This one popped up on Goodreads – thank god it’s not on Amazon, which would potentially mean fewer sales…I’m feeling pretty philosophical about it – I guess you can’t expect everyone to love a book, any book, it’s a matter of personal preference. Wish I could make sense of it, though – the main complaint from someone who loves screwball comedy seems to be that it’s “improbable” and has “too many screwballs”. The most disappointing thing is actually that I can’t use this particular critique to improve my writing. Anywho, I’m off to enjoy life 🙂
Ana Spoke, author 
You’ve got the right attitude. I know my day will come when a scathing review will show up and I know it’s going to sting.
People have a right to not like a book, but we have a right not to like their poorly written reviews.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you Stephanie – this is the weirdest bit, did not sting at all…it probably would have if it was the first review, or in the first 10, but I have so far 23 on Amazon and they are all positive, so I saw it as an outlier. Helps to have studied statistics 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a good perspective. I’m only getting started and so far, all positive!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Stephanie, I hope it stays that way 🙂
LikeLike
It’s always good to get it out of the way. Strangely, my first one star too was of little help. It seems higher reviewers always give better critiques, narrowing down the exact conflict they had. One stars just like to dump on things. Sad.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Thank you – yep, it’s like that first scratch on a brand-new car. You know it’s gonna happen sooner or later…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like that comparison!
tiptoeingelephant
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ouch. That’s a tough read. And you’re right. Think of how many crap books you’ve read or films you’ve watched. They’ve all been ‘good’ enough to get agents, find a publisher, find a book-store or agent, producer, distributor etc. I thought 50 Shades of Grey was abysmal, but millions didn’t. When we put our work out there, we’re inviting feedback, good and bad. Toughens you up apparently! Hope it doesn’t affect you too much. xx
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Annie – no, it didn’t, and I’m almost surprised. I’m almost required to be upset, but instead I keep feeling all this gratitude and warm fuzzy feelings for the others, who have read it and seemed to love it…the best feeling 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hurrah to that. I get terribly upset if someone disagrees with a blog post I write!! Part of this exercise is to try and toughen up a bit! xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, no – it’s also good to be flexible, like a tree that bends in the wind, but then comes back up, straight as ever 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
As a writer and a reader, I hate reviews that start: I really wanted to like this book. I usually stop reading right there! Obviously if the book isn’t what You expected, it’s Your problem, not the author’s. How we feel about a book is so subjective, no matter how ‘professional’ or ‘neutral’ you try to be. The same joke sounds funny to some and not to others; we see that happenning all the time, don’t we? Comedy is totally subjective! She obviously doesn’t share your sense of humour, so what?
I also think she’s unneccessarily nasty towards the end, which reflects on the type of person She is; it says nothing about the writer you are.
I have a few of them, too. Even Stephen King and Charles Dickens have! A reviewer wrote about A Christmas Carol ‘Hated it! Had to delete it!’ It reflects on her own ignorance.
Bad reviews aren’t so bad. They give credibility to the other reviews (ironically) because you can’t please everyone, and if you do, it sounds fake.
Don’t loose any sleep over it, we all get them, and you’ll get more. As for sales, the negative reviews didn’t seem to affect sales of 50Shades, did they?
Keep writing 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Luccia! I’m just so surprised and grateful at the number of people who “get” it, that this one review doesn’t matter much. Stephen King often wrote to Perfect Reader, and I now know what he meant – I’m writing now and will keep on writing for my Perfect Readers 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Welcome to the literary world where despite your best efforts, inevitably someone will hate what you write. Be thankful that’s its only your first. As word spreads among people like that, sadly you will get more. If you want my advice, concentrate on your writing and leave the reading of reviews to the reading public. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Jack 🙂 Oh, but I love reading them so…until now, of course. I’m not at all upset about it, just accept it as a matter of fact, and that I will probably get more. So very, very thankful to get a number of readers who just “got” it and laughed all the way through…I’m writing for them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good for you Ana 🙂 x
LikeLiked by 1 person
The dreaded one star, eww. I’m with Annie on this one, millions of people have liked books that have done nothing for me. I think you already found the learning experience in this one; you just can’t please everyone.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Nick – and hey, the reviewer loved the cover! So, thats one thing we got…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ana, the proverbial happens. My debut novel (I like the word “debut” because it wasn’t the first novel I’d written, but was the first I was set on getting published) was accepted by HarperCollins, but released only in Australia and NZ. It just missed out on a UK release. Not surprising – a lot of it would have been lost on an international audience. It got some glowing literary reviews, but I see it has only 2 stars and no reviews on Goodreads. This is my fault. I hate promoting my own work. I’m a member of a generation that was brought up to believe self-promotion was a No-no. I’m working on getting past that.
