I come from a line of men who worked with their hands. Mygrandfather rebuilt boat motors; my dad builds and repairs furniture. For almost ten years, I made a living as acarpenter/handyman/remodeling company owner.
When you do this sort of work, you inevitably accumulatecoffee cans filled with random nuts, bolts, and screws. And this gives rise towhat I’m modestly calling Mullin’s Law: In any can of random nuts, 2% of themwill be wingnuts.
The rest of this post is not for the wingnuts outthere. If you’re an author who trolls threads on Goodreads, you’re a wingnut.If you’re a blogger who continues to review YA, despite professing a disdainfor the whole literature, you’re a wingnut. If you’re a blogger who reviews the author’s weight instead of her book,or uses hateful and misogynistic language in your reviews, not only are you awingnut, but your threads are stripped. Seek professional help retooling.
Now, to the rest of you, the 98% who are just plain nuts:bad reviews rock. One-star reviews rock. Two-star reviews rock. Authors,celebrate your bad reviews (you’re allowed 5-10 minutes of cringing self-pityfirst). Bloggers, don’t feel badly when you negatively review an author’s work.Unless that author has published ten or more books, you’re helping her withyour negative review.
Want evidence? Checkout this studyof New York Times book reviews conducted using Nielsen Bookscan data and reported in MarketingScience. The upshot is thatnegative reviews of works by authors who had previously published fewer thantwo books boosted their sales by 45%on average. Negative reviews of well-known authors (i.e. those who hadpublished 10 or more books previously) hurt their sales by 15%. So the adviceabout celebrating your one-star reviews doesn’t apply after you’ve publishedyour tenth book.
I first posted on this topic on my blog last July. If you're interested in a more thorough discussion of the benefits of bad reviews, click through. To sum up, the worst thing that can happen to an author isn't bad reviews; it's being ignored.
I first posted on this topic on my blog last July. If you're interested in a more thorough discussion of the benefits of bad reviews, click through. To sum up, the worst thing that can happen to an author isn't bad reviews; it's being ignored.
What do you think? Do the other authors out there help spread the word aboutnegative reviews of your work? Do those of you who blog feel hesitant to post a negative review? Why or why not? Let meknow in the comments, please.
