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Negative Reviews - how bad is bad?
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Thank you to everyone who has posted on this thread. I just got my first one star review that was so mean I cried for an hour. She said it was the worst book she's ever read and that obviously only family members were responsible for the othER 11 five star reviews. not true! I have no family reviews and only a couple friend reviews--the rest are from people I haven't even met. How is it that a person can get great feedback and then all of a sudden one bad review feels like it outweighs all the rest? I was going to write this evening, but Wow. I'm kinda reeling. Advice on how to get over it would be much appreciated! Ps, sorry for typos. I'm thumb typing on my phone.
Recently some person wrote a Google Books "review" of my book The Global Indie Author: How anyone can self-publish in the U.S. and worldwide markets that consisted of "Boooo, lame" and giving it a one-star review. The book is new and only had one other review, a five-star review from someone who actually bought and read the book, so this reduced my rating to three stars. And considering that Google programs its algorithm to display Google Books on the first page regardless of its actual popularity, this has the effect of being one of the first things people see if they Google my book, which I think was the "reviewer's" intention. This person has chosen to remain anonymous (naturally), and the review clearly shows they haven't read the book (or they would have something more to say). I think it was written by a competitor, and I think I know who did it. Just pure malice. People can be so slimy and malicious, it's just sad.
Some people are just plain mean. It's hard to believe that someone who had written a book themselves, and knows the time spent, the emotional energy it takes and the loss of sleep it involves, could trash the hard work of another author. Therefore, I think these one star reviews come from non-authors and I think it's downright jealousy!
The only one star reviews I have given was when I thought I was buying an e-book and it turned out to be a short story. I give those a one star because they are one-fifth of a book.
The only one star reviews I have given was when I thought I was buying an e-book and it turned out to be a short story. I give those a one star because they are one-fifth of a book.
Peggy wrote: "Some people are just plain mean. It's hard to believe that someone who had written a book themselves, and knows the time spent, the emotional energy it takes and the loss of sleep it involves, cou..."Actually, I had a one star review once upon a time. It was from an author. She said that she was critical because she was an author. I didn't understand that point, but some authors feel that they have to hold each other to a higher standard. If there's any level of jealousy, it's likely to stem from other authors. I think some of us are more critical because we often believe we could've done something better. It's really split. You never know who or why a person will give a one star. There are reasons for both authors and readers to give them.
It worries me how childish some indie-authors are. I don't mind a bit of tongue-in-cheek, and even understand a bit of spamming but some really just act like idiots. There was one on the KDP forums today who started a thread just to pretend he'd not sold any books because he was accused of bragging (quite rightly IMHO) about how many sales he'd made on other threads, going to the point of posting jpgs of his sales figures (with his titles and name omitted to prevent "jealous" haters). Yet in another thread the same poster claimed to be of retired age and talked down to me just for disagreeing with his opinion that a 1* review can only be a personal attack on the author, not just about the book.Such behavior is petty and just like writing hater reviews or purposefully shooting down other authors for no reason other than spite, its unbecoming of someone who aims to be a professional in their field. Anyone who wants to be a professional author should act professionally just like they would be expected to do in any other professional, regardless of whether it's on an anonymous forum or not.
And for writers who are getting genuine 1 or 2* reviews, then they should take them on the chin and learn from them. You don't get good at writing overnight and it takes time to reach a high standard. Taking criticism is very important but more important is the ability to learn from it.
Anyway, best go finish my beer...
Chris Ward
Author of The Tube Riders
That's terrible! It's amazing how boring some people's life must be to feel they have to feed of others like some kind of vampire or leach.
I had one woman give me a one star for my self-help book and it was obvious she hadn't read it. The name of the book is THE ANSWERS ARE WITHIN. She said I need to get my own life fixed before I told other people how to live. Just from the title, you can see it's not about telling others how to live. The funny thing about it was that, after she gave me that review, my sales for that book went up.
I had one woman give me a one star for my self-help book and it was obvious she hadn't read it. The name of the book is THE ANSWERS ARE WITHIN. She said I need to get my own life fixed before I told other people how to live. Just from the title, you can see it's not about telling others how to live. The funny thing about it was that, after she gave me that review, my sales for that book went up.
Chris wrote: "It worries me how childish some indie-authors are. I don't mind a bit of tongue-in-cheek, and even understand a bit of spamming but some really just act like idiots. There was one on the KDP foru..."I agree with this completely.
The one annoying trend the other way is writer bashing, which on the Amazon forums has become a bully community of absurd proportions. One guy does something like you described above, and they spend 14 hours tarring indie authors with the same brush. It's like watching jackals pick a carcass.
Got to love group think.
Peggy wrote: "That's terrible! It's amazing how boring some people's life must be to feel they have to feed of others like some kind of vampire or leach.I had one woman give me a one star for my self-help boo..."
I'm told this happens as a sympathy thing. people see you get an unfair review, and they vote the extreme other way, by buying it or giving it five stars.
It's why you see "polarized" review battles on metacritic over pop culture -- look at the customer reviews and you'll see most are either 0 out of 10 or 10 out of 10.
There's a lot of neuroscience about why this is so, but basically for reasons of survival instinct, humans are dichotomous and tend to extremes of description "either/or" in any circumstance to guard against the worst possible threat.
