I briefly mentioned in my last post that free giveaways are notorious for attracting random readers that just don’t get your novel. Also, you may or may not know that the average Goodreads rating for any given book is usually lower than that on Amazon. This may be due to a few reasons, one of them being that people can rate your book without ever reading it.
So it’s not that much of a surprise that someone posted a 1-star review of Shizzle, Inc on Goodreads today. Still, it was a kick in the balls that I don’t even have, to read words such as “heaving pile that’s hard to swallow”, “poorly developed characters and an equally poorly thought out plot”, and finally “I’m sure the author is planning an equally stomach-churning sequel.” Ouch, ouch, ouch.
Normally I think of myself as having thick skin, but the review derailed me, and after a pretty good day, too – I penned 1,300 words of that stomach-churning sequel and even had an idea for another Donald Trump video spoof. Suddenly, I didn’t feel funny at all. Felt like an idiot for taking time off work to do this, and a whole bunch of other very unhelpful thoughts. I had to reverse the nosedive before I crushed. I tried watching TV, but it was all bad news, as usual. I poured myself a glass, but it only made me feel closer to tears. Then I struck onto a brilliant idea, and it worked like a charm. I decided to put it down in writing for future reference, as alas, I’m sure I’ll have even more bad reviews on my path to developing Isa into a bestselling sensation. I hope it may help you, too.
Life is all about perspective, isn’t it? I was actually pondering that just a couple of days ago, as I wrote this sentence in Indiot’s draft:
Everything is relative, and everyone is familiar with that concept – it’s the one that causes your ass to appear either huge or toned, depending on whether you’re in a yoga class or Burger King waiting line.
So for a bit of a reality check, I decided to peruse Goodreads reviews of some of the world-famous books that are known as epic bestsellers. Below are some stats on those books, complete with juicy quotes lifted from 1-star reviews:
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J.K. Rowling. Number of 1-star ratings: 59,343. Most striking quote: “Awful in every way.”
- The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings #1) Number of 1-star ratings: 33,017. Most striking quote: “Tolkien can’t write. He can’t build character. He can’t advance a plotline.”
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia #1) by C.S. Lewis. Number of 1-star ratings: 15,800. Most striking quote: “Well,all right.I have to say that this book is terrible…In fact I haven’t read this book before but I’ve heard from other people that this book had ruined their childhood… :(“
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Number of 1-star ratings: 96,578. Most striking quote: “If I could give this book a zero, I would. I absolutely hated it.”
- The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon #2) by Dan Brown. Number of 1-star ratings: 68,541. Most striking quote: “Whoever edited this drivel ought to be sewn in a sack with a rabid raccoon and flung into Lake Michigan.”
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Trilogy #1) by Stieg Larsson. Number of 1-star ratings: 47,572. Most striking quote: “This is a book so bad that it doesn’t deserve a review.”
- 1984 by George Orwell. Number of 1-star ratings: 35,943. Most striking quote: “Not really for me. Where’s the action, where’s the romance?”
I was going to do ten of these, but I feel a whole lot better now and would rather return to writing that sequel. I have a lot of work to do before I can earn tens of thousands of 1-star reviews.
Hope you’re feeling a whole lot better too.
laughing. Good way to put things in perspective. I plan to remember that process.
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Thank you 🙂 I made a couple of people laugh today – fist pump 🙂
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Yep, the good thing to remember (and I’ve had this discussion with amazon customers) most people don’t pay attention to silly reviews. I love theses reviews though, funny 😀
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Thank you 🙂 I couldn’t believe those quotes…
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If you must read your reviews, it will help to take both the good and the bad with a grain of salt. There’s a reason bookstores are stocked with loads of choices…..doesn’t make yours bad. My thing with reviews is that if I read the bad ones, I try (hey, I said try!) to look at them as constructive criticism. Doesn’t mean that sometimes I still don’t have to remind myself that there are simply people you cannot make happy. And that’s okay.
