Eldon Farrell's Blog: The Writer's Craft - Posts Tagged "reviews"

So you've just published that book that you've poured your heart and soul into for the last - who knows how long - and it feels amazing. You're an author now! Sales are all right, you gained a following complete with positive reviews from people you don't even know; the feeling is indescribable.

Then it happens. You get up one morning, turn on your computer feeling terrific and pleased with yourself and find...a poor review of your novel.

To be clear...this is a when it happens scenario, not an if it happens. When you publish, whether your name is Stephen King or complete unknown, you're going to get negative reviews. You want to publish - get used to it.

So there you are staring at that horrible review that is now plastered across the internet suddenly feeling so much less than terrific. So what do you do now? The desire - the urge - to respond to this faceless reviewer can be almost overwhelming.

Who are they to say these things about my work! It's not fair! And not right! If I could only explain to them what they're missing then they'll understand...

Sound familiar? I would strongly advise against responding in any way to those of you who may be feeling the need to "change the reviewers mind". And by the way, that goes for positive reviews as well.

I know we all want interaction with our readers, but the review board is not the place. You post there, you invite only further hurt upon yourself.

I think it can become lost to us on social media sites like Goodreads, in the age of the vast internet, but reviews are not for authors. I can almost see some of you disagreeing with that right now, but it's true. Reviews are for readers; to help the next reader decide what to pick up, or what to avoid.

Before the onslaught of the information age, authors were routinely savaged by vicious reviews - they just didn't know it. The reviews went from reader to reader, and by and large the author never saw them.

Was it better this way? If you're staring at that infernal review...you might say yes.

But no, as with most instances, information when used correctly can only illuminate and help to better your situation. So that being said, how do you use it? How do you react?

If I could here, I'd like to share a deeply personal account of my experiences. I got my first negative - I guess you could call it a review - when I was just a little boy of no more than 9 or 10.

In my school we had a creative writing folder where you could place stories for extra credit. This was a revelation to me. I distinctly remember staying up nights way past my bedtime just writing little stories. Not to gain the credit mind you (as I wasn't doing my assigned homework!) but because I loved writing.

I don't remember most of what I wrote about it then but one story in particular I do remember. It was about a young family who moved into a new home only to discover that it's haunted. Kid's stuff really but hey...I was a kid!

The reason I remember that story is because after I deposited it in the folder the next day my teacher called on me to come to the front of the class. I stood up, pushed my shoulders back and raised my chin high. So proud was I of that story and here was my teacher about to praise me for it in front of everyone. Or so I thought.

What actually happened was she figuratively ripped that story to pieces in front of everybody!

I stood there listening to her criticize my story as my shoulders slowly slumped and my head lowered. More than her venomous words, I could hear the muffled laughter from my classmates. I was 9 or 10 years old...

Her main problem with the story was it "didn't reflect Christian values". It wasn't even assigned work! She rewrote the ending for me while I stood there and everyone laughed. Then she handed the paper back to me and I slinked back to my desk depositing the paper in the trash along the way.

I would not write again for 6 years - until well into high school. Even if it was assigned, I took a zero rather than risk that humiliation again.

You might be thinking that what she did was wrong; and I'd agree but she did teach me a valuable lesson that day...even if it took years to know it.

I learned eventually that you can't look for self-confidence in the eyes of others, you have to find it within yourself. I lost 6 years of writing and improving my craft because I failed to realize this. Please don't let it happen to you.

So you find that negative review...someone doesn't like your words...I say so what?

What should you do now? Move on, forget it, it's just one person's opinion. Even if it's more than one person, if it's a hundred or more, what does it matter to you? Serve as your own critic. If you were proud of what you wrote before some stranger lambasted it online, why shouldn't you still be proud of it?

The danger in becoming wrapped up in what other people think (good or bad) is that you risk losing yourself to it. You risk losing that most precious commodity - time.

So when it happens and somebody says something nasty about a story you love, just remember it's only an opinion. They may not like it but that doesn't mean the next ten people who read it won't love it. It's our differences that make us who we are.

Don't dwell on the negative. Accentuate the positive. And whatever else you do...be sure to keep writing!

