Negative publicity

[queentess]

Originally Posted by meromana

Is that true? I've not been notified of any re-releases of books I've bought for Kindle, and I know some of them have been updated since I bought. I had to contact Amazon to request the updates be sent to my Kindle account. Is there some opt-in list I need to get on for these kinds of notifications?

--Maria

Hrm... not that I'm aware of. I don't even remember which book it was, but I definitely received an email a while ago saying that an ebook I purchased had been updated and was ready for download. ...It is also possible I'm thinking of another site and will need to retract that statement.

[meromana]

I think it would be great if they did that, though. It frustrates me as a reader and a writer to know that customers aren't notified of the availability of new versions, or that the update isn't just automatically delivered when the person synchs up.

I liken it to bug fixes in software. Most software companies want you to get the latest version, so their customers have the optimal experience and don't keep bugging them with issues they've already addressed.

--Maria

[Worldwalker]

I wouldn't make a buying decision on a book based on a single review, no matter how bad. I find it improbable that the majority of other readers would do so, either. If I were you, I'd look further for the reason for the sales drop.

[GA Russell]

One-star reviews never bothered Mickey Spillane!

[nomesque]

Originally Posted by dworth

I was just wondering what other people had done in this situation and whether things tend to even out once you've got plenty of reviews with a spread of opinion.

Yup, from what I've seen, you'll probably just need some patience now. A 1-star review might cost you in the short-term, but probably not in the longer-term - especially if you've got some word-of-mouth recommendations happening.

[GraceKrispy]

Speaking as a reader, the one-star review wouldn't have detracted me, however 50% of your reviews (yes, only 2) indicating that your book needs serious editing *would* detract me. I have skipped several books where a significant percentage of reviews have stated that the book needs editing or is poorly written.

I think finding a way to indicate to potential readers that the most recent copy is edited or whatnot would go a long way.

[lene1949]

Another thing to consider is, that this is that persons ONLY review...

If there's only one or two 1 star review on a book, I also always look at their previous reviews... Some people just love to criticize.

[NickSpalding]

Speaking as the author who proudly holds probably the single worst book review in history:

http://digitalspotlightfictionreview...ings-life.html

I can safely say don't worry about negative reviews.

As somebody richer than me once said 'All publicity is good publicity'.

And as others above me have said, bad reviews can often lead people to buy a book just to see if it's as bad as this one review indicates.

[Moe The Cat]

Originally Posted by NickSpalding

Speaking as the author who proudly holds probably the single worst book review in history:

http://digitalspotlightfictionreview...ings-life.html

Agreed, Nick. That is easily "the single worst book review in history". So, I immediately rushed over to Smashwords and read the sample. That, and reviews by M. David Blake and Neil Marr of MobileRead fame, encouraged me to rush over to Amazon (they have it 20 cents cheaper than Smashwords; find me another 5 cents and I can make a payphone call) and purchase a copy.

So, a negative review did indeed encourage one reader to investigate, and purchase, your book.

[NickSpalding]

Originally Posted by Moe The Cat

Agreed, Nick. That is easily "the single worst book review in history". So, I immediately rushed over to Smashwords and read the sample. That, and reviews by M. David Blake and Neil Marr of MobileRead fame, encouraged me to rush over to Amazon (they have it 20 cents cheaper than Smashwords; find me another 5 cents and I can make a payphone call) and purchase a copy.

So, a negative review did indeed encourage one reader to investigate, and purchase, your book.

Aha! Operation 'Lemonade From A Lemon' has its first result!

[bthrowsnaill]

re: the 1 star review... I looked at the Amazon page and if I were a buyer I doubt that I would have been discouraged by that review. The other, positive reviews are much more detailed which gives them more credibility. The brevity of the 1 star review would make me interpret it as an outlier. Plus, since it doesn't appear in the set of detailed reviews that are shown on the page, I think its impact is further lessened. I wouldn't sweat it too much.

re: Nick Spalding's review... I think that may be the most positive review that I've ever read because it was so negative that it actually exceeded the precision of the measure of negativity and rolled over into the highest levels of praise.

[MrPLD]

I have to say, negative/1-star reviews still can really hurt the soul I saw the first one today on a torrent site that's already got our book.. the worst thing is that the comments were so strange as to almost imply they've not even read the book.

[NickSpalding]

Originally Posted by bthrowsnaill

re: Nick Spalding's review... I think that may be the most positive review that I've ever read because it was so negative that it actually exceeded the precision of the measure of negativity and rolled over into the highest levels of praise.

Ah... so what you're saying is that it was such a horrifically negative review that it actually passed the negativity event horizon and carried back round to the other side into the realms of high praise?

Interesting...there may be an entirely new field of hyper-physics to be explored here. I'll get Stephen Hawking on the blower.

[bthrowsnaill]

Yes, get Hawking on the horn. I think I see a hyperbole hypercube!

[jamesread]

LOL at me posting in this thread.