Hope your writing is flowing easily today. xo
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Thank you – and I’m flying high this morning! Can’t wait to dig into the draft – there are people waiting for the sequel, I can’t disappoint them 🙂
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I went and looked at the reviewer. It only read 10 books, it has no books on “to read” or “currently reading,” it posted no reviews—only ratings, and it only joined Goodreads a couple of months ago. Oh, and I call it “IT” because it has no photo and even no friends. You have BadPeople among competition, Ana? This is not an honest bad review, this is a subterfuge.
Two thoughts on the subterfuge: one, it is not worth a minute of your bad mood, and two: all of your readers should go on GR and pour some good stars over this pile of bullcrap.
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Thank you, Portia – and thank you for the gold stars you’ve already poured…I’ve re-read them last night. Oh, and thank you for teaching me the new word 🙂 I don’t know if it was subterfuge, but it doesn’t really matter – I have made other people happy for a few hours, and that’s all I ever wanted to do 🙂
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I do the same thing – look at my all time favorite books & think “did I read the same thing as the person who gave it a 1?” … It is hard not to feel like a punch in the stomach at a negative review. I’ve had a 1-star from someone and 5minutes later a 5star … shows how DIFFERENT people are!! The more well-known you become the more people tend to either love ya or hate ya! Best of luck! I loved Shizzle!!
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Thank you, Brittney! It still boggles my mind that I’ve found people on the Web with the same exact sense of humor as mine – my real life friends did not get Shizzle at all…only my sister did, and that’s because we are so similar and had similar life experiences. Can’t wait to publish Indiot – would you like to get an ARC, btw? Are you on my ARC list?
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Would love to get an ARC … brittneysahin@gmail.com Thank you.
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Just added you to the list – I’m aiming to send an ARC in late June. Can’t wait 🙂
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Yay!! Excited 🙂 Thank you
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I just looked and my review from months ago never posted on Amazon (I did it in the back of the book)- will do it again. That’s weird.
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That would be awesome, thank you Brittney!
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review is on now- under loveromancebooks
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Just saw it – thank you so much 🙂
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Must be something in the air – I have a blog scheduled for later today about a review and its effect! Just keep writing!
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Thank you, Liz 🙂 There’s something on Goodreads, alright 🙂
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Also to remember. Not everyone has the same taste in books, or movies, or anything. That bad review–it could have been from someone you wouldn’t even want to socialize with. We all get our feelings hurt because of one reason or another. For me–it’s not getting the job after over 50 interviews–I mean how could anyone NOT want to hire me? Right?? Remember–it is just one person’s opinion. And that’s all! I’m sure the great reviews will outnumber that one poor review! XOXOXO!!!
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Thank you, Catherine! 50 job interviews? You’re amazing for being so persistent – and it will pay off, I don’t doubt it for a moment.
I once fancied myself an actress, and learned that it truly is a numbers game – the more you try, the better your chances. I’ve been trying for 2 years to step up in my career, and the best I managed was #2. Funny how that doesn’t even matter now, when I have this writing obsession…
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There’s haters everywhere! To keep negativity out of your life and not get derailed by it sometimes you just need to ignore it!!
You’ve got tons of fans and positive responses! Believe those!
The negative writers? Well maybe they’re people who have been crushed by one thing or another, and instead of being able to rise above it they’re seeking to drag as many people down with them! It won’t do you or them any good to jump into their river of woe!
As writers we need to write! Just keep doing what you’re doing! You’re making a lot of people happy!
Peace,
Tamara
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Thank you so much, Tamara – this is why I do this, to make people laugh. People laughed at this post, too, and found it helpful, and it just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside 🙂
I am so out of woe/nose dive/pity party now – all it takes is to take some action. Once I had an idea for this post, I had a smile on my face, too.
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Yes it’s “ouch”, but look at all the brilliant reviews you’ve had. I think that reviewer must be related to the school bully who has just pulled out a clump of my granddaughter’s hair and banged her head against the wall. There are some people who just take pleasure out of being plain vindictive.