This week is going to be a little different as I discuss/rant about one of my biggest pet peeves.

Now I'm sure I'm not the only one who's found themselves in this situation - you've found a book that you're super excited to read, can't wait to dive into it, you check out the reviews for it, and BANG...someone has given away crucial points of the story right there in the review!

Now we've discussed reviews right here and noted that they are for readers. And what does a reader read a review for? Obviously for only two reasons, to find out if it's worth reading or if they're simply curious about what other people think of the book.

In either case, the reader is not looking for a reviewer to give away vital points of the story. Aside from the fact that this is obviously not helpful, it spoils any future enjoyment of the book for anyone who happens to read the review first.

Reviews are not book club discussions - everyone who reads them hasn't already read the book. Please, please, please refrain from telling me who lives or who dies, how happy the ending is or isn't, or describing that one pivotal scene in excruciating detail.

If you simply can't help yourself, if you must include such things in a review, then do us all a favour and include "spoiler alert" before you do. Give the reader a chance. There's even html formatting specific to spoilers right here on Goodreads.

I'm sure you wouldn't like it if it happened to you; all I ask is that you be considerate of that fact and not do it to others. It's only common courtesy really; which ironically is not that common in the world we live in today.

Perhaps it's time though...for us to bring it back.

So this past summer I participated in my first "review round" in a group to which I belong here on Goodreads. It was...an experience. While I wouldn't say that I'll never do another one I likewise wouldn't say that it's on the top of my to do list.

To put it politely, it was an eye opening experience that revealed to me why so many authors avoid review rounds all together.

A little background here for those who may not be familiar with the process. Essentially what a review round consists of is a group of people (10 in my case) who agree to review a set number of books (4 in my case) in exchange for an equal number of reviews of their book. This avoids the non-reciprocal rules of Amazon by virtue of the fact that whoever you review is barred from reviewing you. Simple right?

To a young author the prospect of quickly boosting their review numbers can be enticing; I'd be lying if I said the thought hadn't crossed my mind before signing up.

But today, after going through the entire process, I'd like to caution my fellow authors against using review rounds. Why? Through my own experience I've come to realize that what they offer is not what we should pursue.

Now hold on a minute, how can I advocate against collecting reviews? Every new author is told repeatedly from every source imaginable that gaining reviews is the path to success. We'll come back to this in a minute.

Let's look at what a review round delivers to you. Using my example for demonstration, upon completion I have 4 new reviews for my book. What's wrong with that right?

For starters, these reviews are not by readers. By definition in order to be in the round you need to be an author. So these are reviews by fellow authors. Nothing wrong with that so long as they chose to read your book. But wait...they didn't. Your book was randomly assigned to them. They were told to read in exchange for reviews of their own.

This type of a setup invariably leads to people who otherwise would never read your book, reading your book. The rules tell all reviewers to essentially remove emotion from the equation and review each book clinically based on merit and execution. A nice ideal to strive for but a little unrealistic on the face of it.

We're all emotional and tend to review books based on enjoyment of them. If you would otherwise not enjoy reading a particular type of book; being told to do so isn't going to help the enjoyment much.

Remember that path to success? It may be paved with reviews but those are reviews by fans. The real key to success is not gaining reviews so much as it is gaining fans.

What I've come to learn is that, as a newbie author I shouldn't be chasing after reviews; I should be searching out fans. Readers who will love my words and always come back for more.

Reviews do not equal sales. But for every genuine fan you make...you've earned future sales for every new book you publish.

Despite the importance they place upon themselves, this is what review rounds cannot give you. They can deliver you reviews but not fans. You might get lucky and find a fan. I truly enjoyed 1 of the books I read and look forward to the next release from the author. He gained a fan in me. But the time and effort spent reading books that are not enjoyable to you may not be worth it to "maybe" gain a fan.

I won't say the review rounds are to be completely avoided. If it's the path you choose there's nothing wrong with it. Your experience using them may be completely different from my own.

Just do yourself a favour and know the difference between what you want and what they'll provide.

As the title indicates this will be my final entry here until some time in the new year. I've enjoyed these blogs and done my best to keep to a weekly schedule (though it's faltered as of late) but now time constraints are forcing me to go on hiatus here.

