Responding to a Negative Review

Okay, if you've self-published, we've all heard, NEVER EVER respond to a negative review. And as someone who's gotten more than her fair share, I never did. I was lucky enough to get reviews in the first place so I just figured any review was better than none. And it's true for the most part. People who buy books, look at reviews as a gauge. First it's the reviews, then it's the price.* (more on this phenomenon next week, because it's a fascinating topic.)

A couple of weeks ago, I received a review that was more like a rant and picked apart every single thing I did wrong in my stories. Now, I don't claim to be the next Jane Austen, and my critique partners don't read Regency romance (except mine and I like it that way) so the things the reviewer picked apart were - I hate to admit - dead on.

(Truthfully, this review had my blood pressure through the roof because she also claimed I didn't do enough research. OMG this tore me up inside. I have spent countless hours on research.)

These were not editing mistakes, or typos, or formatting, these mistakes were within the context of the story that Regency writers should know. (Which I did, but chose to ignore because, well, actually there are too many excuses to list. Suffice it to say, I wanted to write my books MY way and not be like everybody else.) Which I will never do again.

That being said, I decided to tackle the monumental task of rewriting all of my novellas. It's not so much using "find and replace", it's the task of rereading every single word and changing what needs to be changed. I spent three 12-hour days doing this. Because as you know, once you revise, then you have to republish.

(And if you want to know what's actually involved in that enterprise, take a look at my Anne Gallagher blog, because I've spelled it out quite concisely. For those of you who are thinking about self-publishing, you might want to read this because it will tell you that you really really really need to make sure you have an excellent copy to publish on the first go-round.)

For those of you who have a publisher behind you, you know what it means to have copy edits and galleys, and other revisions you need to do to get the book perfect before anyone sees a word of it. For a self-publisher (on a budget) I rely on my critique partners. I have one for grammar and punctuation, one for overall story content, and one I rely on as a copy editor. As I have stated, they are totally made of awesome and I wouldn't change them for the world.

Anyway, I revised all the stories. Then I republished them. Then I wrote a disclaimer and tacked that up front and center on my Amazon author page as well as the book pages and into every single book I revised.

To My Readers ~

In writing any kind of book, research is needed. In writing an historical romance novel, research is critical. In all my books, I have done exhaustive study into the era known as the Regency Period. I strive to make the historical facts I intersperse throughout my stories interesting for you. That I sometimes take liberties with those facts is my right as an author, because, after all, this is fiction.

That said, I do not hold strictly to the more formal aspect of addressing titled characters with their proper designation. Nor do I firmly adhere to other elements of the period – clothing, food, rank, or architecture. For some purists of the genre, they find this unacceptable. I find it makes for easier reading. However, I try to keep as much to the era as possible.

My books are meant to entertain and written with that purpose in mind. I hope you like them for what they are – and what they are intended to be. An enjoyable diversion from your everyday lives.

Now, because I thought this was kind of a drastic measure, (this review was hurting my sales, and no one is going to mess with my sales) I wrote to one of the leading professionals in the business to see if this was a stupid idea or not. She said it was a ballsy move, but thought it might work. "Try it and see what happens" was the response. (I also spoke with a few other friends and they agreed.) What could it hurt.

I also decided to "comment" to the reviewer and tell her what I'd done. Another thing you should NEVER EVER do. And she responded kindly, and said that she didn't mean to rant about it, but it was driving her crazy. Which, when I read some big authors out of New York, the stuff they throw in their books makes me fling them across the room. So I know how she feels.

I'm trying my best to put out a quality product. That said, in this new publishing world, with the ability to revise and republish, hey why not. New readers come along every single day. And if I can snag a few more fans, then 36 hours work to rewrite them is a drop in the bucket.

And some of you may ask, "Well, why didn't you put out a quality product in the FIRST place?" And my answer is -- I thought I had. I don't know about you, but after reading a manuscript 10,000 times, the only thing I want to do when I get it back from my critters is make the changes and upload it. I'm sick of looking at it and I want to move on.

When I first saw this review, I thought seriously (for about an hour) to write to you all and ask for your help, either writing your own reviews and posting them, or clicking on the "does this review help you" button at the bottom of the review and saying no. But that's just childish. I mean, yeah, this review was devastating, but I'm not in high school anymore. I can fight my own battles.

Now, I also know, what I've done might not help you. Some people are going to leave bad reviews no matter what you write. One 2 star reviewer of mine insisted I wasn't anything like Mary Balogh. Yeah, and? I'm not her and don't write like her, nor will I ever write like her. I'm me. Other 2 star reviewers have complained my novellas are too short, that they should be turned into novels. Uh, no. They're called novellas for a reason. And then I have the people who say "same old same old, boy meets girl, they fall in love, so what..." Makes me want to scream, "Well why did you buy it if you KNOW how it's going to end?" So, you have to take the good with the bad. But the upside to this post is, if I didn't respond to this reviewer, I never would have gotten the stories revised and who knows how many other readers I'd have lost because of a few simple mistakes.

So, the old "rule" of not responding to negative reviews, in my case anyway, worked. I think. I hope. I pray.

Tell me -- What do you do about negative reviews? Do you go back in and change your stories? Or do you just leave them the way they are and hope for the best -- because they're YOUR stories and no one is going to tell you how to write? (I dealt with this anguish as well. It was not pretty to admit I dropped the ball.)

Anne Gallagher (c) 2013