It reminds me of a book I used to read to my daughter called “Rainbow Brite”. There was a character in the story called Murky Dismal, who spread gloom wherever he went, blotting out all the bright colours and glitter of the kingdom.
Just think, you’ve made lots of people laugh and spread happiness with your book, just like Rainbow Brite. So banish Murky Dismal back to his cave now and remember that there are loads of people who are dying to read Indiot.
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Thank you so much, Sarah! There are, there really are…what a blessing, to have that.
Is that a true story, what happened to your granddaughter?? I hope there was a swift reaction to that – bullies only do that because they think they’re invincible. I’ve had my share of vicious childhood fights, but I was in Russia, for God’s sake…
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A large number of the state schools are in a mess in the UK just now. What with budget restrictions, too large class sizes, lack of discipline, bureaucracy, and various political agendas. I think the school is taking my granddaughter’s situation seriously. As far as I know, her only crime is to be beautiful looking and individualistic.
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That’s terrible! The only consolation I can offer is that she will grow up tougher and more prepared for life, compared to a sheltered child. I became a comedian at 12, because I was bullied, it was my weapon. Well, that and fists. I fought back like a wild animal…
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There you are. That’s why you write comedy so well, and it’s a shining illustration of every cloud having a silver lining!
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Thank you, Sarah! Hey, are you coming to the Tuesday presentation?
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What have I missed? Which presentation? I’ve had my head buried in editing for the last few weeks, only to surface for a few minutes a day, so probably have missed quite a lot.
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I’ve been asked to do another presentation to the writers group – it will be tomorrow at 6pm at Republic cafe in toorak rd.
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I’ll be there in spirit, but it’s rather a long-haul flight from the UK to Australia! Good luck, though. I expect all your corporate experience makes you a whiz at presentations. I’m terrible at public speaking.
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Oops! For some reason I thought you were local…sorry 🙂 I am going to videotape this one and post it on Youtube. Fingers crossed.
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That’s a great way to put things into perspective, I think, though I imagine it did hurt. I had a 2 star rating and an amazing, detailed, 5 star review on the same day – guess which one I focused on? Until I did the same as you, looked up some bestsellers and saw that they, too, had had their share of negative reviews. It’s like the saying goes, ‘you can please some of the people all of the time…’ Well, you know the rest 🙂
And I concur with everyone else – scr*w the haters and just keep writing!
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Thank you, Helen 🙂 Well, I woke up this morning to find another 5-star review on Amazon, where it really matters, and a couple of books sold already. So the bad review is now just a bad dream 🙂
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Awesome – I’m so pleased for you. And it sounds like that’s much more the norm for you. That one-star was obviously a terrible mistake on somebody’s part 🙂
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Thanks again – and hey, everybody is entitled to their opinion. I still have 4.4 average on Amazon – and I’m at 35 reviews now – 25 more, and I can get a BookBub promo and leave playa haters in my dust 🙂
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Yay! That’s right 🙂
Can I ask, are your reviews on one site (ie the US site) or are they spread across several? The reason I ask is that I have reviews in Australia, UK and US, but they aren’t universal across all the amazon sites, which I find a little frustrating.
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Spread all over! That’s right, when I think of reviews, I always think of the US – but I have not checked what’s going on in UK and Australia…maybe I shouldn’t…
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Maybe you should! I imagine they’ll be positive 🙂
Though I find it mad that the reviews can’t be read across all the sites…
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It’s mad. I went and looked, they were OK. Funny enough, they were also displaying American reviews in other countries, but not vice versa.
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I laughed so hard at the Narnia quote – “I haven’t read this book”. Right, that has made me feel happy.
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Thank you, Elm 🙂 I might add to this list in the future, when I come across more of those pearls – one of the comments below mentions that Jane Austen got thrashed for her use of old and outdated English.
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Okay, THAT one tops the Narnia one.
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This is such an eye opening one! And I can understand how one would feel. The idea of yours to overcome it is awesome. Truly, those facts amazed me.
