How Concerned Should An Author be by a One-Star Review?
How often do you notice that a one-star reviewer has never reviewed any other book?
How often do you notice that a one-star reviewer has never reviewed any other book?
After reading book descriptions, I now study one-star reviews avidly. Then I go into 'See All my Reviews'. It becomes quite an amusing exercise when you see the type of book the one-star reviewer usually reads is far-removed from the book they have tried to condemn with their 'stunning' one-star review. Of course, that is if they have ever reviewed a book before.
Often a reviewer might say something like, 'so bad I left it on holiday' and you will see that they have only ever reviewed items such as clothing and never any other book. The reviewed author may have received sixty, or more, five star recommendations, numerous four star and then in will wade the person, who has only ever bought shin pads, to knock the book as hard as their bones would have been knocked if they had not bought the shin pads.
A one-star review I saw recently, complained that 'there is no plot' about a book which was published posthumously giving the story of a famous author's time spent in Paris. Whilst another reviewer gave it five stars for the 'descriptive language' and 'imagery' of the time in which it was set (an apt review for the description of Paris after the First World War).
Then there are people, who have never reviewed before who, apparently randomly, choose your book to endow with a one-star review. You will notice that they quickly review another book on the same day (of an entirely different genre) and give it five stars. A reader who only enjoys tragedy, misery or thrillers is not likely to haphazardly choose a humorous book, which is written only to show subtle changes in a character. So why did they choose it and then choose to denigrate it?
Of course there are badly-written books, with no attention paid to editing and these might deserve the subsequent low ratings they get and provide the potential reader with a guidance. But I am talking, here, about the seemingly determined effort some reviewers put into trying to sabotage the success of a novel.
It is nice to enjoy books of many genres and review widely, with consideration for the time it takes an author to compose the idea and invest, sometimes years, into the writing and finally the editing process. The review, in my opinion, warrants at least some degree of deliberation. If a book has been purchased and is not 'your kind of book' please think of the authors who have worked hard to produce their work and be as polite as you can. We need and appreciate your feedback.
If you get a minute you can click the link to my book at the top of the page.
Photo courtesy of Vectorole (FreeDigitalDownloads)
