Does responding to reviews kill reviews?

[H.C.]

Help! I was delighted to get a couple of spontaneous reviews on Amazon.com for my first ebook pretty soon after publishing (the two on Amazon.co.uk are from friends, hee hee). I followed advice I'd seen a few times to engage with reviewers and I put a short, polite comment on each review for thanking them for their time, and saying I hoped to publish more titles soon.

Since then, nothing. Nada. Nowt. No more reviews. Even though sales have remained steady.

Did I follow bad advice, do you think? Have I scared any future reviewers off from reviewing in case the author pops up and speaks to them? Or am I just paranoid?

What's been your experience with reviews? They are such weird things, elusive things.

[J]

I don't have any experience with Amazon reviews, but on deviantART (it's a website where people can create an account and post their artwork) they have a critique feature. People can write a critique for the artwork, and I've never seen artists reply with words, but there's a feature that allows the artist to check yes or no if the reviewer's critique was fair.

I'm not sure if that's relevant, but that's my 2 cents. :3

In my opinion, I think replying to comments/reviews would be a good thing.

[Michael]

It can be pretty difficult to get any reviews at all, so your replies probably aren't scaring people off. If all you're doing is saying "thanks for the review" that isn't really a problem. Some reviewers might appreciate that; others might be indifferent. Anyway, I'm not sure that your comments will be all that obviously visible to potential readers on the Amazon page.

However, you do have to be careful about responding to reviews. There's been plenty of bad behavior from angry authors who don't handle criticism well. Many reviewers have stopped reviewing self-published authors because they don't want to deal with that kind of drama. Any sign that an author might be "one of those" could flag people away. And you also don't want to give the impression that you're preemptively trying to influence any future reviews.

[G.G.]

There are many posts on Goodreads about that, and on most they all say NOT to reply. Some will even say not to LIKE the reviews either. The reason is that some reviewers will feel as they are stalked if an author replies and yes it may shy them away.

As for me, I still hit the like button because I like it when someone hit like on my reviews.

[Ann]

I've not had any experience in getting reviews. But I have done lots of reviews for eBooks (before as Bisky) but also lots of smaller pieces of writing on websites and the likes. I think it depends entirely on the tone of the review.

If the review is too critical I wouldn't reply. But if the review looks more chatty I would. I think I will probably like all the reviews, just to show that I've seen them, much like I do with favouriting on twitter (assuming I get some lol)

But there has been a case where I've tried to interact with someone who asked repeatedly for reviews and all I've gotten on every post was either a Thank you! or no reply at all. Which in the end has just soured my view towards them greatly.

Which is probably a little unfair, but as a reviewer, if they want/ask me to continue to look at their work I would like some knowledge of existence or a damn reply to a tweet.

But I do mostly look at things from Twitter authors, which I kind of expect alittle interaction from anyone, otherwise I just think they are snobby #SorryNotSorry

[Mark]

I try to be polite in reviewing. If I like what I've read, I'll give it 4 or 5 stars with my thoughts. If I find it something I haven't enjoyed, I just don't post a review. I'd hate to stomp on someone's hard work.

[Ann]

Keep editing my post so I seem so harsh and a total baby whiner. But I also class myself as a promoter as much as a reviewer, so if I review you/retweet you etc you get seen by my followers. If I don't get any reply for doing something for someone after I repeatedly try to contact them, I just feel like I'm being used or that I'm not popular enough yet to warrent a decent reply.

Feel like ranting today it seems. I blame my essays.

[Mark]

Bisky-agreed. It's very impolite to ignore like that. I've run into that, too, on Twitter. The DM spam is a real pain, too. I've slacked away from Twitter for that reason.

[Ann]

I really like Twitter though :p Don't get me wrong this hasn't happened often! It's a great place to connect and find people. i should be more active again once I've done my stupid school work.

[G.G.]

There are much talk about authors should not interact, but if the reader keep sending messages, then I don't think the protocol still hold.

Also, I've noticed that authors who write a review are more incline to accept (and hope for) a reply from the author than maybe just regular readers.
Am I wrong?

[Mark]

GG, not at all wrong, because we understand how hard it is. Its a professional courtesy among the writers, or at least should be.

[Ann]

I think because I'm all about meeting other authors I expect everything I do to open dialogue. I have to get over the fact that not everyone wants to talk to me xP

I don't write reviews to get thanked, but if you are promoting your book, and I like your style I wanna be your friend.

WHY WON'T YOU LOVE ME!!

But I don't review without speaking to the person first (even if it's just to exchange emails) Maybe that's why xP

[G.G.]

Hey, you review, you have the right to decide who and how you will review. Oh and btw Bisky, everyone here loves you dearly!

