Let’s play a game. Imagine you’re an author. (some of us this isn’t a huge stretch but work with me) It doesn’t have to be Kindle/ self/ publishing house published, let’s say you post your story on Wattpad (because there are some original stories there and I know of more than one story that has been scrubbed and published as an original story).
Wattpad has a commenting section, which means that people who read your story for free then go and make comments about it if they are so moved. These comments can be as in-depth as an analysis of what they liked about the chapter or story, or character theory to a literal keyboard smash followed by “HOW DARE YOU!” (those are always our favorites. It means it was so good they have no words. Always write to make your readers speechless). The comments could be “next chapter please” or it could be “this story sucks, break your keyboard”.
Now imagine getting these for each chapter of your published story.
After a while, you develop a thick skin. Comments like the latter are common but a good author knows to ignore those. There will always be trolls in the dungeons and it’s better to move to the more positive comments than to linger on the ones that are just posted to be cruel.
In the middle of this month there was yet another controversy surrounding an author who went on a social media rant about the star system and comments on Goodreads. And then doubled down and blamed her initial rant on everything from drugs to sexism. This author is not the first author to do this. This isn’t the first author to be lambasted by readers afterwards. Authors much more famous than this author have gone on the Goodreads rant and have also quickly been overruled. There’s a saying that all press is good press but how good is it when you are an author whose book has just been released and have already went on the entitled author rant ™. Personally, I did not know who this author was before I saw the drama and after reading all of it, I will probably never pick up a one of their books. Much in the same way I will never pick up a book written by other entitled acting authors or authors who plagiarize their works and then act offended when called out or popular authors who seem to believe they’ve risen to God Tier status and that it is quite impossible for their books to be anything less than Gold standard…even when the book in question is barely bronze.
Goodreads is not for authors. Goodreads is for readers. It is the separate comment section for published works where stars are dealt out randomly and comments of all sorts fly rampant. The rating system is arbitrary: how one person feels 1-5 stars should be given might be completely different than another person’s thought on the rating system. It’s the Thunderdome for readers.
An example of this. I’m currently in the middle of a semi popular book and wanted to see what other’s thought about it and possibly get a hint of a spoiler from the comments. The first six comments were reviews in exchange for a free copy. I always bypass those because personally, I don’t believe they can be unbiased. If a company gives you a free book, you can’t not give them a good review for fear that you won’t get future free books. For a lot of book blogs, that’s their bread and butter.
However, further down, the comments went from loving it to one person who vehemently disliked the book. Looking at that, and being halfway through the book, their reasoning made zero sense, so I am going to ignore that review.
I do this with a lot of the books I read, especially the Kindle ones that I don’t review. Skim the reviews, not only on Goodreads but on Amazon as well. Eventually there will be one or two reviews that will mention something about the book that will either sell you or dissuade you.
I believe readers, especially veracious ones who have 6 or more books under Currently Reading in their Goodreads pile, know what they like, know what they want to read, and understand exactly that a comment under a four star rating that states that the book was good but they didn’t feel it was five star good might be a book they will more than likely read.
Again, personally, a catchy book blurb is going to catch my attention more than reviews. Reviews are for when the blurb is okay but not utterly convincing.
So again, Goodreads is for readers, not the authors. Any author who ventures on should do so at their own discretion. It’s akin to not Googling yourself. Never see how your book is doing. That’s what your friends are for. And if you do choose to look, please go rant to your friends in private, do not go on social media and ruin your credibility by lambasting the very people you need to maintain your livelihood. Because after it’s all said and done, when your next book comes out, the first thing anyone is going to remember is “wasn’t that the one author who whined about how unintelligent readers ruined the popularity of their last book?”
Next week, it’s gonna be May dear friends, (bad joke, yes, I know) and I am spending the next two month’s delving into queer books once more. May will be devoted to my reviews of the first two books by new author J.R. Lawrie. June is Pride month, so my first review will be “Red, White, and Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston and the second will be “Combustion” by Elia Winters.
Spring has finally jumped in dear friends, so grab your favorite drink, your favorite seat on the porch and settle in with a good book.
Mouse's Reading Nook 