Mimi Barbour

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Are reviews here to stay?? Do we want them to??

March 12, 2013 By Mimi Barbour Leave a Comment

***

Below is part of my reply in response to others’ remarks about my last blog called “Future of Indie Authors”.
 
One thing mentioned in your comments that I found surprising
is the differences some have in the importance of reviews. We all know that
many are requested. We also know that some of the five stars can be
questionable. If a book only has five or even ten reviews, the readers might
not believe their credibility, but once there are more than say – fifteen, I
have no doubt that many are honorably earned from readers who like to have a
say about a book they took the time to read.
 

***

 
Personally, like every other author, I have reviews from
people whose names I recognize. Some are from close friends and a few from
family. As I release more books, these ‘special’ reviews are showing up less.
Since most had only gone to the effort on my behalf as a way to show support
when I first started out, that doesn’t surprise me and I appreciate that they
did so in the first place.

Another phenomenon I’ve
recognized is that I have fans – (thank you Lord!) – ones who have followed me
from book to book. Their reviews are my favorite because I don’t know any of
the people and yet they have continued to support me by buying my novels,
reading them and letting me know they like what I write.

I’ve also recognized that almost
invariably after each FreePartay I’ve participated in, where I’ve given away hundreds,
sometimes thousands of books, within a few days, reviews begin to appear.
Hopefully, my back matter appeal has worked or else some of these folks respect
our endeavours and just leave comments.  

I have no doubt that other readers are buying because of
these comments and that’s the way it should be. As I said above, if there are
only a few five-star reviews, it can be a bit suspect to whether the book is as
good as being stated. But then the cautious buyer does have the ability to read
a sample before putting out any money. As far as Amazon is concerned (I’m not
familiar with any others) if a buyer is still unhappy, they can return the book
and get their money back.

Because I know how important they are to an author, I do
write reviews for almost every book I read. If it’s a three-star or less – I rarely
finish it and I pass on leaving any comment. I’d rather not trash work that I
knew took so long to create. (Just my own preference.)

I accept that not everyone likes my work and that they have
the right to tell me so. But I must say it does grate me when the poor reviews
are mean-hearted and tasteless. Some people even go as far as admitting they’ve
never read the book, but since they had trouble downloading it, or because it
had a swear word or some such foolishness, they decide to dock the author
stars.

If people leave me a one or two star, I prefer that they
tell me why they. If it’s something constructive, I will work on it. If it’s
on my earlier work, I hope they check the dates and give me another chance. A
principle that’s well known comes into play here and not just for authors.
Practice makes perfect! Okay we’ll modify that a bit and say better.   

One of my books (Lovable Christmas Angel) has 90 reviews. It
blows my mind every time I check to see if there’s more. I’ve read every one
and have left them a thank you. This thrills my narcissistic side and is a partial
payoff for all the hard work.

In summation, I guess you’ve gathered that I’m hopeful that
Amazon won’t take away our reviews. To me, it would be like taking away ones
right to an opinion.

What do you think?

 

 

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