Cmon girl, we have hopes and lots of chances to come! Use your precious time and energy for writing. For Haters let them keep hating! 😋😀
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Thank you, Syeda – I’m having a great start to the day, reading and answering these, can’t wait to get into Indiot draft. There will be a day when I have thousands of these bad reviews…can’t wait 🙂
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That’s the spirit girl! Let not a few stones hamper your run ahead! 🙂
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Great post, Anna. It’s abundantly clear you are a delightful person with a terrific sense of humor. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I’m almost looking forward to some one-star reviews! 😉
(Oh, BTW, the quote for example #2 is missing)
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Thank you so much for pointing that out, James – I have just fixed it. I love my Surface Pro when it works, but not when the mousepad freezes and then goes on a rampage of randomly doing stuff I didn’t ask it to do…
Oh, and thank you for the compliment. It shows what an intelligent, wise, and all-around awesome person you are 🙂
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I just cried with laughter at the quote in response to 1984. “Where’s the romance?” hahahahahahaha!!
This is brilliant. Such a good way of putting 1-star reviews in perspective.
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Thank you so much, Claire 🙂 You’d love this one, too – one of the comments below says that a bad review on Jane Austin’s book criticized her for using outdated, old English. Hahahaha!
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If I ever get published, I’m printing out the Orwell one and this one and putting them up on the wall to prepare myself for the day the inevitable 1-star reviews roll in 🙂
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Sorry, can I copy-edit that? “When I get published…”
Here’s to your launch day, and to the day when you get so many reviews, you simply don’t have time to read them all.
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Thank you, that was brilliant! lol going to pin it on my board above my computer. Now…back to my drivel. 🙂
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Haha, thank you so much, Susan 🙂
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You can’t please everyone. I think about people who hate The Beatles. If they have haters then everyone else should too.
On a personal note, I just went through this the other day after releasing a new short single. As it turns out, I know the 1* reviewer personally. Then we discovered that her FB account was hacked. Long story but I’m glad it ended well.
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Whew, I’m glad too – well, one of my bad reviews was posted by y sister’s best friend. I did not bother to try and find out why, because I have a suspicion that it has something to do with the fact that this “friend” has been trying to write a book for decades and has not finished the draft yet.
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Goodreads is known for being populated by “trolls” who love to hate on other people’s books. I don’t spend much time on Goodreads because of this. If you only have1 one star review, you are fortunate. 🙂
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No, unfortunately I have 4 1-stars out of 56 total. What’s the worst, one of them was given by my sister’s best friend. That one boggles my mind – my sister sent her a free copy in her excitement to share the news, the woman said it was funny to her face, then gave a 1-star rating without a review. Riddle me this, please. The only guess I have is that she’s been writing her “great American novel” for 20 years now, and it burned her to see that I published mine.
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It is sad how bad the writing is from one star trolls. If they can’t write well it indicates they might not read well. Also amusing how one person wrote this book is so bad it does not deserve a review-yet they wrote one anyway. I have a one star review, but what upset me most was the person ‘sort of’ gave away the ending. But if you read close and know what precedes the ending, the reader realizes something else entirely. People either get it or they don’t. Everyone gets bad reviews, but we continue to write and do our best, hoping we get more positive than negative.
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Thank you, Terry – here’s to the day when you’re so famous, you simply won’t have the time to read all the reviews, whether good or bad…
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Reblogged this on bryan the writer and commented:
I really loved this perspective!
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Thank you for sharing, Bryan!
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One of my books has recently received a 5 * review which is so destructive, it is impossible to believe the reviewer read the book. The reviewer criticises credibility of the story and gives a negative assessment of the main character. My best 1 star review on another book said, “Worst book ever” – which of course, I posted on Twitter, Facebook and everywhere else. That single 1 star review generated more interest and greater sales than all the 5 * reviews put together!
A few years ago, I found this 1 star review posted for a classic novel:
“It would have been better if this author had stuck to modern English throughout this novel, instead of trying to write in what she obviously thought appropriate to Victorian times. The occasional lapses into archaic English were amateurish irritating and often unnecessary.”
