So here’s a thing that, as far as I know, hasn’t happened before: I wrote a tweet and it inspired somebody else’s blog post!
Writerfolk! Which is worse: a two-star review on Goodreads with no text appended, or a two-star on Amazon with text?
— Luther M. Siler (@nfinitefreetime) February 2, 2015
The most excellent Julie Roberts Towe just put up an entire post on her blog to respond to this Tweet. And when I initially sent the thing out I got a fair number of responses. You should read Julie’s post; I more or less agree with it in its entirety.
The interesting thing is that it’s totally not where I was going with the Tweet. Here’s the story, for whatever it’s worth: I’ve gotten my first bad review, or at least my first bad review that wasn’t written by a crazy person who already knew me that was so obviously abusive that Amazon removed it. Short story even shorter: there’s a two-star review of Skylights on Goodreads, but it’s just the star rating, with no indication at all of what inspired it.
(Let’s make it clear that the reviewer is under no obligation whatsoever to either like my book or give me his reasons for not liking it.)
What actually generated the Tweet was curiosity about whether writers would rather see a two-star review with an explanation (which may or may not be useful to you as a writer) on Amazon, a site that gets immense amounts of traffic, or a two-star with no explanatory text on a less popular site. And the general impression I’ve gotten is that the vast majority of writers always prefer to see some text with their reviews, even the negative ones.
I have no idea why this person didn’t like my book. He may think I’m just generally a crappy writer. He may be a scientist of some sort who caught every single mistake I made. He may not have liked the way the book ended– and I can easily imagine a reader who loves the front half of the book and does not like the second half, or the ending specifically– or he may have just been in a crappy mood when he read it. Either way, he spent money to read my book (because Skylights has never been free, and I know exactly who the few promo copies I’ve sent out have gone to) and it didn’t do it for him. Which is too bad. I suppose I would like to know why, but again: he’s under no obligation to me at all.
And Julie’s right about something else: there’s no point to stressing out about bad reviews, although actually developing that thick skin takes some practice. If anything, the problem with this particular review was that it was somewhat poorly timed given some other things that were going on in my head at the time; again, not actually the reviewer’s problem. I want people to like my books, but I’m not going to stress if they don’t. There’s plenty of stuff I don’t like out there. If I can learn from their reviews, I will; if I can’t? Well, it happens.
Sale update: The book is $2.99 for another sixteen hours or so, and is actually doing quite well today, especially compared to the last couple of days. I’m crossing my fingers for at least three more sales today, which doesn’t seem unreachable, because that will break a record. That would be really cool.
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Well, I got a two-star on Amazon with the insightful text: “hard to follow.” Got it after a giveaway. Haven’t had a two-star on Goodreads yet, but the day has to come. I’ll let you know which seems worse then.
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I really dislike the movies my husband wants to watch. I mean, there was one movie we saw which I hated so much, and he loved so much, that I started to question how we ended up married. Sometimes reviewers are like that, people who buy a book and then realize halfway through reading it, “I don’t even like this genre, why did I buy this?” So, it really doesn’t make it a bad book just because someone doesn’t like it and rates it a 2.
Also…. I just bought your book. I figured I owe you for the inspiration. Plus, the description is fascinating. I might read it and think, “I don’t even like this genre, what was I thinking?!?!?” If that happens, I will just pass it to my husband and he will probably love it. Maybe it will even be a rare gem which we both love (like cheesecake).
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I don’t find text-less reviews helpful to me as a READER. As the clone-sibling of a WRITER (don’t think I’m not involved just because my name isn’t on the cover), I would still rather see a 2-star review WITH text than without, regardless of where the review is posted, and the more detailed the review, the better. It may be that the very things the reviewer didn’t like are exactly what someone else is looking for, but how are they going to know that if all the reviewer says is ‘Bad — don’t read it,’ or says nothing at all?
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I recently received a 2 star review on Amazon that said, “Weak writing. Got it for free. Not reading more from this author.” Was a little annoyed, especially when I’m working on an MFA in creative writing and am doing very well. Insulting but not something to cry over.
