Prepare yourself! Reviews will be all over the place.
Your book isn't for everyone. Some people may love it and some may hate it. Some people don't like fiction, some don't like non-fiction, and on and on. It's not about what one person thinks. You should judge your reviews by what the majority of your readers think. The majority could change from one day to another. My book took time before I saw the first sales. It took me a while to figure out how to make it happen. Hopefully, some of the tips on this site will help to expedite the process for others. I believe the important thing is that you enjoyed writing your book, it is on sale, and people are buying it. It's hard work and a great accomplishment!
Some authors prefer not to read their reviews. In my opinion, a bad review can be your best friend if it is a legitimate bad review. Why didn't they like your book? For example:
1. On page five I noticed 5 grammatical errors.
Oh my! Embarrassing! You need to fix them.
2. If it's just because they don't like your genre, discard it and go on.
If they didn't like your genre, they shouldn't have read your book.
3. I read the Introduction and didn't like it, so I didn't read the book and they gave you one star.
Oh my! I tried to get one of those removed, but it was still there the last time I checked.
4. You check out the reader. They have read hundreds of books and gave most of them one star. Maybe they should consider a different hobby. Disregard the review.
SUMMARY: A couple of bad reviews won't ruin your average. Is it upsetting? Sure, it is, but it isn't worthy of you stressing over it. Move on!
For those of you that haven't seen this already on my Facebook, I believe it puts the whole review thing into perspective.
Sometimes it may turn out that your writing becomes a hobby and you don't sell any books. Hobbies can also be rewarding.
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Listed below are the reviews for one of the greatest stories of all time.
GONE WITH THE WIND #BOOK REVIEWS:
55% (557,606) - 5 STAR
25% (258,651) - 4 STAR
12% (126,196) - 3 STAR
3% (36,556) - 2 STAR
2% (22,380) - 1 STAR
IN SUMMARY, 22,380 readers gave this book one star. 36,556 gave it two stars and 126,196 readers gave it three stars. I seriously doubt that it was a major concern to the author.
Statistics taken from the New York Times: It was the No. 1 national best seller for two consecutive years, and won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. More than 25 million copies have been sold in 37 countries.
The movie made more than 506 million dollars in four years. There have been eight releases over approximately 60 years, and it has generated approximately 3.3 billion dollars in sales at the box office.
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Never get discouraged by reviews and never give up writing. If writing is your passion,
KEEP WRITING!