While waiting for the first review of a new novel...

[JRTomlin]

does everyone go through agonies of thinking, "Maybe I forgot how to do this and everyone will hate it"? 

[Post-Doctorate D]

Nope.  I get that feeling while I'm writing.

[JRTomlin]

Well, I get that too, but at that point, no one else can see that I forgot how to write. Once it's published, now everyone can see it AND say it (loudly) in the reviews. 

[PermaStudent]

Mine is more like, "dear God, please let the fans review it before the critics..."

But yes, I also frequently feel like I'm faking it through each novel.  I strongly recommend against reading reviews if you're going to take them personally: it will only make you crazy.

[cecilia_writer]

Yes, I get that feeling every time. If anything it gets worse over time - so just because most reviewers liked the first seventeen books in the series, that doesn't mean they'll like the eighteenth.
I've had two really bad first review experiences (out of about twenty-five novels) so that doesn't help.

[VanessaC]

Oh, this is so familiar!  And I'm releasing a new book very soon, so the stomach twisting has started already!

I hope that your first reviews have come in, and that they are all 5 stars.

 

[Simon Haynes]

Yes, the first review is an absolute killer. There's always the chance the first actual paying customer won't like the style or the main character or the plot, and will drop a 1-star for everyone to see. (Later, when a book has more reviews, it's not as critical.)

To mitigate this, I run an Alpha reading team (approx 40 volunteers out of a mailing list of 2600+) who read my novels as I write each chapter.  I get feedback from maybe 3 or 4 people each day, and maybe 25% of them in total have something to say. The others I never hear from.

If I hear good things from those people while I'm writing the book, I'm not too worried about the reception from the public.

Also, for whatever reason, I just don't seem to attract that many reviews. But the average rating is healthy and that's all I really care about.

[Denise]

Thanks for posting this.

I thought I was the only person who got anxious.

I have beta readers, and if they are enthusiastic I feel encouraged, but beta readers are different from reviewers.

And it's not fear of getting poor ratings, but fear that somehow I failed to connect with readers in my writing or that readers don't get what I tried to do.

I truly enjoy reading reviews, including the negative ones, because I think they teach me what I'm doing wrong, and I want to improve.

[Bill Hiatt]

Thanks for posting this.

I thought I was the only person who got anxious.

I have beta readers, and if they are enthusiastic I feel encouraged, but beta readers are different from reviewers.

And it's not fear of getting poor ratings, but fear that somehow I failed to connect with readers in my writing or that readers don't get what I tried to do.

I truly enjoy reading reviews, including the negative ones, because I think they teach me what I'm doing wrong, and I want to improve.

I try to use reviews as learning tools also. My problem is that they are so often inconsistent. For example, I've seen pairs in which one said "action-packed" and the other said "slow moving"--on the same book. My first novel has some critical reviews, but it was rare for them to agree on what they didn't like. A few of them did agree in quibbling with the voice of the MC, but even there, they were inconsistent. The MC is a teenager with the memories of hundreds of earlier lives, and I got hit from both sides. "He doesn't sound enough like a teenager" and "How could someone with that much life experience sound so much like a teenager and be so impulsive?" (Having taught high school for 36 years, I probably had a better idea of what teenagers sound like than the average reviewer did.) And a number of the positive reviews talked about how authentic the teenage voice was. One mother said something like, "The dialog sounds exactly like what I hear coming out of my son's room when he has friends over."

It took me a while to understand just how subjective our perceptions of literature really are. Sure, authors sometimes love their own babies more than anyone else does, but that subjectivity is hardly confined to authors. Even bestsellers have their detractors. I was especially amused by the divergent responses to Ready Player One, both the book and the movie, ranging from "brilliant" to "garbage."

Nor is that subjectivity confined to customer reviews. When I was still getting editorial reviews, I noticed that they differed by almost as much. I've had the same experience with editors. Two books with relatively similar style would get radically different critiques from two experienced editors. I've even gotten divergent advice from two editors on the same manuscript.

When I look at reviews, I look for patterns and try not to worry about every outlier--because there inevitably will be outliers.

[Denise]

When I look at reviews, I look for patterns and try not to worry about every outlier--because there inevitably will be outliers.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Surprisingly, I think I have mostly consistent reviews excluding a couple oddities. I'll have 3, 4 people writing the exact same thing just using different words (either positive or negative) and I think I should pay attention to what they are saying.

But sure, if you're getting contradictory reviews it must be confusing, and you can't do much other than shrug.

[LilyBLily]

Giving credence to off-the-cuff readers' reviews is a weird and somewhat self-defeating thing that I suspect is mostly confined to indie authors. The pat on the back from some company that accepts our ms. and sends us a paycheck is so much more reassuring. Even if that company publishes a lot of dreck. Even if that publisher never does pay us. 

There is a feeling of nakedness in publishing our words ourselves, no question.

Once we've done it a few times, we realize no one is paying that much attention to us. In most cases, there won't be 1-stars from vicious enemies or crazy people. Then the reality kicks in that we get to write whatever we want to and no one can stop us! Woo-hoo!

