Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Review > Rate

Being an indie author has its perks and challenges. Perks include writing, releasing, editing, and taking your story to wherever you want on your own terms. It’s liberating, challenging, sometimes scary, and often lonely. You see, getting read is hard enough, which obviously means that getting reviewed is about ten times as challenging. It’s understandable of course, people take a risk when they read an indie author, because truth be told, not all fish in the indie sea are fresh or nourishing, with some pretty bad catches in those waters. But there’s true gems to be found as well. That's why although I always make sure to review everything I read, I make doubly sure to review indie authors.


I know how hard it can be to get a review so I don’t mess with that. I read and review and if I love I share and tell people about it. Some people ask why all the effort and the reasons are many. For starters, if you go to a book store, you won’t find most indie books. Secondly, since we often work on a print on demand basis, costs for our books are unfortunately higher than a major publisher so anything that can convince someone to give us a chance is definitely welcome. Thirdly, it helps me remember what the hell I read. And Fourthly, without those reviews, people won’t give a good book a chance.

You see, a lot of people adore being on the hype train. It’s fun, it’s trendy, you’re in the know, and gosh darn it, belonging to a fandom isn’t a bad thing. But it’s surprising that when people read an indie author, they don’t feel that urge to review and share even if they LOVE the book. Sometimes they leave a rating and that’s it, which helps, but comes short of the impact you COULD have.

For other readers a rating doesn’t say much but a review explains what is great and what doesn’t work in a book. You don’t have to do a full analysis, you don’t have to go off the charts in depth, just offer an opinion. (And hey, if it has typos, we’re OK with that. it's our typos that drive us bonkers.) A rating is a blind opinion that only gives kind of an idea of how the book is, which is why a review will forever be a better option. It boils down to basic communication. A lonely number doesn’t say much without the words to show why something is 3, 4, or 5 stars.

For a writer, it goes even deeper. Many a time I’ve read reviews as motivation and to get valuable insight into what people like, what they don’t like, and even inspiration for plot points/twists. In addition, when it comes to sales, there are SO many number games and one of them is most certainly amount of reviews. Imagine this, you see a book, you read the synopsis and the book has a 3.75 rating, but 60 reviews, and a lot of them actually praise the work. Then you see another book with 0 reviews, but 300 ratings and an average score of 4.35. When I see that situation, it sounds like one book is a scam while the other could actually be a worthy read.

But still, a rating is better than nothing, though it shall never be better than a review. Reviews inspire, inform, and can influence others to give a book a shot. Think about that. Something you love can be read by one or several people just for taking one moment and stringing a few words to show the love. As a writer, I’m aware of how powerful words can be… and your words are just as powerful.

2 comments:

  1. Plenty of things ask for reviews in this day and age. If you use an APP on your phone for 10 seconds, you'll get a pop up "Hey, want to review us?"

    Restaurants, movies, heck, everything can be reviewed somewhere. Of all those things though, books make the most sense to review. Something you've often spent multiple hours with and have had an intimate experience with is genuinely worthy of thoughtful feedback.

    Studying how to leave an effective review and seeing how other people have reviewed something you've experienced is also a great way to find new perspectives to view things you enjoy. One of the things I look forward to reading is truly constructive negative reviews to things I love. It doesn't stop me from loving it, but it's fascinating to see the problems experienced by someone lacking rose-colored glasses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed it is and some people ONLY focus on getting reviews. I'm pushing for some review, writer, writing, life goals because I think it's time and it'll help me be able to help others more. And I actually do really enjoy reviewing books, music, movies, restaurants, and products in general. I think anything can be reviewed if you do it honestly. I agree with your take on books though. It's of the things you spend the most time with.

      As for how you review, I think it's down to how YOU want to go about it. I like digging deep but not overanalyzing. I could, but don't get enjoyment from it because the focus goes more to the review than the work, which should NEVER be the case. I've left negative reviews but remained supporting and constructive. It's easy to be funny and a dick, but it takes extra effort to still want to help someone even when you don't like their work.

      Delete