Amazon One-Star Reviews
Have I ever told you that I really like author John Scalzi? Not just because I love his books, but I do really enjoy his work. I like him because he spends a lot of time promoting the work of other young writers and promoting the science fiction and fantasy genre in general.
Recently, Scalzi published on his blog all his Amazon one-star reviews. As a fairly novice writer who will never write as well as Scalzi, I found this quite liberating. If folks like him endure these bad reviews, maybe I should not let my own setbacks get me down. He has challenged other authors to do the same, publishing their Amazon one-star reviews online. In this post, he links a number of authors who have taken up the challenge, including Charles Stross and Jo Walton.
So, though I am not in the league of these other authors, I will post my one-star review for my book BMOC.
I like the concept for the book and like reading Warren Meyer's Coyote
Blog. I don't understand how crude and uncouth became popular and I am
disappointed that is the approach that was chosen with this book. I
should have paid attention to the review by "Warren's mother." I've
returned my copy to Amazon for a refund.
Wow, I actually feel better. Based on this review, I will warn you as I warn my friends when I give them a copy: The book has its crude parts, and I have only let my kids read highly edited portions. That being said, its not Fear of Flying either, and my parent's priest read it without spontaneously combusting. But don't buy it if you are turned off by harsh language and some sexual humor. I have two youth novels in the works, you can save your money for them ;=)
Postscript: This is one of the one-star reviews posted for Anya Bast's Witch Fire:
"Not romance, not erotica, basically porn - what little plot there is
exists to connect the sex scenes, note I didn't say love making scenes.
Altogether distasteful and I won't waste money on this author again."
LOL, if the review is trying to hurt Ms. Bast's sales, I am not positive this is the right approach.
Chris Yeh:
You're dead on with your comment about the "Witch Fire" review. I'm going to fire off a link to that book to my wife right now!
April 29, 2008, 4:21 pmChris Byrne:
Warren,
Glad to know you're a Scalzi fan as well. I've been reading (and corresponding with) him since 2000; and I've managed to "convert" my wife and most of my friends as well.
What I really like most is his attitude towards his job; in that he treats it as just that, HIS JOB (and all that implies).
Did you by any chance go to the book signing last year?
April 29, 2008, 6:18 pmChris Byrne:
Warren,
Glad to know you're a Scalzi fan as well. I've been reading (and corresponding with) him since 2000; and I've managed to "convert" my wife and most of my friends as well.
What I really like most is his attitude towards his job; in that he treats it as just that, HIS JOB (and all that implies).
Did you by any chance go to the book signing last year?
April 29, 2008, 6:19 pmErik The Red:
Charles Stross took the inspiration as well the other day:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/04/we_get_reviews.html
Some of his writing (particularly the Atrocity Archives and the Jennifer Morgue) may have too many geek-related inside jokes for some people, but I found his work to be refreshing and different overall.
April 29, 2008, 8:11 pmSteffenH:
I really enjoy your book at the moment, but I'm still looking for crude parts which could be bad for children. Maybe you should translate your book to german. Folks here are used to your wording, but need your lessons between the lines.
April 30, 2008, 2:44 amKorgmeister:
I actually tend to be nervous about buying any book (especially non-fiction) from Amazon which has no reviews below 3 stars. Positive reviews don't tend to tell me much about whether the book would be one I'd enjoy. Whereas negative ones are often from people who either didn't 'get' the book, or who thought it was something that it wasn't. Sometimes they mention negatives which would really turn me off and I know I've dodged a bullet. Other times (for example, your complaints about excessive smuttiness) I figure if that's the worst thing someone had to say about the book, I'll enjoy it.
I find reading negative reviews allows me to find out if the book really is going to be what I'm expecting.
May 3, 2008, 1:53 am