As authors, the more we put ourselves and our books out there, the more we subject ourselves to criticism. In fact, we even ask for it. A major method of promoting our books is to solicit book reviews. If your book is at Amazon.com and it is doing well, Amazon helps you out by asking your readers to comment about your book. If you buy books (and other items) through Amazon, you’ve probably received emails from them saying, “How many stars would you give such-and-such a book (or item)?”
And this is a good thing, right? Sure! Except for the fact that you don’t know what sort of response you’ll get from the reader or the reviewers you contact. One possibility is the “book report.”
Some readers don’t know the difference between a review (a critique—a personal opinion) and a book report (a summary of the book). You don’t need reviewers to summarize your story; you’ve done that in your book description at Amazon. What you’re seeking is the reviewer’s impressions—their evaluation of the book.
I had a reviewer (probably a reader) give one of my Klepto Cat Mysteries a 5-star rating recently and, in her accompanying comments, she revealed one of the main mysteries in the book. In the story, I carefully and purposefully keep readers in the dark about one of the mysteries until the 80% mark. But one reviewer felt it was her duty to expose this mystery thread to my reading public. What’s up with that?
Rather than a critique or impression of this book, she wrote a summary, including a fact that was carefully hidden until the last ten pages of the book.
Have any of you had a similar experience? Maddening, isn’t it?