Anyone who works in an industry that deals directly with the public knows all to well about reviews.  Websites like Yelp and Trustpilot give the savvy consumer places to either say Yay or Nay to their experiences. 

Authors are no different.  However, we’re at the mercy of Amazon and Goodreads for reviews.  Most authors don’t touch Goodreads as it’s full of trolls.  I only go there to post reviews of books that I’ve read.  It is, after all, the biggest gathering place of readers.  Sadly, people will go out of their way to post a negative review over a positive one. 

Once we hit that publish button on our book, we’re told, no, scolded, to NEVER LOOK AT YOUR REVIEWS.  They are there for the readers, not the author.  Well, I have to disagree. You don’t know how many reviews I’ve posted on other books about the horrible editing and they get ignored by the author and the publishers.   

Sure, it breaks our heart to read the bad reviews, but, at the same time, some of those negative words might give us a glimpse into what’s wrong with the story.  Plot holes?  Bad editing? Poor character development? How do we know unless we look at a reader’s feedback?  I even know some authors who use those bad reviews in their marketing campaigns. 

Of course, some of our yucky reviews are just nonsense and shows how ignorant the reader was.  But, we can get a chuckle out of them too. Below are examples of 1 or 2-star reviews that were actually helpful. 

2-star – “Overall it was an enjoyable incursion into the future, but there were so many unanswered questions and so little real character development that it was disappointing. The “heroes” had little to no remorse for their family, siblings, friends, loss of lifestyle. They didn’t appear to figure out or even consider that if their world was destroyed in year 2041 that everyone and everything they knew and loved would be obliterated within their normal lifetime had they stayed. The question of the car horn and the posts was never answered. And, at the very end, why was the car found in the same place? It had a full tank of gas and they would have driven vs. walked. Why was the merchandise still in the car?” 

Me – These are all valid questions.  I developed the characters more than what Bob had in the original rough draft, but maybe not enough.  I never thought about how Don and Janet would feel about leaving their family or the fact their loved ones were dead.  As for the other points, yeah, major plot holes.  But, not something I will fix.  

1-Star from 2017: “The dialogue is wholly unconvincing. Characters say things no normal person would say, and they’re forever addressing each other by name, John, which sounds really weird, doesn’t it, John? Yes, Tom, it sure does.
There are too many redundancies and repetitions in the text.
The passive voice is used too frequently, which pushes the narrative into telling rather than showing.”

Me – This review has a lot of valid points, and I addressed them when I re-edited and republished the book.  I never thought about the use of names all the time in dialogue.  Since then, I’ve seen other authors do the same thing and I HATE it.   😆  However, bare in mind that in 2016 this story was a Finalist in the Readers’ Favorite book awards.  So, reviews are very subjective.  

2-star from 2020: “I was really looking forward to reading this book and in the beginning I was excited about the story. However the language and content were inappropriate and not suitable to my standards. I will admit as a Christian I have high standards in this area and do not read books that go beyond my values in these areas. Therefore, I did not finish the book further than Chapter 1. :=(“

Me – I have a disclaimer on the book description that there are sex scenes and violence, so it’s on the reader if they ignored the warnings.  Authors with any type of steam in their stories receive these types of reviews all the time.  Makes us shake our heads.  Sigh. 

There were other reviews that mentioned the bad editing.  Yeah, I was in the learning process and the story got overhauled, again.  Still, in 2016 it received Honorable Mention (4th place) in the Readers’ Favorite book awards.  That was BEFORE I re-edited the book. 

So, in summation, negative book reviews can be used for good.  If you have a hard shell and don’t let them rip you apart.  Okay, off to drown my sorrows.  😂🤣