The Book Review Book:
Tips for Getting Your YA Book Reviewed
By Rusty Fischer, author of Zombies Don’t Cry
Copyright © 2012 by Rusty Fischer
All rights reserved.
Cover credit: © Ossi Lehtonen – Fotolia
Author’s Note
The following is a FREE “special report” designed to inform, enlighten, inspire and educate YA authors about the topic of book reviews.
All the ideas are based on the author’s experience only; not science! Try at your own risk. (But they worked for me, so… I hope they work for you as well!)
It also wasn’t designed to win any special editing awards!
Therefore, any editing errors, typos or grammatical mistakes are all the fault of the author and will be cleaned-up prior to publication.
Enjoy!
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Why Book Reviews Matter
Chapter 2: You Never Forget Your First (Review, That Is)
Chapter 3: Generating Goodwill for Better YA Book Reviews
Chapter 4: Five Ways to Get Your EBook Reviewed
Chapter 5: Writing Under the Review Cloud
Chapter 6: Dealing With Bad Reviews
Chapter 7: When Bad Reviews Become Good Fun (for Some)
Chapter 8: In Praise of Random Reviewers
Conclusion
Introduction
So… book reviews. (Big sigh.) Love ‘em or hate ‘em, as authors we all have to deal with them. And deal with them, and then deal with them some more.
I learned a lot about book reviews last year. From releasing my debut YA novel Zombies Don’t Cry to the additional release of several EBooks such as Ushers, Inc. and Panty Raid at Zombie High, I learned just how amazing, and frustrating, and specific and random book reviews can be.
One thing I found is that as EPublishing continues to evolve, so do reviewer’s attitudes about reviewing print books versus EBooks, so this EBook will address not only those differences but how to (hopefully) overcome them.
The advice here is all practical, all simple and all happened to me at some point or another since the publication of Zombies Don’t Cry back in May 2011.
I hope you find it helpful.
Chapter 1:
Why Book Reviews Matter
Nearly a year after its release, Zombies Don’t Cry has 125 ratings and counting on Goodreads.com. Most of them are fairly decent, 4- or 5-star ratings, some are middling and a few are really, quite, epically, terribly brutal.
I try to take it all in stride; the good, the bad and the (really, really) ugly. One thing that helps me put book reviews in perspective is that I’m not just interested in them as an author but also as an active promoter of my work.
So while I’m always trying to learn creatively about why something book-related did or didn’t work for a particular reviewer (although that kind of stuff you have to take with a grain of salt), I can also kind of step back and view them objectively, even scientifically, to see if the reviews are helping sell the book at all.
And beyond the creative or the promotional, there is a third lens through which I try to view reviews: young adults themselves. Are kids, the actual target audience of the book(s), reading the reviews and, hopefully, the book(s) as well? I hope so and, in a lot of cases, I think so.
After the initial – and mostly favorable – response to ZDC from bloggers and reviewers faded, the book seemed to take on a life of its own; and it still does.
Every week, it seems, a dozen or more people add it to their “to read” piles on Goodreads and a few more ratings, even text reviews, pop up on that site as well.
It’s encouraging for a lot of reasons, because I think a lot of that is fueled by kind of random interaction, keyword recognition and other unseen events that bring the book in front of readers without much apparent help from the author.
But regardless of how a book pops up on a potential reader’s radar, I find that most folks will check out the reviews first before plunking down a little cash to buy the thing.
So I think we’d all agree that book reviews matter. But here are a few specific ways I think that reviews matter most:
People are reading your book: At the very least, a book review means by its very definition that the reviewer has read your book. So that’s at least one person who reads it, right? And each reviewer, just means one more person reads it. What’s (often) awesome is that reviewers talk to each other about authors, their favorite authors, the most disappointing or surprising authors, whatever. You’ll often see little “ripples” of excitement about a book or an author between friendly bloggers who are quick to share a new friend or make a recommendation.
