Reviews & The Hating Of Goodreads.

You know...as a writer, I understand the importance of reviews. I need them, not only as a marketing tool, but as a tool for growth as a writer. Constructive criticism has been invaluable in helping me improve my craft.

But here's the thing.

It seems to me that book reviewing has become a bloodsport, where the objective is not to review a book in good faith. Rather, it has become an exercise in grandstanding - of unloading with the snarkiest take downs, of maligning the writer with the slickest burns possible. It's been apparent on #Goodreads for a while - (Like, what the fuck is it with these *reviewers* and gifs??) It's also an emerging trend on Netgalley - (minus the gifs).

I generally turn around a title in 18 months to 2 years. I pour countless hours into it - honing character, setting, story into a cohesive whole. I work with an editor, a publisher, a marketer to refine the project & polish it into the best product it can be. I sweat over it. Experience sleepless nights. I run the gamut of all the highs and lows that a creative endeavor offers.

Then I, along with my publisher put it out there to garner advance appraisal, months before release. We hope for reviews because, as I said, they are important. They help to build an awareness for the product and, hopefully a positive buzz that will translate into readers.

Generally, I take a lot of notice of 3* reviews (even more than 5* or 4*) because these offer the most in terms of constructive criticism. I have yet to encounter a 1* or 2* review that offer anything of value.

Often, these reviews hide an underlying agenda and I've come to view them as the reviewer trying to build a brand of their own, which has very little to with the noble art of reviewing a book. 

Appraising an entire project, simply because a character "pissed you off" is not worth the keyboard strokes. Seriously! It just makes you look like an arsehole. Did you consider maybe that was the intention? And a 1* review that damns a project, simply because it's "Slow"?

Not every reading experience has to move like a freight train! Tell me why you thought it was slow. What was it about the structural elements of the story that failed to gel with you? Tell me why the character pissed you off.  Don't just drop these in my lap & walk away without fleshing out your reasoning. It does nothing!

There should be a commitment to learning the art of a review - & there is an art. If you're going to invest the time in crafting a review, at least work on making that review one that can help an author, rather than discourage them. If you can find nothing of value in a work, don't write a review at all. Keep your slick burns and your smart arsed gifs to yourself.

I am a writer. I believe I'm good at it - but I also believe I have more to learn.

Teach me.

DFA.

My Strange Addiction - Bad Reviews & Where To Find Them.

Bad reviews.

They're nothing new. They are part and parcel of being a published author and, if there is one thing I've learned after seven years of writing and being published, you are bound to get one - or two.

You know something?

They still hurt.

Even with all of the advice I've received about bad reviews and the knowledge that you can't please everyone all of the time, there are occasions when the bad review cuts - and cuts deep.

(image credit: Goodreads.)

Of course, one nexus where authors can almost be guaranteed of seeing bad reviews of their work is Goodreads. The Amazon owned, global hub of just about any book that has ever been published is either a blessing or a curse for the working author.

I still haven't decided which.

Sure, it's a platform that gives exposure to an author's work, allows discussion and interaction about that work and literature more broadly. 

In the past couple of weeks, some reviews have appeared on the Goodreads entry for The Recipient that are less than kind. In a word  - they suck. I won't relay the details of them for you here. You can visit the entry for yourself and check them out. Suffice to say, there are no positive take aways in them. There is nothing in them that I could use to apply to better myself as a writer. Over the course of several hundred words, their basic take-home is, 'This is shit. Move on.'

You maybe asking, why would you do this to yourself Dean? Why would you visit a site like Goodreads, if you know that the reviews may not all be good?

Well - because reviews matter. Reviews are still the pre-dominant indicator of an individuals decision to purchase or not to purchase. If the reviews are bad, and they come from a reviewer of influence, that is quite a powerful position to be in.

I've had plenty of advice, saying to avoid reviews - good and bad - and I know, intellectually, that is the right thing to do. 

But sometimes, I have moments of weakness. I've had a few moments of weakness recently.

I'm close to a stage of burn out. I've recently had two patients at my work pass who I were really close to and I think they affected me more than I am willing to admit. There has a constant pressure associated with the daily grind. Work, the school run, the weekend sports, juggling the house hold budget, my health. Not to mention the challenges of trying to remain creative and finish a story that I've committed quite a lot to emotionally over the past year.

I missed a pressure release valve somewhere along the way.

In those moments, I find myself indulging in a crazy little game of self flagellation. There is something about bad reviews that is strangely attractive. It's almost like, seeing a bad review acts as a sort of leveler. That, even after multiple titles, you're not actually top stuff at all. You're not even decent. You're a fraud.

(image credit: REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail.)

