The Review Is In: Two Stars is Better Than One, I Suppose
I finally received the review of Kingmaker from Reedsy Discovery
About five weeks ago, I paid $50 to the Reedsy Discovery service as a way to test out marketing from the platform. Well, the review finally came in this morning, and it was anything but stellar. Still, I’m not about to let it discourage me from continuing down this path. I just need to clean it up a bit more as I go along.
It is too easy for potential authors to throw in the towel after getting somewhat railed by a reviewer. And you can’t call it trolling as the person appeared to put a bit of thought into what they wrote. The problem is that I’m not entirely sure the reviewer actually read the entire book.
Eh, it happens. I wasn’t the best freelance writer when I started in 2012, either. It took more than a year to become successful enough to quit my other job and write full-time. Becoming a successful author is just going to take a bit more time, that’s all.
A Good Book is Subjective
Perhaps one of the most important things to keep in mind is how good books are subjective. Even if someone loves the genre, it doesn’t mean they’re going to like the book I wrote. A good example of this is that I don’t like Anne Rice, despite her being a popular author of vampires and gothic horror.
Personally, I preferred Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot to anything Anne Rice had put together. And that’s my point - a good book is subjective to the reader.
Though, I do have to say that this review does hit home a lot closer than I thought it would. The reviewer called my characters “robotic,” which is reminiscent of how Textbroker editors used to call my writing “clinical.” Both of these terms mean that my writing is bland and two-dimensional.
I thought I did a decent job fleshing them out, but apparently not. Does this mean that I suck and I should just throw in the towel? Absolutely not!
It just means the reviewer didn’t like my book and I may want to revisit how I develop the characters in the story.
Being Realistic with Myself
Every author has a book that hits differently among readers. While one person will love one title, another might find it bland. Some books will draw in a massive following and generate a ton in sales, while others will fall short and be discarded like a crumpled pack of cigarettes.
Am I disappointed that Kingmaker received such a bad review? I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt my feelings. But I also know that this is my first book, without formal creative writing training, while having a problematic writing style.
I’m sure that proceeding books will be much better, mostly due to the fact that practice makes perfect and the master class I’ve been taking has been quite informative. I’ll just have to put in the effort to make sure Fury is a better book, overall.
Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of this experience is trying very hard not to be too hard on myself. I’ve always had a problem with beating myself up over things. Hell, there are still times when I cringe at having an article rejected on Textbroker, and that was almost a decade ago.
See, I’m the type of person who will be incredibly hard on myself but refuse to give up. I view failings as an opportunity for growth, which helped me turn a $20-per-week gig into something that now covers the mortgage and credit card payments. I put together a career that pays more than the national average for freelance writing. So, I figure I will do the same thing with creative writing. But that doesn’t mean I’m cold and don’t have feelings to be smushed like a rotten banana in the produce section of a Walmart.
At the end of the day, I knew Kingmaker wasn’t going to be an Amazon best-selling novel. And I have no assumptions that I’m some amazing, diamond-in-the-rough author. I’m realistic with my abilities and what I offer. Still, a two-star does sting quite a bit, especially since I thought Kingmaker would have at least rated average.
Eh, all that means is that I need to hunker down and hone my skills. I did it a decade ago and I am sure I can do it again.
I’m Nowhere Near Being Done
I’ve seen a lot of authors on Twitter give up after a bad review. I’ve also seen authors say how a bad review crushed their souls. I think that is a tad dramatic, to be honest.
Yes, it does sting a bit. But it’s nothing that can’t be resolved in the next book. Are my characters robotic? Well, let’s flesh them out a bit more and add some of the things I’ve learned to really make them pop out. Are the various points of view confusing? What can I do to change that?
And to be perfectly frank, I don’t know what the reviewer was talking about when referring to the points of view. There are a few things I need to change, like how I name a character of a scene much later in the paragraph. But for the POV, that confuses the hell out of me.
Like I said, though, all reviews are subjective. The only objective point I really took from the review was the roboticism of the characters, which I kind of agree with, especially after learning all that I have over the last few weeks. Not to mention how it has been an apparent problem with how I write since the beginning.
In any case, Kingmaker is still one of my favorite books and I refuse to let two stars prevent me from really seeing what I can do. If I would have had that mentality in 2012, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I’ll just have to put in a bit more effort next time around.
That means Fury is going to be an amazing book!
A Bad Review Isn’t the End of the World
Do I feel bad for getting a two-star review? Sure. Am I going to let it dictate my success? Hell no. In fact, it just feeds my need to prove the reviewer wrong with the next book.
Not that he cares. He’s paid for his efforts and has no real dog in the fight.
So, I’m going to take the review for what it is…an opportunity to learn and grow. We’ll see who has robotic characters next time around.