Authors, take it on the chin

I recently stumbled over open complaints about negative reviews. Authors who either felt the need to educate readers or who felt personally insulted by the reader in question. I say reader here, because Amazon reviews can hardly be described to be professional. Though called reviews, they are merely readers' opinions. Nothing wrong with that, if only authors would understand that they are exactly that: opinions. And although I understand that receiving two or even one star 'reviews' is hurtful, there's no reason to go and whine openly about it.

Above: screenshot of the reviews I've received in the UK for Excuse me, where is the exit?

In many cases, if the book is well written and in general liked, the person reviewing it had a bad day at work, was left by the partner, didn't have regular bowel movements, whatever their reason, they had to take it out on someone.
In some cases, if the book is mediocre to bad or unreadable, those opinions are valid and important to the potential new buyer. That's what they are there for, by the way, despite the common misconception of authors thinking they're for them and therefore demand constructive criticism. I argued on one of the threads to think about how one goes about it personally. When I hated a book back then, in the days when I wasn't an author, I would've told my friends, 'Man that was utter shite, bored me stiff. The main character is just not right in the head. Don't buy it.'
I wouldn't have told my friend what the author could've done better. Why? Because I didn't care; I was a reader, a consumer and when that particular book didn't do its job, I moved on to the next.
It's rather ridiculous to demand anything from a reader. He or she already bought the book and spend valuable time with it, so him or her writing down what he or she thought of it, is a bonus, not something they have to do. To argue back or complain about it, doesn't really work in the author's favour, I would think. I for one would steer clear of giving an opinion, even if asked.
I received my first 2-star review today and guess what? I grinned, partly because I feel complete as an author now and partly because I knew it's going to happen after my post on Amazon was deleted. It's probably just a payback review for daring to speak my mind.

Besides, a mix of reviews is a good thing. It's natural that not everyone loves your book; some didn't get it, some didn't like it and then there are those who are completely taken. So no reason to complain and in case you have more negative than positive reviews, then, well, then back to drawing board.

So, authors, chin up, the next one might be five stars and the sun will shine again.

Self-publishing: it's crucial to be realistic

I read it more and more on writers' websites that authors, being fed up with getting rejection after rejection, are eager to self-publish. Often accompanied by the words 'I've heard so much about all the success stories, I'm thinking about it, too.'

As much as I support self-publishing at some point, I can't help but wonder how they define 'success'. Would they call one book a week a success or maybe one book a day, perhaps ten books a day? And I wonder if they know how little they get from each sale. Unless they start with a novel at $2.99, which is what you need to have to receive 70% royalties, but readers are more reluctant to buy. If you price it lower, you might get more sales, in fact you have to make many more sales to have the same royalties you'd get from one sale with $2.99 (about £2, I think)

I had priced my novel at 99c to start with and sold 65 in the first month. I then put the price to $3.49/£2.50 and the sales dropped drastically. Might be the subject matter (paranormal romantic comedy), but it could easily be down to pricing.
Reviews from independent blogs didn't seem to boost sales either. Now don't understand this as a moan; I've always said, you never know if a book sells or not; despite good reviews readers didn't exactly queue to buy the book. It's just something one has to accept. I will release the sequel to No Wings Attached in Janurary and will see how it picks up and if it picks up, if it will push the first book's sales, too. If not, then there's not much I can do other than writing them off as 'good books, but nobody wants to read them'.
Unless you couldn't care less about sales, for most of us self-publishing is a full time job; the press release, the plugging, the guest appearances, interviews, blogging, give-aways, talks, signings (if you have paperbacks), blog tours, etc. Marketing isn't to be taken lightly, because it's crucial to selling, unless you have a highly commercial book in a popular genre, like Thriller, for instance. Then it might pick up without you doing anything, especially if it's of good quality.

My short stories have been rather consistent in sales, I had them on a low price from the beginning and they have been perceived well by readers, which I'm glad for. Still, I personally wouldn't call rougly over 3500 sales (kindle only) since March as successful -- others might disagree -- but to me success begins if I sell about 1000+ in a month, because that's when your book is visible in the Amazon charts.

I think the sales figures often sound much better than they actually are. I receive 30% of each sale for 86p. Again, I'm not complaining, it's not a whinge, I'm just trying to bring across the reality of self-publishing to those who are dreaming. Hocking, Locke, Leather and the likes are the exeptions of the rule. Certainly, there are a few inbetween who sold over 10k or more books, which is fantastic, but the majority of authors struggle in the lower ranks, competing against the vast amount of new authors who release their books daily.

My advice is to be realistic, don't expect anything and if success comes around the corner by surprise, you will be more able to enjoy it.

Note: I'm refering to amazon kindle and smashwords here, as I don't have experienced B&N yet. Smashwords, to me, has not been proven the right platform, which might be due to less promotion because I have my main sales through Amazon.