But one drab review isn’t worth anything. Don’t let it get you down.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you 🙂 I’m strangely upbeat for someone who got a bit of bad news 🙂 Perhaps because on the gut feeling level I know it was meant to be? I also keep waiting for a certain billionaire to sue me, now that would be a whole lot of publicity, wouldn’t it?
LikeLiked by 1 person
It would send sales skywards!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really salute you for sharing this here. Only a brave and humble person would do that. And don’t worry, every book out there has at least one bad review, it was bound to happen sometime. People will still buy and like the book.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much! I also would like to support others who get these bad reviews – in reading blogs, I’ve come across a number of posts by authors who were gutted by bad reviews. I’d like to offer an alternative view, which can be summed up in a shoulder shrug and “eh” 🙂
LikeLike
They say that any type of press is good press? Easy for ‘they’ to say but when you do get negative feedback it can feel like a sucker punch in the gut. You seemed to have recovered nicely and by letting everyone know what happened, that’s part of the recovery!
As for comedy, it’s been said before. Not everyone is going to like your style. That’s okay. Keep writing for the people that do, and maybe you’ll get the people that don’t appreciate your brand of humor to come around when you’re fantastically rich and famous!
If not, FLUFF’em if they can’t take a joke!!! 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Mariska! I’m actually speechless that so many people seem to love the book – my real life friends mostly did not get it (except for my sister, but we are very similar). By casting the net far and wide, I seem to have caught a number of fans, so I’m incredibly thankful for that 🙂
LikeLike
You’re very welcome, and I like your humility Ana.
Strangers are better indicators of talent I think. Or friends can’t see the talent side of their buddies?
Either way, you have fans! That’s always cool! Let’s you know that you still have work to do right?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right 🙂 Thank you again 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reviews are meaningless. Surely, they affect sales and may affect one’s ego, but they have very little to do with quality. Thanks to/because of the internet, a large number of reviews is either positive by friends, or negative out of spite or personal beef, but almost all of them, widely unverified. Your book is either good or it ain’t, either likable or it isn’t (which isn’t at all the same thing). By the way, what’s it about? 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, it’s a screwball comedy 🙂 I do believe reviews are important – people do look at them when deciding what to buy. Human nature – they want social proof before taking a $0.99 risk!
LikeLike
Like I said, they affect sales, not quality. Let me tell you an interesting story. There’s a restaurant in Italy, very famous, I won’t cite the name for privacy. It is always fully booked and professional critics constantly rate it as one of the best in the world. It’s only got a 3-star average on TripAdvisor. Wanna know why? The owners adamantly refuse to vary their recipes, but of course the people on the internet and food bloggers think they know better than a Michelin starred chefs… 😉 #nuffsaid
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! I want sales, bookings, and publicity, so in this case the reviewer did me a favor by adding another review onto the pile 🙂
LikeLike
BTW, I’ve taken that 0.99 risk, today from Italy, check Amazon kdp 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
I saw that! Thank you 🙂 Let me know what you think 🙂
LikeLike
I know an author with many reviews and a large number of 1 star reviews among them (many more good one, but not just 1 or 2 bad ones) and says she’s sold many more books since she got the bad reviews. Some people will always wonder why the difference in opinion and also wonder if any book could possibly be that bad…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sweet! Thank you for this bit of silver lining, Olga – in a weird way, it does make sense. Someone may read the review and think that this book is outrageous (which it is) and want to give it a go.
