{"id":1772,"date":"2011-08-07T18:36:12","date_gmt":"2011-08-07T22:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/?p=1772"},"modified":"2011-08-07T23:20:31","modified_gmt":"2011-08-08T03:20:31","slug":"reader-reviews-power-the-e-book-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/07\/reader-reviews-power-the-e-book-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader Reviews Power The E-Book Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I've mentioned before, my book, A Faerie Fated Forever<\/a><\/em>, went free almost everywhere this week.\u00a0 I say almost because the old saw about not being respected in your home must be true.\u00a0 I own a Sony Reader\u00a0but the Reader Store hasn't picked up any of my recent stuff - I reduced the price on The Forever Series\u00a0Bundle<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0\u00a0I put out Duke of Eden<\/a><\/em>, \u00a0and just recently I made Faerie<\/a><\/em> free.\u00a0 Peeps who shop at the Sony Reader Store - email the store and ask why they haven't picked up the changes!!! \u00a0<\/p>\n

But I digressed. I tend to do that a lot.\u00a0 Perhaps it's a hazard of being a writer.\u00a0 Or perhaps it's just me. Anyway, Faerie<\/em> 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\u00a0folks on the Kindle Digital Publishing staff) matched the price.\u00a0 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reader reviews have been very positive for Faerie<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0There are reviews that aren't as positive for some of the others. For example, A Sixth Sense of Forever<\/a> <\/em>is Boz's story and it's very polarizing.\u00a0 It's a love it or hate it kind of thing, but that's okay.\u00a0 I thought Boz stayed way too level-headed during Niall's story in Faerie <\/em>and\u00a0Colt's in Golden<\/a><\/em>. Boz was due to have the cover ripped off his cool.\u00a0 But in a weird way, the one\u00a0(as I post this, but that could change any second) review up for Sixth Sense<\/a><\/em> mentions the heroine turning into a dominatrix.\u00a0 I swear I think it's helped sell the book this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because the truth \u00a0is -\u00a0all reviews are important.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Almost\u00a0any review is a good review because even a bad opinion from a reader may interest another reader enough to pick up the book.\u00a0 Some readers have said some very nice things about Faerie<\/em>,\u00a0although several thought it was too long.\u00a0 Readers of this blog know that an early review of Faerie<\/em>\u00a0from a reader who liked the book and the story but thought it was too long caused me to deliberately keep Duke of Eden <\/em>- my latest - shorter.\u00a0 One reviewer from Amazon rated it 5 stars and said she'd spent all day Saturday reading it.\u00a0\u00a0Gosh, I loved that.\u00a0 I got called unique and another reader said\u00a0Faerie<\/em> made her laugh out loud a couple of times on a day when she really needed a laugh.\u00a0 That\u00a0review was better than getting an Oscar.\u00a0 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\u00a0spend all its time in serious territory.<\/p>\n

Other reviewers have commented that Faerie<\/em> 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.\u00a0 It's my firm belief that all authors are free to create their world.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

So I've really been paying attention to the reader reviews and after mulling them over,\u00a0the little hamster who operates my brain hit the on switch for the light bulb.\u00a0 And I got it.\u00a0\u00a0The concept that's so basic that I believe it gets overlooked or underrated.\u00a0 The reader reviews\u00a0power the e-book revolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, Virginia,\u00a0the big publishers can get reviews in all the fancy publications read by \"those\u00a0who matter\" and then they plaster their reviews all over their product descriptions for their ebooks.\u00a0 But I don't believe that they matter a\u00a0millionth as much as a review by a regular reader.\u00a0\u00a0Ebook 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.\u00a0 What they want to see is what other readers thought of the book.<\/p>\n

While\u00a0publishers controlled the review channels, indies never had a shot.\u00a0 Today a reader is every bit as likely to buy an indie ebook as one put out by a\u00a0publishing company.\u00a0 Reader reviews have leveled the\u00a0playing field.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The review may be all positive, all negative, or somewhere in between.\u00a0 Overall, what impresses buyers is whether the book mattered enough to other readers for them to stop and do a review.<\/p>\n

The whole heart and soul of the ebook\u00a0revolution is the degree to which it empowered the readers.\u00a0 It allowed readers to take control\u00a0of the entire publishing industry.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Just as authors are free to put out any book, readers are free to make (almost) any comment.\u00a0\u00a0Yes, there are times when comments may be negative on a personal level or they may be\u00a0backed by another author trying to\u00a0reduce a competitor's\u00a0ratings.\u00a0\u00a0That's sad. It's wrong. And those comments should be deleted.\u00a0 So far, knock on wood, I've been fortunate and\u00a0it hasn't happened to me.\u00a0 I've just sat back and watched readers give their opinions and\u00a0I've seen how those reader reviews have helped sales.<\/p>\n

The reason publishers will never be able to seize the power again is that once readers have control, they will not relinquish it.\u00a0 That power change, that shift\u00a0was the spark that started a revolution.\u00a0 And it puts power precisely where it should be.<\/p>\n

Other reviews that are important are those from regular readers who care enough to run blogs that review books.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Second only to the reviews on the\u00a0virtual bookstores at Amazon, B&N, the iBookstore and others, reviews by bloggers also matter. They also shape opinion and generate sales.\u00a0 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\u00a0reviews have caused the reader to buy books and to leave comments on the website.\u00a0 Comments on blogger's websites are another important tool.\u00a0 A reader who takes the time to comment there usually has a\u00a0real opinion about the books. Other blog readers will relate to that.\u00a0 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. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Readers are\u00a0customers and the customer is always right.\u00a0\u00a0Another reader's opinion may differ from a prior reviewer but both customers were right.\u00a0 They had an opinion, they expressed the opinion and they\u00a0powered a revolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, thanks to every reader or blogger\u00a0who takes the time to review\u00a0my books.\u00a0 It's your opinions that make it possible for me to\u00a0do what I do and that's a truth I'll never forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I've mentioned before, my book, A Faerie Fated Forever, went free almost everywhere this week.\u00a0 I say almost because the old saw about not being respected in your home must be true.\u00a0 I own a Sony Reader\u00a0but the Reader Store hasn't picked up any of my recent stuff - I reduced the price on ...continue reading \"Reader Reviews Power The E-Book Revolution\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1772"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1782,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions\/1782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}