The book? Persuasion by … Jane Austen.
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Hahaha! That would be perfect for my list…can I use it? Is it an exact quote?
Good on you for leveraging a bad review – I guess I did too, cause I woke up this morning to a new 5 star review and sold 2 books already.
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I’ll readily admit I have given a few negative reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, but I try to be constructive when I do (indicating lack of character development, plot holes, inconsistencies, that sort of thing). The positive reviews, however, from my end, outweigh the negative. What is interesting to note is the blowback after I’ve given a negative review — I’ve had horrible commentary in response, much of which was actually assumptive and personal rather than anything in response to the book (the whole purpose to begin with).
Anyway, thanks for sharing this. I think you did the right thing in researching popular works and their reviews as it illustrates that not everyone will like our work, and it’s best to take the reviews with the proverbial grain of salt…Learn from the well-written reviews, toss the ones that aren’t constructive in the slightest. The ones I can’t stand are the ones that indicate as a preamble something like “I don’t usually read books like this…” or “I’m not a fan of the (author’s) genre, but…” (Why bother reading what you’re not interested in?)
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Thank you – and yes, I’ve had critical reviews that were helpful, because they were specific (and not offensive). I assume that the reviewers are adults, but they could also be teenagers who are used to talking like that to their Mom 🙂 Oh, and don’t get me started on the ones that picked a random freebie in a genre they don’t like…
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Not every person likes everything. Some people just have no sense of humor. :p
I’ve had people tell me my style of writing is offensive. I’ve also had far more people tell me it works. You can’t please everyone, and you won’t please anyone by trying to; just stick it out. (This is coming from someone with bipolar depression, so if I can manage, so can you!)
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Thank you 🙂 I was only down for an hour or two – then I started writing the blog and was just laughing off some of the 1 star comments the famous authors got. I mean, asking “where’s romance” in 1984??
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Good response to a lousy review, Anna. Another good thing is that they say people take your 4-and 5-star reviews more seriously when you’ve got a few 1-stars! Besides, those are just the trolls of the internet, looking to make us all feel terrible. Don’t take what they said too much to heart. You’re very funny and your blog posts alone are always amusing and well thought out!!
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Thank you, Shana – it didn’t get me down for very long. Funny, as soon as I had an idea for a blog post, I was more excited than anything 🙂
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I got a 2* review that compared my writing to that of an eighth grader.
So I went off and read all the 5* reviews of one of my other books!
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That’s a good one too! I practically know some of mine by heart 🙂
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There’s relativity and the absolute. There is no absolute truth. I’ve read your book and MY TRUTH is that it was an entertaining read. Keep ploughing on. You’re doing just fine.
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Thank you 🙂
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I had a reviewer on Amazon say that I “wrote like garbage” and that I “hate women.” Got to hand it to them, that knocked the wind out of me. I’ll probably never forget it.
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OMG, Matthew – how many thousands of five-star reviews have you amassed so far?? You’re definitely a case study belonging on my list of bestsellers with random playa haters. Have you even had a chance to read all the thousands of positive reviews?
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Early on, I had a friend cull a representative sample, but I’ve done my best to stay away since. I think reading them only leads to trouble… whether they’re good or bad. I’m not sure that reading reviews of any kind leads to healthy writing. At least for me.
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Some are helpful, if they are specific enough. Strangely, none of my real life friends liked my book – I think they don’t get my sense of humor. Thank god for the Internet. I mean, Al Gore. Thank Al Gore for the Internet
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And thank you for sharing, by the way. It’s both humbling and unsettling to know that bestselling authors get hurt by bad reviews…
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What a troll! It’s probably someone who was jealous of your talents in high school. Thanks for the great blog, we all need encouragement sometimes. There’s a guy out on Twitter who’s been posting the rejection quotes from agents to people who went on to have best sellers, which is another one to keep things in perspective.
