Week 14’s topic is “What I learned from my worst review.”
NB: I’ve missed a few weeks due to travel and illness and will be posting catch-up entries for weeks 11-13 in the next few days. I apologize for the delay.
So reviews. Love ’em, hate ’em, can’t live without them. Of course, it’s always lovely to get a gushing review. Those can buoy one’s spirits for days. Often, a rave review will come in on the days I most feel like throwing in the towel forever and that’s always nice.
Sometimes a review will point out a pattern in my overall work. Reviews made me realize that all my books are sweet in tone, if not sensuality level.
And the ones that provide criticism, if done kindly and constructively, can be wonderful too. It’s all too hard to be objective about one’s work. I appreciate the beta readers and editors along the way who help.
But my worst reviews happened on Pumpkin Spice, the 10th in the Cupid’s Coffeeshop series and actually alerted me to a problem with the file Amazon provided to pre-orders. It allowed me to fix the problem within just a few days. I wish that the reviewers that gave me a 1 star would go back and assess based on the book instead of the technology glitch but they haven’t so that book always has a low average. Still, I appreciate the reviewers telling me so I could fix it.
Authors often fret about reviews, good, bad, and the lack of them. How do you feel about reviews? Do you think they’re important?
Do you read reviews before purchasing a book? Do you rely on them? How important are reviews anyway?
You must be logged in to post a comment.