I was reading reviews of an academic book about environmental history and landscape change in the Classical world (aka late western Roman empire.) I glanced at the one and two-star reviews. They weren’t quite as head-scratching as one I read for Empire of the Summer Moon about the last days of the Comanche Indians in Texas, but close. That one took apart the book based on … Mongol history. Apparently the author made a comparison between the Comanches and the Mongols that the reviewer vehemently disagreed with, leading to the shredding.
Fiction reviews generally don’t focus on one academic aspect of the work and go shredding from there (unless it is very early in the publication process, and that’s often having a knowledgeable alpha reader take things apart, then recommend sources for correct information and changes). A few are easily ignored, being the “I hate this person’s politics/hair color/blog format/sexual preferences/making my favorite author look bad at a Con” one star. You can probably also ignore the ones that are for a different book (same title, different author, very different genre), or are aimed at the seller rather than the author (“book arrived in terrible condition, was left on porch under downspout during rain.”) Depending on the topic and world building, I’ve rolled my eyes and skimmed over the “this isn’t what India is really like! Hindusim is not like this” type of critique as well* (It was a fantasy novel based on the Ramayana, not a documentary.)
I was actually happy when I got a few four and three star reviews ten (!) years ago, and especially happy about the first two-star on a novel, because there was a problem at the time of people trading five-star reviews, or buying good reviews. Yes, Amazon went through and cracked down, but word on the ‘net was that if a book had only five-star rankings, it must be fake, or only bought reviews. This was before rating inflation, so three star was closer to “not bad, not outstanding, a few glaring typos or plot problems but nothing to scream about.”
The two-star was a complaint that the training montage and scenes were too fast, and the character couldn’t possibly have gained the skills in so little time. And they quit reading after that, which is probably why Amazon later removed the review. I have not looked to see if it was ever reinstated. Someone replied to the review (not me), pointing out what the reviewer had missed.
Now, this could have been one of the “hmmm, maybe I need to flag that for when I do typo corrections and any updates” sorts of things you can glean from less-than-great reviews. If lots and lots of readers all complain about the same something – lack of foreshadowing, too many check-box characters without a good reason why, the story racing to the end and leaving readers wondering what the heck just happened – that needs to be addressed, or at least noted for the next book. I didn’t do that in this case, since it was a one-reader problem, and other readers had no difficulties.
Generally, the Mad Genii have the policy that ignoring reviews is safest. We authors can’t address reviewer complaints the way we once could. Amazon will only take down negative reviews if they are truly inaccurate (a complaint about a tabletop BBQ grill not having a plot and the formatting being terrible, for example), or abusive with death threats, or having far too much foul language. If it is one of those, let the distributor know exactly what the problem is, and why you want the review removed, as dispassionately as possible. Otherwise, glance, see if it has anything valid (“every other page in the print book was missing”), and go on. Ignore it, forget it. Yes, it will sting. Its your baby they are complaining about. No writer can please everyone all the time, and none of us know what will set someone off.
What if it is not a reader but a critic and/or blogger who shreds your story? Ah, that might be different. I go back and look at earlier reviews. It might be someone who doesn’t like any Regency written after 1950, and you are not alone. It might be someone with other complaints about a certain group of writers, or who assumes that every story has a Deep Political Meaning that she disagrees with. Or who dislikes any book without an obvious Deep Political Meaning. Shrug and go on. That person is reviewing for a different audience than most readers, one suspects.
Should you confront the blogger/critic? I would not, unless you can prove that the individual’s review is doing active harm, and you have a lawyer to back that up. The other concern would be if the individual is obsessed enough, having him/her/whatever stalk you, or try to cause problems at Cons or signings or other things. That used to be more of a problem for romance writers than for most genres, to the point where several well-known traditional romance authors had a guard/minder/polite, large individual at signings to nicely discourage over-enthusiastic fans.
Image Credit: Image by Prawny from Pixabay
*My favorite, later taken down by Amazon because it was misleading, was a one-star of a steampunk novel that went on and on about how unsafe the machinery described in the book was, and how it did not take into account the safety procedures necessary for dealing with high-pressure steam, and the book should be banned before someone got killed. I almost wondered if the review was a joke, but apparently it wasn’t.
