Week 14:
What I learned from my worst review.
Sorry this is late getting out this morning. Wow, week fourteen? I act like it’s a surprise. We’re back with another Marketing For Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge using the hashtag #MFRWauthor.
Hmm, how do I choose? Hah, those words are something to laugh at if you’ve never received a bad review, and congratulations to you if you haven’t.
I don’t want to dwell on bad reviews. They make me sick for days, and now I have to recall those feelings as the bad ones flash before my eyes. Yes, I’ve learned that you aren’t going to please every reader who picks up a book. I understand. I can’t possibly love each and every book I choose to read, either, but I do read the blurb, “Look Inside the Book” sometimes, and take a glance at reviews. Try to please everyone if you dare.
The key is finding the readers you will please.
Through reviews in one book, I’ve learned what readers didn’t like, for example: rambling in a book that was already too long. Fear not, dear readers. This has been taken care of and in a major way.
In another book, I’ve learned that it has too much sex yet not enough. This can’t be fixed by anything I do unless I publish two versions.
For this post I’m picking one review that won’t go away, but it isn’t necessarily my worst. It’s at the top though. The worst reviews are the ones that attack and insinuate stupidity and being uneducated.
I knew better. Honest, I did. Too late. Too bad for me:
As I said in last weeks topic about research, I suggested triple checking, and then check a few more times before using the info in your book or whatever you’re writing for the public eye. I have no one to blame but myself. I knew better!
Yes, I made an error. (Not for the first time in my life, either.) I’m sorry for it.
I admit it. Ugh. 😦
It makes me sick to my stomach to have made such a silly mistake.
All it would’ve taken was one teeny minute to triple check a fact instead of depending on a street view thingy. Better yet, I shouldn’t have mentioned the real name of the damn town.
Yes, I corrected it in the book after the fact, but that doesn’t matter because the review is still there for the world to see. Potential readers don’t know I learned a lesson and fixed it, or that I had beat myself up more than they ever could. On my own defense… When I handed the manuscript over to someone who lived where my error appeared, and didn’t catch that freaking, glowering, embarrassing error, (insert a 4-letter word), it added to the painful burn inside of me.
Through this review, I also learned not to depend solely on others when my name is on the cover. It’s my job and my book. It’s my reputation. Boy, did I learn the lesson the hard way, when I knew better all along, anyway.
Too late. Too bad.
Y’all know the drill. This is a BLOG HOP. Feel free to visit the other participating authors. They’ll be as glad as I am that you stopped by.
Enjoy your weekend. I can’t believe it’s already Friday.
Mary J. McCoy-Dressel 
11 thoughts on “#AmWriting You Can’t Please Everyone: Week 14 #MFRWauthor”
Holly Bargo
Even though readers will call you out on missing a fact easily checked, they won’t dismiss you entirely if your book was good anyway.
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Thanks, Holly. That’s encouraging to think of other readers feeling that way, but this one hated everything and mentioned things I got right but said they weren’t correct. I know for a fact they are 100% correct. That’s what hurts the most, I think. 😦
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Teagan R. Geneviene
Mary, I’m probably more terrified of reviews than anybody — because I know how badly it would effect me. Issues with just my blog serials early on nearly made me stop writing. (We’ve talked about that and the bully.) And the novels are *much* more important to me. The main thing I learned through bad (or just annoying) comments on the serials was that every time I dug down to see what they were talking about — it turned out they weren’t paying attention to what they read in the first place. That said, Rick Nelson singing Garden Party keeps playing in my head. You can’t please everyone for sure! Hugs.
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Thanks for commenting, Teagan. I know when we put our words out to the public, even on a blog as you mention, anything can happen, and we all have feelings. Writing is my living so I need to be the best I can be. Hence, revisions on my books as I grow and learn as a writer. I love my job, but part of it is having the wind knocked out of my sails (sales) now and then. Your books are on a roll. Keep up the good work. Get all those books out, and you won’t have to worry about a full time job outside of the home. 🙂
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Teagan R. Geneviene
That would be heaven. ❤
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Helen Henderson
Contradictory comments can drive you crazy.
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Yes, they can, Helen.
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D. Wallace Peach
Don’t you love those reviews that tell you opposite things? I have one book where a reader said my sentences are too long, and another reader said my sentences are too short. 🙂 Go figure! But the lesson to check details ourselves is a good one, Mary. Live and learn.
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Yep, it’s up to us in the end, Diana. For the record, I think your sentences are perfect. Glad you stopped by today. Happy Writing!
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Cathy Brockman
It is good to learn from reviews. I am trying to create my own towns though I have to use real states. I hope this doesn’t blow up in y face lol
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
My small town has a fictitious name, Cathy, but I do use real names of surrounding towns. I don’t write things about those towns unless I know specifically that they have what I’m writing about. I don’t use real names of places like restaurants, etc., but give enough hints to the place to be obvious. Like I needed an extended stay hotel in one of the real towns, so I did deep investigation to be sure it had one. A phone call only takes a moment. I’ve since opened one outside of my small town, so I can have what I want there and now use it instead. I don’t say anything negative about the real towns I use though. However, things can happen there like a bar fight, for example. Thanks for stopping by.
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