Why family shouldn't review your book...

especially your mum!

I’d only checked my book's ranking yesterday, but you never know. I click onto Amazon and type my name into the product line. Up come my books, and I bring up Eden, my sci-fi/romance. It has been doing well lately so I’m keen to see if there are any reviews as well as to see if its rank has improve.

Not only has it climbed I have a review! My heart does a little jump of pleasure. And, better, it’s a five-star review! Oh, joy. I’m imagining the chocolates I can crack open in celebration.

The title of the review reads: Fan! Tas! Tic!

I begin to read feeling like a starving woman on the point of finding a feast of chocolate-covered goodies.

I loved, loved, LOVED Eden. I read it in one sitting and I hope there is Eden 2, and maybe 3 and 4 as well. Steven Spielberg should produce Eden into a film with Sean Connery playing the lead.

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.UK

My heart did another funny little jump, but not in pleasure this time. I think, at the mention of Connery, it curled into a foetal position with its heart hands covering its heart head.  

You see Sean Connery is my mum’s favourite actor. In fact, in her eyes, he should play EVERY male lead in EVERY film ever made.

I continue reading, 


It’s a made for TV book! It deserves to be on the screen! In 3D!

Oh my God! It had to be my mum. I didn't think she'd read Eden. She's more a Catherine Cookson/Jane Austen reader, and openly detests contemporary romance.  I look to the name of the reviewer:

Don't Waste Time Dwelling on Bad Reviews

by

David Kubicek

It is never pleasant to get a bad review. In fact, reading a review that savagely eviscerates the novel you’ve spent months nurturing is one of the most unpleasant experiences a writer can have.

This might help: Getting a bad review often means that you have missed your audience.

Even if you haven’t thought about writing to an audience, one exists for your book. If you’re successful at finding your readers—and assuming your book is well written—most of your reviews should range from 3 to 5 stars, which is where you want to be.

But every author who has collected lots of reviews has picked up some bad ones—even the most popular books by the most popular writers.