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Thank you, Marcha 🙂 yes, I love the story about how Stephen King threw Carrie draft into the trash can after yet another rejection…
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Brilliant way to put things into perspective!! Love this 🙂
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Thank you, Aneta 🙂
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That must have really hurt! I’m glad you could turn it into something more positive. Those books are all bestsellers and popular but they have thousands of 1 star reviews. Hopefully your books will end up a bestseller 🙂
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Thank you 🙂 I hope so too!
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You’re welcome! Good luck 🙂
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One way to look at it is that you’re getting a good number of reviews, so eventually there’s bound to be a bad one. And as long as the good heavily outweigh the bad you’re doing fine. Doesn’t make the bad any easier to handle but puts it in perspective. They’re grumps, anyway. Bet they slag everything off on Trip Advisor too.
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I love this idea. I might have to do that for my next 1 * review. I’ve noticed thought, that sometimes the 3 stars hurt worse than the 1’s.
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Thank you, Sahara. Rejection sucks, no matter the wrapping. One day we will get so many reviews, you won’t have time to read them all.
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I’m glad you stay positive. I love the push you give to writers and to people, on the fringe, who are writing secretly. We have hopes and dreams, too. They can’t take that away from us.
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Thank you so much! And I hope you publish those hopes and dreams – thanks to the great wide open world, you will find the audience that loves exactly what you have to offer.
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My little trick is I think of the raters as one-star readers!
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Thank you 🙂 I’ve had a great day with everyone’s tips 🙂
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There are so many people out there who are miserable in their lives and just want to make other people feel the same. This person hoped to get a sad, negative reaction from you and hopefully ruin your day. You showed him. You turned it around to inspire you to write more, and do research for a great blog on negative reviews and how they can actually be a blessing in disguise. Kudos to you, Ana! I’ve never left a negative review on a book because if I don’t like it, I stop reading it and move on to one I do like. Just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s poorly written, etc. If I won’t waste my time reading it, why waste my time leaving a review about it? Just don’t believe in trashing an author. P.S. I like your humor and I get it! Now get back to work on those bestsellers that so many people DO love. And have a GREAT day!
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Thank you so much, Olivia! I can’t imagine ploughing through daily writing grind without this blog – as soon as I started writing that post, I had a smile on my face 🙂
The first draft of Indiot is finished, by the way. Now it’s the editing grind…
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Congrats!! Now the real fun begins…. I know you are going to do the editing but I thought you said you had someone lined up to help? Doing double duty writing the 3rd sequel and editing the 2nd. Now that’s multi-tasking. You have tremendous energy, dear girl. By the way I truly enjoy reading your blog. You have a talent for writing it, too. Happy editing!
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Thank you, again, Olivia 🙂 So the next step is beta readers, but while I’m waiting for them to respond, I will be lining up a copy editor. Will choose an American one this time. I do multitask, but that’s because I have ADD, haha!
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I don’t read novels much – too arbitrary and manipulative, most of them – but I’m curious about yours after reading this. Any chance of publishing an extract I could respond to?
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Thank you 🙂 have you seen the free sample you can download on Goodreads, or look Inside on Amazin?
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Yeah, thanks, had a look and it bounces along very fluently. Her motivation is clear and she’s amusingly deluded. As for reviews, an average of 3.5 out of 5 seems pretty good to me.
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Thank you 🙂 and hey, on Amazon it’s still 4.4 average, so I can’t complain.
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To cheer you up still further, I wrote an 80,000 word historical novel about the English Luddites … still unpublished. I’ve filled 20 large journals of late-night ramblings which my wife says she’ll make into my coffin. My children turn my poems into paper darts and throw them into the street for beggars to laugh at. Any ideas how I can advance my writing career?
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I have one idea – self-publish that novel. Get it professionally edited, get a professional cover, the whole 9 yards. Then market it, once it’s published. It will give you that feeling of “it’s possible” and from there you can think of all your work as something that will be publlished, and not just ramblings.
