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Post by Suzy on Feb 11, 2014 11:08:12 GMT -5
The other day, I had a chat on Facebook with my closest writer friend and critique buddy. He's a terrific writer and has been such a help to me the past year or so, reading and critiquing my work, giving me scathingly honest comments that have stung but been hugely helpful. I read his work and I don't pull punches either with my suggestions. Anyway, on Sunday I got a fantastic review for one of my books, of the kind where the reader said she set aside a whole day to read my book because she knew she couldn't put it down. Her subsequent comments were so spot-on and made feel that here was a person who really got my story and understood all the nuances. Happy dance! Then just after that I got two nasty 2* reviews that made my heart sink.  It made me feel as if I should give up writing. I know, I know, we're supposed to have thick skin and all that but those reviews sting, they truly do.  So I turned to my writer friend and said, I'm feeling low because, blah, blah. But he was also there trying to get me to sympathize about HIS bad reviews he got that day (is Sunday bad review day?). So we ended up crying on each other's shoulders. But then I had this idea. I said, 'let's not look at reviews AT ALL for a whole week'. He agreed, so that's what we're doing. I haven't cheated and don't know how many new reviews I have, good or bad. I was really tempted to look at first but stopped myself. But here I am on day three of our pact and now feeling that it's a great idea not to look at reviews. The first two days were hard but now I'm used to not looking and probably won't for a long time. I feel a sense of freedom and also a kind of victory. Strange. |
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Post by vrabinec on Feb 11, 2014 11:19:14 GMT -5
I think I'm gonna put a request in my books: Positive reviews only. This author is already too close to the edge.
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Post by Suzy on Feb 11, 2014 11:23:10 GMT -5
That should do it, Fred!  |
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Post by Becca Mills on Feb 11, 2014 17:07:24 GMT -5
Are you going to keep it up permanently, Suzy? I really don't think I could! Then again, I still have relatively few of them overall, so I haven't felt the gut-punch very often, as of yet.
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Post by Suzy on Feb 11, 2014 17:11:42 GMT -5
I don't know. But right now it feels good not to. I know the overall rating is at 4 now, which I need to qualify for a Bookbub promo. But that's several months away.
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Post by Daniel on Feb 11, 2014 18:27:13 GMT -5
Every once in a while, I get curious and go see if I've gotten any new reviews. I don't do it with any regularity, and it's not unusual for me to go a few months without checking. If I were trying to advertise and needed reviews to qualify, that would probably be a different story.
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Post by Suzy on Feb 12, 2014 3:23:04 GMT -5
If anyone here is reading (or plan to read) Hot Gossip that was free last week, I'd love some feedback.
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Post by Alan Petersen on Feb 12, 2014 13:30:27 GMT -5
I stopped looking at my reviews now for the last couple months. Good or bad. I do keep tabs on the average star rating to make sure there isn't a big problem. After awhile the reviews (good or bad) all sounded the same, so why go through the torture? I now have a better understanding of my books strong points and its weak ones too. Some of my early bad reviews were actually helpful to me as a new writer. But for now I'm putting them out of my mind.
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Post by Suzy on Feb 12, 2014 14:57:31 GMT -5
I stopped looking at my reviews now for the last couple months. Good or bad. I do keep tabs on the average star rating to make sure there isn't a big problem. After awhile the reviews (good or bad) all sounded the same, so why go through the torture? I now have a better understanding of my books strong points and its weak ones too. Some of my early bad reviews were actually helpful to me as a new writer. But for now I'm putting them out of my mind. Alan, I'm giving you a virtual hug for saying that. That is very sound thinking. |
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Post by Daniel on Feb 13, 2014 9:24:47 GMT -5
I stopped looking at my reviews now for the last couple months. Good or bad. I do keep tabs on the average star rating to make sure there isn't a big problem. After awhile the reviews (good or bad) all sounded the same, so why go through the torture? I now have a better understanding of my books strong points and its weak ones too. Some of my early bad reviews were actually helpful to me as a new writer. But for now I'm putting them out of my mind. That's what I decided as well. Once I started to see a repeating pattern, I had a good feel for what readers thought were the strong points and weak points of my writing. Some of those complaints I agree with and will try to correct, other complaints are caused by intentional choices I made in my plotting or style and merely prove that not every fantasy reader is in my target audience. My #1 rule when assessing critique: Do I agree? If not, there's no point wasting more time thinking about it. |
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Post by Becca Mills on Feb 13, 2014 10:16:25 GMT -5
You folks are so impressively rational and self-disciplined!
ETA: Whoa, Suzy's a Viking!
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Post by Suzy on Feb 13, 2014 11:12:56 GMT -5
Yes, I thought I'd change into something more uncomfortable...
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Post by Becca Mills on Feb 13, 2014 12:17:36 GMT -5
Yes, I thought I'd change into something more uncomfortable... Heh, heh, heh ...  |
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Post by Alan Petersen on Feb 13, 2014 13:57:27 GMT -5
I don't know. But right now it feels good not to. I know the overall rating is at 4 now, which I need to qualify for a Bookbub promo. But that's several months away. Have you done a BookBub promo before? Hot Property has a ton of reviews, and you have several other books with multiple reviews all averaging 4 or better, I would think they would take your ad in a heart beat now versus waiting. Unless you want to wait for your own reason and not because you think BookBub won't accept your ad. |
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Post by Suzy on Feb 13, 2014 13:59:33 GMT -5
I did a Bookbub promo with Hot Property at the beginning of December. 60K downloads and it raced to #1 in the free charts in four hours. I was shocked!
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Post by Alan Petersen on Feb 13, 2014 14:00:12 GMT -5
Never mind my last post.   I remembered you shared about your BB run. |
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Post by Suzy on Feb 13, 2014 14:00:32 GMT -5
Then... a zillion sales for two months and all those reviews. Yes, I'm a fan.  |
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Post by Suzy on Feb 13, 2014 14:02:19 GMT -5
Never mind my last post. I remembered you shared about your BB run. Yup that's it! It really changed things for me. Not only sales but a huge number of likes on my FB page and lots of e-mail requests to be on my list. |
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Post by Alan Petersen on Feb 13, 2014 14:06:55 GMT -5
Then... a zillion sales for two months and all those reviews. Yes, I'm a fan. They turned me down three times (99cent promo), but I just have one book and I had 35 reviews the last time I tried. The average was over 4 stars. Now I'm at 3.9 average, so I'll wait until I have my second book published and I bring up my average for book #1 before I try to submit to Book Bub again. I was curious so I went back and looked at the thriller books they promoted. The only one-book authors with less than 20 reviews that they ran ads for were trad published or they had reviews from a "prestigious" source like Kirkus, or a newspaper, LA Times, etc. |
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Post by Suzy on Feb 13, 2014 14:11:40 GMT -5
That's strange. When I submitted, I had 42 reviews and an average of 4.7 or something. Those reviews came from an earlier Bookblast promo I did in August.
As a result of this, I have this strategy; 1) publish book, 2) do a Bookblast promo two months later, which will get you a lot of reviews. Then: 3) do the Bookbub about 4 months after the Bookblast.
The Bookblast will push you up enough for Bookbub to accept you.
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It made me feel as if I should give up writing. I know, I know, we're supposed to have thick skin and all that but those reviews sting, they truly do. 
