I published my debut novel Poison in September and I’ve
been really lucky (and dropped a bunch of money!!) and have received a
good number of reviews. In the beginning, I was religiously watching as
the reviews came in and depending on whether
the review was good or bad my mood for the day would change
accordingly. Am pretty sure this is the reason why the doctor suspects
I’ve got a stomach ulcer. So a few weeks ago I decided that I would just
ignore the fact that I have published a book altogether.
If one of my goals before I turned 32 wasn’t to publish a book I would
have waited until I had more ready go as per all the advice blogs I’ve
read. I’ve stopped refreshing sales pages and Googling my book. For the
most part it’s super easy to avoid all contact
except on Goodreads.
I love Goodreads. It’s a great site for
readers and authors and the features are awesome…except if you’re trying
to avoid looking at reviews of your books. As a Goodreads author, every
time I sign on using a PC (the app is terrible
IMO) and click on the home page in the top right hand corner is a
summary of my book stats including how many rating and reviews I’ve
gotten. From there it’s a simple click to see what my overall star
rating is and how many people are currently reading my
book. I can’t seem to find a way to not see these things and as a
result I’ve pretty much avoided Goodreads altogether for the past few
weeks. Even going on there to post a review myself is fraught with
tension. Stupid, I know but one of the tiny ways I’m
trying to do to manage my craziness. So if you've tried to contact me on there, I'm sorry I haven't responded, it's not that I don't like you! What about you guys? How do you manage
to stay away from having an author meltdown?
My heart goes out to you. You write a book, put all your love and a lot of hard work into it and some $&@! on Goodreads says, "This is shit, I couldn't get past page 8. " Looking up reviews is like picking at a sore. You know you shouldn't, but you can't stop yourself. ;-) The problem is, you need the good reviews for promo and if you haven't looked at them, how can you do that?
ReplyDeleteAnd Goodreads is where everyone goes for their review reading, so you can't ignore it.
I've had every rating - yes, EVERY rating - between one and five stars, one of the five stars from someone who had given Tolkien's work of genius one star! I kid you not. All you can do is get on with it and remember it isn't just you. So cheer up and get on with thus year's NaNoWriMo.
I don't mind the reviews. I'm grateful for every review I get whether good or bad because at least they took the time to write a review. I just wish I could use Goodreads like I used to when I was just a reader without having stuff for my own book thrown in my face. This is why I prefer to go on Amazon because unless I specifically go and look up my book I can just browse like a normal person.
DeleteIt will be all right! Don't stress the reviews. When you are ready, they are a helpful source of what to do with your next book.
ReplyDeleteHehe my next two books are pretty much written so no changing now! But yes, the criticism would be very good to help me grow.
DeleteThat's got to be hard. You authors are so brave! I gave up writing because I was hard enough on myself and didn't think I could handle being ripped to pieces by others too.
ReplyDeleteOh I wish you would keep going with your writing! Would love you read something of yours one day!
DeleteHopefully, I'll know your pain one day. Should I want that? O_O
ReplyDeleteYou definitely will and yes it's a good pain! Just inconvenient when you want to use a website without feeling the need to start a flame war!
DeleteI could relate to this, and like you I would be happy just to get a review or to know that someone had actually read my book. Write on, as they say.
ReplyDelete