Peter Laurent's Blog - Posts Tagged "reviews"
Constructive Criticisms
One of my wonderful reviewers contacted me today. They asked why another author would write a book and then blog about expecting to sit back to wait for the money to roll in, then get upset when receiving this reviewer's honest 3 star review.
I thought my response to the reviewer might interest some of you...
(edited for relevance)
I have no issues with wanting to make money out of writing, I definitely want to make enough to support myself and be able to write full-time. But writing with the sole intention of making money is the wrong way to work. The most important thing, above all else, is that the reader enjoys your book, whether it's entertaining, educational, or an erotic thrill, making money is a by-product of reader enjoyment.
So when I read a book, and I see a typo or clunky sentence, it diminishes my enjoyment of that book. I can forgive maybe 3-4 errors for an indie author, a bit more if the rest of the story holds up (strong characters, plot etc.)
A traditionally published author has no excuse and must have zero mistakes.
That's why I proofed my book at least 6-7 times. Then after I published it on Amazon, I read it again and found maybe 10 punctuation mistakes and fixed them (within a few days of the initial publication date, before the freebie sale). So maybe even I was a little hasty, but at least I went back and fixed it up as soon as possible. It's something I wanted to be proud of.
If an author is lazy and publish their 1st or 2nd draft, readers will not enjoy their poorly edited books, won't recommend it to friends and/or give negative reviews. Money can't buy good reviews, they are worth more than that.
Good reviews aren't just 5 star reviews. If a reviewer gives 2, 3 or 4 stars, but mentions what they liked and didn't like, possibly even suggest improvements, that is just as valuable as a 5 star review.
Authors should not be unhappy with 3 star reviews if they actually cared about improving their writing.
Besides, many readers ignore the 1 and 5 star reviews because they assume they are biased, and only read the 2, 3, 4 star reviews for honest opinions. I would be fine having 2-3 star reviews as long as it was honest and said how the book could have been better, or why it was not good enough for 4-5 stars.
Personally I think the whole "star-rating" system is broken and Amazon should abandon it. Readers should be forced to read reviews instead of tallying up an average star rating to make decisions on what to buy.
Maybe it's because I come from an animation background, which is even more cut-throat than writing, I became used to taking criticism, and kept an eye out for what people will pick up on that would need fixing.
It can be heart-breaking when you have spent months of your life pouring your soul into your work, only to be told it is no good.
I was lucky to have received mostly good reviews on my animation, honest feedback that critiqued and ultimately ended up improving it. The same applies to writing. You can't learn without making mistakes.
Then again, not every reviewer knows what they are talking about, and sometimes you have to stick to your guns. It's just that it is important to keep an open mind.
There are over 1.5 million ebooks on Amazon, and since they do not check for quality, you can imagine how many books are rubbish and not selling at all. That's where honest reviews are needed, positive and negative ones.
Whew that's quite the rant I wrote!
Well I'd better get back to it, book two isn't going to write itself haha!
Cheers,
-Petes
I thought my response to the reviewer might interest some of you...
(edited for relevance)
I have no issues with wanting to make money out of writing, I definitely want to make enough to support myself and be able to write full-time. But writing with the sole intention of making money is the wrong way to work. The most important thing, above all else, is that the reader enjoys your book, whether it's entertaining, educational, or an erotic thrill, making money is a by-product of reader enjoyment.
So when I read a book, and I see a typo or clunky sentence, it diminishes my enjoyment of that book. I can forgive maybe 3-4 errors for an indie author, a bit more if the rest of the story holds up (strong characters, plot etc.)
A traditionally published author has no excuse and must have zero mistakes.
That's why I proofed my book at least 6-7 times. Then after I published it on Amazon, I read it again and found maybe 10 punctuation mistakes and fixed them (within a few days of the initial publication date, before the freebie sale). So maybe even I was a little hasty, but at least I went back and fixed it up as soon as possible. It's something I wanted to be proud of.
If an author is lazy and publish their 1st or 2nd draft, readers will not enjoy their poorly edited books, won't recommend it to friends and/or give negative reviews. Money can't buy good reviews, they are worth more than that.
Good reviews aren't just 5 star reviews. If a reviewer gives 2, 3 or 4 stars, but mentions what they liked and didn't like, possibly even suggest improvements, that is just as valuable as a 5 star review.
Authors should not be unhappy with 3 star reviews if they actually cared about improving their writing.
Besides, many readers ignore the 1 and 5 star reviews because they assume they are biased, and only read the 2, 3, 4 star reviews for honest opinions. I would be fine having 2-3 star reviews as long as it was honest and said how the book could have been better, or why it was not good enough for 4-5 stars.
Personally I think the whole "star-rating" system is broken and Amazon should abandon it. Readers should be forced to read reviews instead of tallying up an average star rating to make decisions on what to buy.
Maybe it's because I come from an animation background, which is even more cut-throat than writing, I became used to taking criticism, and kept an eye out for what people will pick up on that would need fixing.