People are talking about your book: Most reviews don’t happen in a vacuum. Generally speaking, a reviewer has a blog, and so the review will be posted there and shared with all of that blogger’s “followers.” Sometimes there are 200 followers, sometimes 2,000, sometimes double or even triple that number. In addition, most reviewers now post their reviews on Goodreads, Amazon.com and elsewhere. And now, on many blogs, there will be a side panel on the left or right where other posts from other blogs appear so your review might show up there as well.
People are (generally) recommending your book: Even the not-so-great reviews typically end on a high note! A recent 3-star review ended by saying the reviewer would love to read the sequel. One reviewer called ZDC the “worst” book of the year, but still gave it… two stars! (Wait… what?) The fact is, if your book is any good at all, or it’s clear that you’ve tried hard to tell a good story and are genuine and authentic about it, human nature is such that most reviewers will be that much more generous when writing about your book.
People are sharing your book: I love to be a fly on the Internet wall, watching bloggers sending and sharing and swapping and even giving away Zombies Don’t Cry and other books to each other. I tend to share and give away books myself, even my most favorite, so I’m always inspired when a reviewer offers their copy in a giveaway or swaps it for another book with a fellow blogger on Goodreads or elsewhere. That’s more people reading more books, and that’s always good. What’s more, you’ll often hear little “mini reviews” as bloggers talk to each other about the books they’re swapping. They may say something like, “If you like Zombieland, you’ll love Zombies Don’t Cry.” Or, “If you want a quick, fun, fast read I’ve got one available.” Sometimes I almost prefer these bullet reviews to the longer ones, because they sum things up more quickly about how the reviewer *really* felt!
People are sharing their opinions of the book: I have to believe that deep down inside, probably every reviewer suspects, maybe even hopes, that the author will read the review at some point. I certainly try to read as many reviews of all my books as I can, generally by Googling the different titles each week and using various search metrics to find the most recent reviews. I’ve learned a lot about writing, about writing for teens, about writing in genre, about writing about zombies, from these reviews. For many of us writers, isolated as we are, unless we reach out to a peer group or beta readers, these reviews are the *only* feedback we’ll ever get from the general public.
Whatever your opinion of book reviews, they exist and as authors we have to deal with them. Sure, the good ones rock and the bad ones suck, but what are you going to do? For better or worse, once a book comes out it belongs to the world.
For me, with every review, that world gets a little bigger. And that’s a good thing, right?
Chapter 2:
You Never Forget Your First (Review, That Is)
Whoever you are, whatever genre you write in or age group you write for, your first review is a watershed moment. Good or bad, one-star or five-star, you’ll never forget it.
Here’s why:
It means you’re published: Forget whether your book is due out from one of the Big 6 publishers, a small or indie press or it’s being self-published, these days published is published and your first review just confirms the fact that you’re accomplished one very big writing goal.
Anticipation: You’ve probably been on pins and needles for weeks, maybe even months. Getting that first review is like the long wait for Christmas morning is finally over, even if all you get in your stocking is a lump of coal. At least you’re “in it,” now, and the waiting is over!
It’s just the beginning: It was a fellow YA author friend’s “book birthday” today and as I watched the reviews start showing up on Goodreads.com I got excited all over again. I know this day is just one of many where she’ll be inspired, disappointed, jazzed, hopeful and a little bit bruised, but all the better for it as her journey as a YA author begins in earnest.
I can still remember the first ever review I got for Zombies Don’t Cry. It said, and I paraphrase, “Rusty Fischer writes like a girl!”
I was so relieved. One thing that had been bothering me about writing YA was that I was also writing from a female character’s POV and, for one reviewer at least, I’d passed the test.
It was a real vindication of all I’d been trying to achieve while writing ZDC, and while not everyone has agreed with that reviewer since, most have; and that’s given me the confidence to write more books with female main characters.
I’m not saying one bad review would have derailed how I write, but a good one right out of the gate certainly brightened my outlook and made my debut YA novel all the more special.
My hope is that you feel the same way when you get your first review!
Chapter 3:
Generating Goodwill for Better YA Book Reviews
It’s hard to hate an Adam Sandler movie. (You can argue, lately, that it’s even harder to “like” an Adam Sandler movie, but that’s another post for another time!) The fact is, Adam Sandler is just one of those people who is inherently “likeable.”
