WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM A BAD REVIEW
MORGAN ST . JAMES
As a writer / author living in Las Vegas , a city with a very active writers ’ community , I hear feedback from many authors . One big fear ? A bad review . Many of us have had that experience , justly or unjustly , and it can be traumatic . Reacting to the bad news
Your worst nightmare has come true . The book you thought would be a blockbuster has gotten a bad review . Does that mean the world will come crashing down around you ? Maybe yes , and maybe no .
Sure , you do have to acknowledge that there is always the possibility that the reviewer ’ s comments were well deserved , in which case it may be something to heed for your next book . But , before you go bonkers , ask yourself this question as the author : How many good reviews have you gotten vs . bad ones ?
Then put on your reviewer ’ s hat . Was your book edited well ? Did the plot hold together ? Was the writing tight ? Is there a market for your genre ? There are so many factors that might come to light when a reviewer or reader attacks your baby . Keep an open mind
The first thing to remember is to keep an open mind , and sometimes that ’ s hard . I recall seeing the rash of posts on Facebook about a self-published book on Smashwords that got a bad review and set off a firestorm of comments from Facebook Friends and retaliation by the author because she simply got very angry . I checked it out , and in my opinion , I felt the reviewer ’ s critique was valid . The angry author could have learned a lot from what was said , had she kept an open mind . What the reviewer said
Among other reasons for giving the book two stars , the reviewer pointed out :
“ One reason is the spelling and grammar errors , which come so quickly that , especially in the first several chapters , it ’ s difficult to get into the book without being jarred back to reality as you attempt unraveling what the author meant .”
We have all seen books like that , and it ’ s a real turn-off . I really wanted to be fair , so I previewed the first twenty percent of this book , a benefit which is standard for most Smashwords books . I didn ’ t find lots of spelling errors — perhaps they were corrected in a subsequent edit — but there were many grammatical errors . As for editing , it really needed tightening and a good going over to eliminate sentences like this one : She carried her stocky build carefully back down the stairs . Um , did she pick it up and carry it ? Then there was the fish dinner . Were I reviewing this book , I would have asked , “ How many pages can an author dedicate to discussing a fish dinner ?” In this case she filled several opening pages with boring conversation about the fish dinner . She would have lost me right in the beginning . My suggestion would have been to boil the opening down to a few paragraphs or even a few lines .
WRITERS ’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE
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MAY - JUNE 2016