I just checked the status of my novella ‘Outpost Epsilon’ and found that it slipped down the ladder in sales. I also noticed that two readers decided to rate it. One thinks the story is ‘okay’ the other one gives it a ‘poor’ (Sigh!!). I enjoyed writing the story and I think it is a great :-) story. I am reminded of a Seinfeld Episode where Jerry's mother says: "How can anyone not like my Jerry?" How can anyone not like my story? (Sigh again). It makes me sad if a reader thinks it is poor.
I went through the list of other books and found the ‘Alien Seduction Digest’ received one ‘great’ and one ‘poor’.
‘Interplanetary Passion’ by Jaden Sinclair was rated by 104 readers (wow!). The majority of them find it good and great, but there is still someone who rates it as ‘poor’. This leaves me wondering about what a reader expects when he/she reads the blurb. It would be helpful if we as writers could find out why one reader thinks a story is great and another one doesn’t like it. Just to say: “This story is poor,” without an explanation leaves me questioning it and wonder. Does this reader expect more intrigue, more adventure, more romance, more erotica? Or was there too much?
Writing, like any art form, is a passion. We write because we need to put our dreams on paper. It is a fortunate and lucky writer who manages to get paid a lot of money; most of us don’t. I’m not saying we would refuse the money, but let’s face it, the lack of compensation does not stop us from writing. We write to still some yearning we have inside us. That’s how we start out, but as we progress we want to share our stories with others. We want the readers to feel what we feel when we put our tales on paper (these days into a hard drive), and the last thing we want is to make readers feel they’ve wasted their time and money. I wish I could say that I don’t care about what a reader thinks, as long as I am happy writing my stuff, but that would be lying. I care. That’s why it would be nice to get some feedback. I know, I am dreaming, that’s what a writer does best, but it still would be nice.
1 comment:
Hi Herbert,
Just to let you know that you're not alone, I just checked my newly-posted book Magnificent Man on Fictionwise. It took 18 months to write including three weeks of research in Arizona and countless hours of Internet and book research. I fussed over every word, had it edited by a highly successful author friend before it was edited again by Midnight Showcase. I spent 2 last days polishing it one last time before publication. This book is the culmination of my dubious writing career and the pride of my life. It has received excellent reviews from Coffee Time Romance and Just Erotic Romance Reviews. After all that, the page opened to a bright orange 'poor' rating by someone who chose to be anonymous rather than writing a review. I swear my ex is following my writing. Damn I hate it when the first one is poor. Later it doesn't matter, but that first one hurts.
Yours,
Randall Lang
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