Mad Genius Club 
13 responses to “A Harsh Review! My Smelling Salts!!!”
I ignore bad reviews. They are generally written by one-note Johnnies that are mad because you ignored their hobby-horse.
An example was one where the reviewer was mad because I had not mentioned his father’s unit in my book about the siege of Rabaul. Thing is, his father’s unit was not involved with Rabaul. It was in New Guinea, not New Britain.
Another one dinged a book because it was titled “African-American Soldier in the US Civil War,” because all of the units were Colored Troops, not African-American. Except, of course (if you actually read the book) the first Black units raised were either called African-American or African Descent (eg: 1st Louisiana, African Descent). Most were US Colored Troop (USCT), which is why the book had USCT at the end of the title.
A third example was someone who ripped by book “Texas Shipwrecks” because it was about marine archaeology and maritime history, not treasure hunting.
I absolutely welcomed a couple of one and two star reviews for my various historicals and contemporary comedy novels because they were from genuine readers, who for some reason, just didn’t jell with the books. Nothing wrong with not appealing rapturously with everyone … and as you pointed out, firewall five-star reviews are a bit suspicious anyway.
But no – never-ever-ever interact with a reviewer who gives a less than stellar review. The lesson of the horrible Jaqueline Howett The Greek Seaman imbroglio was a lesson to us all. Link below for those who have forgotten that authorial meltdown.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/mar/30/jacqueline-howett-bad-review
The ironic thing about The Greek Seaman mess was that, as I recall, the author wasn’t really interacting with someone who had given her a bad review. It was basically what Alma described as a three-star review: “not bad, not outstanding, a few glaring typos or plot problems but nothing to scream about.” If she’d just left it alone, she’d have gotten a bit of publicity and maybe even a purchase or two from the mediocre review. The only thing that turned that review into a serious negative was her public meltdown.
Oh, and what a meltdown it turned out to be. My own on-line indy-writers group watched with horrified fascination, as the whole epic unfolded.
Honestly, all Jaqueline H. should have said was, “Thanks for the review, but just to let you know that the referenced typos have been corrected in the newly-available edition …” but instead, she went all hysterically unprofessional. It was a lesson in ‘what not to do’…
She did get a lot of immediate international attention out of the meltdown … but I don’t think she has written another book – Amazon search sayeth nothing with a search of her name – so as a publicity stunt, I don’t think she got any long-term joy out of it.
A cousin owns a Bar & Grill. One of his 1 star reviews is a gem. Reviewer says the place is unpopular, and they only went the one time, then complained about the crowd causing a wait for a table for a large group (and it must have been massive) and then ran down a list of everything wrong with EVERY item on the menu, including items that are not on the menu at the same time (seasonality and rotation of Daily/Weekly specials), then went on to complain about the Bar section, drinks etc. There is another one similar except it was a 2 out of 5 and just two of them, not a group. But they too worked through the menu and found complaints about nearly everything on it.
The one who doesn’t like any regency written after 1950 is missing out on at least two-thirds of Georgette Heyer.
Yes. That reviewer was … very odd. I couldn’t suss out what her reasoning was.
I treasure my low-star reviews because:
1.) They make the book look real, as mentioned.
2.) They tell me when I have expanded my discoverability outside my target audience.
I write a cross-genre blend of military scifi thrillers with romance. When I get a review complaining there is too much bad in the book, then I know it’s reached romance readers who were looking for light escapist romance, and weren’t prepared for tactical accuracy and actual terrorist operations or governmental realpolitik.
When I get reviews complaining that the romances are unrealistically accelerated, then I know it’s reached mil-scifi / thriller readers who weren’t prepared for the speed of romance from meet cute to happily ever after/happily for now.
(Amusingly enough, it’s not just a romance shorthand. The speed is factually accurate, if you’ve known women who latched onto a soldier or sailor to get themselves the hell out of their country. I grew up in an environment where this was officially discouraged, but it was exceedingly clear that this was a standard thing. It goes one of two ways: either she divorced the soldier as soon as she got her green card, or the marriage was still going strong until death did them part. There really wasn’t a middle ground… and my subject matter experts in making things tactically correct, who are familiar with this, never complain about the speed of the romance.)
