Not so long ago, writing magazines and blogs were full of articles about how to cope with rejection. Stories abounded about well-known writers who had to submit their now best-seller works tens of times to agents and publishers before they were finally accepted. I seem to remember a tale about one eminent novelist who actually papered at least one wall of his study with his rejection slips. Such stories were a great consolation to struggling writers trying to attract an agent or publisher. The so-called good rejection – one where the agent had sent not the customary slip or standard rejection letter but had actually bothered to write a personal note gave essential encouragement to carry on. Most of the advice to suffering writers centred around keeping in mind that the rejections were never personal – that it was the novel not the person that was being rejected.
These days, the long process of waiting sometimes for months on end to hear back from an agent before sending the manuscript to the next on the list it is no longer necessary. The opportunity for any writer to self-publish their novel on Kindle, Kobo or some other e-reader has taken away not only the years of waiting but also the disappointment of rejection. However, it can still involve pain and what makes it far more traumatic is that the ‘attack’ in the form of the 1* review can be scathing and often appear to be very personal.
A few weeks ago, I was listening to a news report on the radio about a court case involving a writer who had tracked down and travelled halfway across the country to attack a woman who had given his novel a bad review on Amazon. How many of us writers can say hand-on-heart that the thought of exacting some sort of revenge on the individual who has dared to give our precious creation a 1* review has never flashed, however fleetingly, through our tormented souls.
Putting aside the fact that because it is so easy to self-publish a novel and because any wannaby can put up an eBook for free, there is an enormous quantity of books of poor quality out there, there are few writers, even best-selling authors, who have not had the dreaded 1* or 2* review. Every reader is of course entitled to their opinion but there is little doubt that some reviewers appear to enjoy tearing other people’s work to pieces.
I recently received an email from a writer with the subject heading – The Reviewer From Hell. To be honest, his email suggested he was more annoyed than upset. The review on Amazon.com read – ‘Full of British slang and confusing terms to us Americans. Not sure how you wind lead to put a Hoover in a cupboard (what is that?) and “lounge cum kitchen” really sounds unappetizing, unless you’re in a brothel.’ Obviously reviews like that say more about the ignorance of the reviewer than the book itself, but that is little consolation to the writer when it’s the first review posted. As he said in his email to me, it effectively killed the book.
Perhaps I ought to point out that I have never actually met this writer in person. We are ‘friends’ because we got in touch after we had read – and genuinely enjoyed – each other’s books and writing style.
For some months I had only one review on one of my books on Amazon.com although it was not only a 5* but was probably one of the best I’ve ever had. And no, I’ve never met or corresponded with the reviewer. I recently had a second review – a 1* with the heading ‘Beware of buying this book. Not worth your time’ and the comment ‘Stupid, stupid ending. What a waste of time reading this book.’
Out of interest, I looked up the other reviews written by this person. There were seven 1* two 2* (one of which was a book by Harlan Coben) and two 5*!!! Says more about the reviewer than the books they’ve reviewed, don’t you think?
Looking through the Amazon lists at 1* reviews, it makes you wonder why some people bother to finish books at all when they obviously hated them so much. Personally, I don’t have the time to waste. Like 99 percent of us, if I decide, a book is not for me for whatever reason, I delete it if it’s an eBook and I certainly don’t give it any kind of review.
Do you have a review that rankles? Is there a reviewer you would love to stick pins in in your darkest dreams?
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