So with goodreads it is very easy to leave a rating without any explanation. It’s what it’s designed to do for readers and I fully respect that and like that as a reader. Rate it, tell your friends, keep track of the books you liked and didn’t like. But as an author, wow that one star is rough. I have two of them and although I’m curious as to what made them rate it 1 star, I have to say I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter. Not because I’ve adopted this thick skin (it’s getting there) but more because while I’m receiving 1 or 2 star reviews, I’m also receiving 5 star reviews and people signing up for the notification of the sequel. And for me personally, to rate a book 1 or 2 stars essentially means you hated it and you aren’t looking forward to more books in the series, you’re just basically glad it’s over…

As I once heard a reviewer say, a reader can leave a one star review on the cover and nothing but the cover. Or maybe there is a scene in there that is so offensive that they rate the whole thing as 1 star. But as an author, a 1 or 2 star review honestly has nothing I can improve upon. It’s a hit and run of something that can’t be improved upon in the reader’s mind and I can either stand there stunned by it, or I can put on my big girl panties and realize that constructive criticism does not lay with a 1 or 2 star review. In fact the people I think would have the best feedback would be those who left 4 stars. Because a 4 star review means they liked it a lot, but what would it take for them to LOVE it? Those are the readers I’d love to talk to and get their opinion-those are the ones that could help me get better as an author! (and one did offer her opinion and it made it better as a result!) 3 star reviews would really depend on what they didn’t like about the book. Could be good constructive criticism or it could be they really didn’t like it either-either the style, characters, etc. I have a couple of three star reviewers that signed up for the sequel which I would guess may be due to the characters and wanting to hear more about secondary characters than these two main characters. Cuz let’s face it, none of the other guys introduced will be as big of ass hats as Josh started out…but if you loved that about this one..WELL…are you getting the picture? Yeah, if I wrote to try to please everyone, I’d go CRAZY!

So I continue to write the way I always have, for the love of writing, for love of my characters and well I may enlist a few more beta readers with Ask Me Something which would be valuable, but overall even the best authors (in my opinion) have those 1 star hit and run reviews and like the rest of them, just gotta keep on focusing on all the positive words!  So thank you to all who have emailed, facebooked, signed up for the sequel and left positive reviews…for you I’m inspired to keep getting better and to keep telling stories!!