Reviews on Amazon

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Reviews on Amazon

I had to put up the last blog repost on Amazon ( here if you’re wondering) by my friend Jack because it just tickled me.

I’ve had so many comments on books – it gets hard sometimes to keep a sense of humour. From the first “fan” letter that detailed 21 points of historical inaccuracy (he/she was wrong) to the commentator who told me I had no idea how far a horse could travel in a day (my figures came from recorded journeys by the King’s messengers), I’ve grown used to getting corrected quite regularly.

The painful ones are the comments on Amazon, though, because people often put them up without considering the consequences. People put reviews up fairly quickly when they’re happy with whatever they’ve bought. If, however, they are angry or irritated, they will throw something at the internet much, much faster. So the two reviews I have for Fields of Glory that gave the book one star went up really swiftly. In fact, they were both posted two days before – yes, before – the book was available for purchase. Had either of the reviewers read the book? No. They both wanted to comment on the fact that they disliked the cover. They had no comment about the book itself, but they were very happy to trash the title because of their dislike of the picture.

There have been other cases. My friend Old Trooper told me about a delightful reviewer who gave a book one star because it arrived late. Yes, nothing whatsoever to do with the six or nine months the author spent inventing, plotting, typing, crossing out, rewriting, editing, suffering the cruel dissections of editors and copyeditors, nothing even about the harsh economic reality of the author waiting to see any sort of income. This was not a comment on the author, or even the publisher. No, he slated the book because it arrived too late for his holiday. The US Postal Service was late so the book was slammed by him.

I always used to have a firm policy of ignoring any negative comments. There are trolls and other appalling people on the web who will, after all, latch onto any poor sap and try to send them potty with rude, slanderous, threatening or just plain evil comments. Only this weekend I was asked by a Twitter friend to block and report a tweeter who had sunk his fangs into her and was writing crude, obscene messages in between threatening her and her family. I was happy to oblige (having checked what he was writing – I’m not generally a blocker for hire!). So I don’t think it’s a good idea always to get on the wrong side of these folks.

However, when I see comments that are plain wrong, I do question the writer. For instance, I had one comment on THE LAST TEMPLAR that said it was only worth a one-star rate because the reviewer hated “first person narration”. Now, this is fine. I don’t have any axe to grind on that issue. Some first person stories I’ve loved, and others I’ve hated. But other people have their own foibles.

My own dislike of the comment came from the fact that LAST TEMPLAR has absolutely no first person narration in it. However, since there are some seven or eight books titled THE LAST TEMPLAR, I do rather think that the reviewer was writing about a different book. I was justified in trying to remove that review. It was wrong.

I had another man who wrote bitterly about my Kindle book, ACT OF VENGEANCE to complain that it was appalling. He said that the grammar was awful, and I couldn’t spell the simplest of words. A kind friend (thanks, Old Trooper) appended his own comments to point out that the spelling was – ahem – English, rather than American English. Since I had invested almost a thousand pounds in getting the book professionally edited and copyedited, I thought it was only fair to raise that comment too.

Now, of course, this makes me sound like a rather vain, perhaps silly pedant. Naturally, authors would be well advised not to question reviewers, and merely accept that some people won’t like the books. We should accept the rough with the smooth.

However, there are good reasons why every poor comment should be queried.

Amazon will, as you know, present you with a series of titles based on the books you have bought or looked at recently. If you look at the recommendations, generally they’ll be of books that have massive sales and lots of good, high star ratings. The algorithms Amazon has set up are designed to make sure that you get popular offerings in the main. In the old retail market bookshops would be paid to put books into the window. There would be payments for the books to get “Recommended” stickers from the booksellers in the shop. There were endless ways in which the publishers were asked to pay to get books sold. Amazon has their own way of doing things, but I am pretty sure that money changes hands somewhere so that certain titles will be heavily promoted. Nothing wrong with that.

However, for most authors (those who don’t earn millions of dollars a year, and who have to get by on word of mouth recommendations), a bad rating can kill their titles. A one-star will pull down the four or five five star ratings, and if there are two or three one and two stars, the book will fall down the rankings. In the past, people walked along shelves in a bookshop and saw what there was to buy. No star ratings, just a series of covers that appealed or didn’t. The world is a much harsher place now.

It takes remarkably little for a book to die. In the new electronic world we inhabit, if a book is held up and not available for sale immediately, it will bomb. If a book has poor ratings, it will bomb. If a book doesn’t get to a certain level, publishers will drop the author. An author is only ever as good as his or her last novel. And with publishers refusing to market or publicise most titles – that’s up to the author as well now – there really is little hope for a book that gains a few single stars.

Some time ago I formed a firm policy of only ever giving high star ratings for any books. If I dislike books, I don’t review them. A book would have to be extraordinarily bad for me to review it and give it a poor ranking. After all, I can think of several books I didn’t like at first reading, but which grew on me when I tried them a second time. Reading is a difficult task. It is entirely subjective, and if the reader is in a bad mood, or simply the wrong mood, that particular book may not work for them. It is not, however, a reflection of the book itself. It’s only a reflection of the temperament of the reader at that moment.

So, when I get poor reviews, I have a policy to politely ask the reviewer why they felt that way. I’ve avoided it in the past, but this is now something that affects my income directly, so I do. I have done so twice in recent weeks. The result? Both times the reviewer has agreed to look at their reviews again. And I am very grateful for their kindness in agreeing to reconsider. With luck it’ll result in slightly better markings and therefore better rankings in future!

Looking past the Tor

Now, don’t forget that Christmas is coming. I have a series of books for sale. If you are interested in a book for a deserving relative, or a title for yourself, do please let me know. Each signed book will have a signed card and assorted bookmarks from past promotions, since it’s Christmas. So go on: treat yourself or your family!

Afterwards you can walk Dartmoor, too, if you want!

Right. That’s all for now. Just finished the editor’s comments on Blood on the Sand (out next June) and now this is complete, I have to write a synopsis for a new book. I’ll be meeting my friend Lillian Harry on Thursday for a coffee, and a general moan about publishing and author incomes, so I’ll have to crack on with work before then to justify the time off.

Happy reading!