[JRTomlin]

Giving credence to off-the-cuff readers' reviews is a weird and somewhat self-defeating thing that I suspect is mostly confined to indie authors. The pat on the back from some company that accepts our ms. and sends us a paycheck is so much more reassuring. Even if that company publishes a lot of dreck. Even if that publisher never does pay us. 

There is a feeling of nakedness in publishing our words ourselves, no question.

Once we've done it a few times, we realize no one is paying that much attention to us. In most cases, there won't be 1-stars from vicious enemies or crazy people. Then the reality kicks in that we get to write whatever we want to and no one can stop us! Woo-hoo!

You have done it a few times as have I and I suspect you know that those 'off the cuff readers' reviews' on Amazon will affect sales. A one-star review as your first review can be pretty devastating to sales.

There are people who pay attention to us. They are the ones that look at our star ratings on Amazon.

ETA: That is of course quite different from my original point. I think most authors suffer from some degree of 'imposter syndrome' which waiting for that first review just exacerbates. That is certainly the case with me.

[Kristen.s.walker]

Yes, I feel anxious when I send out the ARCs to my street team and then anxious again when I publish so anyone could be reading/reviewing.

And some of that is based on experience. My very first book, my ex-husband and some of his friends all wrote negative reviews and tanked my rating. Took months of fighting with Amazon to get them to take them down. (One review is still there today. It was the "most useful critical review" on the top of my reviews for years. Amazon won't listen to me when I say this is a personal vendetta and has nothing to do with the book.)

[Denise]

I think most authors suffer from some degree of 'imposter syndrome' which waiting for that first review just exacerbates. That is certainly the case with me.

I don't feel imposter syndrome because I'm not yet successful, but I fear screwing up or disappointing readers who are looking forward to the next book.

I'm now a bit calmer with my latest one because of positive beta reader feedback, but for me I'm never 100% sure if it's going to be well received.

Yes, I feel anxious when I send out the ARCs to my street team and then anxious again when I publish so anyone could be reading/reviewing.

And some of that is based on experience. My very first book, my ex-husband and some of his friends all wrote negative reviews and tanked my rating.

OMG, that's awful. It's a different point altogether, but some sour or unfair reviews, if they come early, can really affect sales. I think an ARC team can mitigate that. ARC readers aren't usually out to get you.

Nope.  I get that feeling while I'm writing.

Yes. That too. But then I just tough it out, finish it, and send what I believe could be a load of crap to beta readers (more like alpha readers, TBH, since I send pretty much the first draft). No wonder I get anxious.

[Anarchist]

These days, I care about reviews only to the extent that they impact my book's average star rating. That's why I use an ARC group. I start strong and insulate against low-star reviews later.

Here's a terrible way for a book to launch (without an ARC group)...





Here's how my books launch...





When low-star reviews arrive (they're inevitable), they have little effect on the average star rating. The second image might turn into the following image over time...





... but I'm cool with it. As long as my books stay above 4.3, I'm happy.

I used to care about the content in reviews. But no longer. Today, I care only about volume and average star rating. In my experience, those are the factors that drive sales in my markets.

[JRTomlin]

The problem with that is that people like me dismiss those early reviews as meaningless. There are certain authors for whom I routinely ignore early reviews. Better than chancing an early low star rating review? Maybe. It's a matter of preference.

[Anarchist]

The problem with that is that people like me dismiss those early reviews as meaningless. There are certain authors for whom I routinely ignore early reviews. Better than chancing an early low star rating review? Maybe. It's a matter of preference.

I care about sales and branding above all.

As you noted, some people dismiss early 5-star reviews. But I suspect they're a small minority of customers.

I've launched cold (no reviews) and hot (a lot of 5-star reviews). Sales during and after launch are much higher when I launch hot. I don't think this type of social proof, even if it's partly manufactured, will ever lose its influence over customers.

[JRTomlin]

I think you may underestimate the number of savvy Amazon readers but you are no doubt right that we're in a minority. It is just something that I no longer do because of my own very negative feelings about 5-star reviews five minutes after release.

Early on, I sent out ARCs. Then I decided I prefer to get my reviews organically. I could always change my mind again, of course. 
 

[Tom Wood]

I'll be taking the 'influence the also-boughts' launch tactic, so I need ARC readers who have read at least a couple of my best comparables. I've joined the appropriate Facebook and Reddit groups (for Ready Player One as an example) and post there now and then. However, I don't get the impression that I'll gather up many enthusiastic ARC readers there. Are there other ways to drill down to find the ARC readers that have read your preferred comparables? If/when they leave a review, I want Amazon to note that they also bought one or more of my preferred comparables.

[JRTomlin]

But your ARC readers won't go on the also bought list because they won't have bought them. If I decided to do ARCs again, I'd offer them to my mailing list and that is part of the reason I don't. I depend on my mailing list buyers buying soon so I have the right novels on that.