Okay so here we have an example of a bad and good review one right under the other. I could reply in many ways to both of these. The first review, which she gave me two stars, seems to be a professional or at least somewhat professional reviewer. I could grump all day on her about her review, but here’s the rub…when an author replies to a review, good or bad, it makes people think the author is as juvenile as my characters conversations. haha
As I was beginning my journey I looked at different authors, their books, and their reviews. There was an author chat group I was a part of in the beginning, that was how I ended up with the publisher I have now and many of my author friends came from this group. While speaking with this group one of them popped on and said, ‘okay folks, this is how not to act when you get a bad review.’ They posted an argument that had taken place between an author, a reviewer, and many passersby, who happened upon the review and comments. In short the reviewer posted a constructive (not destructive) low star review, it’s been a while so I can’t remember the exact starring, the author read what they had to say and proceeded to verbally attack the reviewer. The reviewer was patiently talking while the author was ranting. Passersby were commenting how he was acting juvenile and he was making it to where no one would ever want to read his book. In turn he started screaming at them stating that they had no sense of appreciation for the arts and such, pretty much demeaning their intelligence. This my friends is how not to act when you get a bad review, especially when it is constructive criticism and not just a shot at the author.
I could have went off when I read this review, but the problem is she had some really good criticisms in her review that gave me an idea of things I need to work on. The juvenile speech between the characters is hilarious because that’s actually how my friends and I talk to each other and I’m 36 years old. haha Guess we’re just young at heart, but it doesn’t take much effort to bring up the intelligence of their speech. Some people may very well have a gruff with that as she did, and some may not. This is a young adult novel so I would take that advice for a novel that isn’t based for young adults and file it away for future use. She said the names were way overused. At the time I believed that I needed to use the names so that readers would know who was talking at the time, therefore, over-usage of the names. Having a multi-character book like this makes for a bit of confusion in the conversations so I tried to make it as easy as possible for the reader to know who was talking to whom. It had a bit of dire consequences in that respect. For future writings I am more aware of the number of times I use a characters name.
The fact that she was told much more than she was shown is a criticism I’ve had many times about these two books. I have to say for the longest time I couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to show people rather than tell them when I was telling a story, not making a movie. haha Believe me when I say I wracked my brain over and over again about that particular issue in my writing. By having people tell me this it helped me to learn and grow as a writer. Now I know that to show in writing is all in how you word it. Instead of saying ‘he saw the curtains they were red,’ one would say ‘the curtains blew in the wind, looking like blood flowing on air’ or something like that. Hey I just took that out of mid air, don’t judge. haha
The second review is a 5 star but it does have short but sweet constructive criticism. If that one had been a 2 star review and worded that way, it would be taken in a much different light by the reader. This way it was, ‘yeah there were mistakes but I really loved the story.’ The other way could have said, ‘The story sucked, this is why.’ It’s all in the presentation of the review and the amount of stars mixed together to give a certain tone. The first is presented very well, but with a low starring the review has a bite to it. The second is short, but the high starring give the words a bit more sweetness.
The fact is that there are many ways an author can take the criticism. Written words are very easy to misconstrue, because a lot of the time the reader is projecting their own thoughts and feelings into what they’re reading. And after seeing the stars when they read what’s said, they can mistake constructive criticism for biting remarks, or vice versa. So the best thing for an author to do is to ignore the stars, read the words, take the advice given in them, or completely ignore them if they’re destructive rather than constructive. Either way, never, ever reply to a review, because no matter what you write whether it be a thank you or trying to defend yourself, it could be read incorrectly make you look bad and hurt your readership. Best to leave them alone and just keep writing no matter what. You’re a writer and all that matters is that you write and keep getting your words out there as much as possible, because you will have haters, and those who love your work. All that matters is that you love your work and strive to be the best you can be.
God Bless You My Jumpin Jillhosephet Journeyers!
Jill Campbell