Table of Contents
TRYING THIS AGAIN: What do YOU want from this newsletter next year? POLL
What Those Stars Mean to Authors (and to Booksellers and Advertisers)
Actual really good stuff Iâm not grumpy about đ€©
Also, in MORE chances for Raven to make a fool of herself in public⊠đł
Music rec: GUNSHIP
SoâŠlast newsletter I put in a poll. AND NONE OF YOU DID IT. Not you. Nor you. Not even YOU, over there in the corner đ«” I am calling out this nonsense, and asking you please to let me know what you want from this newsletter in 2025. Please? Just choose from the belowâŠ
Did you enjoy The Blood & Ancient Scrolls Series in 2024âor even before then? If you have derived pleasure from the books, but you havenât had time to write a review, please do so đđđ
Indie authors survive mainly on reviews from readers like you. We do not have an agent or publisher doing marketing or promotion on our behalf, itâs just the writerâand the readers who support that writer. Thereâs not one book in my series that doesnât need more Amazon reviews. Why? Because the more reviews a book has, the better Amazon treats that book: increasing placement in front of more new readers. Itâs not an optimal system, because it leads to people paying for reviews in a desperate attempt to get ahead, and that means that people with âdeep pocketsâ can have more successful books, no matter the quality of the writing.
I donât have âdeep pockets.â So I need every single one of you who loves this series to take a moment to drop me a review on Amazon. It doesnât have to be an essay! Just a few lines mentioning one or two aspects of the book that touched you at the time of reading, or stayed with you since.
As for the matter of STARS. Here are two articles explaining why Amazon has skewed the rating system so that only 5-Star reviews are good for an author:
What Those Stars Mean to Authors (and to Booksellers and Advertisers)
5 stars is an A, A-, or even a B+. Great for authors. This means you enjoyed the book. It fulfilled the measure of its creation. Meaning that a romance isnât judged as a general fiction, a teen story as an adult novel, or genre fiction as a literary novel. The 5-star novel was enjoyable, didnât have any major plot holes, and the writing was good enough that youâd recommend it as a nice read. These 5-star reviews help balance the 1 and 2 star reviews from people who picked up the wrong genre or wanted sex in a clean book (or vice-versa). Or the picky reviewer who found one typo and therefore decided the entire book was poorly edited (if that was the case, EVERY published book would be junk). Five stars doesnât mean the book has to be the best youâve ever read, or even better than the last one you reviewed. It just has to be a good novel. This rating could also be given to a novel you would have rated only 4 stars but one feature (world-building, a character, or plot element) was so cool that you reward the authorâs effort by giving them that extra star (and you can say this in the review).
4 stars is a B, B-, or even a C+ novel. Okay for authors, but if they have an overall rating more than 4 stars, keep in mind that you are taking down their rating. The 4-star rating is for novels that you liked but had at least one issue with. A plot hole that disturbed your reading enough that you didnât enjoy the overall story. Maybe a few too many typos. Too much repetition. But you still found the story compelling enough to read in a short time and you enjoyed it. The novel doesnât have to be the best one youâve read in the genre, it just has to hold your attention. Think of yourself as a teacher giving a grade. Again, if you had been going to give the novel 3 stars, but something cools really stood out, give the author the benefit of the doubtâand the extra star.
3 stars is a C or a C-. So only average or NEUTRAL. You neither liked it or disliked it. This really is the kiss of death rating. The âokayâ novel. If you give a novel this rating, there should be SERIOUS issues because, remember, many advertisers wonât accept novels with this overall rating. So the 3-star novel should be one you didnât feel compelled to finish, or one whose overall plot didnât quite make sense (and you feel wouldnât make sense to others). This is a novel that you wouldnât recommend unless it was the only thing someone had to read and they were stuck in an airport for two hours.
2 stars is a D or a D-. This is a novel that has at least three major negative issues and you feel these issues will prevent others from enjoying it at all. There are sex scenes in a supposedly clean novel, the character thinks about their college literature classes entirely far too much, or the character isnât consistent. Maybe there are typos on every other page, or repeated use of wrong words. A 2-star rating could also be a book that you felt you really wanted to give one star to, but because it had some redeeming feature (great world-building, a character you really enjoyed), you gave it an extra star to encourage the author.
