World, Writing, Wealth discussion
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Reviews: good for readers, bad for the author?
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Nik wrote: "Good reviews are viewed as an important marketing tool and authors strive to give them maximum exposure through social networks and otherwise. Probably knowing this peculiarity, I've encountered in..."I never buy a book based on a review on Amazon or Goodreads. I read the reviews for entertainment. If it's my first book (my second is coming out with Penmore Press in 2021) I am naturally interested to see what readers thought about it.
However, I have found some satisfaction in posting reviews of books I use as resources because it's extraordinary how propaganda and historical revisionism are marketed as objective research. (I'm afraid I'm going to get on my soapbox.) My question to myself should be: am I objective in demanding historical objectivity of others? Not sure what the answer is there.
His Most Italian City
I think if you are writing a novel with a historical setting, you should be as accurate as you can relating to everything that does not involve your fictional character, but you should be permitted some tweaks to advantage your main character, as long as they do not contradict what we know of important people.To show what I mean, I put one novel in a historical setting, and in one scene the Praefectus of Egypt A. A. Flaccus had to be detained and removed from office under orders from Caligulae, so I named the Centurion who was sent, but I gave him an additional fictional order from Caligulae to get my main character to do the arresting, and how he behaved determined his future. So I think it fair to insert MC into real events, but the outcomes must be the same, other than for fictional characters.
Ian wrote: "I think if you are writing a novel with a historical setting, you should be as accurate as you can relating to everything that does not involve your fictional character, but you should be permitted..."Yes, you are right. I get into trouble from my MS assessor because I forget the needs of the reader in my anxiety to get the history correct. She says I must consider the reader.
Correct, ignore the reader and readers will ignore you :-(
For whatever reason, the vast majority of avid readers choose to never post a rating or review. Those that do are merely expressing their personal, and therefore subjective, opinion. Depending upon one's personal taste and expectation, one reader's Best book ever! may very well be another reader's Worst book ever!. For this reason, most astute avid readers never allow a review to impact their purchasing choices one way or the other.
Those who do post ratings and reviews do so to share their opinion with other readers, not the author. Contrary to what some novice authors believe, sales drive reviews, not the other way around.
The odds against a novice author ever achieving commercial success within this extremely competitive field are great. That said; some have.
Focus upon striving to continuously improve upon basic writing, marketing, and promotional knowledge and skills rather than obsessing over reviews and you could very well become one of those who do succeed.
Jim wrote: "Focus upon striving to continuously improve upon basic writing, marketing, and promotional knowledge and skills rather than obsessing over reviews and you could very well become one of those who do succeed."This is constantly my advice to new writers who seem obsessed with everything except the basics. I remember talking to a young guy who was worried about how to negotiate with agents and publishers and protect his IP.
IP he hadn't even started creating...
I just found this thread. First there are reviews and there are critiques. Do not mix the two because that will end up hurting you. On reviews, I tend to see how many there are for a book. If there are thousands, you can probably believe the review is pretty accurate due to the normalization curve that large numbers bring to bear. However, if you see only a few, be suspect because that can be friends, relatives or the author himself. Except for the regurgitation of a story, there is value in reviews if nothing else the reader liked the book. When I write my reviews, I touch on everything but the story except to say it is well written. I can talk about character development, archetypes, the underlying porting of the story....etc. I review to give both an author knowledge that I actually read and understand what they wrote. I also let the reader know there is more to the story than the story. On critique, it is a bit different because by the nature you are exploring different levels and looking at the craft itself and how well the author developed theirs. It is both a harder and a more academic exercise. It is not about shallowness of "like" per se, but about how well the author created their work. A book does not have to be enjoyed to be recognized as well written. I have read more than a few books that I did not like or connect. It does not mean it is badly written, but it did not touch me. Not every book will do so. However, I can recognize a book I did not like can be very well written and have reviewed as such.
My advice to the authors striving for recognition. Know what you are asking for when you ask for a review or a critique. You want great reviews for sales and you want valuable critiques to make you a better writer. BTW, critiques are hard if you want to do them correctly. I have done more than one and it is always painful to do so, but they are always spot on because that gives the author a chance to think about what I see.
I recently had done one for an author whose work I love. He felt his last story was not quite baked right. For me, the story was incredible, not because I love his work, but because it showed great growth and it took him out of his "world". I did two things I gave him his critique on what needed to be worked on and then I explained his story was fantastic. I then explained why I think he felt the way he did. He responded I explained where he made his mistake and he was going to work on fixing it. He missed my point on that it was perfect the way it was, but he wanted to fit it into his world he was building. he was very happy that I was able to help and so was I.
As for the Amazon $50 limit, I see two separate things going on. One: Amazon is making you buy $50 worth of things to "let" you become part of the group. Second: It is a method to prevent robots or sellers from giving themselves great reviews. It can also prevent disgruntled people from writing a thousand bad reviews to screw with honest or even dishonest sellers. I remember there was one woman that was rated number one on book reviews until you read one of her reviews and realized she rewrote the blurb. That changed when Google changed some of the rules and dropped her out.
Regardless of who publishes it, how well it is written, or their intent, a review is still nothing more than a personal, and therefore subjective opinion. Therefore, serious avid readers tend to not allow a review to influence their purchase choice one way or the other and many ignore them altogether.Aspiring authors would be better served focusing upon writing and seeking various methods and opportunities to promote their books rather than constantly soliciting and obsessing over the quantity and/or content of reviews their work receives.
The new system is working ok for me. I'm picking up ratings on Amazon. Mostly positive.
Even though reviews are subjective, I think they do have an impact on sales. I certainly look at reviews of books as well as products. They're not always reliable, but if you read through enough of them, you get a sense of whether they ring true or not.
Interestingly, my omnibus is picking up a rating a week at the moment.
World, Writing, Wealth
Books mentioned in this topic
His Most Italian City (other topics)Moonshot (other topics)
I just picked up a 1 star on ASA, and I can't 'see,' it.....