The best place, it seems, to do that is by visiting Goodreads and checking up on your reviews. Ignore the good reviews and go straight for bad ones and bask in them like some strung out drug addict. 

Feels good, don't it. 

I've endeavored to adhere to the idea that all reviews are valuable. All reviews offer something that an author can use to better themselves. Truth is, not all reviews are helpful. In fact, there are actually bad, bad reviews. 

And it still hurts.

DFA. 

Reviewing The Process Of Dreaming.

I don't know where to begin with this post. I don't know what say or how to say it. I don't even know if anything I have to say is worth saying.

I feel especially low presently.

I was hoping that last week's relaunch of my novel would be some sort of blistering success but it hasn't. In fact, it's been barely noticed. I mused last week about my superstitions with regards to re-doing the cover of the novel & though the notion of bad luck does not fit with my rational mind, I can't help but being drawn back to it.

The book just isn't selling.

I have a number of ways of tracking how much interest my blog has been getting and those methods are useful and encouraging. But they aren't translating into sales of the book and I am starting to sink a little under the weight of my feelings of failure.

I thought I had constructed a solid platform across the most relevant social networking tools I have at my disposal, which most of us authors use - you know Facebook, Twitter, this site, Amazon. I've participated in a number of forums, contributed to dialogue about writing and I've advertised in places where my small budget will allow. But I don't think it's working. And I fear, to be honest, people might be getting tired of the message.

This year, I switched focus from the printed edition of The Hambledown Dream to the digital one for a couple of reasons.

Last year, though I got the book onto the shelves in a number of book shops both locally and interstate, the process burned me out. I spent many hours pounding the pavement, taking my book in to stores, meeting with managers, leaving samples of the book with them, organizing events. The reception from most of the stores I dealt with was less than enthusiastic and in some instances latently hostile. To a certain extent, I prepared for this because I had read a lot about the sales climate in book retailing domestically and I knew it would be a challenge to cut through. To be brutally honest though - some of the dealings I had were a cluster fuck. Though the agreements I forged lead to some successful events and some decent sales, I found myself in the unenviable position of chasing payment from some of the stores some, six months after the books had sold. In one case, the situation became so dire that I had to seek legal advice. It lead to many a sleepless night and a loss of confidence in myself.

In releasing the book last year, I approached a number of people and asked them if they would consider reviewing the book for me. I also had a number of people approach me to review the book. Now, let me preface this by saying that I am prepared to take on anyone's review of my work as it comes and I don't shy away from reviews that are critical of it. This is part and parcel of putting oneself out there. But there was one review in particular that, whilst praising the work for it's story and characterizations, it slammed the work for a number of copy editing flaws (which, I must stress, have since been well and truly addressed). In addition to this, the review went after my publisher in a way that, in my mind, was somewhat vindictive. It was the priverbial shit sandwich that, may or may not have covered up something deeper. The review overall was less a review and more a report card from a teacher grading a student.

And it hurt me. I'll be honest. It fucking hurt. Again - though I had trained my rational mind to deal with and expect this, when it happened, it side swiped me and I didn't quite know what sort of damage it might do. While I tried to move on from it and take on board certain things that I could use to make the novel better, in truth, I lost all confidence in myself and my work and I actually considered whether I should discontinue promoting The Hambledown Dream - especially to book stores.

I have felt this way up until quite recently. 

One of the nicer things to emerge from all of this, however, was a small but loyal fan base who embraced The Hambledown Dream and myself and really championed it. For them, the story was something unique and wondorous, quite unlike the traditional love story. When things for me became quite dark and I felt very low, they encouraged me to push on with it and keep putting it out there. I have had some wonderful support.

I was compelled to push on.

I see immense possibilties with the rise of the digital market and while I haven't abandoned the print version of the novel, I feel that pursuing success in the digital market place is worth a shot. Again, I am influenced in part by some of the major stories coming out of the big book stores in the past few months. Some of these chains are in serious trouble and I feel that, until there is a major shakeup in the retail book landscape then I am not sure that putting my literary egg into that particular basket is a wise one.

I could of course, be totally wrong.

In the past few days I have begun submitting the novel to as many review sites as I possibly can and I have decided to take a crash through philosophy towards it. I have decided that I want to gather as many reviews as I possibly can, good and not so good, and I want to be fearless in this endeavour. If I can get the book noticed in as many places as I possibly can then I am maximizing my my potential for sales.

I don't know if it will work or not. In fact I really have no idea if I am doing anything right. Musing over such things in the middle of the night over the sound of a respirator is perhaps disingenuous.

The internet is so filled with noise that I feel that my voice gets lost in the scream.

DFA.