Nearly a year after its release, Zombies Don’t Cry has 125 ratings and counting on Goodreads.com. Most of them are fairly decent, 4- or 5-star ratings, some are middling and a few are really, quite, epically, terribly brutal.
I try to take it all in stride; the good, the bad and the (really, really) ugly. One thing that helps me put book reviews in perspective is that I’m not just interested in them as an author but also as an active promoter of my work.
So while I’m always trying to learn creatively about why something book-related did or didn’t work for a particular reviewer (although that kind of stuff you have to take with a grain of salt), I can also kind of step back and view them objectively, even scientifically, to see if the reviews are helping sell the book at all.
And beyond the creative or the promotional, there is a third lens through which I try to view reviews: young adults themselves. Are kids, the actual target audience of the book(s), reading the reviews and, hopefully, the book(s) as well? I hope so and, in a lot of cases, I think so.
After the initial – and mostly favorable – response to ZDC from bloggers and reviewers faded, the book seemed to take on a life of its own; and it still does.
Every week, it seems, a dozen or more people add it to their “to read” piles on Goodreads and a few more ratings, even text reviews, pop up on that site as well.
It’s encouraging for a lot of reasons, because I think a lot of that is fueled by kind of random interaction, keyword recognition and other unseen events that bring the book in front of readers without much apparent help from the author.
But regardless of how a book pops up on a potential reader’s radar, I find that most folks will check out the reviews first before plunking down a little cash to buy the thing.
So I think we’d all agree that book reviews matter. But here are a few specific ways I think that reviews matter most:
• People are reading your book: At the very least, a book review means by its very definition that the reviewer has read your book. So that’s at least one person who reads it, right? And each reviewer, just means one more person reads it. What’s (often) awesome is that reviewers talk to each other about authors, their favorite authors, the most disappointing or surprising authors, whatever. You’ll often see little “ripples” of excitement about a book or an author between friendly bloggers who are quick to share a new friend or make a recommendation.
• People are talking about your book: Most reviews don’t happen in a vacuum. Generally speaking, a reviewer has a blog, and so the review will be posted there and shared with all of that blogger’s “followers.” Sometimes there are 200 followers, sometimes 2,000, sometimes double or even triple that number. In addition, most reviewers now post their reviews on Goodreads, Amazon.com and elsewhere. And now, on many blogs, there will be a side panel on the left or right where other posts from other blogs appear so your review might show up there as well.
• People are (generally) recommending your book: Even the not-so-great reviews typically end on a high note! A recent 3-star review ended by saying the reviewer would love to read the sequel. One reviewer called ZDC the “worst” book of the year, but still gave it… two stars! (Wait… what?) The fact is, if your book is any good at all, or it’s clear that you’ve tried hard to tell a good story and are genuine and authentic about it, human nature is such that most reviewers will be that much more generous when writing about your book.
• People are sharing your book: I love to be a fly on the Internet wall, watching bloggers sending and sharing and swapping and even giving away Zombies Don’t Cry and other books to each other. I tend to share and give away books myself, even my most favorite, so I’m always inspired when a reviewer offers their copy in a giveaway or swaps it for another book with a fellow blogger on Goodreads or elsewhere. That’s more people reading more books, and that’s always good. What’s more, you’ll often hear little “mini reviews” as bloggers talk to each other about the books they’re swapping. They may say something like, “If you like Zombieland, you’ll love Zombies Don’t Cry.” Or, “If you want a quick, fun, fast read I’ve got one available.” Sometimes I almost prefer these bullet reviews to the longer ones, because they sum things up more quickly about how the reviewer *really* felt!
• People are sharing their opinions of the book: I have to believe that deep down inside, probably every reviewer suspects, maybe even hopes, that the author will read the review at some point. I certainly try to read as many reviews of all my books as I can, generally by Googling the different titles each week and using various search metrics to find the most recent reviews. I’ve learned a lot about writing, about writing for teens, about writing in genre, about writing about zombies, from these reviews. For many of us writers, isolated as we are, unless we reach out to a peer group or beta readers, these reviews are the *only* feedback we’ll ever get from the general public.
Whatever your opinion of book reviews, they exist and as authors we have to deal with them. Sure, the good ones rock and the bad ones suck, but what are you going to do? For better or worse, once a book comes out it belongs to the world.
For me, with every review, that world gets a little bigger. And that’s a good thing, right?
Yours in YA,
Rusty
