As a first time author, the anticipation of reviews can be a near terrifying experience. Having recently published my first novel, I was putting myself out there to the entire world for judgment. Naturally, I want to get reviews, but no matter what someone publishes, there will be those that find fault. Sometimes the criticism is constructive. Sometimes it isn’t. It could certainly be worse. I realize that when I put something out on the interweb inviting others to evaluate my work, that I was subjecting myself to less than flattering results. So far, I have very few reviews and happily the worst ones I’ve received were three stars.
Of all the critical reviews, all of them have been fair in my opinion. One surprised me though. It was titled “Holy political misunderstandings and bad grammar.” Ouch, that one hurt. Now, any of you that know me, understand that I’m a political wonk. I have been for years, so the reviewer’s suggestion that I was attributing dirty politics with the wrong party could not have been more wrong. Clearly, the reviewer was on a different political plane than me. On the remark about grammar though, he had a point. Since initial publication, I have found a few grammatical and punctuation errors. I’ve always been a voracious reader and honestly, I’ve never read a book that didn’t have a few of these, but it still encourages me to do a better job of editing.
Others have pointed out that I was lecturing a little too much about politics. Well yes, the entire book was political in nature and critical of politics in general. So, for that I accept the criticism but make no apologies. The same reviewer categorized my writing as sometimes clunky. I have to admit, yes it is. Not having any formal training in creative writing, I no doubt had some clunkiness to my tome. Hopefully, my writing will improve as I continue to learn and write.
I also received a private review via email from a Facebook friend of mine. It was rather critical, but it was welcomed and will no doubt result in me improving my writing as I go forward. I encourage others to do this. You will be surprised how often indie authors appreciate personal dialogue.
I have a friend and fellow author (AR Shaw) who recently received a review complaining about her use of Muslim terrorists who speak Arabic in her book The Last Infidels, suggesting it was offensive that Shaw didn’t “nuetralize” the terrorists by avoiding the reference to their religion and language. Huh?!! Seriously? Just the title alone should have served as a trigger to avoid the book if that type of thing would be offensive. The entire premise of the book is based on Muslim terrorists. How could that have been a surprise? I can promise you one thing. You will never read anything I write that embraces political correctness and I’m fairly confident you won’t from Ms. Shaw either. I’ve nearly abandoned one of my favorite genres, science fiction, because it has been nearly overwhelmed with politically correct nonsense. The authors have a right to write it, but I also have a right not to read it.
As frightening and humbling as it can be, I recently tried a promotion to encourage more reviews. I gave away my book for five days using a Freebooksy campaign. During the promotion, I got nearly 5,000 downloads. As this happened, it occurred to me I was inviting further criticism in a way I hadn’t anticipated. Freebooksy offers some general categories, none of which fit mine closely. My book is in the political suspense and post apocalyptic genre. I put the campaign in the more general suspense category. Now, if you’re not a fan of post apocalyptic fiction, you’re not likely to find a great deal of satisfaction reading books like mine. Most of them tend to have similar political leanings. So, having promoted my book to people who would otherwise not enjoy PA fiction, I can certainly expect some robust criticism based on the politics alone. That’s fair, but it doesn’t mean I have to enjoy the outcome.
Anyhow, so far I’m pleased with the reviews. Nearly everyone of them have given me food for thought as well as ideas about how to improve my writing skills. I still cringe when I see that I have a new review, but I still read them and look for nuggets of constructive criticism.