The Good Thing About Bad Reviews

I surf the Net a lot and from time to time I come across negative reviews of My Daughter’s Boyfriend, a novel which seems to have irked countless numbers of people for many reasons. I really do not read entire reviews anymore (only the good reviews), but here is a link that someone took the time to post. It’s an entire blog about my little book.

http://onthenightstand.blogspot.com/2005/06/my-daughters-boyfriend.html#comments

Now, everyone is going to have a different opinion, but one thing about bad reviews is this:

Sometimes, especially when people are very angry in their reviews, well, it only makes others curious and want to know what’s going on with that book. An example is Confessions of a Video Vixen. So much anger. So many comments. Scathing reviews. And tons of controversy = book sales. People either shy away from the book or they want to see for themselves what’s going on. So, in my opinion, that’s a good thing. I want as many people as possible to know about My Daughter’s Boyfriend by Cydney Rax. Don’t let others scare you out of reading a book for yourself. Form your own opinion.

Also, it cracks me up when people say, “Don’t buy this book.” Well, all that does is make people buy it. Why? Because they get curious! Why shouldn’t I buy it? What’s in that book that I’m not supposed to see?… And folks still end up getting the book. It’s the equivalent of telling someone not to do something, and that’s the very thing that they’re going to do. So thanks, seriously, to all the people that post the negative reviews. It can have positive results. And I do appreciate anyone that has heard of my book and read it anyway. I love it when people check the book out from the library. A library book is still a sold book. And when you tell someone to check a book out from the library, it’s still an endorsement, right? And the more people that read your book and tell others about it, the more people become aware of you and your book. Not a bad thing.

Soooo, all of this stuff is just part of being an author. I read my contemporaries Amazon and BN.com reviews and so far no one is exempt from negative comments. I mean the million sellers get them. The mainstream, self-pubbed, literary folks, street fic writers, romance writers, all of us. But us authors must keep on keeping on. Everyone will not get what you do, haven’t been where you been, or don’t understand what you were striving to do with your story at the time you wrote it. It’s okay. Write the kind of book you want, the book that makes you feel passionate, and surely there will be folks out there who do enjoy and appreciate what you do. They will tell you the total opposite of what others have said. They will ask when the next book is coming out. They will make you feel good inside with their kind words. And this, my friends, makes everything we endure as an author, worth the journey.

Peace out.

Cydney Rax
Author of that controversial book called MY DAUGHTER’S BOYFRIEND. Get the book and see for yourself what everyone is talking about.

P.S. Other books that get scathing reviews, that people tend to read just because of the reviews are:

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

And one of my favorites
High Maintenance by Jennifer Belle