VBT# Off the Record - Camryn Rees
Today's VBT# is author Camryn Rhys and her novel Off The Record , as Ive been called away from the computer the last few days , this tour is belated -so I apologise to Camryn and Marissa :)
Enjoy thy Off The Record readers .
Synopsis: Off the Record - Camryn Rhys - November 2011
Lust strikes as their eyes meet over a basket of overpriced Roquefort.
Surprised to meet chef Kit Parker at the grocery store, Emily goes undercover to Kit's restaurant that very night, only to crave more than her cooking. As a food critic, Emily finds it hard to resist the delectable cuisine or the busty, punky chef who created it.
Kit believes she's met the woman of her dreams, but her new lover is hiding something. When a scathing review hits right before grand opening, all blame points to Emily. Will their relationship fizzle before it sizzles?
Author Guest Post :
Why a Bad Review Won’t Kill You and Other Patronizing Opinions by Camryn Rhys
I started off my career as a book reviewer, and I always used to think that it would be relatively easy to get negative reviews because I knew how subjective I was as a reviewer and I would give people the benefit of the doubt. But I got my first honest-to-goodness bad review for my first book not long ago, and it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.
What I learned about negative reviews from being a reviewer.
First, they really are subjective. I was friends with enough reviewers who’d read similar books to know that there was no hard and fast rule when it came to whether or not a book was “good”.
Second, they are equally as subjective as positive reviews. That’s not quite as fun to hear, of course. Because while we don’t want the negative reviews to define us, we really want the positive ones to define us. It’s hard to remember that even a positive review is just an opinion.
Third, negative reviews are more interesting than five-stars. Everyone gives out five-star reviews these days, and there are so many people reviewing, a book can easily get the reviews of multiple reviewers before it’s even released, no matter who releases it. While your fans may not all rush out to read your five-star reviews, they will all clamor around your one-stars.
And last, everyone gets them. Except self-published authors, apparently. I’ll never forget, one of the absolute worst books I’ve ever read in my life… nope, it was the worst… I couldn’t even bring myself to post a review on the blog about it, because I didn’t have one nice thing to say. It was derivative, cliché, boring, and poorly-written. It was also self-published. So I went to the book’s Amazon page to see what other reviewers had said. The book got twenty-two five-star reviews. Twenty-freaking-two. I was flabbergasted. I did not end up posting the review for publication, but I did put up a review on Amazon. Because everyone gets bad reviews.
Look at your favorite authors and their books. If they don’t have at least one one-star review, they haven’t been around very long. Just wait. Everyone picks up people who hate their books. It’s some kind of law of nature. So no matter when your first one comes, just chalk it up to statistics and go back and read your positive reviews. And know that Nora and Sherrilyn and Stephen King and Stephanie Meyers all get one-star reviews, and they still make millions on good books that a lot of people love.
Take those negative reviews in stride. As much as they will come, so will the good ones. In the mean time, have a little chocolate, brew a little tea, and check out my book. If you give me a bad review, I’ll promise to take my own advice… promise.
~Camryn Rhys
True enough. Right now, the French edition of one of my books has nine reviews on amazon.fr. Seven are 5 star, one is 3 star, and one is 1 star. All you can do is shrug and keep writing.
ReplyDeleteI'm anxiously awaiting my first release in January and have to say I am pooping myself at the thought of reviews! It seems to me there are people who seem to 'get off' on giving one star reviews. A friend of mine recently got one before her book had even been published.
ReplyDeleteAs a reviewer, Ill pop in - I have a motto that life is too short to read bad books , so for me I set myself on my site to only review books that I consider 3 stars and above as I dont really see the point of a 1 star or 2 star review ,to me if it was that bad why bother even reading it. Though, as I found there were so many five star reviews , I decided to add an extra part of a star which means that its highly recommended which only a handful of books ever get. I know personally for me , if I was to get a 1 star or even 2 star as I tend to take criticism to heart - id be disillusioned.
ReplyDeleteI gave a book a 2 star review once and I still feel bad about it. I wrote my review and sat on it for nearly two weeks before I posted it. Because I'd been given the book with the condition I'd need to post reviews on several sites I felt obligated to post my review but the only reason I even finished the book was because I'd promised to review it. eekkkk. What would you guys have done? I tried to phrase my negative comments as nicely as possible and ended the review by pointing out something the author does well but it was still a 2 star review.
ReplyDeleteI would have done the same as you Melissa , it is hard when you are in the position that you HAVE to post the review no matter what. I too have been in that position and gave a book 2 stars.
ReplyDelete