LikeLike
The very first writer I knew from our writers’ circle who self-published on Amazon Kindle warned us all that the reviewers who give you one and two star reviews are generally reading outside of their normal genre. I think it’s great that people are willing to pick up a book that isn’t their usual fare, but if they don’t like it, why blame the author? Why even write a review when they are so clearly out of their depth?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Susan – I’m not sure, other than to say that I’ve met people in real life who seem to enjoy dissing out punishment. The latest was the little guy in Melbourne airport – he seemed to take too much pleasure in herding people toward passport control, including yelling at one woman to get off the phone. I’ve personally never given a bad review to a book I could not finish – I just moved on…
LikeLike
Brush it away and keep moving.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Mike 🙂 Don’t worry – I’ve been nicknamed “bulldog” by one ex-boss. He said that once I got a hold on something, I would not let go 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Eh…I think people are unnecessarily rude/unpleasant/ugly online. I read a lot of books, and I write reviews on my blog and for Examiner.com. My personal policy is that if I really didn’t like the book or couldn’t finish it for whatever reason, I won’t review it, but I will try to give some sort of feedback directly to the author. I don’t review it because just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean others won’t, and I’m a writer myself and I know how hurtful non-constructive negative feedback can be. I won’t be a part of destroying someone else’s dream. When I let others read my own writing, the rule is “You can tell me it sucks. That’s fine. As long as you tell me WHY you think it sucks.” You’re right: nothing constructive in this particular bad review.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thank you, Tamara – couldn’t agree more. It’s a psychological effect of anonymity – studies have shown people tend to be nastier when “invisible” – one of the explanations of the road rage, where drivers see others not as people, but as faceless cars.
LikeLike
Not to worry Anna. The really popular writers always say they get all kinds of criticism from people who don`t like their books, even abuse. They say its unavoidable. So pick yourself up, dust yourself off and continue doing what you do so well, believing in your book. Hold that belief and you`ll be rewarded.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much, Gabriel 🙂 part of the game – I had a very weird reaction to it, sort of “oh, here it is”, as if I was waiting for it. I’m strangely content with it 🙂
LikeLike
Good for you Ana! There are plenty of fantastic successful books that people think suck. Maybe it’s a sign you’re on your way to making it big 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, that’s the spirit! Thank you, Thane – I might as well start growing thick skin – nobody gets as much hate as celebrities…
LikeLike
exactly! Its almost its own career to hate celebrities – you can consider yourself a job creator too now
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahaha! Thanks again, Thane 🙂
LikeLike
“off to enjoy life.” Precisely correct response
LikeLike
Thank you very much 🙂 Strangely not affected, maybe cause I’m on holiday 🙂
LikeLike
Don’t get discouraged. Authors tend to dwell on the negatives, glossing over the positives. Does a single negative undo a whole string of positives? I’m not saying that negatives are not important, it’s just that they should remain proportional to the whole.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! Not discouraged, not at all! In a way this sour taste emphasized just how sweet are the rest of the reviews 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have to say, that often times a rather terse review, especially if there is only one, will peak my curiosity to check out the product. No worries, remember how many successful people were told by their teachers that they had NO talent and went on to become GREAT! You are already GREAT, so you have a leg up! ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, thank you so much, Annette 🙂 I don’t know what a definition of great might be in comedy, but I do know that I’ve made quite a few people laugh and ask for more, so I’ll take that 🙂
LikeLike
Best review ever. /sarcasm off.
Honestly, while you can’t expect everyone to like a book (I’m familiar with this as well), I don’t think it’s too much to ask to craft a review or an e-mail, if you want to give specific examples and not spoil for others, that gives the author something to work with. This one didn’t… so I give it one star. :p
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! Thank you 🙂 I’ll check in a while to see if others have marked it as helpful or unhelpful…
LikeLike
It’s all opinion and taste. In “A Movable Feast”, Hemingway criticized Dostoyevsky as being almost unreadable as an author. Just shows that even the best have people who just don’t like their work. Keep writing and entertaining those that do.
LikeLike
Thank you so much – that’s exactly what I will do!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely love your attitude about this! I haven’t even finished my first book yet, but I am already so worried about people not liking what I’ve created. I can only hope to be as positive as you! I’ve got to learn that you can’t please everyone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much! Hope you don’t worry to much and just keep moving forward, becoming better and better in your craft…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anytime! I hope I can do that as well!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jealousy, Ana. She liked the cover enough to try it and found time to leave comments that have given you a great lot more attention and another fab blog post – enjoy life, now I want to read your book.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re so right, Susan! I’m getting all this love and attention…and potential new readers?? Maybe I should send her a thank you card…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha, yes do it…
LikeLiked by 1 person
It appears there is no end to the number of people who want to ‘get something’ from someone’s hard work. The writing business is full of that. Editors and publishers make money with no risk in most cases. Cover designers, media outlets and publicists all are quick to stake a piece of your work.