While I'm away I'll be reworking my next novel to remove a plot thread that will no longer work for me. It's tedious work, as all authors know, and will require much of my time and concentration.

Before I go though...one final entry.

This past year I have seen the very best and the very worst that independent publishing can offer and everything in between. I have been amazed by the singular talents of authors and appalled by the lack of care from others. It's like the dirty little secret of the business...we all know there are terrible books out there that should never have been published yet we never speak of them.

I want to speak of them today.

I've heard from reviewers I know that they won't review independent books because the quality is not there in a lot of cases. Worse than that, the author's themselves have been known to personally attack a reviewer who didn't rate them the way they wanted. Let me be clear; this behaviour is reprehensible.

Reviewers need the freedom to rate and review as they see fit for the practice to have any worth at all. They may not like your book. You may not like that. But that is the business you enter when you click publish. Many, many authors understand this but the few that don't do damage to us all. Every reviewer who closes their doors to all indie authors because of these bad apples is one less avenue available to all of us.

It's time to stop not talking about it. It's time to stop fearing reprisal and start telling it like it is. It's hard to slam an author; I know. I've found myself in the position this year as well. I've lost contacts over telling the truth. It isn't easy to review someone else's hard work and have to tell them that it just isn't good.

But it has to be done.

And I'm not talking about subjective opinions here. What one person likes another won't. We all get that. But show me the reader that likes to read poor grammar, typos, spelling mistakes, and other editing gaffs. These are not subjective...they're factual. It's hard to write and hard to hear but a prerequisite of this business of publishing is a thick skin. You won't survive without it.

And just so you know, I'm certainly not above it all. A Goodreads friend of mine, Joanna Elm, read and reviewed Stillness this year. She was my first 3 star review. She wrote in part that I had a "grammatical blind spot which is found throughout the book of confusing plurals with the possessive." Did I like to hear this? What do you think?

My kneejerk reaction was that she was wrong; there's no way. Did I lash out at her or break off all contact? No I did not. I decided to see if she was right and by God you know what...she was. I had no idea that I had that blind spot. If Joanna was a less honest reviewer I still wouldn't know. But because she told me the truth I was able to go over my story again and (hopefully) fix all those errors.

For young authors out there looking for how to handle criticism, I would suggest trying to learn from it. I would suggest subjecting your prized manuscript to an editing process before hastily clicking publish.

I would submit to all authors out there that for every terribly formatted and poorly edited book that somebody reads, we all lose at least 5 potential readers because you know they'll tell people all about that terrible book they read.

Keep that in mind before you publish. Sure you may be able to coax your friends and family and maybe even a few others into giving you the reviews you want but in the end, nobody knows enough people to keep the truth about your book from rising to the fore.

So don't blame the person who tells you the truth for telling it to you. Thank them...more importantly learn from them. Reviews can help you a lot more than just getting your name out there.

If you're going to publish then take the time and do it right. Do yourself a favour and polish your book before publishing it. Do us all a favour because we are all in this together. If we ever want people to look at independent novels as having the same quality as traditionally published novels then we need to make sure they do.

Every. Last. One. Of. Us.

In advance of next month's release of my new novel, I'd like to offer my followers the chance to read an ARC copy of my latest release.

I'll be providing free copies of Singularity through BookFunnel at the following page: BookHip.com/BVNLZB

A little bit about the book from the back copy:

It takes a certain kind of evil to save this city.

Nathan Miller owns the streets of Union City. A rogue detective protected by a corrupt establishment—his rule is absolute. But nothing lasts forever.

Someone has betrayed him and now blog sensation Alexis King knows things she shouldn’t. Coming after Nathan she threatens his authority, giving the elite cause to question his worth.

To protect his reign, Nathan must silence his betrayer before Alexis learns enough to topple him. But he’s no longer the only thing to fear in the rotten underbelly of 2035. His search uncovers an evil preying upon the displaced beyond the city wall—making Nathan the next target.
_____

Obviously, it would be awesome if interested readers could leave an honest review, but of course, there is no obligation to do so.

Hope you enjoy the read :)