[evanhson357]

Hey again. Although I could easily answer all of your comments in very reasonable ways, it would just end up making the post too long. I think it's best to just answer a few of them.

Oh your book is action/adventure. I thought it was a book about how bad the main character's life was.

No, that's really just the background theme to reveal where the character is coming from. It also establishes the friction between himself and the female lead.
This trend thins out as the book progresses, and the second book is very different. It is however very necessary for the flow of the series.

Calling a reviewer a troll is in very bad form.

Really? And taking a personal shot at someone you don't even know isn't?
You probably missed it, but since it was directed at me, I most certainly didn't.
He began by saying that "choice" was part of the reason why he didn't like it. He then went on to complain about how I gave a specific description concerning the female lead. As the writer, I have every right to do that to establish the overall mood of the book.
He then turned around to do the same thing, only worse. When he said, "it isn't art", he was taking away the right of every reader to decide that for themself. He was also underhandedly taking a personal stab at me for what I happened to say in my BIO. That was when I said that I found writing to be so much like chipping away at a piece of stone to create something. Anyone who has ever actually written a novel would know that what I said is true.
His comment concerning art tells me that he just doesn't understand what art is. Basically you can love it or hate it, but everyone's opinion is valid.

I did notice what the reviewer focused on, that told me that there is too much mental stuff in the book and not enough sci-fi. (Your opening chapter confirmed that.)

No, it didn't confirm anything of the sort ... it was just the first chapter. There is certainly more Sci-Fi than in the John Carter of Mars novels.

Good luck with your writing career. I do hope you will not abandon it. But authors need not only thick skins, but also the ability to recognise and take to heart constructive criticism.

Thanks for the positive comment. You don't receive many of those in this industry, and it's always appreciated. I actually do learn from criticism though.
I could very easily have trashed the reviewer in the comment section below the review, but instead went back to my work to polish it even further.
I even went as far as to take out the chapter that he didn't like, because I figured other readers might feel the same way.

I too am disturbed at your attitude to the review and the criticisms made.

If you are so easily disturbed at something as relatively passive as my reply, then try to understand my side of it for a moment. I've spent up to 15 hours a day on most days over the last 3 years writing those few books. That includes week days and public holidays. Then in the space of just a couple of minutes, some guy who read a reviewers guide once comes along to destroy that work. The fact that his assessment was largely wrong isn't what disturbed me at all. It's just that he went that extra yard to make it a personal attack.

And, quite apart from the bad review, the lack of reviews and the ranking of the book are objective facts. A book that has been out as long as your first in the trilogy should by now have garnered more than a single review.

I'm sorry, but you'd really need to be somebody in the industry to understand what is really going on out there.
Let me provide you with a few statistical facts. Several years ago there were only about a million books on Amazon. It was widely understood at that time that a book had to be downloaded around a thousand times in order to get just one honest review.
There are now however over 4 million books on Amazon, so how much harder is it to get that one honest review?
Going by that reasoning, you could only reasonably expect one honest review per 4,000 downloads now.
As I pointed out in the previous post, people are certainly getting reviews, but many are anything but honest. I'm not the only one in the industry who recognizes this either. But here is the vicious circle that many of us are caught up in. Without decent reviews, you just can't get enough downloads to get enough reviews.
I don't like the idea of paying for reviews, and that also contributes to why I haven't got any honest ones yet. But there's other things to consider as well.
Some writers had the advantage of having already established a fan base of readers before this massive influx of new writers got under way.
I'm not complaining about that either though. Good for them. They were Johny on the spot, and are now reaping the rewards for their efforts.
But there's yet another reason I've had trouble getting those honest reviews. It comes down to the fact that Sci-Fi readers can be more picky than anyone else.
I didn't realize this until I read it at a site which discussed the different genres. Unfortunately for me, I had just finished the 3rd book in that first series.
If I'd known what I know now, I would have probably chosen Horror or Fantasy to write in. There's more I could add on this subject, but I think you should get the point. It has been estimated by some that somewhere around two thirds of the reviews in this industry are dishonest. That includes both good, and overly bad reviews.

The rank seems to suggest few readers, at least on Amazon.

Like a lot of others, I've actually only managed to get dowloads in the hundreds. Those were from free promotions of the book.
But I've only just recently learned that it's a very poor way to get people to read your book. Most people who download free books have so many of them that they never get around to reading them. I've also heard it said that giving away free copies is an easy way to get trolled.

Surely one who loved the book would have left a review? Surely one would have been so outraged by the bad review that they posted their own good ones.

Nope! It once again comes down to ordinary people having busy lives. Unless you're very lucky (which I'm not), the thousand download rule still applies. Unfortunately for people who go around trolling books, it's actually a big part of their life. Just remember what I said before about The Great Gatsby.
Basically what it tells us is that there are over 100 individuals out there who commonly trash what are fundamentally good books.

Many write as a hobby and don't care if they sell books. Otherwise, you need to be professional. You need to recognise that the actual writing is but one part of your business.

You're not actually telling me anything I don't already know. But a few years back when I started this, the overall picture was a lot brighter than it is now.
I only got involved because it looked like an independent author had a chance of making it in this industry. If I'd had any idea at the time that things would change so radically, I never would have bothered. I don't blame anyone for it though. It was just unfortunate that I jumped into it a little too late, and there are a lot of others in the same boat.