Reviewers are like that too. They are safe behind their anonymous profile and keyboard and feel obligated to write about everything they read. After all it’s how the increase their standing on various social media sites. Myself, I wouldn’t dream of writing a review of a book that I didn’t like or perhaps ‘didn’t get’. There are plenty of professional critics doing that to add my unverified comments.
My last review on good reads, while well written and stinging, left me scratching my head. The person had just recently reviewed an Agatha Christie book. Maybe “Moby Dick” or “Farewell to Arms” was checked out that week. Top that off with the fact that the reader had gotten my book for 99 cents or free, leaves me even more puzzled. Why would someone purposely go out of their way to cause lasting harm to new author’s is beyond me.
I’d rather they just contact me in any of the dozens of ways available and I’ll gladly send them their money back. Try that with a A-lister.
Don’t sweat the small stuff Anna. You have plenty of people who love your book. Unfortunately the norm for most people is to enjoy a book and tell their friends about it, not write a review. Goodreads is full of the opposite, people trying to boost their friends list and number of reviews rather than actually give insightful comments about the content. Hang Tough.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Ken, and sorry to hear about your experience. It’s a numbers game, and so far approximately 4% of my reviewers did not like my book. Hey, that means 96% success!
LikeLike
Not very nice, but then those who judge reveal more about themselves than those they presume to judge. Besides, her review gives much more credibility to the abundance of four and five star reviews that Shizzle Inc. has received and is destined to receive! Perhaps you ought to thank her… okay, okay, that may be going too far. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, maybe not a thank you card, but I agree with you – thank you, James 🙂
LikeLike
I wouldn’t even think about it. The unfortunate thing about the internet is that it’s turned everyone into critics. Some of them are disingenuous, some are misguided. Bottom line is that it’s a statistical business. Go have a nice vacation. I wrote a short story a while back, and a writing professor told me it was great, and that I needed to submit it for publication. One magazine editor I sent it to gave a scathing review and said it didn’t even qualify as a story.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Dale – I hope you have self-published since? I’ve sent Shizzle, Inc to about 70 agents and publishers and best I got was “it’s funny, but we don’t know if there’s a market for it”. So glad I did not get discouraged and went my own way…
LikeLike
Hey, I really hope it doesn’t affect you too much, because it’s just ONE review, from ONE PERSON. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much, Elm – it has not at all. I’m very curious about all these things, but from almost a scientist’s perspective 🙂 Doing my research and analyzing the data…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good good! 🙂 As long as you aren’t made upset by it; we can’t have that. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nope 🙂 and can’t stop smiling when reading all the lovely comments, thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s okay! It’s what we’re here for.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awww…:-)
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s good that you’re not letting this drag you down 🙂 The review doesn’t make too much sense to me. At least it’s only one, plus there’s always that one person who doesn’t enjoy the book as much as everyone else 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you 🙂 Yeah, I’m very much “eh” about it 🙂 Hard to get upset on a vacation…
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome. Almost nothing can ruin a fun vacation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know that it’s hard, but don’t let it get you down. It sounds as if the majority of your reviews are positive. Even the best authors receive 1-star reviews on Amazon. Just look at Harry Potter or Hunger Games. Those are fantastic books that received 1-star reviews!!!! So, please don’t let this get you down. Keep going……
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sweet, I’m in the same bucket as Harry Potter! :-), thank you, Taara 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Think of it this way… the point of a bad review is to balance the good. As some other commenters have mentioned, you can’t please everyone, so when there are no bad reviews (especially if there is a limited amount), sometimes it can seem as if they are all bought and/or family/friends. A few bad reviews sprinkled throughout means that people you don’t know have in fact read the book! It makes it more real. Depending on the time in a person’s life, what they’re going through, how old they are, what they just had for breakfast, it all plays into how they are going to receive/perceive the book. You have no control over it.