And whether his movies are good or bad, they are certainly energetic. Everyone involved seems to be trying really, really hard to have a good time, or make us have a good time, and generally that pays off to some degree.
I may not see every Adam Sandler movie, but the ones I’ve seen I’ve enjoyed and I can’t say that about every star. And the reason I think I’ve enjoyed so many of his movies so consistently is because, as an actor, writer, director, producer, celebrity, personality, whatever, Sandler brings with him a boat load of something you can’t really buy, fake or learn: good, old-fashioned goodwill.
Goodwill is hard to define, but easy to spot; you’ll know it when you feel it. I see a lot of movies and, standing in line, waiting to buy a ticket, I love to hear random people make their movie-making decisions.
Me? I always pretty much know what I’m going to see before I even start the car, but so many people make up their mind based on a title, a star, a director, a topic, whatever, as they’re standing there in line waiting to buy a ticket.
I’ll never forget the time I was in a ticket line behind these two burly guys and they were talking about how Steven Segal’s relationship with his ex-wife really “tore him up.” They were clearly fans, and in many ways I think their feeling of goodwill toward Segal was driving them to buy a ticket to his movie.
Goodwill matters, and you can’t underestimate goodwill when it comes to how readers choose, rate and even review your book. Or how, on the flip side, a lack of goodwill can derail an otherwise promising book, series or even career. (Admit it: aren’t there books you haven’t read simply because their author turned you off?)
So if your goal this year is to get better reviews for your book(s), here are some ways I’ve found to generate some unconscious, but invaluable goodwill before a reader ever picks one up:
Be nice: Straight up, no doubt about it, it’s pretty hard to generate goodwill if you’re not nice. You have to be nice; online, offline, in person, typing at the keyboard, on Goodreads, on your blog, on other people’s blogs, wherever, whenever, just… be nice. I’m not talking about fake nice, either, which is always fairly easy to spot. I’m talking about being genuinely, sincerely nice. Nice starts with an attitude of gratitude. If you’re an author, it’s hard not to be grateful. Come on! Someone’s paying us, at least a little, to do something we love? How can you *not* be grateful for that. Sure, it’s work but for me it’s easy to be nice to folks who ask for a review copy, or an interview or a guest post or simply a writing question. Why? Because that’s nice!
Be generous: Give people stuff. If not FREE books, then your time. If not your time, then your stories. If not your stories, then your poems. If not your poems, then your articles. One of my earliest ways to promote Zombies Don’t Cry was to write a lot of FREE zombie content; holiday zombie poems, non-holiday zombie stories, etc. At first I did it because I thought/assumed people would share and link to them and it would help “brand” me as a YA zombie writer. But I think more than anything it helped a limited amount of YA readers recognize me as a decent guy who wasn’t afraid to give a little to get a little. I can tell you quite honestly that lots of my readers start with the free content and, if they like it at all, “graduate” to actually spending money on one of my books. I have to believe, or at least hope, that goodwill extends to them eventually writing a review as well.
Be professional: If you commit to sending a reviewer a copy of your book, do so in a timely manner. If you agree to write a guest post by a certain date, do so – and preferably before that date. By now I’ve been on enough author panels, joint signings, forums and such to have watched dozens of other YA authors in action and it’s always amazing when I see the (rare) writer who expects so much and gives so little. I know the bigger the author the less time they have, but growing up I was always taught you’re never too busy to be polite – or professional.
Be consistent: One challenge I’m facing as the novelty of being a “debut” YA novelist wears off is keeping up the same level of promotional energy I expended on Zombies Don’t Cry for other, subsequent books. It’s work, and lots of it, but I believe that what I did to promote ZDC worked, for the most part, and want to be consistent in how much I promote each subsequent book. One thing I see a lot of, particularly with EBooks, is authors who go big once and then kind of coast and expect the same results – and then get disappointed when they don’t. Goodwill is like a campfire; you have to keep stoking it or eventually it will go out and leave you, and your readers, in the dark!
Be yourself: Finally, be yourself. The fact is, you can’t fake goodwill. If you’re generally a grumpy, unpleasant, divisive rascal, well, you are what you are. Following so many YA writers the way I do, I can tell you from personal experience that there are some real pieces of work out there. But hey, it works – or doesn’t work – for them. Some authors rise above goodwill to just be so flat-out awesome they’re review proof. I don’t necessarily have that talent, so I supplant what talent I do have with as much goodwill as I can muster. And, hey, that works for me!
Lots of things about book promotion, publishing and particularly getting reviews can be challenging. For me, establishing a sense of goodwill between you and the reviewer – even a random one – shouldn’t be one of them!
Chapter 4:
Five Ways to Get Your EBook Reviewed
Here’s one thing the media isn’t telling you about “the Great EBook Revolution That Will Never Stop and Is Going to Make Paperbacks Obsolete by Christmas Yada-Yada”: it’s pretty darn hard to get your EBooks reviewed!
I found this out the hard way when trying to drum up reviews of my new EBook, Ushers, Inc.
I hadn’t thought too much about how difficult it might be to get EBook reviews because getting reviews for my first print book, Zombies Don’t Cry, came relatively easily. I’d approach a great YA blogger, let them know a little bit about the book and offer a printed review copy; bam, 8 out of 10 times it was a good fit and they requested the ARC. Easy-peasy.
But I hit a real brick wall when submitting Ushers, Inc., because I found that a LOT of YA bloggers prefer print copies and flat-out will NOT review an EBook. Okay, fair enough, but… what’s a poor E-Author to do?!?
Well, the following may not be ALL the ways to get your EBook reviewed – and I’d LOVE to hear how YOU did it in the comments section – but for now, here are 5 Ways to Get Your EBook Reviewed:
The First Way to Get Your EBook Reviewed: Use a Traditional Database
I started with a traditional database that was a HUGE help in quickly, easily and practically finding the great majority of YA book bloggers out there. There are literally dozens to choose from, so take your time and pick the one that’s right for you.
Where to start? Well, I basically Googled (“ya + ebook + bloggers + list”) and got a few dozen hits. (Try it and you can see for yourself the great databases that have already done the work for you.)
After “test driving” a few of the top results, I picked a great database, one that was exhaustive, alphabetical and really, really useful. IF you didn’t mind searching doggedly through 10 listings to nab 1 or 2 YA bloggers who will actually look at your pitiful EBook, that is! I started at the bottom and worked my way up, and what I found was pretty daunting.
Many of the great YA sites listed were very encouraging and friendly and open about what they reviewed, and why, and 99% of them had very clearly-defined review policies. Of the dozens of YA book review sites I visited – probably a hundred all told – I sent off about 35 emails to folks who either said they would review an EBook or simply didn’t say and left the door open.
I got all the way through the T’s before I gave up and said, “There has to be a better way.”
The Second Way to Get Your EBook Reviewed: Create Your Own Database
Turns out, there wasn’t really a better way; but there was another way.
First I went to Amazon.com and looked up books in my genre, which was basically “zombies + teen”. So, within the teen category I started searching for the keyword “zombies.” Out of the 200 or so “hits” I got from that search, I would patiently start to look for an EBook and then scroll through its reviews.
I tried to pick EBooks with at least a dozen reviews, figuring the more reviews there were, the more chances that a formal YA book blog would have reviewed it. I was usually right.
Once in the reviews section, I’d scroll down looking for an official-sounding name, like “YA Reads” or “Teen Reviews” and click on the name; then click on the profile. Generally, somewhere in the “Teen Reviews” profile you would get a link back to the actual, legitimate, credible EBook review site. This worked well because it was very targeted; I was finding reviewers who had reviewed EBooks in my genre so chances are they’d review mine.
The only problem is, while very targeted, this is also very time consuming.
The Third Way to Get Your EBook Reviewed: Authors, First
Another great way to narrow your list down to strictly EBook reviewers (or at least those who regularly review EBooks alongside print books) is to search for YA authors in your category first.
Try Goodreads or Amazon or simply Google “YA + ebook + authors” and visit their personal-slash-professional author websites. (Remember to keep it to authors who specialize in predominantly writing/pubbing EBooks or you’re likely to wind up frustrated with a lot of print-only YA review sites.)
What I’d find on most EBook author pages I visited was usually a separate page for “books” and sometimes even one more “reviews.” There you’ll find lots of reader-generated but also official reviews and, typically, it was easy to spot the professional reviewers from their name – again, look for things like “YA Reads” or “Teen Reviews” – or website address. From there you can either click on the link, if there is one, or Google the reviewer or review site and go straight to their review policies.
The great thing about this one is, again, it’s another way to build a very, very targeted list and meet some great new YA authors. Again, it’s also rather time consuming.
The Fourth Way to Get Your EBook Reviewed: When in Doubt, Ask the Minions
You have minions? No? Think again. You’ve got Facebook friends, right? Twitter followers? How many people follow your blog or are subscribed to your newsletter? Chances are not ALL of them are EBook reviewers, but a few probably are; a few more are probably YA writers who have had their EBooks reviewed, and a few more than that are probably YA readers who might be able to turn you onto some EBook friendly YA review sites.
So don’t be afraid to ask if almost everything else fails.
A Twitter friend of mine never has a problem getting reviews for her EBooks; she simply asks her followers if anyone is interested in reviewing it! She’s always very polite and respectful, and doesn’t ask too often.
Usually she’ll say something like, “Hey tweeps, my new Supernatural YA EBook is available for review. Anybody interested?”
It’s a good format-slash-template to use because it lets people know what type of book it is, that it’s in EBook form and there’s no pressure; they can say “yes” and get in touch or simply read the next tweet!
Now, obviously, this works best when you have a lot of YA followers who also happen to review books. But it works; and that’s the point. So, who can you ask to review your EBook?
And why haven’t you already?
The Fifth Way to Get Your EBook Reviewed: Follow & Find
Finally, use the time you spend doing social media wisely. If you know going in that getting your EBook reviewed is going to be a challenge, make that the focus of your social media activity two to three months prior to the EBook’s release.
How? For instance, make EBook reviewers an obsession; follow all you can, “friend” them, read their tweets, visit their websites and get to know who reviews EBooks and who won’t. Watch and listen for telltale advice about how to get your EBook reviewed so that when you do approach them, it will be both targeted and professional.
Become “friends” with them on Facebook and Goodreads.com. Get to know not just IF they review EBooks but what kind.
Remember, it’s all about careful targeting and going where you’re actually wanted. Databases have their place, but there’s no feeling like tracking down a great EBook reviewer using some of the other methods we’ve discussed.
After all, you can get all excited about an “EBook reviewer” you find in some search engine, only to find that they straight-up ONLY review adult EBooks or erotica or whatnot. This doesn’t really help you, even if it was easier to find than some of the above methods. Target carefully, approach professionally and understand that getting your EBook reviewed takes just a little more time than getting your print books reviewed.
Then take that time and use it wisely!
The fact is, as anyone who has done this before can tell you, getting your EBook reviewed isn’t easy. It’s more than possible, even if you just use a database of YA book reviewers and leave it at that, but the more work you do, the more time you spend and the more patient you are, the better your results will be.
As of now, even with all the above methods tried and tested, I’m still looking at less than a dozen reviewers asking to see Ushers, Inc. And that’s MORE than fine. I’m happy, even proud, of that number and, of course, eternally grateful for anyone willing to take a chance on an unknown EBook writer!
Chapter 5:
Writing Under the Review Cloud
While for the most part I welcome nearly every review to come down the pike, one side effect I’m noticing after publishing half-a-dozen supernatural YA novels over the past year or so is that lately I tend to write under what I call “the review cloud.”
The review cloud is a kind of spooky place where you tend to second guess all your writing decisions based on past, present or future reviews. You’re almost, but not quite, hoping the “cool kids” will like it. Or trying to impress those reviewers who dinged you the first time around, trying to prove you “get it” and can “do better” this time.
Every negative response you’ve gotten about a previous book, every ding or sling or arrow, gets cycled through your inner dialogue until you begin making conscious, or even unconscious, decisions based on that most dangerous of all creative variables: the opinions of others.
The review cloud works in reverse as well; it can become a kind of “silver lining” where you start to believe all those four- and five-star reviews and start to think you can do no wrong! (And that’s really dangerous!)
Of course, the real danger of writing under the review cloud is that you’re listening to so many different voices – most of them strangers, some of them random – that you start to ignore, or even discount, the most important voice of all: your own.
If you find yourself in this sticky situation, here are some simple tips for dealing with the review cloud:
Get back to squares: Know who you are. Know what you write, why you write it and what you love about it. Know that nobody’s perfect, that bad reviews happen to all of us, all the time, and just. Start. Writing. If you get preoccupied about bad reviews, or good reviews, or constructive criticism or unsolicited advice or the rabid opinions of a political cabal of particular “popular” reviewers, you will lose your most valuable writerly tool: your own, unique, creative voice.
Write your way through it: It can be pretty hard to ignore the review cloud, but I find that if I just keep writing I stop thinking about it soon enough and lose myself in the words, the story and the characters of my work in progress. The more you think about the review cloud, the easier it is to succumb to it. The more you just flat out write your new or next or current book, the easier it becomes to forget.
Embrace it: I can remember a recent review where I was really, brutally and scientifically taken to task for my zombie mythology. I’m talking, I’m convinced this reviewer was actively rabid – medically speaking – when he wrote his review. It still stings, and I can remember my first reaction was: “Holy crap, I should never write another zombie story again!” I mean, I was seriously considering dismantling my blog(s) and sending a certified letter to the publisher, demanding they destroy all remaining copies of that sucker! And, five seconds later, I thought, “Sca-rew that!” I thought of every zombie movie I’d ever seen, story or book I’d ever read, song I’ve ever heard and thought, “You know what, this is fiction! I’m not writing a dissertation, white paper or biography.” I slept a lot better after I’d come to terms with that; hopefully, you will too.
Ignore it: One of the best, if not the easiest, ways to deal with the review cloud is to simply ignore it. But you have to get past it, stat, and stay there; if you write under the review cloud for too long, or too often, you will simply lose all traces of your own, unique and creative voice.
As you can see, it doesn’t take much to step out from under the review cloud. The first step, of course, is realizing you’re under it in the first place!
Chapter 6:
Dealing With Bad Reviews
So, bad reviews happen. Sometimes rarely, sometimes often, sometimes not for weeks, sometimes three in one day! Whenever, wherever, why ever, they happen.
When they do, here are some simple, non-career-threatening ways to deal with them:
Put things in perspective: The first thing I do when I get a bad review is bask in the glow of the good ones. Even when I get two or three bad reviews in a row, the law of averages states a good one is right down the pike. (Or, you know, that it’s all downhill from here!) It can also be comforting to re-read your book’s best reviews to remind yourself that not everybody thinks it stinks! (And trust me, they don’t; it can just feel like that sometimes.)
Snoop the reviewer: One of my guiltiest pleasures when I get a bad review is to click on the reviewer’s profile and see how they’ve reviewed other books, either genre or not. I’ll never forget doing so with one reviewer and discovering, to my personal delight, that as bad as their review of my book was, I still came out better than their reviews of Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen!
Consider the source: If you ever want to seriously doubt your creative abilities, just pick a genre – any genre – and write in it! Better yet, write about zombies and then watch the diehard zombie “experts” come out, knives sharpened and loaded for bear! People seriously take their genre stuff seriously, and if you waver even the least bit from “their” unique or personal perceptions of what a zombie – or vampire or werewolf or ghost or fairy or troll or whatnot – should be like, well… let the bodies hit the floor. But you have to remember that not everybody takes the science of fiction so seriously, and let the darts and daggers fly right past you as you continue to do what you do.
