Amazon reviews!
It’s pretty obvious that any Amazon reviews can make a major difference to the success of any author, self published or otherwise, and make a significant difference to the sales of his or her novel. This week I have received some more 5 star reviews for Cut Limbo and in total contrast, I’ve also received some not quite so constructive criticism from a new follower (read complete stranger) on Twitter.
Ultimately, all writers, painters, actors and performers must understand that if you put yourself out there, you will get critics, you’re bound to. You will potentially get comments from experts and professionals, from the jealous, and, of course, from the moronic. What you do with these comments, and how you cope or react, is entirely up to you. If you can’t handle the pressure, the solution is simple: write, sing, paint or create your stuff, good or bad, and keep it all in a box like J D Salinger. (Actors will find this more difficult, acting alone, without an audience can seem pretty pointless)
J D Salinger loved to write, not to publish
I guess poor old J D just couldn’t cope with either the fame or the potential criticism. This photograph proves that he certainly didn’t appreciate journalists much, the poor guy looks terrified and I remember first seeing this photo and reading the story of how J D had accidentally been tracked down. It wasn’t nice, it was pure sensationalism and very paparazzi. Maybe J D put too much of his soul into his writing to have ripped apart by strangers?? We’ll never know.
How would J D Salinger have coped with Catcher in the Rye’s 429 Amazon reviews? We can only wonder. Maybe he wouldn’t have cared? Even after 50+ years the book seems timeless and it has seen generation after generation claim it to be a classic. Nice work J D.
Here’s couple of quotes from J D Salinger, they offer a little insight into the man…
“I’m just sick of ego, ego, ego. My own and everybody else’s. I’m sick of everybody that wants to get somewhere, do something distinguished and all, be somebody interesting. It’s disgusting.”
“If you do something too good, then, after a while, if you don’t watch it, you start showing off. And then you’re not as good any more.”
OK, Catcher in the Rye was written in the 1950′s, but what of the brave new world of contemporary literature: the self publishing, the Amazon reviews and the social media commentary? We can easily guess what J D would have thought about the effects of the Internet and the social media narcissism it encourages, but how’s it all panning out for contemporary writers?
It’s not all good I’m afraid to say!
But reviews are just reviews, right? Even Amazon reviews, (usually) are just other people’s opinions, right? It’s all very subjective and often it’s important to look into the reviewers motivation for his comments.
A growing number of self published writers seem to think they can easily find fame and fortune by ‘knocking out‘ a few thousand words of exploitative dross addressing the ‘plat du jour’, whether it be exciting adventures with hobgoblins, vampires, extra terrestrials or suburban S & M yummy mummies. Fortunately, these ‘jump on the bandwagon’ types are usually hammered in Amazon reviews, either for their spelling and grammar or simply because of their lack of originality. Nevertheless, these damning reviews must hurt just a little, even to the toughest and least sensitive of writers? Even those writers out for 100% financial gain and with no real love for their writing, for their craft, even these guys must wince just a tad with Amazon reviews like these:
This book was absolute trash, nothing but a black man’s fantasy about a curvy and promiscuous white girl and her tawdry sexcapades with different brothers. It’s obvious that the writer knows nothing about women and has a racist view of white people. As a black woman I was offended in reading this novel as I felt it had a narrow-minded approach to EVERYTHING and lacked both a plot and character development.
Ouch! Now that’s just got to hurt, right? And here’s some more about the same book…
This author obviously missed a few grammar classes as well as a few appointments with a therapist. Even if I could get through the horrid grammatical errors the author, reviewer and publisher allowed to be printed, I can’t believe how sick this person is. I’m glad it was free because I’d be in civil court trying to get my money back if I’d paid for this nonsense.
Call me traditional, but if I received a couple of reviews like these, I’d forget putting ‘pen to paper’, I’d just take up jogging.
But, here’s another Amazon review for the same book…
Omg, couldn’t put this book down…. I recommend this book to those who love a good book…… it’s a good read…..
So much for reviews, like I said, you will probably get comments from the experts, from the jealous and, of course, from the moronic.
Here’s some comments about Cut Limbo from Vinny a new follower on Twitter, he’s part of ourawesomegang… (read from the bottom to the top)
This was an interesting experience…
1. Vinny (a stranger) tells me it’s not the fault of Social Media that I haven’t sold that many copies of Cut Limbo
2. He tells me the Cut Limbo cover stinks, apparently it’s like a child’s colouring book. (I guess Vinny’s never heard of the Sex Pistols? And he doesn’t appreciate the concept of satire. It’s punk Vinny, it’s supposed to look like that.)
3. Vinny goes on to tell me that he’s looked inside Cut Limbo and page 1 reads as one long sentence and needs more paragraphs. (It’s actually 5+ paragraphs, so I’m not too sure what Vinny was actually reading.)
4. Vinny gave up the 107,000 word novel after 4 paragraphs and he suggests a lot of other people probably do the same.
5. Vinny asks if Cut Limbo is a British punk phrase? (It’s about cutting limbo Vinny. Panky’s life is in pieces, he’s in limbo and his old mate Chris suggests it’s time for him to Cut Limbo, like people cut class or cut school. It’s an American expression.)
6. Vinny goes on to explain that he is trying to help me and that lots of people have come through his site. (OK, Vinny, not too sure about your somewhat direct approach, but thanks for your attempt to help me.)
Vinny O’Hare has his own book published on Amazon, it’s called Animals in Zoos A-Z and it includes lots of animal photographs. Vinny doesn’t have any Amazon reviews so far.
As I said, reviews can come from many directions, not just Amazon reviews.
But here’s some good stuff about Cut Limbo: (CLICK to enlarge)
That was my very 1st review and because Molosser has also lived in Amsterdam and The Philippines he found the story particularly amusing and that’s great news for me as a writer. Authenticity means everything, Cut Limbo is all about culture clashes and being a fish out of water.
Dan Purvis was kind enough to recommend Cut Limbo as a Laugh Out Loud, perfect holiday read, with some real emotion.
Here’s another review and I’m delighted that these comments approach the story from a totally different perspective, no mention of the humour, but an appreciation of the intensity of the situation and the Cut Limbo soundtrack.
So writers beware, the good, the bad and the lovely are all out there waiting for you. But you really shouldn’t care, only write what you love and don’t write if you don’t enjoy writing.
I’m sure readers can tell if a novel has been thrown together as a quick earner (ha!), or if there’s no passion in the story and no thought in the plot. It takes a long time to produce a decent novel, from initial idea to published book Cut Limbo took more than 10 years and despite the odds and comments of obsession, I got it finished.
If anyone likes it, that’s a bonus, it was the best fun to write and as the dedication suggests, it was written for my old punk mate and drummer Chris (who I still miss) and for my old partner in grime B A, who loved the book, laughed out loud a LOT and uses the numerous Cut Limbo one liners, but still hasn’t written a bloody review!
If you like this please share it on all your social media platforms, Twitter, Google+, Triberr, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Tumblr etc and once you’ve read it, please review Cut Limbo on Amazon reviews.
