Angry Laughter
The other day I was browsing through my titles on Amazon curious about their review status (how many, average rating, etc.). By and large I’m hitting 4 – 5 star average ratings on my books, which makes me very happy. But there’s one series that is much lower and I have to admit, it makes me laugh, but it’s an angry laugh.
The series is Vitalis. My first 7 episodes, available at $.99 each, have been blasted in the reviews. With only one exception (episode 6, Evolution) the reviews range between 2.0 and 3.1. Evolution nets a 4.2. Yet the combined total number of those stories I have sold almost reaches 17,000 copies. And most of the bad reviews hit between the 15,000 and 17,000 mark. Interesting? Hold that thought.
My Vitalis Omnibus contains all 7 episodes for a reasonable price (slightly less or the same as the 7 $.99 episodes) yet it has a rating of 3.9 after 14 reviews (the 7 individual episodes total 75 reviews averaging a 2.9 rating). The second full length book in the series, Vitalis: Resurrection, has a 4.0 rating after 9 reviews. The third book, Vitalis: Provenance, will be released late April or early May.
Okay, so after I sold a ton of books and had some good reviews my $.99 books dropped in rating rapidly. I release the omnibus thinking people are pissed by the shorter lengths and fail to sell anywhere near the same quantity (732 in 2012, around a 100 since then) yet it earned a higher rating. There are some obvious lessons to be learned here.
1) Cheap and free books get slammed. In 2012 when I had the short books available they were always cheap, but at times they were free as well (KDP Select or other promos). The cheaper the book the lower the rating it seems. Why is that? Well, I’m not really sure other than if it doesn’t cost anything than anybody can grab it and try it, even people that have no interest in it to begin with.
2) Successful books get slammed. This is confusing until you consider the rampant bogus review issues Amazon had last year. Once my books started to become popular and began to top the charts they started getting slammed. Lower ratings removes them from Amazon’s algorithms and helps people decide they don’t want to try them after all. If they’re cheap, then it’s even easier for a competing writer to sabotage a book with a bad review since it doesn’t cost them much (or anything, if they pick them during a promo).
I want to keep my books affordable, so raising my prices isn’t really an option. I’d also look the pricks of the world to mind their own business and stop undermining my efforts to make a living. I honestly don’t know if my Vitalis series was crashed because of disgruntled people with a chip on their shoulder or if it was arranged by one or more writers that felt challenged because my books were rising to the top of the lists and threatening theirs. I suspect the latter is the case, which is downright upsetting.
How does a little guy in the business stand a chance if the people above him want to keep him down? What about camaraderie and helping each other out? What about honor and ethics? What about professionalism? I, for one, am happy to see that Amazon is going after bogus reviews and eliminating them – I just wish they could be a little more effective at it.
The lesson to my fellow writers – write a damn good book and make it hard for people to find things that are wrong with it. I confess my earlier books were not edited to the standard that my newer releases are. I try to go back and correct them but things slip. Another lesson for my peers is this: Don’t be a dick. Treat your fellow writers with respect and you’ll get it in return.
For my readers, this is an example of the power you have. Sure, I write the books but you’re reaction to them controls whether I succeed or not. Write a review for the books you read and let the author and others know what you thought of them. Be honest, but be helpful. Critique, don’t criticize. If you didn’t like how Hansel and Gretl hit the witch over the head with a gingerbread cudgel and tossed her in the over write about it, but unless it was poorly written don’t slam it with a lousy rating too, be moderate and fair and indicate your likes and dislikes.
I’m a writer so Amazon doesn’t like it when I leave reviews – they assume I’m up to no good. It’s annoying but if it helps stop bogus reviews than I accept it as a necessary evil. When I did write reviews or when I do them on the side (blogging and whatnot), I figure if I could make it through a book It’s earned an average mark even if I didn’t care for it. It’s very rare that I’ll leave a poor review unless the book stinks on many levels (editing / grammar, story flow, etc.). Just because I don’t care for sparkly vampires and werewolves doing the tango under a full moon doesn’t mean it deserves a 2 star review unless the writing is crap and it’s filled with typographical errors. A book doesn’t earn a 1 star review unless the author has offended me by writing a lousy story and consciously neglecting to attempt to make it readable (e.g. no proofreading or editing).
That’s my take and experiences with the reviewing system, whether it’s at Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads, or somebody’s blog. Reviews can work as long as they’re not abused. And if they are then I end up with the angry laughter that is the only thing keeping me from breaking down or going crazy.
To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .
