Those of us with books to promote are always striving to solicit reviews. When regular customers post a review, we get ecstatic, unless…it is a negative, nasty, mean-spirited review.
Then we wonder, “Where do these people come from?” “Why do they read a book that clearly involves cats, dogs, murder, clowns? and that’s obviously a cozy mystery, military story, romance, or? and then write a review saying, “I hate cats (mysteries, cutesy stories, war stories, sappy stories about dogs), etc.”
I know that Amazon actually chases down customers and asks them to write a review for the books they purchase. That’s a good thing, unless they catch the reader when he is in a foul mood or it is a customer who hated the book.
Customer reviewers—you gotta love ’em, (when they write rave reviews). But what about those people who don’t agree with your fans—who didn’t love, love, love your book? I like to tell clients who are upset about a bad review, “It’s just an opinion.”
Yeah, that’s how I look at it—when the review is excellent or at least swell, I say, “People love my work. I am a good writer. My story is good.” And when I visit my Amazon book pages and see a negative review, I say, “Well, it’s just an opinion.” It’s not an opinion I like much, but it is someone’s opinion and I sure wish they’d keep it to themselves.
In the meantime, I try to look at the big picture—out of 113 total Amazon reviews for my Klepto Cat Mystery books, a solid three-quarters of them are rip-roaring positive. But what can one do with the percentage we all get of less than desirable reviews?
Stack the deck? Ask for phony reviews? Naw. Not in my DNA to do that. It isn’t a bad idea to ask friends, neighbors, coworkers, colleagues and acquaintances who have read your book to write a review. Some of them just don’t think to do it. And most of them would at least humor you and write a decent one, don’t you think? And then just continue to write the best books you can and have them professionally edited/proofed.
There will always be people of varying opinions. Even major best-selling books get bad reader reviews. Just look at the opposition over the years to the most famous book of all—the Bible.
And that super controversial book that came out a few years ago—“Fifty Shades of Grey”… This book has collected nearly 11,000 five-star reviews. But wait—the one-and two-star reviews number over 8,500.
There’s always a rainbow somewhere. You just have to look for it. Today, I will focus on the positive. I have a higher percentage of great reviews than some of the bestsellers.
If you like cozy mysteries with a little romance and cat fur involved, check out my Klepto Cat Mystery series. There are four books now—“Catnapped,” “Cat-Eye Witness,” “Sleight of Paw” and, the latest, “Undercover Cat.” If you have something nice to say after reading one or more of them, please do leave a review!!! Here’s a shortcut to the Klepto Cat Mystery page. http://amzn.to/1kAI8I2