Write about it: Seriously. I’m writing this post with a bad review still stinging, and I swear it helps. Write a blog post, write a rant, write a poem, write a story where an author gets revenge on a reviewer, write something that will help purge the emotions without, of course, naming the actual reviewer and/or writing TO them (see below).
Remember that it’s not the end of the world: Have you ever read some of the Twilight reviews? They’re not just bad; they’re almost… personally and intrusively vindictive. And yet, millions of people have read, enjoyed and will continue to read and enjoy those books and I doubt Stephanie Meyers is slowing down anytime soon. The fact is, bad reviews happen; to the best authors, the most popular authors, even the most beloved authors. When a bad review happens, remember that it’s not the end of the world and live to fight another day!
I know that the simplest, easiest, most base way to deal with a bad review is track the reviewer down and really let them have it.
I must admit that I got a very, very, miserably, horribly, gleefully bad review while writing this post and that was my first reaction: email the reviewer and just go to town with a bullet list of why she was wrong.
And maybe I will (before promptly destroying it, that is). But at least I knew well enough not to actually, you know, go through with it. I’ve seen too many authors respond to reviewers in the heat of the moment and really, really tarnish their reputation.
It doesn’t matter how “right” you are, or how “wrong” they are (and you’re never all right and they’re never all wrong, btw), it’s nearly impossible to have a grown-up, adult, logical, reasonable mature “discussion” on the web.
Things always degenerate quite quickly into an online shouting match, or flame war, and the only person that’s good for is the reviewer, who cam promptly point to your “unraveling” as proof for why you wrote such a crappy book in the first place.
What’s more, that’s probably what the reviewer wanted in the first place. I’ve read so many “bait” reviews that are so gloriously hurtful, so vindictively petty you can almost picture the reviewer sitting there, rubbing their hands, just waiting for the author to read it and freak out. Trust me, the only and best response is to simply ignore it, eat a piece of dark chocolate and move on. Be better than that.
Earlier in this EBook I talked about creating goodwill as an author. Goodwill takes time, effort and sincerity; and it’s fleetingly fragile. One quick way to undo years of creating positive author goodwill is to “lose it” and go ballistic on a reviewer.
If you must, must, must “get it all out,” then write an email, or a letter, or a 1,000-page manuscript to this person, then completely and irrevocably destroy it! That usually works for me.
Chapter 7:
When Bad Reviews Become Good Fun (for Some)
Literally as I was writing this book, I ran across a random reviewer posting his reading status of one of my books. I’m usually pretty happy to see those. Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by kind and, hopefully, fair reviewers who are generally happy to read one of my books.
But this reader, man, he was out for blood. Goodreads has this bar where they tell you a reader’s progress, and 20% in this guy was already discounting the science, and by 39% in he was openly snarking on my clothing choices for certain characters.
At first I was hurt, then I was embarrassed, a tad ashamed, but after awhile his comments, reactions and outright vitriol became… amusing. This was clearly sport for him; blood sport, apparently, and the more vicious and gleeful he got the less meaningful his review became.
He was no longer reviewing the book, I felt, but the anger he was experiencing while reading the book. It happens. One kindly blogger once explained to me that a really bad review simply means you’re producing a strong reaction in readers.
I get that; and that’s all good. Of course, I’d prefer to get a positive strong reaction. I don’t set out to write bad books, and I don’t enjoy getting bad reviews; even ones that are so overblown and self-important that they become a certain form of entertainment in themselves.
Still, it was a good lesson in my ongoing education of dealing with bad reviews. I just hope most of you can avoid learning it for yourself for as long as possible!
Chapter 8:
In Praise of Random Reviewers
Finally, let us all sing the praises of random reviewers!
As a book comes out, one can generally predict what the rush of early reviews might look like. Partly because this is a semi-controlled list. Either the publisher has approached a few dozen reliable, genre, targeted, specific reviewers who are pretty much in your wheelhouse. Not so much because of you, per se, but because of the genre you write in, the age group you write for, etc.
