There's a lot of importance put on book reviews--having good ones, avoiding bad ones, reacting (or rather, not reacting) to either, and that incessant search for more, more, more. Rather than pretend I know enough to give any kind of advice to anyone, I thought I'd share something that occurred to me tonight: negative reviews still sell books.
Yeah, maybe you've already figured that out. Well, I'm slow.
About six months ago, while trolling an online review site (that's typically where I find new books), I read a review of The Jessica Darling Series that was almost painfully unfavorable. The reviewer said the main character was immature, impossible to relate to, and totally unsympathetic. She gave examples to back up her opinion, and I could tell not only that she'd actually read every book but took some serious time to draft an argument as to why no one else should.
Funny thing is, rather than being put off by her depiction of this fictional character, I was intrigued. I found myself seeking other reviews, then a preview of the first several pages. By the end of that night, I'd bought the first book. By the end of the week, I'd devoured the entire series.
The lesson? Not everyone is going to love every story, but even negative attention can sometimes work for the positive.
Interesting as I remember when my daughters each reached the age of 14...they were immature, impossible to relate to and totally unsympathetic...to date I'm still involved with their life stories. You do however make an excellent point...the only bad press is no press at all, especially for an Indie Author...now is there a way I can convince you to switch over to Wordpress so i can follow your blog?
ReplyDeleteSure. I just did...
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