[Ann]

But I need more love! MORE!

Soon all the world will be mine! Buhahaha

*rolls around in the blueprints for world domination*

[G.G.]

Bah I could see a worse fate than that :>

[Ann]

See it's all cute at first...

then the experiments begin.

[Claire]

@Bisky backing away slowly. Ha ha, j/k

[Ann]

It's too late, you are in my snare :D

[Brian]

I joined the NRA for situations like this! I know what to do! *runs and hides*

[Ann]

I'm British, there is a reason we don't have guns. They are useless to us.

*Uses Harry-Potter-like spells to turn all the guns into gummy sweets*

[G.G.]

I have three huge, dangerous, and fearless... Dachshunds to protect me! They will smother her with kisses while I escape. :P

[Ann]

No self respecting woman should leave the house without a pocket full of sausages, for such an occasion.

[G.G.]

ROFL!

[T.C.]

Personally I would never respond directly to a review, good or bad - to me it seems a bit 'unprofessional', in the sense that as an author I feel that I ought to have a level of 'professional detachment' between myself and my work once it is out there for public purchase/consumption, and that I should be able to take criticism or comment (positive or negative) without response, just like any other 'artist' who puts their work out there.

Having said that, I'm perfectly happy to discuss my work or a review with a reviewer privately if they want, but I would never initiate that contact. I will 'like' a review as a method of thanks, and I would certainly thank someone if I'd asked for a review and they gave it, but that's as far as I would go.

There are too many stories of SPAs getting 'involved' with reviewers, and I just think it's a bad road to start down.

[H.C.]

T. C. wrote: "Personally I would never respond directly to a review, good or bad - to me it seems a bit 'unprofessional', in the sense that as an author I feel that I ought to have a level of 'professional detac..."

Reading everything here, I think I've come to your way of thinking T.C. When it comes to reviews a level of detachment is probably best. I just need other people to leave reviews now so I can demonstrate I have that detachment, lol!

Twitter and FB interaction is different of course. I think we all get pissed by people who don't respond to genuine interaction.

Thanks for all the responses!

[Michael]

I am on a number of boards with well-established authors and they all agree- Never, ever, EVER engage with someone that writes a bad review of your work. It is unprofessional and attracts more attention to the negative review. Engagement should be limited to MAYBE thanking someone for a good review, particularly if they call that review to your attention.

That being said I have protested a one-star review to Amazon and had it removed because it was obviously a troll. I have also had authors contact me after I have given them a good review and offer me a free copy of the next book in the series in exchange for an honest review.

As a reviewer there have been times when I have contacted an author with a critique rather than publicly posting a bad review.

I posted the three-star review of one novel and the author publicly slammed me in the comments, and explained why the things I objected to weren't really problems. Here's a hint- if you have to explain your writing you've done it wrong. Then when he contacted me privately and accused me of slamming his work when I am myself an author (A three-star review isn't a slam) as if discouraging people from buying his book would magically make them buy mine! I withdrew that review and will not be reading or reviewing any more of his work, which is a shame because he only needed to r=tweak his writing a little to be really quite good.

[Mark]

Michael-well said !

[Ann]

I think if you can't handle bad reviews you shouldn't be an author, or on the internet at all to be honest. Not everyone is gonna like your work, and I'd be happy with a three star! It means they still liked it abit atleast lol

If they spend as much time slamming reviewers as honing their craft they'd get better reviews. No point wasting time over butthurt.

[G.G.]

Hey, a 3 star still means "I liked it". What's wrong with that? At least they read it and they took the time to talk about it.

[Mark]

Amen. It's nice to get one at all. Even a bad one means they took the time to read it.

[H.C.]

I'd just like to say both the reviews I mentioned and responded to were good reviews. I have seen authors responding to bad reviews in sarcastic and aggressive ways and it does them no favours, does it!

I think the dignified way is not to respond to a bad review at all. Having said that, I once stated in a review that I had marked a book down because of X reason, and the author replied saying that if I was interested in X, then I might like to try her other book because it had won praise for it. I thought that response was spot on. And yes, I bought her other book :)

[H.C.]

Oh and I just wanted to mention about review swapping. Seems it can obviously create all sorts of problems!

Before I published, I read and reviewed a friend's work just to be supportive. To be nice, and because I thought it didn't matter too much, I gave it three stars and a review that was a master-class in writing positive stuff about something that was dross. It was three unedited short stories, the last story actually making no sense whatsoever (I genuinely had no idea what was going on in it).

She later reviewed my book of FIVE short stories and gave it the same amount of stars and a luke warm review!

That's me done with swapping reviews, lol!

