Author Reviews (Part 2)

 Now that I have officially finished editing this second book (I don't know why I chose to use the word "officially" because other than saving and closing the document, nothing signified the end). It feels strange to have another polished book under my belt. I would definitely say that it no longer intimidates me to write a book. I do think it's still a lot of effort, but now I can trust myself to get to the end of the story, and even go over it once or twice.

I have submitted for the Author Mentor Match so I will find out in a couple of weeks whether I've been chosen for that. If I haven't, my goal this summer will probably be to go through it superficially one last time to make sure that I've caught any small inconsistencies, before trying to query it.

Writing query letters is my biggest struggle so hopefully I can write one that is great. I'll start researching the best tips and tricks soon.

But now that I have finished this edit, I am automatically brought back to the sequel of my first novel, Kingdom of Sand. I've already started the sequel, Ascent into the Mist, but it has been a while so I will have to reread some passages and get back into that headspace before I can continue. But with the summer coming ever closer, I am excited for all the free time away from school I can use for my writing.

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So in the first part I wrote about authors interacting with other book reviews other than their own. Now I'm going to talk about their interaction with their own reviews.

This should be very short because there is really one answer to this. When someone says anything negative about your book you have to find out who they are and send them nasty emails...joking. Of course, whether you read them or not (completely your choice) YOU SHOULD NEVER ANSWER/COMMENT ON A REVIEW OF YOUR BOOK.

And yet it still happens. I am now going to share with you a few of the craziest stories I have heard of authors getting involved with reviews:

1. Kathleen Hale, an American author, exposed herself to have confronted a reader who had given her a negative review by writing an article for the Guardian. There have been many responses to this from the reading community and most seem to see this as a lack of judgment in her part. 
2. A booktuber, Literary Diversions, was hounded by not only the author for which she posted a negative review, but also the author's family and friends. 
3. A self published author, Dylan Saccoccio, was upset when a reader gave him a one star review on Goodreads. 

Basically, at the end of the day, however tempting it is to respond, it will never end well. Everyone has a right to their own opinion and if as an author you weigh in, you are only going to turn more people off from reading it.

I want to quickly break down the reasoning behind responding to a negative review. Obviously the reader did not enjoy your book. What is the point in responding? What could you possibly have to say? That they didn't read the book properly?

If you tell them that they should take it down/change their review then you are only making them more certain in their desire to make it a low rating because they now feel attacked. Then they are also likely to tell other people about this experience and make your situation even worse because you have reduced your potential audience by even more. It's only a downward spiral.

Readers aren't giving out low ratings because they are mean and want to make authors feel bad about themselves, they simply didn't like the material. Their review will be fair and justified no matter the review because decent human beings won't insult a book just for the fun of it. But if you reply back to them it will only come across as an attack and make the situation personal.

So don't reply to reviews.