Kashif wrote: "Peggy wrote: "Some people are just plain mean. It's hard to believe that someone who had written a book themselves, and knows the time spent, the emotional energy it takes and the loss of sleep it..."I know people in my local arts community who insist having an arts degree makes you "better" at judging art, and use it to justify giving government grants to people they know (without recusing themselves from the grant process.)
They then justify this by saying their particular community is "small" but more "knowledgeable."
Of course, logically, there is no "better" or "worse", because "art" isn't qualifiable, as with "pop", which is just a measurement of overall sales.
Jaq D wrote: "Film funding. It was a bizarre move, but brilliant publicity. Since then I've shot 2 B-movies that are currently in edit, which keeps competing with my writing for my time. Hopefully they will fu..."
Jaq, I had to call the producers after I spotted a grifter I'd done features about on there as a contestant, LOL. He'd changed his first name so his criminal record and civil records didn't show up in checks.
The dragons were not impressed. But it's amazing how easy it is for some con men to sucker people with money.
I wrote about a guy once who was handed a $25-million line of credit by a Hartford Bank to help buy an NHL team -- and was wined and dined by the league -- because his confidence overwhelmed them, and they didn't even check his credit.
Jaq D wrote: "Kashif wrote: "Peggy wrote: "If there's any level of jealousy, it's likely to stem from other authors."Or wannabe authors. I've got one stalker who made a whole page on her website just to slag o..."
I personally love that level of ignorance. It proves how valuable you are that someone would need to piggyback off of you. Sorry you had to endure it, but let's look at it as an idiot's flattery.
I try not to be offended by critics. (Not to be confused with reviews that contain constructive criticism). Critics are often people that can't do what you can, so they try impeding your progress.
I had 2 posts regarding reviews...if you want to take a look.http://amethysteyesauthor.blogspot.ca...
http://amethysteyesauthor.blogspot.ca...
My experience of negative reviews is even stranger than getting a low 3 star review. The first 3 reviews on the Amazon US site for Dinosaurs and the Expanding Earth were all 5 stars but then I received two 1 star reviews in rapid succession. I’m not certain this can be classified as bad since one of the negative reviews provoked a response from someone else (who hadn’t written a review before) arguing against the bad review. So perhaps chalk and cheese reviews are good.
Chris wrote: "Probably the best book I've ever read is The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger. It has 1,315 five star reviews on Amazon.com, but it also has 222 one star reviews. I loved that book, but..."I find that some readers write how they enjoyed one particular part of my book but others tell me that is the part they didn’t like! Beauty is in the eye of the reader.
I feel for you, I remember my first bad review like it just happened. It can be devastating and make you wonder if you should throw in the towel especially if you have just started the wild ride that is self-publishing. My solution was to spend a lot of time reading reviews of all my favorite authors and found out no one is exempt and that some people look for reasons to hate things for whatever reason. I don't even try to figure out why, it is not worth your time and energy. Enjoy the good reviews, there is no feeling like the one from getting a good review from a perfect stranger and ignore the bad unless it is about grammar, editing or formatting. Those deserve your attention. I still don't like negative reviews, who does? I always try to see if I can learn something from them, but I don't let them ruin my life. I guess I'm getting a thicker skin. Good luck.
You know I actually excerpt from one rather critical, three star review posted here on GoodReads for Great Succession Crisis Extended. Why? She compared my book with Frank Herbert's "Dune." In context, she was not intending that to be a grand compliment. But "Dune" is one of those influences I regularly go back to when I'm stuck with writer's block. Science fiction dealing with the inner workings of a feudal government -- that's Dune and that is what I wrote too!So I excerpted the review and posted that on my site.
I think the key is to both leave constructive remarks and focus on the constructive sides of reviews. Sometimes a criticism comes from a person not understanding the value of something you have done. I have been criticized for using a broad vocabulary. Do I think a broad vocabulary in my descriptions is bad? NO. I've also been criticized for my world building -- mostly because that particular reviewer did not consult the glossary I put with each of my books.
To me it is a good thing if someone using my glossary and/or the dictionary when reading. Do not know what "perigee" is? Look it up! :)
Deb wrote: "I have 2 2-star ratings for my book that hasn't even been published yet. I'm not sure what they are rating - the cover and blurb????I've heard that any reviews, good or bad, are better than none."
I had someone give me a 3 star rating when she put my book on her to-read list because she thought that the stars showed the level of importance on her list.
I'm sure most of you know that Kirkus Reviews are the #1 in professional reviews. We've all seen them quoted on the backs of our favorite books. Their reviews can be brutally honest. You always hope to get a good Kirkus Review, but I read the review of Charlaine Harris' latest Sookie Stackhouse book and it was so bad I wanted to cry for her. Did it hurt her book sales? I highly doubt it. I have seen "mean" reviews for all of my favorite authors and yet they are still raking in the big bucks. People will read what they like and it won't matter what someone else thinks. If they are sitting on the fence about whether or not they want to read a book they might look to the reviews. But in the long run the decision will be made on whether they think they will enjoy the book or not.
I've been to the conference Thrillerfest in NYC several times, and there they have an award for the writer with the worst reviews. They read them aloud - all for bestsellers - and they are hilarious. I got this one-star one in 2008 on a traditionally published book called SURFACE TENSION.
"Gets one star only because Kling expended considerable effort in writing it. This is one of the worst books I have ever been conned into buying. Title is misleading. I didn't feel any tension. After struggling for half the book I finally gave up and tossed it. Christine Kling should stick with her boating and boating buddies and let legitimate authors write the books."
I still chuckle when I read it now.