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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

How a one-star review is a gift to people pleasers

5/7/2017

16 Comments

 
After being turned down by multiple publishers and agents, I was pleasantly surprised at how well my debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was received, even going on to be shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. But you can’t take anything for granted in this business. Two years later, my second novel, Underneath, brought me, on the eve of publication, my first one-star review on Goodreads (and a little later on Amazon). Ouch! Someone has looked at my baby, declared it ugly and wants the world to know.

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For the uninitiated, one star doesn’t mean the reader liked it only a teeny tiny bit. It doesn’t mean they were indifferent to it. One star should translate as no stars, or negative stars, like your book’s been swallowed by a black hole. One star means the reader actively disliked your book. (Notice that I’m already making this post about you rather than me!)

Of course, I knew it would get me eventually. The more your writing is out there, the more chance of it eliciting a range of different responses. Of course, I’ve read about other people’s experiences and was – sort of – prepared. I knew, for example, it’s never a good idea to engage with the reviewer: even a polite Thanks for reading and sorry you felt it wasted your time could be perceived as an attack. I’d read the reassurance that a one-star proves not all your reviews are written by your granny. But authors have mixed opinions on whether to engage with the reviewer in your head. Whether to scour the review for what you can learn for next time or to safeguard your self-esteem and blithely let it go.

So I was ready with my psychological armour. What I wasn’t prepared for, and took me by surprise, was that my predominant feeling would be relief. It wasn’t only
meeting a milestone on my authorial journey, but the realisation that my words could not please everyone. Of course, I knew that intellectually. But it’s a lesson I have to keep on learning in my heart. So the one-star review was a gift. If you’re a people pleaser, the same might be true for you.

I’m assuming, like mine, your book has been through critiques, edits and proofreading before reaching readers’ hands. I’m assuming, whether self or traditionally published, you haven’t let it out there until it’s the best it can possibly be. But still not everyone is going to like it. The world would be a boring place if we all thought the same.

But some of us can’t help hoping for the impossible: that everyone will like us and our words. If we began life
emotionally neglected there’ll be a part of us that knows, however illogical that might be, that our very survival is based on not displeasing others, because once that was actually the case. We’ll hide the parts of ourselves we fear others might consider unattractive and show the world a false self.

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When I wrote my essay for the Raw Literature series about writing being brave and subversive, I had no conscious sense of preparing myself for the one-star review. But I meant every word about the importance of airing thoughts and feelings that have been silenced in the past. I don’t want to be a writer who could be described as “safe” or “bland”. To me, the one-star review is confirmation I’m not.

I don’t want to suggest that writers shouldn’t ever try to please readers, or that my one-star reviewer’s judgement was wrong (although I’m free to think that in the privacy of my head). But it seems to me that, particularly for those of us who can’t make a living from it, it would be self-defeating to start from the premise of pleasing others at the expense of ourselves. I never expect to have the confidence, foolhardiness or bravery to be indifferent to others’ opinions, but the one-star review is a useful reminder that we make up stories not only to entertain but to reflect our personal truths.

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PS. If you’ve been hurt by a negative review, you might find this
post by Jane Friedman on toxic feedback uplifting.

PPS. If you’ve read either of my novels and are still considering posting a review, I leave you with these thoughts:


  1. Thanks, much appreciated.
  2. Obviously you’ll rate it how you think fit, but a one-star review isn’t the only, or even the best, gift you can give an author.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
16 Comments
geoff le pard link
5/7/2017 11:04:35 pm

yes, a badge of honour some say. I haven't had many reviews anyway (mainly because i'm not as assiduous a marketer as you, my friend, or perhaps because the books do not engage with potential readers as your do - which is probably nearer the truth) but I have had less than perfect reviews. The pint about reviews, that I've come to understand is the star rating is broadly pointless for me the author. It tells me little, in truth. What matters is the text review, the commentary which can be very revealing, if not especially helpful. For the potential buyer I can see there might be a use to stars - a significant set of one and two stars might say something, but even so without an explanation even that use has to be limited.

Reply
Annecdotist
6/7/2017 06:41:58 pm

I agree that the text is more useful both for the author and potential readers, but of course some popular sites do promote the star rating system. I think “less than perfect” is good because of the honesty factor but there’s always a little bit of perfectionism in most of us. I don’t give stars on my blog reviews but I do generally assign them on Goodreads where as if they made more sense in the context of other reviews.

Reply
S A Edward link
5/7/2017 11:06:10 pm

I found this to be a very interesting post, Anne. One of your best for 2017.

Reply
Annecdotist
6/7/2017 06:36:10 pm

Oh, thanks for that, Steffanie. I really wasn’t sure about posting it :-)

Reply
Charli Mills
6/7/2017 03:53:49 am

Congratulations on not being bland or safe to read, Anne! I'm salivating to read Underneath and have saved it for my beloved Lady Superior beaches. I don't anticipate your book being a single star. Thanks for writing this post as I think it can help many writers. We express much of ourselves in writing but out worth is not measured in ratings and ranks.

Reply
Annecdotist
6/7/2017 06:44:50 pm

Absolutely, Charli, “our worth is not measured in ratings and ranks”.
You made me smile at the thought of reading Underneath on the beach as I’m sure you know it’s not a typical beach read!

