6 kinds of negative reviews

When your book is published, the next step you wait for is the review. You can publish the best book in this world, but it doesn't prevent readers to post negative reviews.

Opinions are like asses, everyone has them, so we need to respect the right of readers to expose their impressions.

This time I talk about negative reviews 1 or 2 stars, and some 3 stars reviews, I love to say "educative".

1-star rating without review. Those are the worst. You don't know if is this a troll, someone to get revenge on you because you did not pay attention on social media, or someone who loves to criticize indie authors in general.

1-star rating with plain words like "meh, really bad. " A short, childish expression about your book that doesn't explain the reason why.

1-star rating on your few books at the same time. This is personal, let's go take her from the throne.

2-star or 1-star rating about formatting, and editing issues. Sometimes it is really hard to understand the book if it is not edited. If the book has light editing, and you have grammar nazi for the reader, this will result in a negative review.

1- a star rating because the reader missed the genre. They expected romance and get erotica. They expected drama and get horror. Read the blurb carefully.

1-star rating because the reader has a high moral level. If you have profanity in your books and you are not religious, this will result in negative reviews.

A good reviewer should give up reading books that he doesn't understand. Do you think anyone ever listened to advice about editing issues?

Comments

Should we respond to negative reviews?

Recently I had a discussion in my social media about negative ratings. There was a situation in Goodreads, where I got two negative reviews on my two books. The point was in the way how the ratings were set up. First rating for my book "Body in the waves" was placed under 5-star review from another reviewer. While the reviewer praising my book, the troll came under to say "This is really bad book." Second rating was described as " Poor author needs writing lessons." Both reviews broke standards of reviewing, because there is no visible evidence that book was downloaded in Kindle unlimited or purchased. It was a clear troll act from a new page, without a profile photo and with a nickname. I reported this to Goodreads and they responded me they are processing this. Meanwhile, I heard from other authors that Goodreads failed to do anything about trolling. In these terms, Goodreads should delete such profiles and forbid the access because of breaking rules. T...

Why the refund is damaging indie authors?

I understand someone can be disappointed with a book. It is like I was disapointed with my trousers online and returned it. What makes a difference, my trousers were 40 euros. The book was 2.49 cents. This makes return funny, because what can you do with this money? Some readers don't understand story behind the refund. The author will get minus royalties. - 0.13 c in my Kindle report, that will vanish when someone else buy the book. The situation happens. Someone accidentaly clicked and bought a book. A random customer wants a refund. Maybe it was not a random move. Maybe the customer clicked, bought and did not like the book. When you don't like the book choose another options, instead of damaging authors. Write a negative review. Write negative one star rating. Don't purchase another books from this author. Or, maybe to reconsider and read it, again? If you write negative reviews or rate it with 1 or 2 stars, you are making a favor to authors. You are moving algorithms i...

Five myths about promo sites

Recently I asked for a featured Bookbub deal for one of my books. I got response that my book should be free priced and my expense would be 230 dollars. This is really funny, because I could expect people grab my book for free and give me one star (as it happens when books are available for everyone). To pay such amount of money would be waste and without a purpose. I am mix of traditional and indie author. Having a publisher, but not bestseller books, I am looking for ways to increase my book sales. Promo sites like Bookbub are very expensive and they offer their deals for 25% books from authors who applied for this. I had an insight to author's books who grabbed Bookbub deals. It works will authors who are already selling a good amount of their books. In general, promo sites are not working for favor of indie authors. These are five myths about promo sites: Promo sites give many readers. It is not true, because you will get visibility and many trolls, but not readers. Promo sites...

Rebelious rules by Kristina Gallo

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