Long dark day of the writer’s soul
September 4, 2013
Today is another one of those days. Feeling sore all over this morning, but working to motivate myself for the next step, I accidentally stumbled on some newer Amazon reviews of my book. That was a mistake. I swore I would never get angry on this blog because I don’t want come across as petulant or self-absorbed as so many of those writer’s who have those “woe is me” posts on their blog. Sorry to do this to you, but I need to vent, if for no other reason than to show that behind every book is a human.
When I see phrases emerging in comments like “gets a little lost in”, “is let down by”, “started to get weaker”, “some tedious parts”, “predictable”, “wasn’t that original”, “hilarious” (-I didn’t even intend it as comedy-), then I wonder if I should be writing at all. I also wonder if some commenters even read most of the book, especially when you look back through their comments on other books and see cutting and pasting of their own comments to other promotional ebooks. It’s almost as if they are on a crusade. Hey Amazon, there’s a useful purpose for those reading analytics you’re collecting! Never mind verified purchase – let’s see which kindle commenters actually read the whole book.
The real damage is that the blows of those couched phrases aren’t really offset by the other, positive, more effusive comments. The reason? Because potential readers are suspicious of vague, positive reviews on Amazon, but will give more credence to negative reviewers when deciding whether to purchase or not. If the negatives outweigh the positives – that’s it – game’s over.
The one that really got me today was one that obviously came from a free KDP Select download a while ago. It makes me re-consider the wisdom of using KDP Select at all. “Good for a free download” was the summation. And so, years of planning and working, produces something whose value is – nothing. Free. That’s where the world is today folks. If it’s free … it’s “good” … because you didn’t have to pay for the bits that you would have written differently (by the way, where exactly is the book you’ve written?) No wonder aspiring indie writers’ endeavours are becoming shorter, cheaper, weaker, tedious & predictable. In a world of free, does it really pay to try anymore? Don’t bother aspiring writers – save yourselves now!
Today, I no longer want to be part of this fiasco of a world … again.
Tomorrow, I hope to feel different.
I’m going to do some programming for a while instead.
PS. One thing I notice is that the majority of negative commentators spring from UK or Europe. In the US commentators seem to be more praise-giving and enthusiastic. I guess regional psychology might influence people’s disposition toward positive or negative commenting, for what it’s worth.
Entry Filed under: Writing