To be honest, I thought this one would be easier. I have
thousands of reviews on Amazon alone, and a pretty good average. I should be
able to dismiss the negative ones as outliers, or shrug and say, “can’t please
everyone,” right? Alas, it’s not so easy. It’s like somebody telling you your
baby is ugly. It still hurts. Here’s what I’ve found:
People love it or
hate it for the same reasons. For example, JUST FOR NOW is a tender, funny story about family, without a lot of external
drama. It is many readers’ favorite of my books. But other readers haven’t been
crazy about it, for the exact same reason. Too much family, too much about the
kids, not enough excitement. It’s personal taste.
Is it helpful? It’s one thing to examine
your negative reviews, or negative comments within positive reviews, for anything
that is truly HELPFUL. Was the ending rushed? Do you have grammatical errors
that need to be fixed? That’s helpful. That your book didn’t appeal to
someone’s personal taste—not helpful.
Your mileage may
vary. I’ve written 14 books, and just in my little critique circle,
everyone has a different favorite! My readers share the same diversity of
opinion, because everybody brings their own tastes and life experiences to a
book. When I think about my own favorite authors, I don’t love all their books
equally. Some of them I don’t even care for very much. I’ve never been a huge
fan of “Mansfield Park,” because Fanny Price is kind of a drip, isn’t she? And
she and Edmund seem set to have a mighty virtuous and boring life. And yet I’ve
read it at least three times, because Jane Austen writes so well.
It goes double for
sex and violence. Think people’s opinions differ about your heroine? Get
reviewers going about the sex or violence in your book! I’ve had people say,
about the same book (that feel-good one above—the one with recipes in the
back):
“Nothing but sweet gentle loving with not much described.”
(and they weren’t happy about that!)
“A kinky sex-fest.”
Bottom line (so to speak), there is a huge variation in
steam levels in romance, and violence in thrillers and mystery (and literary
fiction, for that matter). When your
books are just getting known, people are finding out if they like the way you
write. You’re finding your audience. And that ain’t everybody.
The acid test. I
realized, after wrestling with the “ping-pong ball” effect, where I’d think:
“It’s good!” “No, wait, it’s bad!” “No, it’s good!” after every review, that
the REAL question was, “Did I write the book I wanted to write?” And in all 14
cases, I answered, “Yes, I did.” That is all I can do. And it’s all that
matters. On to Book 15.
___________________________________________________________________
Rosalind James, a publishing industry
veteran and former marketing executive, is a contemporary romance and romantic
suspense novelist published both independently and through Montlake Romance.
Her first book, JUST THIS ONCE (Escape to New Zealand) is a 2015 Audie
finalist for Best Romance Audiobook, and her latest, JUST IN TIME, has just
debuted as part of Brenda Novak’s SWEET TALK collection for diabetes research. Rosalind
started writing down one of the stories in her head on a whim three years ago
while living in Auckland, New Zealand. Within six weeks, she had finished the
book, thrown a lifetime of caution to the winds, and quit her day job. She
attributes her surprising early success to the fact that "lots of people
would like to escape to New Zealand! I know I did!" Website: http://www.rosalindjames.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosalindjamesbooks
Twitter: @rosalindjames5
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