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Good advice, thanks. The novel bit was true, the journal bit was a joke between me and my missus, the poem bit was a flight of fancy …
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Hi Ana. I took the liberty of sharing some of this post with the FB page set up by my publisher for their authors, and with one of my writers groups. Here’s the link If you’d like to check it out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1518194541798581/1660042730947094/?notif_t=group_activity
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Thank you James – very happy for you to share anything from the blog – have you tried the “share” button at the bottom of each post? I’d appreciate that, because people would have a link to my blog, and may be interested in other posts.
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Annoying Anna but also made me smile. For the books I have given away on Good Reads in the actual giveaways I have zero reviews! I have given a few away for people who offered to review. One said the book had a nice cover! Which is comforting, lol.
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That is annoying…I’ve given away 4,000 books two weeks ago, so far it resulted in 2 new reviews, of which one was the 1-star. Well, fingers crossed for more…
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Oh well done you exceeded your figure. Indeed I hope you get more. Trouble is people gets books when they are free and don’t read them till later.
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I love your kick ass ways of gaining perspective after some random jerk did his or her best to hurt your feelings because s/he had a shit day. You are an inspiration!!
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Thank you so much 🙂
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It wouldn’t surprise me if the reviewer hadn’t even read the book and was just being a jerk. Anyway, your way of responding to it was inspired. The funniest of the criticisms for me was “Where’s the romance?” for 1984. Talk about missing the point.
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Thank you 🙂 I’m a pro of finding a silver lining in everything…
I LOLd at that one…then somebody posted a reply, saying that Jane Austen got thrashed for using outdated language…hoes that for missing the point?
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That’s hilarious too! I love it. Anyway, I’m glad to hear that you’re not letting the idiots get you down. 🙂
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A writer puts her entire heart and soul into the plot and characters of her novel. They become real to her and she wants to share them with the world. My characters became friends and family, to have someone disparage them then becomes personal, doesn’t it?
A first novel is a learning experience anyway. I’m going back and update my first one because it’s embarrassing to see how many little mistakes I made. A novel will never be perfect in an author’s eyes, so strive for excellence not perfection and you’ll improve each time. You are too great of a writer not to! Blessings back to you Ana,
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Thank you, Ellie! Yes, I’ve had to force myself not to read my first one, cause all I want to do is edit…maybe one day, when I decide to publish a box set.
My protagonist would have an awesome comeback for those reviews…maybe I will do another video of the animated cover, of her responding to a 1-star review…thanks for giving me the idea 🙂
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This was a great way to deal with negative comments! I will definitely be reading this again whenever I’m feeling down on my own writing 🙂
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Thank you so much, Vanesa!
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Thanks for posting, Ana. Yes, you really can find haters for anything. No worries. Besides, I’ve heard Ms. Rowling’s first “Harry Potter” was turned down by 31 agents. None of them, of course, are kicking themselves now!
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Thank you 🙂 I love those kind of stats…
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I found a hater for Dark Art. Got a kick up the kilt. Maybe it irritated more than it should. My reader bought the book and wrote:
“I rated this book 3 stars because of the lack of typos …” She went on to criticise the ‘extreme’ violence — which is non-gratuitous, realistic in the context and important for the story-line which is about characters caring about each other whilst being exposed to evil people and the hardening impact of self-defence. The metaphor links across to the inhumanity of corruption in politics/big business, greed and the abuse of others.
Enough about me and my smouldering kilt. I feel better for sharing. Here’s a touch of warm empathy. :0)
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Aww…thank you. Although, technically, it was a 3-star review. Get an extra kilt in case you get a 1-star review…
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🙂
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Thank you for sharing 🙂
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This is the best approach to this kind of situation that I think a person could take. I look forward to following your blog and good luck with your writing!
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Thank you so much, Mike 🙂 success is the best revenge…
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Hahaha I’m glad you could find the humour in the situation! I always think it’s hilarious when literature snobs review Harry Potter and say the books are terrible. 😀
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It is amazing, isn’t it? If I had more time, I could probably find even better gems, but who has time to read so many bad reviews? Certainly not the bestselling authors…
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This is amazing. Thanks! Good to keep in mind.
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You’re welcome 🙂
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