For me, the early reviews for Zombies Don’t Cry generally came from YA blogs, horror mags, librarians, etc. I’m not saying they were all “safe” reviewers by any stretch. Ever try pitching a zombie book, particularly one that introduces a whole new mythology, to a tried and true zombie reviewer? Look out!
Then, after the publisher driven reviews tend to come out, you basically “take over” and start guiding your own targeted review process. A month or two after Zombies Don’t Cry came out I started approaching YA bloggers and reviewers one by one, offering review copies, guest posts, interviews and giveaways. This produced another “wave” of fairly targeted reviews.
That wave lead to others, as one blogger introduced me to another, or the book to another, and there was a kind of nice, warm ripple effect of blogger-generated reviews for another few months.
But now, nearly a year in, I’m invested in actively promoting other books and not quite as active as purposefully promoting ZDC in any targeted way.
So now the reviews that tend to pop up are either holdovers from those first few “waves” or, more commonly, completely random reviews by non-bloggers who are checking the book out from a library (yay!), buying the Kindle version or a paperback for themselves, borrowing one or the other from a friend, etc.
And random reviews, man, they’re crazy. Talk about a roller coaster ride. Some weeks you’ll find four five-star reviews in a row, from everyone from a librarian to a senior citizen to an actual YA to your old science teacher.
The next week it’s all two- and three-star reviewers from a different set of random folks. Most days it’s a mixed bag; you wake up to a five-star and go to bed fretting over a one-star. Same day, same book, two very, very different reactions.
But what’s great about random reviewers is:
You never sent them the book
You don’t know anything about them
They don’t know anything about you
Their reviews are totally uncensored
They are more likely to be objective
Don’t get me wrong; some random reviews are really, really bad. You wonder if, maybe, a fifth grader got a hold of your book and is using their review as a kind of mad-lib thing.
Others are over the top in their praise, most fall in the middle but the one thing that really gets me stoked about random reviewers is that it means, hopefully, all the promotional stuff the publisher and I have done is paying off!
Conclusion
A lot of authors assume that reviews are mere opinions, but to me they mean much more than that. Yes, many are dashed off quickly, sure, not everybody actually finishes the book and one reviewer said she might have liked the book more if “her dog hadn’t been throwing up the entire time she was reading it.” (Uhhhm, okay.)
But the majority of reviews I’ve received, even the negative ones, have been thoughtful, patient, understanding and supportive. What’s more, there are often nuggets of truth, wisdom, structural, thematic and even grammatical advice contained inside.
I’ve happily gotten dinged half-stars – and more – for over-punctuation, unsympathetic characters, cardboard supporting characters, not having a love triangle, having a love triangle, cliffhanger endings and everything in between.
Each ding, each critique, helps me grow as a writer. Even if I disagree in part or in whole, such feedback helps me see my own writing in perspective, learn more about what readers want or don’t want, where I fit into all that and what I can do better, or simply differently, next time.
In addition to valuable feedback from editors, thoughtful reviews have helped me evolve as a writer, hopefully for the better!
So in that spirit, I encourage you to use the advice presented in this book and actively seek out reviews for your own YA book(s).
You may not always get the feedback you’re seeking, but if viewed through the proper lens, nearly any review can be a “good” review!
About the Author:
Rusty Fischer
Rusty Fischer is a professional freelance writer who lives in sunny Florida with his beautiful wife, Martha. They enjoy riding bikes, long, leisurely walks on the beach, romantic dinners and zombie movies; lots and lots of zombie movies! (Well, Rusty does, anyway!)
Rusty is the author of several YA supernatural novels, including Zombies Don’t Cry (Medallion Press, 2011), Ushers, Inc. (Decadent Publishing, 2011), Detention of the Living Dead (Quake Books, 2012) and Vamplayers (Medallion Press, 2012).
Visit his blog, www.zombiesdontblog.blogspot.com, for news, reviews, cover leaks, writing and publishing advice, book excerpts and more! And if you can’t wait for his next release, download his complete YA novel Vampires Drool! Zombies Rule! absolutely FREE at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/25988.