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The worst review one of my brother’s novels got said something along the lines of ‘This author isn’t a real archaeologist.’ (Yes, but what did you think of the work of fiction you supposedly just read?) So he just added to his bio the fact that he’s a member of the Society for American Archaeology (before, he had only said that he’s an archaeologist), and went about his business. I think there was an increase in sales after that particular review, too. 🙂
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The author’s name escapes me at the moment, and I’m too lazy to go check, but there’s a series of novels out right now about a world-wandering archaeologist who is basically a modern-day Indiana Jones; discover something amazing, then lots of action and shooting. The archaeology parts of the books are always FAR more interesting to me than the action and the shooting, and I wish there was more.
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My clone has never had to shoot at someone while on a dig, nor had to run from a huge rock rolling down to crush him. There MAY have been a snake once.
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I received a two star review on Goodreads – with no text. I write poetry. Short poetry using various poetic forms. Maybe they were looking for Walt Whitman. Maybe they don’t like poetry. I had a free weekend. Maybe they got it free…maybe not. I basically just forgot about it because it has absolutely no meaning – not to me as a poet, and not to a potential reader.
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All of this is making me wonder whether I need to start forcing myself to include at least a little text snippet with my Goodreads ratings– because I’m guilty of this behavior as well. Then again the traditionally published folk likely aren’t quite as concerned about this and I almost always review indies on my blog. Hmm.
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Do you only rate traditionally published books on Goodreads? If so, why not copy the indie reviews from your blog — or at least condensed versions of those — into Goodreads reviews? I’ve noticed a tendency for indie authors to get overlooked there if they’re not extremely famous like Howie, and I know some people pay more attention to Goodreads reviews than to Amazon because they see Goodreads reviews as more honest.
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The author can only wonder why someone gives a rating without any explanation.
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True, but the other part of this is that I generally don’t bother giving poor star reviews unless I hated something and finished it anyway— and I at least have never reacted to a text-free four- or five-star review with “Yeah, but WHY did you like it?” I know why they liked it. It’s good. 🙂
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True, but wouldn’t you want to know WHY? Besides we are all needy enough to want to have someone feed our insecurity and build us up.
But I don’t give any one or two star reviews…ever. If it is that bad, I either just didn’t finish it or contacted the author privately. I just don’t like to do that in public. It’s one reason I don’t say what book I’m reading on Goodreads until I’m done. I always try to remember the author is a person too…a person with feelings. Reading can be so different from one reader to the next.
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I rate everything I finish reading on GR. Generally if I do a written review it’s here. Part of the issue is that I’ve had enough (legit!) reviews removed from my books on Amazon (nothing I’ve written, just reviews of my own work) that it’s made me gunshy of putting written reviews anywhere. Goodreads isn’t Amazon, but they’re owned by Amazon, and I don’t want reviews of my books taken away because they think something unkosher’s going on. Like I said, gunshy, possibly pointlessly. I should probably take your advice.
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Or at the very least, “Full review available here,” with a link.
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I agree with your post. I would much rather text to know why they did not perhaps enjoy the read, than a simple poor star rating. Because the human mind is curious and as you have already, spent much time trying to decipher exactly what you could have improved on. But I find my other frustrating part of reviews is when you personally receive a good review of your book, but your reviewer doesn’t actually post their review. Maybe because they never do and do not know how or what to write. Either way as an author, I want a review. But not a bad one thanks! 😀
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I have only just discovered your blog and the fact that you are a writer (thank you for “liking” one of my blog posts!), so I can’t opine about the rating itself. However, I think most thoughtful potential readers don’t give much credit to star ratings without text. All too often, negative reviews (of any kind of product) that do have text reveal that the negative review stems from the reviewer a) not liking the genre b) having a bad experience with the seller c) missing the point entirely (“this [product] isn’t like [fill in completely unrelated product] or doesn’t do [something the product doesn’t claim it does]”). The same applies to positive reviews, in a way; written reviews give you context regarding what the reader was looking for, and what they found, which may not be what you as a reader are looking for. So, text is essential for evaluating how much weight to give to any review, positive or negative.
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