I am depressed...
I started the day with my first ever 1-star review on Felicia's Second Life. Here's what the reviewer said:
[blockquote]Couldn't get past 40% of the preview By H on January 16, 2016
This may appeal to anime fans, but only if you don't mind the typos, the grammatical mistakes, the bad editing and the cliche dialog. Not sure why anyone would pay money for this. [/blockquote]
40%? Like WTF? You haven't even finished the prologue!
He didn't even buy the damned book.
Ah, I want to lie down and die. I'm not in the mood to do anything more now. My negativity is rising. My dark aura is filling my room. I want to commit suicide. I want to bomb the parliament.
Of course, I'm acting like a drama queen. It's my debut book! And that jerk didn't even bother reading my book before giving his review.
I wonder if I'll be getting a nice review any time soon.
Yes, this is a rant. Now I'm going to go back and wallow in my negativity in the corner of my room while listening to some sad songs.
Comments
Link
On the one-star review, I suggest you remember Rule Three: It's not about you... it's about them. That always helps me deal.
Here's a link for anyone who wants it: http://amzn.to/1Q7h7JK
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
A Cliché
A Cliché springs to mind
Their bad day spilled onto your day?
Hon, reviews are only opinions by someone else. Might be someone who doesn't or can't write anything so they dump on those who do. Do you know this person? No? Then why in the Hell are you letting them influence your life?
Writers give birth after going through months, years of birthing pains. Their stories are their babies. Of course they are proud. Justifiably so after all the effort. The last thing a writer needs is someone who hasn't got a clue about "constructive" criticism to tear apart their story. The so called wannabe critic mentions everything wrong "they" thought was wrong. The good points and strong points of the story? They aren't capable of knowing because they are only demolition critics.
I love criticism from those who can critic with intelligence and those who are demolition experts tearing my stories to shreds. It means my story touched a nerve one way or another. And besides, I'm a lot better at poison pen critic than anyone I have ever met or read. They really don't want on my bad side. They won't find it either if their demolition critic is a one time try.
I haven't read your "Felicia's Second Life". If you put as much emotion into the telling of the tale as you felt when Demolition Derby took a swipe, it has to be a great story. AND, you're in great company. Mark Twain was sliced and diced before his stories were picked up by the European set. Then the U.S. snobs took a second look. If those Europeans thought it was great with all the English grammar mistakes, maybe it was good. The rest is history.
So...? Do I request your autograph now before you become famous and no longer know us little people?
Hugs Doll
always,
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
You will never please everyone..
..so don't try. I write for my biggest fan who is my biggest critic.. ME.... if I like it, them I am satisfied. I have two one star reviews, on books that have collected a host of 5 star reviews. As Erin stated..it shows them for what they are. Writers write and critics winge, because they can't write worth a damn, case closed.
There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes!
I know aggravation
I know the aggravation. some dumbass said harsh things about PomPom and then had the stupidity to say that it was disappointing as erotica. that just showed how really stupid they are. just take it with a grain of salt. Do your thing and if people like it they will, if they don't well too bad for them.
quidquid sum ego, et omnia mea semper; Ego me.
alecia Snowfall
Opinions are....
.....like butt holes everybody has one. Your opinion of your story was that it was ready to be published and someone said it wasn't, oh well! YOU were the writer not this other person, so stop worrying about one person's bad opinion and read again and again the positive ones. Every writer gets bad reviews now and then the great ones rise above them and keeps writing. I tell people this saying, "The first person who has to believe in you, is YOU! If you believe you are a good writer then write and prove the naysayers wrong, only you can decide on your course of action!
wanting perfect spelling and grammar, for a ebook?
Your spelling and grammar are not perfect no ones is. You are self publishing an ebook not author publishing a book with a big time publisher.
You do not have access to a team of editors that will comb over every page trying to find every little error and fixing it. you are not asking $10 to $20 a copy. You are self publishing doing what you can with what you have. People can not see their own mistakes when they are writing. There mind sees what they tried to write not what they put on to text. And I have purchased many a first edition hardback edition of books from very well known authors, and there were errors in the books in grammar and spelling. No person is perfect and if a large team of editors can not catch every little mistake how can some idiot expect you too. I just bought the book last night, I have read it hear on this site, and you did everything humanly possible to fix the errors you could see. I will be posting a review of my own today to give the positive things you did a spotlight not nit pick every little mistake, and the good thing about an ebook is you can go back and correct spelling and grammar errors when they are pointed out to you and the kindle program will push it out to replace the earlier version.
GOOD JOB ON YOUR FIRST ATTEMPT AT SELF PUBLISHING YOUR STORY!!!!
remember you wrote it not them, and as such you had the courage to do it not them, I have ideas all the time but can not put them to paper as it were, I have not been able to do it since college.
"Cortana is watching you!"
1 star is an opinion...