1 star means F. The author completely and utterly failed. You hated it totally and absolutely. That means there was no plot, it was riddled with grammar errors, and everything about it was boring, boring, boring. The author should throw the book away. Never give an author a one-star review unless you feel they really should give up writing and get a job at the local grocery instead.
Are my rating descriptions correct? You may not feel so when rating a book, but I bet you feel that way when reading reviews! And I assure you thatâs what book advertisers and sellers seeâand itâs certainly what those stars mean to authors (or most of them).
https://teylarachelbranton.com/reviews-what-those-stars-mean-to-authors/
and
Because Amazon runs with an average and because 3 star reviews actually translate as negative, this is how to interpret the 1-5 star rating system:
5 Stars: probably only has 1 review, otherwise excellent
4 1/2 Stars: excellent
4 Stars: okay
3 1/2 Stars: crap
3 Stars: crap
2 1/2 Stars: crap
2 Stars: crap
1 1/2 Stars: crap
1 Star: craphttps://authorchristopherdschmitz.wordpress.com/2017/09/06/what-do-those-stars-mean-on-amazon/
So if you think you are being âfair and honestâ on Amazon, you may be hurting your favorite writers without intending to đ«€
(If you wonder why being an indie author makes me a bit grumpy, itâs shit like this thatâs the cause. I would much rather you give the amount of stars you feel like giving, as the most logical thing. But Amazon isnât logical, and I have to learn all this nonsense and then I have to beg people to give me 5-Star reviews just so they are not hurting my sales. Itâs all frustrating and insane. But if I want to be an author, itâs the game I need to keep playing, so here we are.)
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Actual really good stuff Iâm not grumpy about đ
On Thursday January 2nd 7pm EST (4pm PST) I get to have a conversation with the brilliant author Paulette Kennedy https://paulettekennedy.com/ and I honestly canât express how excited I am. Paulette and I have so many interests and values in common, and we both seriously enjoy each otherâs works. We are going to try and keep this as a serious discussion of vampire myth and history, so I will try to restrain myself from gushing about her work in the interview, but seriously, if you love thrillingly spooky history with a perfect feminist twist, you canât go wrong with any of her books. (Yes, I have an author crush, OK?!) đ€©
Anyway, now that you know I have an author crush and Iâll be getting to talk to said object of my adoration, tune in on her page on Instagram Live to watch me desperately try not to make a fool of myself live and for all the world to see đł
Also, in MORE chances for Raven to make a fool of herself in public⊠đ
Iâve been asked to give a talk at Emerson College on January 31st about how to be a #IndieAuthor. This amuses me, as I really feel like I need another decade to do it really rightâŠBUT, I definitely am ready right now to give the kind of talk I wish I had gotten, back when I was making the choice to live this dubious lifestyle. Itâs mostly gonna be âThings You Should NOT Do As An Indie Authorâ with a smattering of âAnd You Should Be Aware Of These Things You Could Never Have Guessed,â tied up with a bow of âHere Are A Few Positive Assurances I Can Honestly Give You.â Hopefully, I will be able to help a new group of writers enter the indie publishing space with less painful lessons to learn the hard way, and I am seriously thrilled about that part.
Also thrilling is that the fucking fabulous author Cecilia Tan will be joining me in the talk, so it wonât just be me bitterly muttering about needing 5-Star Amazon Reviews, but their years of experience in dealing with this crazy profession as well. I know I will be taking notes!
I will post more information as we near the date. And it will also be recorded for replay online, for those of you who are just about to ask thatâŠ
I am also writing another article for Publisherâs Weekly (she says as if sheâs all calm and not squeeing about this fact), so that basically my January eaten upâadmittedly by wicked awesome things! I will have news about new stories in the Blood & Ancient Scrolls Series starting up in February, so keep on being patient with me, pretty please? More amâr really ARE on the wayâŠ
Music rec for this week comes from my dear friend Sara, who hipped me to GUNSHIP, which is like the best goth/industrial sounds of the 80s smashed with the best of the 90s, and all brought forward to be perfect for NOW. Hereâs one of their brilliant albums, first in TIDAL, then Spotify
Thank you to everyone who got to the end of the newsletter: you fucking ROCK đ€and I appreciate you! Until next time, BE GOOD OR BE GOOD AT IT! đ
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