As I've mentioned before, my book, A Faerie Fated Forever, went free almost everywhere this week. I say almost because the old saw about not being respected in your home must be true. I own a Sony Reader but the Reader Store hasn't picked up any of my recent stuff - I reduced the price on The Forever Series Bundle, I put out Duke of Eden, and just recently I made Faerie free. Peeps who shop at the Sony Reader Store - email the store and ask why they haven't picked up the changes!!!
But I digressed. I tend to do that a lot. Perhaps it's a hazard of being a writer. Or perhaps it's just me. Anyway, Faerie is free at the Apple iBookstore, it's free at Barnes & Noble, and on Monday, Amazon (very graciously - thanks a billion, billion to the amazing folks on the Kindle Digital Publishing staff) matched the price. I've been able to see the progress and the reviews on B&N and Amazon, but I can't see what's happening at the iBookstore - my current budget doesn't allow for an i anything.
The reader reviews have been very positive for Faerie. There are reviews that aren't as positive for some of the others. For example, A Sixth Sense of Forever is Boz's story and it's very polarizing. It's a love it or hate it kind of thing, but that's okay. I thought Boz stayed way too level-headed during Niall's story in Faerie and Colt's in Golden. Boz was due to have the cover ripped off his cool. But in a weird way, the one (as I post this, but that could change any second) review up for Sixth Sense mentions the heroine turning into a dominatrix. I swear I think it's helped sell the book this week.
Because the truth is - all reviews are important.
Almost any review is a good review because even a bad opinion from a reader may interest another reader enough to pick up the book. Some readers have said some very nice things about Faerie, although several thought it was too long. Readers of this blog know that an early review of Faerie from a reader who liked the book and the story but thought it was too long caused me to deliberately keep Duke of Eden - my latest - shorter. One reviewer from Amazon rated it 5 stars and said she'd spent all day Saturday reading it. Gosh, I loved that. I got called unique and another reader said Faerie made her laugh out loud a couple of times on a day when she really needed a laugh. That review was better than getting an Oscar. I hope all of my books cause a laugh or two because if you're writing over the top, which I am, then the story can't spend all its time in serious territory.
Other reviewers have commented that Faerie is a great read but it's not true to the history and history fanatics might want to give it a pass. Well, I hope no one gives it a pass but it's not true to the history. It's my firm belief that all authors are free to create their world. That means I believe we can set a book in a certain time but it's our book so the time or the period gets created the same way the characters and the story do. Hopefully, if I do a good enough job, even readers who notice the historical variations will forgive them.
So I've really been paying attention to the reader reviews and after mulling them over, the little hamster who operates my brain hit the on switch for the light bulb. And I got it. The concept that's so basic that I believe it gets overlooked or underrated. The reader reviews power the e-book revolution.
Yes, Virginia, the big publishers can get reviews in all the fancy publications read by "those who matter" and then they plaster their reviews all over their product descriptions for their ebooks. But I don't believe that they matter a millionth as much as a review by a regular reader. Ebook buyers are very smart folks and they see the big industry hype the same way they see TV commercials and mostly, they refuse to consider the hype a'tall. What they want to see is what other readers thought of the book.
While publishers controlled the review channels, indies never had a shot. Today a reader is every bit as likely to buy an indie ebook as one put out by a publishing company. Reader reviews have leveled the playing field. That's why my books matter just as much on the virtual shelves as any books out there. It's nothing I've done or not done, it's the opinions of readers who were kind enough to take the time to leave a review. The review may be all positive, all negative, or somewhere in between. Overall, what impresses buyers is whether the book mattered enough to other readers for them to stop and do a review.
The whole heart and soul of the ebook revolution is the degree to which it empowered the readers. It allowed readers to take control of the entire publishing industry. Readers should have always had the final say but they never did until the dawn of the digital books and the big old virtual bookstores. Just as authors are free to put out any book, readers are free to make (almost) any comment. Yes, there are times when comments may be negative on a personal level or they may be backed by another author trying to reduce a competitor's ratings. That's sad. It's wrong. And those comments should be deleted. So far, knock on wood, I've been fortunate and it hasn't happened to me. I've just sat back and watched readers give their opinions and I've seen how those reader reviews have helped sales.
The reason publishers will never be able to seize the power again is that once readers have control, they will not relinquish it. That power change, that shift was the spark that started a revolution. And it puts power precisely where it should be.
Other reviews that are important are those from regular readers who care enough to run blogs that review books. Readers won't pay attention to a big shot magazine review nearly as much as they will to a blogger they relate to, whose reviews they trust. Second only to the reviews on the virtual bookstores at Amazon, B&N, the iBookstore and others, reviews by bloggers also matter. They also shape opinion and generate sales. A reader won't know the big shot magazine writer, but she will know that blogger who seems to be a person a lot like her, whose past reviews have caused the reader to buy books and to leave comments on the website. Comments on blogger's websites are another important tool. A reader who takes the time to comment there usually has a real opinion about the books. Other blog readers will relate to that. Commenters may disagree just as reviews at Amazon can be polar opposites, but either way, they matter. Either way, the readers are running the show.
Readers are customers and the customer is always right. Another reader's opinion may differ from a prior reviewer but both customers were right. They had an opinion, they expressed the opinion and they powered a revolution.
So, thanks to every reader or blogger who takes the time to review my books. It's your opinions that make it possible for me to do what I do and that's a truth I'll never forget.