It still really stings when it happens, though!! : )
It always makes me feel like I’m worthless for a day or so, and then I remember it’s not me, it’s them. Maybe they’ll like the next one!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Bryan! That was exactly my attitude, and funny enough, it did not affect my mood at all 🙂 Amazing how a decision to view something in a certain light could affect the way you feel about it – I accepted it and just moved on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah well, this is life. You can’t win ’em all! But you seem cool about it, which I find very admirable (I’m not sure I’d be this calm myself, but only because I tend to over-dramatise things a lot, lol).
LikeLike
Thank you, Samantha 🙂 I do over-dramatise some things too, sure comes in handy when writing fiction 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha, that’s true! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know the old saying,You can please all the people all the time…. well she’s just one you couldn’t and that is on her. It wasn’t her cup of coffee but it definitely is everyone Else’s taste. She just likes her coffee black and cold, not red hot and funny. That my dear is what Shizzle,Inc. is all about. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty more five star reviews. Mine is going to be one of them. Have a happy vacation!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, thank you, Olivia! Sure glad you like my cup of tea so far 🙂
LikeLike
Don’t feel bad. Think of it as constructive criticism. Look–Jen Lancaster is one of my favorite authors-as long as she sticks to writing about what she is great at–and that is HERSELF. Her forays into fiction are horrific, sophmoric and poorly written. I’ve added my two cents on Goodreads about one of her fictional books. It was atrocious. OTOH, I love her memoirs so much that each year, I leave one at the apartment we rent in the South of France. I want others to read her works. It’s really a mixed bag–with the good comes the bad! Just my two cents!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Catherine – I guess the trouble for me was, it wasn’t constructive. I’m not sure if it would make for a better screwball comedy, to make it more realistic. It’s more like “I don’t like what you wrote, period”.
LikeLike
Getting a one star review which I received on one of my books cuts to the heart. It didn’t bother me as much as this person gave away the ending. Of course if the person was a better reader he, or she, would have realized the real ending. He, or she, simply misread the ending. Not everyone will get what we write or like our stories. Herman Melville, famous for “Moby Dick” an American classic. I don’t like the book, so there Herman.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! You don’t like Moby Dick? Well, I never managed to finish “Les Miserables”…
LikeLike
I have started using reviews qutie a bit. Not because I need to hedge my 99 cent bets, but because I want to preserve my reading time for books with a good chance of being enjoyable reads. A good ‘bad review’ can be just as useful as the positive ones when I’m deciding whether to court a particular book.
This one just isn’t a very good review. It doesn’t really describe the book in any aspect different from the back cover.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Jim. It did point out “too many screwballs” – I’ve counted at least ten. What is the optimal number of screwballs in a comedy?
LikeLiked by 1 person
S(b) = s * W
The ball factor of the screw is equivalent to the shenanigans factor times the amount of whimsy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s awesome! Wait…what is the believability coefficient?
LikeLike
Hi, Thanks for the like and follow the other week, I’m quite new to blogging so it means a lot.
Don’t worry about the negative review. As somebody who does a lot of reviewing I can tell you that most people will just see that one as a complete rant and won’t take it seriously. If that review had appeared on amazon it would have been marked as unhelpful very quickly :). Don’t take it to heart and be happy with all the positive reviews you get :).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much 🙂 and well done on your reviews and having comments so early on! My blog just sat idle for the first two years…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Press It, or Go Read These | Geek Ergo Sum
Thank you for sharing!
LikeLike
Thank you for being brave enough to share this with us all, Ann. I know exactly how you feel because I’ve had a similar experience, only this week. So far, on both Amazon.com. and Amazon.co.uk I haven’t had less than 4 stars (and a lot of 5s). This week, a woman on the UK site reviewed Book 1 of my trilogy extremely scathingly and gave it 2 stars. It was the tone of the review that I found the worst – it was almost a personal go at me and really nasty. As you say, on Amazon it matters much more (re sales) than on Goodreads. But, like you, I’m just putting it behind me and trying to stay focused on the really great reviews I’ve had on both Goodreads and Amazon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for sharing, Millie – and congrats on all your great reviews!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Like you, I knew a bad review would happen at some stage, I just hoped it wouldn’t be until I had a whole lot of positive reviews so it wouldn’t matter so much. I console myself that even best-selling authors get 1 and 2 star reviews – but they have hundreds of good reviews anyway, so it doesn’t matter. Thanks, Ann.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yikes. I know how that feels — much more than I wish I did
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, I am not going to worry about it – just saw that I got 5 stars from someone right after, so it all balances out in the end 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s zero credibility in a review of the written word by one whose own writing is so poor. It’s analogous to reading a review of a 5-star restaurant by the creator of fast food “recipes” (or perhaps I should say “bland, evil, high-fat /low-value formulas”). Zero credibility.