To me any stars is just an opinion, just like 5 stars...Myself, I was looking at a product and someone gave the store a 1 star, but the service was great. The reviewer said the store DIDN'T have what he wanted in stock.
I gave the store 5 star, very helpful...maybe the reviewer had a bad day...
TGSine --958
Have You Been in a Bookstore Lately
When I walk through a bookstore I see hundreds of books I would never buy. Those books were written by people who have writing skills far beyond mine. I have a narrow span of interest and discerning style issues. There are probably forty to fifty million people trying to be "writers". Of those about five to ten thousand will actually make a living doing it. Finding a reader/writer match is whimsical. Finding a jerk during that process is inevitable. As stated by Erin, "It's not about you."
The MAJORITY of people are NOT going to like your writing. Some will be demonstrative in their dislike. Learn from the positive criticism and roll with the negative.
A slight MAJORITY of people don't like Obama. His disapproval rating now is about 51 with a 47 approval rating. At one time Bush (W) had a 92 approval rating and at another time his approval rating was 19. Most presidents have their highest approval ratings during their first weeks in office. In my opinion that's because most people haven't formed opinions yet and when they do they're negative.
It definitely isn't about you. I'm not wild about your relaxed writing style, but I see a lot of your style in mainstream writing today. Your writing, from what I read in the sample is readable. If it's readable than whether or not a person likes your writing will depend on your storytelling.
You evidently have fans here who like your storytelling.
Good luck.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
I had a crazy thought.
Right off the bat I noticed several "specialized vocabulary" terms, that is medieval and anime related words that are not used in common everyday speech, and a smattering of other "big" words. I am going to make a wild guess and say, "The idiot reviewer thought those words were typos."
~Hypatia >i< ..:::
Also Some U.K. Spellings...
...that some unsophisticated U.S. readers may mistake for typos.
Eric (the editor)
I didn't notice any typos in
I didn't notice any typos in the preview.
I reported the review.
First published novel
I'm going out on a limb not having read your novel, but as far as typos etc go,(and I'm not saying there were any) it's incredibly hard to pick up your own typos, even why you read the text over and over. That's why I'm very grateful that Louise Anne now reads over my stories and in return I read hers. If you can get someone to check over your text I'd certainly recommend it.
I agree with other comments - it's only one person's opinion. I've been making amateur movies and competing in competitions for years and the variation in marks is amazing. So long as you are satisfied you did your best, I wouldn't stress over one other point of view.
Bronwen
Just finished reading it.
Just finished reading it. LOVED IT. Made sure I did a 5 star review for ya Shin Eris.
>>>>>I'm a new soul.I came to this strange world.Hoping I could learn a bit bout how to give and take.<<<<<
He probably enjoys speeding
He probably enjoys speeding his automobile through rain-puddles to soak grandmothers standing at the bus stop...
... and kicking dogs.
Don't let him get you down.
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
Don't feel bad!
If that person is considering proper names as typos, H would need to read more (namely, G.R.R. Martin). Different worlds different proper names, or we wouldn't have an Eddard Stark (and not Edward). Different worlds different places and languages and, well you get the idea. Some of the most famous authors, such as Tolkien himself, used literary licenses to describe things done by different people (and even invented beautiful languages such as Quenya or Sindarin). How much more beautiful is to say athelas instead of kingsfoil? We can even say assea aranion, and that is not considered a typo at all.
There are no grammatical mistakes there. That person needs to attend high school. Really.
So don't feel bad about getting a bad comment from someone who can barely appreciate your beautiful work.
Trouble with Dwarves
Tolkien had trouble with his editors over "dwarves" too. :) In fact, in two of his editions, the editors won and "corrected" the spelling to "dwarfs". But ultimately the Good Professor prevailed and "dwarves" is now the accepted plural for the mythological race of beings. Tolkien didn't invent the spelling but until his stories became popular, it was regarded as an error. (Dwarfs is still the plural for human beings with medical conditions causing dwarfism.)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Gosh, you guys made me blush!
Oh gosh, there are so many supportive comments here. Thank you very much. I was wallowing in gloom until now. Reading all your comments made me feel a lot better. I'm going to push forward and I am currently writing the next chapter of FSL while slowly pouring through the already published book.
I will try to notify my readers if I upload something with significant changes. If you happen to miss the notice but you see the book on amazon has changed to 2nd edition, please redownload the book so that you get the most up to date version. Thank you Icetrix and everyone who supported me by buying the book. Don't forget to ask for discount if you're interested in buying the Extra (which is the print book with more illustrations, an additional side story and a free gift) when I managed to scrounge enough profit to release it.
And gosh BarbieLee, you're making me blush. Hehe. Don't worry, as mentioned in the Acknowledgements part of my book, I owe Bigcloset community a lot for my book. If I end up being a success, let's pray I do, I'm sure I can spare some autographed copies for Bigcloset community :P But that's only if I succeed. Would be kind of pretentious to give autographs so soon.
Thanks again everyone for your kind words and for sharing your experiences with me.