Last two weeks, I watched like a hawk increasing numbers of reviews, their statistics and what our readers think of our books. The first day was the worst. When you are a new writer, good or bad review can make you or break you, and when is just a few of them, every single voice weighs heavily on you.
After two weeks, the burden became slightly less, and I started to see the reviews as more like a learning curve for my future career than a judging post for my writing skills. I discussed them with Mark, learning what we were trying to say and how it was received, what themes were working and even, to some extent, how our characters can develop. It has immense value to us, not to mention encountering the positive reception encourages us to write more, reinforcing the belief we did the right thing dipping into the creativity pond.
Why I said I stopped judging myself by them? Because you can’t satisfy everyone. We have the review stating, ‘That was the best opening I ever read in the book,’ while the other says, ‘From page one, I knew it would be a drag.’
We have people who love our Ina’s sass and outspoken nature and the ones who compare her to a moody American teenager ( Sic! Yeah; I know!)
In the end, the statistic win and statistic says we have an overall rating of 4.3 on Goodreads and 4.6 on Amazon, and to put it into perspective, The Lord of the Rings has 4.38. Not that I would ever dare to compare our work to Tolkien’s masterpiece, but it simply shows even such a literature titan could not satisfy everyone.
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