And since I’m visiting Scotland right now, I’ll leave you with a phrase from the Scots that is altogether apropos: “There’s nowt so queer as folk,” which Oxford defines as “an observation on the vagaries of human beings”. ‘Nuff said.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! Thank you, Kimberley 🙂
LikeLike
Like my dad used to say when a difference of opinion arose: “That’s why they make more than one flavor of ice cream.” Not everyone likes the same thing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good point, John, thank you 🙂 there was too much stuff in my rocky road, I guess 🙂
LikeLike
Perhaps you didn’t conform to the reviewer’s expectations of the screwball comedy genre, in which case perhaps you have stumbled across something more original – that’s what I’d conclude in your position.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope so! Thank you, Dave 🙂
LikeLike
I admire your attitude. What a poorly written review. I’d like to challenge them to see if they could write.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Elizabeth. I guess they are entitled to say what you think- after all, I’m a terrible cook, but I do turn my nose on food sometimes. never w
LikeLiked by 1 person
Easy to write a nasty review – NOT easy to write a book – so good for you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you 🙂
LikeLike
Man, another instance in time which reminds us writers that we may as well enjoy our own characters and what we write, since we can’t control who likes what ! Thanks for following my blog btw, I hope you’ll enjoy what you read! 🙂 Feel free to drop comments too if you want to, I’m just starting out getting reconnected with writing itself. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, I was cracking myself up writing and editing, and I seem to have found plenty of people on the net with the same sense of humor, how awesome is that! Well done on your blog, you have a lot of likes for someone who’d just started, I had mostly silence for the first couple of years…
LikeLike
It’s all thanks to the idea of daily free writing challenge I put myself up to which I saw on Butterfly Mind’s blog, haha! You can check out her blog, she has some very effective tips on how to get ideas flowing.
One thing I learnt this week is sometimes the works we love writing the most are the ones which are more obscure in general popularity, haha..
You had mostly silence for 2 years? Omg my eyes have been opened. I didnt know response to new blogs can differ that much.. :O Everyone’s experience with writing is unique apparently. I mean this in a benign way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I had no idea what I was doing – I was writing very rarely and had nothing interesting to offer, just sort of wishing and trying to finish a draft. It had picked up after I started blogging 2-3 times a week and had articles interesting enough that they got reblogged many times over…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, writing takes hard work and discipline, as a facilitator of a literary arts workshop I attended had said. 🙂
Good thing about blogging is one can write anything without having to conform to any set of structure or parameters. Full responsibility of creative control. To be honest having no idea what I’m doing is an emotion I feel most times when I blog. Haha XD
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree with that facilitator! I’m very hard-working, but the discipline part is a struggle…I tend to be 200% into something, but only when I feel like it 🙂
LikeLike
Dont worry about it. One of my favourite books (Stoner:A novel by John Williams) has 32 1 star reviews on Amazon.
The purpose of Art, and I include literature and music, is to provoke a reaction in people. If someone reads your book and they react like that, then in a way the book is just as successful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much, Martin! Yes, I would prefer an emotional reaction to a silence or indifference…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just keep swimmin’….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you 🙂 Funny enough, motivated me to write about 800 words…then straight back to vacation laziness 🙂
LikeLike
Ouch. As much as I would love some more reviews, I dread one like this coming in. Good for you for putting it in statistical perspective!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, don’t fear it! I got a 5-star review just hours later, so it all balances out…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Been there ❤ much love to you! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
And hey, you’ve survived! I will, too 🙂
LikeLike
I’ve experienced this with a short story I had written, it definitely does sting a bit. But what can you do? In this case it’s just a matter of one negative review, which I wouldn’t take to heart. It’s only one person. I haven’t come across many books that haven’t received at least one bad review. It’s good to see that you weren’t brought down by it though 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Coralle 🙂 No, feeling pretty good about it overall – it helped to get 5-star review within hours of the bad one!
LikeLike