I suppose
it’s a sign of literary grade inflation that when a reviewer gives a book three
stars out of five and calls it a fun read, Amazon classes that as a “critical”
review. That just happened with my mystery, The McHenry Inheritance, and if that’s the worst review the book gets, I’ll
take it to the bank any time.
When I was
setting up my author page on Goodreads, there was a caution about negative
reviews, part of which read, in effect, not every review will be five stars. It
seems that five stars is the expected standard nowadays, and anything less is a
letdown.
So far, my
book has nine reviews on Kindle. Seven of them are five stars, one is four
stars, and the one just put up is three stars. That’s pretty respectable, and
since five stars is probably what most searching readers are looking for, I’m
grateful to have a few of those on the page. Still, I would have given my book
only three stars.
When In Doubt, Flunk ‘Em Out
Maybe I’m
just a hard-ass grader, but to me a five-star mystery is one where the
plotting, writing, atmosphere, and characters are all so spectacularly well-done
that at the end, you put the book down and say, “Wow!”
A four-star
book would be one that is considerably above the norm, but not quite in the
pantheon. Three stars is a book that’s solid, entertaining, and well written,
but that doesn’t have that special something that takes it to the next notch.
Two stars is for a book that’s problematic but has some points of interest and
could be worth reading depending on your tastes. Less than two stars —
Fuhgeddaboutit. As a college professor of my acquaintance likes to say, “When
in doubt, flunk ‘em out.”
What
constitutes a five-star book can also change with the times. When E.C.
Bentley’s classic, Trent’s Last Case,
first came out a century ago, it was so wildly inventive and original that it
would have been a five-star book, no doubt. After all these years, it’s still
worth reading, but probably not too many people would give it five stars today.
Probably the last five-star mystery I read was Sjowall and Wahloo’s The Laughing Policeman, and that was
back in October.
Building An Audience Takes Time
Conventional
wisdom says that reviews help attract readers, but the payoff can take time. The McHenry Inheritance was first published
nine months ago, and I’m just beginning to hear from the people who found out
about it on their own, rather than through knowing me. So far they seem to like
it, and that’s a good thing.
When the
book first came out, I had fantasies of it going viral, like Fifty Shades of Grey. Unfortunately, I
forgot to put any S&M scenes in my book, so it hasn’t taken off quite that
fast. That’s probably the typical experience. A self-published author has to
put the book out, flog it relentlessly, blog, use social media, offer free
promotions — the whole nine yards.
It’s hard
to get someone to buy a book by an author they never heard of, even if the book
is only $2.99 on Kindle. And unless you bought the book on the recommendation
of a trusted friend, you probably aren’t going to put it at the top of the
reading list. Not everybody who buys it will read it; not everyone who reads it
will like it; and not everyone who likes it will review it. Building the
numbers in those areas takes time. Patiently, I wait.
