Reviews Part Two

 

For years, my first Jenny Parker novel struggled to get reviews. There were a fair number of sales, but reviews were hard to come by. Then I wrote the blog previous to this one.

Unbeknown to me, my publishers had created a big promotion for the Jenny Parker series around the same time.

Normally, my sales are communicated to me with my royalty statement on a six monthly basis. A very good half-year might involve a thousand sales. I'd not had a good one for quite a long time. We're talking a few dozen sales.

I went to an old friend's farm to give him my rescue chickens. This isn't a digression, though it might sound like me going off at a tangent, because his partner and her friend have been keen readers of my books for years. A socially distanced chat revealed that she hadn't read the latest Jenny Parker book and she rang her friend to tell her there was another treat coming her way. I offered to send her a copy but she said she was happy to buy one.

OK, I'm getting to the point. Be patient.

If I want to see how my books are doing, I go to my Amazon author's page and look at the charts. One sale makes a big difference when you're selling very few books. You can soar from number 1,000,000 to number 50,000 in an instant before gradually decaying back down to earth.

On a promise of a sale, I checked my Amazon page. All my books were doing ridiculously well. Due Diligence was second overall in the UK and 3rd overall in the US. Obviously there was a glitch with the figures so I checked with my publishers. No glitch, more than 30,000 downloads, they said.

I was gobsmacked and happy. Then the sales persisted. Then the reviews and ratings began to accumulate. DD has well over a hundred positive reviews now.

So, I'm telling you that writers should never give up. Success can come at any time. And when it does, I have to remind myself to taste the sweetness instead of wishing for even more.

One sale is enough to make me happy. One positive review increases that happiness tenfold.

Despite the pandemic, there's a big smile on my face most of the time now.

Reviews

 

Authors like me need reviews. Reviews sell books. Book sales mean earnings. Earnings help pay for stuff like ink and food.

However, there are a few tips I want to impart about reviews.

1. If you buy a book, leave a review.

2. If you leave a review, make sure it's FIVE stars. Why? I'll explain later if you still need me to.

3. The stars are important. Your opinion isn't. This might appear harsh but I would point out that you're not writing for the Times Literary Supplement.

4. If the book arrived in one piece, was readable and the same book that you ordered, definitely FIVE Stars.

5. If you can't be arsed to read it, at least leave a review so that the whole thing doesn't result in a total waste of effort.

6. If you do read it and it's not your cup of tea, then I suggest one of two things. Either keep it to yourself or, preferably, use Tip Number 4.

7. A simple 'I liked it' is quite enough. If you're prompted to add more words you can use 'oh yes I did' a few times. If you get a bit bored with that you can say 'looking forward to the author's next book'. That's always a good one.

8. Some reviewers like to write a bit about the plot and content of the book. Don't fall into that temptation. At the top of the page, underneath the picture of the cover and the title, the author and publisher have provided a carefully worded set of information to inform the potential reader. The log line, the blurb and the short synopsis are arrived at after long hours of drafting, rejecting, honing, editing, rewriting, getting feedback, starting again, trying not to give too much plot away while attempting to whet the reader's appetite. A reviewer saying they were very surprised when Fred turned out to be the murderer isn't helping anyone, to be honest.

9. So, what's all this about FIVE stars? Well, my take on the star system is in Tip Number Four. Nuancing is, in my opinion, pointless. If you give 5 stars to everyone, nobody is going to be disappointed and you won't have to decide whether Harry Potter should have more stars than Cloud Atlas.

Reviewing can be simple and fun. It's also a sure fire way of making a poor beleagured writer a whole heap happier.