I find myself wondering just how important reviews are to an author. I've said before that a) you should never engage with reviewers, and b) reviews are one person's subjective opinion. But from a business standpoint, how does one calculate the value of them?
Obviously a long series of one or two star reviews can sink a book. No one wants to waste their time when the consensus is that something sucks. However, what's the median point that generates buzz without killing your novel? My books have from 3.4 stars to 5 stars, and from 2 reviews to 102 reviews. Given that I'm not a household name like James Patterson or Stephen King, reviews may help people find me or give me a chance, but how much should reviews be solicited or paid attention to?
I guess I'm struggling not because I'm looking to be liked, but because I don't know how integral they are to success. Anyone have any thoughts?
I've begun (as a reader) to pay less attention to reviews. Unless something is glaringly off sounding about the plotline, I'm going to try it!
ReplyDeleteSorry I didn't reply earlier, Nicole(still getting re-used to the blogosphere). I tend to ignore most reviews if there is a distribution of the rating, but if they're uniformly one or two stars, it tends to discourage me from picking it up, mostly due to limited time and wanting to be judicious with that time. I wonder how widespread that process of selection is.
DeleteI think that's a fair process! I've begun to stop doing that and at least adding books to consider them out of curiosity. But then I buy books far less than I used to, so I'm sure that plays a part.
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