I was reading a fine piece of non-fiction recently that I had checked out from the library. I won’t name it, but it was a traditionally published biography of a fairly famous figure. The book was reviewed by major publications and I’m sure the author will publish more. A funny thing about that book; because it was from the library, someone before me had neatly marked up every error that they found. And there were dozens. Nothing egregious, and honestly, I might not have caught most of them if it hadn’t been previously checked out by an OCD sufferer.
But it certainly struck me that there would be so many errors in a book by a major press. See, errors like that are so hard to eliminate in a large manuscript, whether you're a big-name publisher or you're doing this yourself. And for an indie author, it is the most telling — and damning — aspect of the “quality” of self-published work. People are judging the quality of the writing, but also the quality of the product: How it's edited and how it looks on the page or tablet. Reading is reading — and people don’t want to buy an inferior product.
When I recently made my book free on Amazon to generate interest prior to its sequel, it suddenly took off. I’m not even entirely sure why it happened, but a few Tweeters promoted my book and suddenly I was in the Top 10 of my genre (for free books). Thousands upon thousands of downloads, every week. It leveled off over time, but even now, I’m doing close to 1,000 downloads per week. With this new found “fame” came a flurry of new reviews. Reviews are an indie author’s life blood. You need them. You want them. And you want them to be good.
Prior to going free, my book had accrued about 30 reviews in two years, with a solid 4.5 star average. Now, I’m an honest guy, and I could look through those reviews and recognize a few familiar names. It’s always nice to have friends.
Suddenly reviews started piling up. In just a couple of months I added more than 100 reviews — all complete strangers — who’d come upon my book in some way that I had no influence over. I’m not going to lie… my average dipped to 4.1 stars. Still solid, and frankly a more honest assessment of the book. Hell, I’d give the damned thing four stars too. It’s my first book, ferchrissakes! But even the criticisms were encouraging. At first, there were quite a few who were spotting some remaining errors. I quickly cleaned those up, and those critiques seem to have stopped (I mean, we have to fix the easy stuff.) There are a few people who thought the ending could have been better… or more accurately, LONGER. Endings are hard, and I’ve had a few people say they thought it came on kind of quick. I’ll take it as a veiled compliment that people wanted my book to be longer.
The really funny thing is that I’d get a four-star review that said, “Great story. I wish there had been more character development,” followed by a review that said, “I wish there’d been LESS character development.” And this is the key when you put your book out there to be judged: People won’t agree and not everyone is going to love it, or even like it. Hell, there are huge bestsellers by authors who are millionaires, and I think their books are terrible. I am so inspired by certain mystery writers because they are successful and their books are so bad. (I was about to name an author, but decided I didn’t need his fans loading my book up with bad reviews.)
It takes a thick skin to read a two star review that says, “Not that good.” But it goes with the territory (I just assume it’s an ex-girlfriend.) But it is exciting to see hundreds of people reading and enjoying my work. As I write this, I’ve had seven straight five-star reviews. Prior to this streak, I had a three-star review that complained that my book wasn’t scary. No, it’s not scary. Never meant for it to be. It also is completely lacking in diet tips.
Now, there’s a whole world out there of authors (and services) who will try to “game” the system. They’ll guarantee positive reviews. They’ll trade reviews. You can buy reviews. It’s a huge industry. It’s one thing to ask friends to read something and write an honest review. But the minute you pay someone to tell you how great you are, you’re President of the United States. Don’t do it. Today I have 150 reviews, with 4.1 star average and I’m damned proud of it. Stephen King has bestsellers with 4.1 stars. I’ll take it. And those two-star reviews that stick in my craw just a little? I just think of them as free advice (from a jilted old girlfriend.)
When Jonathan Kile isn't attempting to read and listen to an audiobook at the same time, he encourages you to check out his adventure thriller, The Grandfather Clock, which is currently ranked the #1 #8 #20 Free Adventure/Suspense eBook on Amazon Kindle. The sequel, The Napoleon Bloom, will be out in 2016 2017. He promises. Jonathan gets his email at jkilewrites@gmail.com.
This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 2, 2017.