Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Dreaded 1-Star Amazon Review


It was bound to happen and I am quite surprised it did not happen sooner than this.  The dreaded 1-Star review has appeared on one of my short stories on Amazon.

The entirety of the review can be seen HERE.

At first, I was rather deflated and wanted to reach out to the reviewer to see why she gave the e-book such a poor rating.  Upon re-reading (and analyzing) the review, I realized that the rating was more for her benefit, not mine, as her expectation of the piece was not what she had anticipated.

The reviewer actually commented that the story was good and the ending was handled well.  So, although the star rating was the lowest that could be given, I am no longer feeling deflated about it.  At the very least, the reviewer read the story in its entirety and commented in a way that she felt was appropriate for other Amazon customers.

I applaud her for her honesty and hope that reading this story had an impact on her life.  It certainly had a profound impact on my own life - living through the story as it happened.

My final thought on this is  ... As a writer, I will not be able to please all of the readers, all of the time.  I am thoroughly happy with just pleasing some of the readers, some of the time.





10 comments:

  1. I am glad that you looked at the review carefully and found something positive in it. You can't please everyone, but a positive attitude allows you to gain something even from a 1-star review.

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    1. Thanks for dropping by and for the positive feedback, Jim. I am a "look for the silver lining" kind of person, so I feel every situation has a positive aspect - if you look hard enough.

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  2. Yes, you have a great attitude. You are spot on. I loved your story, personally. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Thanks, Brenda. I appreciate your support! :-)

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  4. Good for you! We have to take the bad reviews in mind as well. I was very upset when a British reader gave a negative review on one of my short stories, until I read the review again. In essence, she was saying she wanted more of the story. I have kept that in mind and she has inspired me to put together another book where she could have gotten more. We learn from our negative reviews.

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    1. Debra, thank you for dropping by and sharing your experience as well with a negative review. We definitely learn from these experiences. It has also inspired me to write another story with more details.

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  5. Frankly, I'm glad you got that out of the way :) Now on to the good reviews :) Seriously, I'm suspect of books that show only good reviews. Even lauded authors get bad ones...consider yourself in good company and I applaud you getting beyond this so quickly :)

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    1. Thanks Jacquie! Feeling like a 'real' author now ... LOL :-)

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