[Brian]

I plan on responding to all reviews of my book when it's published. I have plenty of time to stalk my readers while procrastinating on writing the sequel. Haha! weeeeeee

[Samantha]

As a (newbie) reviewer, I get stressed when I see authors respond to my reviews. I just wrote a neutral review for someone who requested it via my blog. He politely said thank you when I tweeted the link. But then I felt bad that I didn't like his book.

that's my own neurotic tendency, though.

I think that if someone posts a review to Goodreads or Amazon or elsewhere, it's best not to say anything. Many readers feel that GR should be for readers, and I agree. I want people to feel comfortable posting a review and not feel like I'm looking over their shoulder. In the aforementioned example, I would have preferred as a reviewer to believe the author hadn't read it. That seems crazy to say out loud, but I bet a lot of reviewers feel the same way.

But I think tweets and social media engagement should be responded to. If I @ someone and they don't reply, I think they're just using twitter as a spam factory and I HATE that. we don't have to be bff's, but at least say "Hey, thanks."

[Brian]

@Samantha I know what you mean about twitter. I use it to post links to my blog and writing stuff. I try to come up with funny stuff to post there too. Sometimes I feel like I can't break through the massive spam wall. I don't even bother to look at my regular feed some days because of all the spam crap. What I hate the most is when I @ someone and their response is "Hey thanks now go check out my book/website/blog" It's like they don't bother to read the message sometimes.

[G.G.]

@Adam I've tried Twitter but when I go on that site I see are links. I don't feel like clicking a zillion links. So I pretty well gave up on it. From time to time I do tweet from websites I find interesting stuff but again, that means other people looking at my page only see links... So I prefer Facebook.
As for Amazon, I don't respond, but I 'like' the review. That's the least I can do.

[J. David]

The first and foremost piece of advice I have seen on this is do not reply to NEGATIVE reviews, at all. Even if you are nice it can be seen as snippy. So that I would not do.

Now as for positive reviews, I have yet to see an absolute consensus on this. The main thing I've seen is on sites like Amazon and Goodreads, which are pretty public, it's best not to reply or like as some readers can feel pressured by this, or at worst, the die hard internet freaks can see this as you "behaving badly" and start a campaign against you.

However, on your own blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc, I see no problem responding and I do generally respond to almost every comment I get there. Those are places you have set aside for readers and others to engage with you, and I think it behooves you to engage in order to build and maintain a positive relationship with your readers. Plus, it's fun and is the reason most of us do this in the first place, to share our stories with others.

Hope that helps you. Good luck!

[Harmony]

@J .. couldn't agree more.
I recently received a revenge review, and absolute silence has been my response. I did respond once to a good review (4 star) and the reader seemed to appreciate it. I have since come to feel, however, that this is a tightrope and pretty precarious. So, unless a reader contacts me directly, I'm taking the no response route.
I feel very dismayed every time I see/hear of an author responding badly to reviews, as this just gives us all a bad name.
@Bisky ... as for the world domination ... I can't run away, so I'll just take my (false) leg off and throw it at you instead - although, I'll be in a pickle if you just turn that into gummy sweets!
:3

[Samantha]

I know this is off topic, but I wanted to quasi-defend Twitter. I, too, get super annoyed at spam and people just retweeting stuff. But it's manageable, if you are very careful who you follow and use lists.

That means you don't auto-follow everyone and you check out their feed before you follow them. I've probably had twice as people follow me at one point than I actually have now, but because I didn't follow them back, they dropped me.

Too bad, so sad, their loss.

And then, use lists. I have a private list of people that I am friends with or who tweet interesting/funny things. Even though I follow about 500 people, I only have 55 people on that list. So when I go on Twitter, I check that first and @ those people. Then if I have time, I'll go to the main feed and when people pop up over and over that are amusing or seem cool or I talk to them a lot, I add them to my inner circle.

And, you can have multiple lists, plus the people on the lists don't have to be people you follow.

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled thread topic. :)

[Harmony]

@ Samantha .. thanks for this: being as thick as I am when it comes to social media ... I had no idea you could make lists! I know, I know -- there really is no hope for me. I'll have to try and suss out how to do that, exactly. lol. :D

[Ann]

It can be a bit detrimental to be too picky with who you follow back though. Say you're followed by a resturant, the resturant only tweets about their food and you don't even live in that country. But that account is maintained by someone who has their own twitter and probably uses an app to control both accounts. Following back/interacting with the resturant might actually gain you followers by the person who controls that account and everyone who works in their offices - something that happened to me once.

[Brian]

I started off creating lists, but I deleted all my lists because it would crash the app I was using on my phone. Now that I have a good amount of followers I really need the lists. I have interacted with almost everyone on my feed at one time or another, but some of them only put link spam unless you reach out to them.