It can be heart-breaking when you have spent months of your life pouring your soul into your work, only to be told it is no good.
I was lucky to have received mostly good reviews on my animation, honest feedback that critiqued and ultimately ended up improving it. The same applies to writing. You can't learn without making mistakes.
Then again, not every reviewer knows what they are talking about, and sometimes you have to stick to your guns. It's just that it is important to keep an open mind.
There are over 1.5 million ebooks on Amazon, and since they do not check for quality, you can imagine how many books are rubbish and not selling at all. That's where honest reviews are needed, positive and negative ones.
Whew that's quite the rant I wrote!
Well I'd better get back to it, book two isn't going to write itself haha!
Cheers,
-Petes
Coming to More Stores in May, and Other News
Hello people,
A few points of interest for this post...
First, I've written a little over 11,000 words on book 2 so far. I'm going somewhat slower than last time but I think it is working out for the best because the quality has greatly improved, in my humble opinion!
I've taken in all feedback from reviewers and non-reviewers alike, and have learned a lot, so thank you.
I am still aiming for an August-October release window. Hang in there ;)
Second, The Covert Academy will be free for the last time on Amazon this Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th April (PST).
So it will be your last chance to grab a free copy, because I've decided not to renew the 90 day KDP Select exclusive period and instead try out publishing it on the other online stores.
I've read a lot of people's blog posts about publishing on stores such as B+N, Sony, Apple etc. and it seems many indies do not find the same level of success as they do on Amazon. However, the market for books is growing for devices such as tablets plus I do not like being reliant on only one gatekeeper.
So I plan to publish through the aggregator service BookTango which will distribute my book to all the other major publishers. In addition to Amazon, you can expect to see The Covert Academy on iBooks (via iTunes), Nook Book Store, Sony Reader Store, Kobo Books, Scribd and Google Books in early May.
While Smashwords is the popular choice, they take a percentage of your royalties whereas BookTango do not.
The only advantage I see Smashwords offering is an instant royalty payment through Paypal (I have to wait for a paper cheque from Amazon since I live in New Zealand). But then again, Paypal also takes a percentage!
BookTango looks like the way to go for me.
I want to thank anyone who had contacted me directly, and apologise if I don't get round to reading your book. A surprising number of indie authors ask this! I guess it is a good way to get well written reviews. I would instead suggest asking bloggers for reviews, though they get more requests, they also read far more books.
My head is buried in the world of my own writing right now, so I'm reading very little at the moment. I have no idea how some people can read other author's books and write theirs at the same time!
Hmm what else... oh there was an iPhone game I did the artwork for last year that is supposed to be coming out fairly soon (though they did say that last year!). It's called Wild Gang-Indoor Soccer, and it should be a fun cartoony little game.
Keep an eye out for it ;)
Cheers,
-Petes
A few points of interest for this post...
First, I've written a little over 11,000 words on book 2 so far. I'm going somewhat slower than last time but I think it is working out for the best because the quality has greatly improved, in my humble opinion!
I've taken in all feedback from reviewers and non-reviewers alike, and have learned a lot, so thank you.
I am still aiming for an August-October release window. Hang in there ;)
Second, The Covert Academy will be free for the last time on Amazon this Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th April (PST).
So it will be your last chance to grab a free copy, because I've decided not to renew the 90 day KDP Select exclusive period and instead try out publishing it on the other online stores.
I've read a lot of people's blog posts about publishing on stores such as B+N, Sony, Apple etc. and it seems many indies do not find the same level of success as they do on Amazon. However, the market for books is growing for devices such as tablets plus I do not like being reliant on only one gatekeeper.
So I plan to publish through the aggregator service BookTango which will distribute my book to all the other major publishers. In addition to Amazon, you can expect to see The Covert Academy on iBooks (via iTunes), Nook Book Store, Sony Reader Store, Kobo Books, Scribd and Google Books in early May.
While Smashwords is the popular choice, they take a percentage of your royalties whereas BookTango do not.
The only advantage I see Smashwords offering is an instant royalty payment through Paypal (I have to wait for a paper cheque from Amazon since I live in New Zealand). But then again, Paypal also takes a percentage!
BookTango looks like the way to go for me.
I want to thank anyone who had contacted me directly, and apologise if I don't get round to reading your book. A surprising number of indie authors ask this! I guess it is a good way to get well written reviews. I would instead suggest asking bloggers for reviews, though they get more requests, they also read far more books.
My head is buried in the world of my own writing right now, so I'm reading very little at the moment. I have no idea how some people can read other author's books and write theirs at the same time!
Hmm what else... oh there was an iPhone game I did the artwork for last year that is supposed to be coming out fairly soon (though they did say that last year!). It's called Wild Gang-Indoor Soccer, and it should be a fun cartoony little game.
Keep an eye out for it ;)
Cheers,
-Petes
