Signs point to “yes.”
Supercritical has yet to hit NetGalley (your one-stop shop for digital ARCs [advance review copies]), yet I’ve already seen a couple of the early reviews. Sigh of relief time — they’re good.
The first one — which popped up on Goodreads — was a five-star. Not a bad way to start.
For one review, I actually had to go out into the world and buy a print magazine. OK, I didn’t have to, as the review would eventually post to the Internet, but I was curious. This magazine didn’t have a whole lot of love for the last book, so all I was looking for was an improvement. Another half-star, or even some kinder words for this book, would have totally done it for me.
Instead, I got another full star, which punched it up to “a pleasant read.” I’ll take it.
In my long rant about reviews the other day, I mentioned that I feel bad reviews are totally valid, and that’s true. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like good reviews. My writer’s ego sees those, sits back in its high-backed leather chair, and strokes its white Persian cat while cackling over the fate of a British super-spy.
And while this review is solidly middle-of-the-road, the important thing is it’s an improvement. I went from someone not much liking my first book to mildly digging the second. It’s not a slam-dunk, but at least I made the free throw.
So, a question for all my writer pals in the audience — how important are reviews to you? Do you read them, or ignore them?
Reviews are rather important to me. I have this bad habit of wanting to please everyone (even though I know it doesn’t work that way with books), so everytime I get a good review I feel all excited, but when I receive criticism, most of all I feel disappointed with myself for not meeting the readers’ expectations, haha.