3.) In aggregate, reviews tell me what my audience is looking for. Low-star reviews from my target market say it very specifically!
There is a vast difference between beta readers and people who buy the book for entertainment. (No, spellcheck, I did not mean vas deferens.) Beta readers are reading to not only note their emotional reactions (Happy here. Laughed there. confused here, fix this!) but also technical accuracy, and some editing from pacing (the story dragged here, this felt like it went way too fast and was too easy before the big battle) to copyediting (you forgot a word here. I know what you meant, but spellcheck won’t catch that.)
Readers are reading to be entertained. So their reviews will mention what they loved, or what they wanted, or what they didn’t like… I know one author who puts all the reviews into a wordcloud, and looks for the common themes. Another uploaded all reviews on a series to an AI, and asked it to do a report on the common themes of what the readers liked, disliked, and wanted (AI is pattern-matching, and pattern-matching is what it’s doing here.) I haven’t done that level of analysis yet, but I’ve skimmed them, doing the pattern-matching myself.
This isn’t to make the series a paint-by-numbers, but just as a band can read the crowd and go “this one’s here for our favorites / this one will be excited to have new stuff tried on them”, so too it helps with *how* to tell the next story you want to tell anyway.
The low-star reviews are often much more direct; if they feel you’ve deviated off promises earlier in the series, or they don’t like a series direction, you don’t need such tools. They tell you flat out! They’re not always right – see again, some of them happen when I got outside my target market – but I can crosscheck between low-star and the five star ‘I like this, but…”
4.) In large enough aggregate, they can identify a problem point in a story.
Good beta readers can tell you when there’s a problem in a story. Awesome beta readers can tell you how to fix it and be right. (They’re rare. Usually, betas are good identifying a problem, but wrong about what the nature of the problem is, and/or how to fix it without breaking the story / while making the story even better. This is one of the reasons authors often make terrible beta readers – they tend to tell you how *they* would write it, not a good way to fix it for your style and story.)
Readers are neither beta readers, nor editors. But if enough tell you where they got bored, or Did Not Finish, or Threw Book Across Room, then you know that was the final straw, and you need to go back earlier and see what led up to them being fed up and complaining at the common point. Sometimes it’s a train of mistakes. Sometimes it’s breaking the characters/plot. Sometimes it’s not fulfilling the promises to the reader. Sometimes it’s lack of foreshadowing… or too much!
The lowest-star review is not one-star – it’s the one they don’t leave, by not spending their money on the next book. The first chapter sells the current book. The last chapter sells the next. So if I have a massive drop-off on series sell-through, then it’s time to check the beginning of the book not selling… and the ending of the book before.
Re: romance in military situations…. Datum: My mother was a war-bride who boogied out of the land-of-no-nylons (Antwerp) with an American GI and stayed married until my father decided he wanted a different family (w/young kids) after retirement, and divorced. (The second wife was a real piece of work and was in some fashion involved in his death.)
As a reader– writers, PLEASE ask readers to go over your reviews for you.
I would much rather go through and see if my favorite author has any useful bad reviews, so I get new books from them faster, instead of some abusive jerk messing with their head because they ahve a bad day.
A bit OT but I remember one highly bizarre review of a Manly Wade Wellman novel about John the Balladeer. It complained that the book was awful because:
(a) No graphic violence.
(b) No profanity.
(c) No sex scenes.
(d) John was ‘unrealistically good and noble’.
They concluded by saying that this Wellman guy obviously didn’t know anything about writing horror stories!
That one was a winner.
Groan. John the Balladeer is in my File 13 reviewers. His Southern/Mountain voice just turned me off. But Wellman other books are good.
I hate to point this out… but John’s mountain voice is DEAD FREAKING ON for his part of NC, at his time. Wellman lived there, and that’s how his neighbors talked. (It’s not the same as Kentucky, Tennessee, or other parts of the Appalachians.)
Literally, you could not be more accurate of a transcript without using IPA and little linguistic diagrams.
If you don’t believe me, hunt up video and audio of Obray Ramsey, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and other IRL folks mentioned in Wellman’s books.
For example, David Hoffman’s film of NC “bluegrass” music, facilitated by Bascom Lamar Lunsford and including him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-t7lH0Uzu0