Should I Warn Potential Readers About My Book

GiantRampagingPencil said:

Excellent advice IMHO. And I hate all reviews that criticize a work for not being something it is not trying to be--or the reverse, for that matter.

Click to expand...

It depends on whether it would be easy to misunderstand. The reader sees the cover and blurb, not the inside of the author's mind.

I'm going to move this to Self Publishing, as it's not a promotional issue; and I urge anyone who wants to help the OP rewrite her blurb to visit her new thread in SYW.

And I agree with the general consensus: you can't please everyone, some people are bound to not like all of our books (more fool them!), and I suspect the person who left the negative review prefers books in a whole other category. It's no big deal.

I had a similar problem and decided to put a warning at the base of the book description. I even changed the genre to horror, which I subsequently have discovered can be termed 'Dark Fantasy'.

Unfortunately it is impossible to know what will offend some readers. A single swear word, even used in context and in character, is enough to put a reader off the book. Some sensibilities will be shaken with things you would see in the average movie or television show.

Don't worry about reviews too much. Good or bad, they seldom help.

Just keep writing. Express yourself without limits and fear. Your fans will come. They will like your work and expect more of what you've got. There will always be those who will say:

"Hey this burger has meat in it." :|

I read the review in question. It's not a review that I would take into consideration as someone looking for a new book to read.

Her detesting Daniel shows that you did a good job in presenting him as an unlikable character. Her reaction to the quick sex suggests that she is morally against that sort of wanton behavior. That's a silly point. Most of the books I read have characters doing things that I wouldn't necessarily do in my day to day life.

I'm sure that most people that read that review would come to the same conclusion. The conclusion being the reader doesn't understand how to write a critique.

I don't think it is the readers job to writing a critique, just a report of their consumer experience.

veinglory said:

I don't think it is the readers job to writing a critique, just a report of their consumer experience.

Click to expand...

I see your point but as a reader looking for a new book I don't take those reviews seriously.

Hey Pearl,
I want to read your book just because it's not the typical lovey-dovey vampire book. What someone doesn't like could be the reason someone wants to purchase the book

Keep smiling,
Yawatta

I wouldn't worry about it. I understood your blurb and thought it may not end well, at least in the prospect of love stories.

Pearl, I understand your frustration. I recently started publishing, and my first book features a five chapter preview on Amazon, as well as a pretty substantial blurb that provides an accurate description of the story and the characters. Yet, despite all this, I still get comments from readers stating "the story was not for me". Sometimes I feel like grabbing these people and screaming "WHY DID YOU BUY IT THEN?" Honestly, if the blurb doesn't appeal to you, and the preview doesn't help, then why buy the book?

One reviewer even complained that she didn't like the book because the characters were "Infidels". LOL. I literally laughed out loud when I read that. My book is not religious reading material, and I have no idea what gave her that impression.

Pearl: I had the same experience you had, except it concerned the title of my book. I originally called my book Loving Emily, which was an old working title that made sense at the time I coined it, but no longer applied as well after two years of rewrites. The title Loving Emily implied a romance, when in fact the book had morphed into more of a coming of age story about a sixteen year old boy.

So I took a deep breath and changed the title to Any Other Night and changed the cover and book description as well, and I'm really happy I did so. Readers will absolutely complain if a book turns out not to be what they expected. My reviews have been consistently better since I changed the title.

By the way, I also added a warning that my book contained profanity and nonexplicit sexual scenes, which means I no longer get complaints from those readers who turn to YA for squeaky clean entertainment. Again, just a matter of letting readers know up front what they're getting.

I wouldn't freak out over one reader comment. But if you see a pattern over a number of reviews, that's different. Definitely, experiment with your book description, so that you're sure it accurately describes the book. But just know you'll always have a few bad reviews. Everyone gets them.

Good luck!

That seems to me to be a dangerous strategy, Anne. If you have some readers who bought and enjoyed Loving Emily (and according to your diary thread about it, you had plenty), what happens if they go out and buy Any Other Night based on their knowing your name and enjoying your "other" book? How have you dealt with that possibility, and what do you do to try to help your readers avoid such a situation?

Amadan said:

Nope. Still reads "Stalkery bad boy vampires are soooo sexy!" to me.

Really, just let it go. Stop obsessing over one bad review. I mean, you also have a 4-star review, so evidently that reader didn't feel misled by your blurb.

Click to expand...

I don't know. I think this is better; the first one did lead me to expect a romance with a Happily Ever After.

I think telegraphing the ending might help. "Can Claire escape this dreadful fate?" or something like that.

I think the job of a blurb is to set reader expectations. If they expect Twilight and get Stephen King, (or vice versa) they may leave bad reviews.

Old Hack said:

That seems to me to be a dangerous strategy, Anne. If you have some readers who bought and enjoyed Loving Emily (and according to your diary thread about it, you had plenty), what happens if they go out and buy Any Other Night based on their knowing your name and enjoying your "other" book? How have you dealt with that possibility, and what do you do to try to help your readers avoid such a situation?

Click to expand...

In my goodreads and amazon description of Any Other Night, I stated explicitly that the book had been previously published under the title Loving Emily and was now being re-issued as Any Other Night, with the content unchanged.

I also left up the listings for Loving Emily in amazon and goodreads, with a statement that the title had changed and that for more information, or to purchase the book, they should refer to the listing for Any Other Night.

I also blogged about it and sent notifications to key bloggers who had reviewed my book, who posted announcements of the title change.

No reader has ever notified me of any confusion or problems in the five months since I did this. If the scenario you suggest had happened, which it didn't, I would have refunded the buyer's money.

I agree something like this could go badly if you mishandled it. But if you are careful to make all the disclosures, it can go well. Readers are smart and reasonable, and in this case, they were fully informed. I had nothing but good consequences from doing this.

I think that you have to be as clear as you possibly can. You will always have readers who will expect something other than what you are telling them is in the book. As long as you don't deliberately misrepresent your book (and there are a lot of reasons an author might be tempted to do so), I think that is the best you can do. I've read some books that are not what the author actually wrote in their description. There may have been a temptation to spin the book as being, say paranormal romance (which is very popular) when it is fact a paranormal horror (which may not be as popular) with just the barest hint of romance. Obviously the two are not the same and a reader coming into it expecting one and getting the other would be, to put it mildly, disappointed. I don't think most authors do this. It's a good way to alienate your readers.
Joe