario around. When would the 1 or 2-star review be appropriate? If someone writes a book with a love story where one of the main characters die, divorce, or break up AND this person labels this book as a romance, the romance readers will be very unhappy with this book. It is not a romance. Romance has two main rules: the characters in love end up together AND they are happy. It doesn’t matter whatever else you throw at them. They just need to reach that happy ending together. I hear quite a few authors who want to label their stuff as romance but they want the tragic ending. This will not work. It is a love story.

Each genre has its own set of rules, and when writing the book, it’s important to stick to those rules. You have flexibility within the rules, however, and that’s where creative expression can come in. But if you get a reader who isn’t familiar with the rules of the genre you’re writing in, it’s possible they will leave you a 1 or 2-star review, and sadly, there is nothing you can do about it.

The person might not like the specific niche within the genre.

It’s possible that you are targeting the people in your genre, but the genre heading can be a pretty big umbrella. Usually, under the main genre heading (let’s take romance), there are ways to break it down.

So Romance is the main category. Then you have contemporary, historical, fantasy, science fiction, etc. Then you break down historical. You have western, Regency, Victorian, Scottish, etc. It keeps breaking down, and even from there, you will get different heat levels. Erotic, steamy, mix between steamy and clean (which is a gray area), and clean. So you find yourself narrowing down your books to a more “niche” kind of audience.

The better you can market your niche, the better you can ward off 1 and 2-star reviews because you are alerting people in advance of what they will get themselves into when they read your book. Marketing in this sense is more along the lines of packaging your product. I didn’t go into this in the video, but this is where you want to consider your cover and your description. Those two things will help to gear the right type of reader to your book. It’s not foolproof, of course, but all you can do is your best.

I don’t know how many times I have warned people that my books contain sex in them. I have the warning on the top of my blog, I try to find models who are in time period appropriate clothes (that fit the characters) who are in a more passionate embrace, I put “steamy” in the keywords, and I have experimented with different phrases in the description that won’t throw Amazon into a tizzy. If I’m running promotions, I give the alert the best way I know how. But even after all of this, I will get someone contacting me out of the blue about how shocked they were to read a sex scene in my book. I know I get the 1 and 2-star reviews about this, too, because I’ve used snippets from them to help run ads to warn people in advance. And yet, with all of my efforts, my books find their way to the wrong niche reader.

So it’s possible that you are doing everything right, and for whatever reason, the person misses it and reads the book–and leaves their review–anyway. You can only do so much.

Don’t be afraid of the bad reviews.

We all want people to love our books. We would be weird if we didn’t.

But I think it’s good to have the 1, 2, and even 3-star reviews because it helps to weed out the people who will not enjoy our books. I also think that the broader range of your reviews, the easier it’ll be for people to determine whether or not your book is their cup of tea.

In the past, I have been more likely to buy a book because of a 1 or 2-star review. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. Sometimes I read horror. If I see a review that reads, “This was far too disgusting for me. Nightmare for a week!”, I will want to read the book. I know, it’s nuts, right? But I grew up on horror (thanks, Mom!), and some of that horror was dark. It takes me back to my childhood. Sometimes I like going there. If I read a review on a romance where the 1 or 2-star reads, “Total smut. Author should be ashamed,” I will probably read the book because I happen to like sex scenes when I’m reading a book. (I didn’t get that trait from my mom. My mom hated romance. (She was okay with little kids killing people or people dying in some horrific ways, but she drew the line at sappy romance.) My dad was only into science fiction and satire movies like Spaceballs by Mel Brooks. I love satires to this day. So I will happily read or watch something that most people find “immature and stupid.”

My final thought:

I encourage you to look up your favorite books. Maybe pick 3-5 of them. Look at the 1 and 2-star reviews. Do those reviews change your mind about those books? Do you now hate those books because of those reviews? Or do you still love those books?

This is what I mean by taking reviews with a grain of salt. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Your story has a market. There is someone who will enjoy it. You are not the only person who wants the specific story you are writing. I would be more inclined to pay attention to the positive stuff people are saying about your books because that lets you know what your specific audience enjoys. What is it about your books that connect you to those readers? That is your strength. That is an area worth your time and attention. That is something you can get better at.