*hrm*

[ksmith]

Amazon reviews. IknowIshouldn'treadthedamnedthings.

The last two for CoC have been interesting. A two-star who felt that "something exciting was just about to happen, but never quite did." The newest reviewer agrees, but liked CoC enough to give it four stars.

I don't write action adventure. The book is more about the characters. And I left out too much story.

Comments

[naomikritzer]

My husband used to harrass me about my failure to keep track of my Amazon rankings.

I finally explained that I do not ever visit my Amazon pages if I can avoid it, because I always cave and read the reviews, and it's just bad for my mental health. The good reviews mess with my head almost as much as the bad reviews because I'm afraid I'll let them down. The bad reviews just piss me off. So I use Amazon.com to look at OTHER people's books and find out when they're coming out, and as a card-catalog that lets me browse content to see if the book I'm looking at is what I want (I then request it from the library). I occasionally even buy books there. I just try to not remember that my books are even listed. It makes me too crazy.

I wonder if there are sane writers out there who don't have this problem. (I'm not sure I've ever met any.)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I keep telling myself that the percentage of sales from Amazon is too small for me to worry about. That's one big reason why I haven't pushed to set up my Amazon Connect page.

But those reviews are there, and until writers are able to access their Bookscan numbers, those book pages are the nearest things we have to any sort of realtime indication of how the damned things are doing.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

...but you do do action adventure sometimes. And I'd think totally trashing a government building counts as action. But maybe that's just me.

And if you left out too much story, I wish I could see what you left out :o

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Some readers have complained that I don't directly state what's going on. I have tried to be a little more direct in later books, though I don't know whether I managed it.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I just got a 2* review for Darkland ('a sadistic mess'. Oh well). Want to form a support group?

And I do wish that these people, negative or positive, would learn to spell.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

The lack of ability to spell tends to blunt the edge a little.

A support group would be good. Survivors of Amazon Reviews, or some more appropriate acronym that spells a word that indicates our feelings on the matter.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Hah! Crystal Dragon actually broke one Amazon reviewer's heart. That's power -- and one star, too.

Sigh.

I'm sure Amazon reviews provide some assistance to potential readers, but I really wish there was an option for authors to blank out the reviews on the pages of their books.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Wow.

My two-star review missed the entire point of Tsecha's POV. She didn't understand why it was there. The entire undercurrent--she missed it. It's like, are you sure you actually read the book?

Blanking out would be good.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I'd vote for blanking out.

Also giving the cut direct to helpful "friends" who insist on informing you of your 1-star amazon reviews, in case you've missed it.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

No "friends" like that as of yet. Mine are all the 'why are you still working here/don't you wish you wrote Harry Potter?' variety. One senses that if one is not a millionaire yet, one obviously stinks up the joint. And where are those NYT reviews, huh?

[battle-of-one.livejournal.com]

Oh those things can be the kiss of death. Sometimes you wonder, "Which book were they reviewing? Because it sure as hell wasn't mine."