Reviews, Ratings & Comments

Good morning everyone! Well, it's morning here in Sydney, but I imagine it's probably late afternoon in the US. :)

Okay, the winner of my eBook FAITHLESS - which has been getting some fab reviews - is Kim. Congrats Kim, please send me an email to yolanda@yolandasfetsos.com, with your preferred format, and I'll email it to you ASAP.

It was funny that Tawny mentioned Mrs. Giggles yesterday (very cool post, BTW) because I'm going to chat about something that's relatively new in my writing life: reviews.

I remember the days when I used to read other writer's blogs and they'd chat about Googling themselves. It wasn't until I had my first eBook published in January this year, that I started doing the same. I try not to do it too often, maybe a few times a week. But it never seizes to amaze me when I find a new review up. I get nervous and excited, try to keep my mind focused as I'm reading it for the first time...

So far I've been very lucky, everything I've had reviewed has gotten great responses. Though I get nervous every single time I find a new one, I still love to read reviews about my stories. I really want to hear what the reviewer liked, or didn't like. Positive, negative or in between, I like to know how/if I managed to affect the reader.

I used to be very protective about my writing in the early days. Hardly let anyone read a sentence of what I wrote when I was in my teens. Well, except for all that angsty poetry I liked writing back then. When I met my hubby, all that changed. He wanted to know what I wrote and once he started, it gave me the confidence to start submitting to places. Back then I aimed my short stories at webzines, but it was a great start. The more I submitted, the more I wanted to share my tales with readers.

Something peculiar happened to me this week. I'd been trying to drum up the courage to submit one of my eBooks for review to Mrs. Giggles, but didn't know which one to send. So when Ericka told me that Mrs. Giggles had actually reviewed one of my Cobblestone Press releases, I was scared and excited at the same time. In the end, she gave me a rating of 79, which I reckon is pretty good. I'm happy with what she had to say too - the good and not-so good. At the end of the day, what I love to find out is what works and doesn't work for the reader. And that's exactly what she did!

If you want to check it out, it's right here.

I enjoy reading reviews about my stories because it reminds me that they're finally out there for others to read. The one thing that I would love to get more of is actual reader comments.

So, which part of a review do you usually dwell on? If you're a writer, does the rating or the comment mean more to you? As a reader, would the rating or the comment affect whether you'd buy the book or not?



Yolanda
http://www.yolandasfetsos.com/