Reply
Clare O'Dea link
6/7/2017 09:56:27 am

Such an interesting post Anne! I have an odd one-star story and I hate to say that it bothers me - even though I am comfortable with the fact that my book is not for everyone. One person on a book reviewing platform (which will remain nameless) has given me a one-star review. No comment, just the rating. All the rest are all three to five, and they're not all friends of mine! Of course curiosity got the better of me and I checked the reviewer's profile. Here's the odd part. His account was recently set up. He didn't enter a start or end date for reading the book, just added it as a title. There is no biographical info in his profile and the other 15 to 20 books he's rated are all four or five star and not remotely similar to mine. Isn't it terrible that I'm bothering to check this?? I can't shake the feeling that this is not a genuine review. But it's difficult to know. I've had some angry letters and comments from readers who disklike my assessment of the Swiss role in WW2. Some say I was unfair to the Swiss while others think I was too soft on them. That's actually reassuring, makes me feel I struck a balance. Maybe it's one of those.

Reply
Annecdotist
6/7/2017 06:50:54 pm

Thanks for sharing your experience, Clare. The profile of your one star reviewer does seem strange – it must get you wondering whether he’s inadvertently clicked on the wrong book! I think also though sometimes a book can press a person’s buttons in a way we couldn’t possibly anticipate which makes them “retaliate”. And I suppose those comments about your treatment of the Swiss in WW2 shows that this is still a sore point decades on.
Incidentally, my book group is discussing The Gustav Sonata next month (I’m very happy about that but it’s not my choice) so if anyone needs to know more about the country I’ll refer them to The Naked Swiss

Reply
Norah Colvin link
9/7/2017 10:04:04 am

I read some of the reviews of Underneath before posting my own. I was surprised by some of the comments and didn't agree with most of the negative ones. It is true that you can't please everyone, and there's no point in trying. Writers write from their own need and perhaps to a specific audience. Perhaps if someone from outside that targeted audience reads the book and comments negatively, it reflects more on their poor choice as a reader than on the work itself. Unfortunately, while most of us understand that, many more are taken in by the ratings. I agree with Geoff though, the words are more helpful than the ratings, and the ratings, as Clare showed, may be made without any proof of having read or even any familiarity with the book. I think that's a shame. Reading on the beach - now that conjures up a lightness that is not necessarily evident in the book, but I'm sure Charli will enjoy it.

Reply
Annecdotist
9/7/2017 12:06:16 pm

Thank you, Norah. I might be partly responsible for some of the low ratings (not because of the book itself, the quality of which I’m happy to defend) by offering it to thriller readers. Although some did enjoy it despite it not being such a neat fit to be genre, I think others despaired of the slow pace and deeper psychological analysis. But I’m cheered by another 5* review today, that would have been part of the blog tour if circumstances hadn’t intervened.
Charli’s comment about the beach did remind me however that some many people do most of their reading on holiday, so I’m formulating a post for the end of the month on what constitutes a holiday read.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
18/7/2017 12:37:43 pm

You can also do another blog tour - or post. I look forward to hearing what you consider a holiday read.

Annecdotist
19/7/2017 05:29:32 pm

Despite many evident addiction to blog tours, I don’t think I could face another one – or not for a while.

Irene Waters link
13/3/2018 07:33:37 am

I understand how you feel with your one star rating. I was gutted when my memoir for my thesis was rated by one examiner as so poor it needed a total rewrite and by the other examiner as in the top 10% she'd read. Naturally you focus on the one that is bad rather than the number that are good. It is human nature I think. It is very easy to say (and I know it is true from the book club I am in) that not every person will like the same book. As Norah said it could just be a poor choice of genre for that reader. We also bring our own world experiences to reading and what might be a good read to one person will be too close to a person's own experience to be enjoyable. It could also be the particular mood you are in at the time of reading. For many years I would tell people my favourite book was Dina's Story. About a year ago decided to re-read it and I wondered where on earth my head was when I read it so many years ago. Although you can tell yourself all these things we are still human and it hurts (just a bit).
I researched stars and reviews for my thesis and unless there is a cross section of ratings they are in reality a little meaningless. Still it is all we have in way of feed back so we have to accept them.
I have just finished Underneath and I will certainly be giving it more than 1 star. And thinking of that and I know it happens in memoir all the time - the readership for the first book could be quite different to the readership of the second book and those having read the first book will find they are disappointed by the second. In memoir you find that between books the narrated "I" changes and the reader may like the first but find they positively dislike the "I" in the sequel.

Reply
Annecdotist
14/3/2018 12:11:18 pm

You are so right, Irene, it’s important to remember that different readers appreciate different things, and even the same reader wants different things at different times. I’ve also re-read books I had remembered loving and being disappointed (Facial Justice being one that comes to mind) but it’s also worked the other way for me – I was very reluctant when See Under: Love was chosen for my book group as it was one I’d given up on when it first came out but loved it at the second attempt, very harrowing but also quite funny.
Thanks for reading Underneath. It is quite different to Sugar and Snails and my WIP is different again, although I think all three have some commonality in underlying themes.

Reply
Irene Waters link
15/3/2018 04:21:08 am

Yes it was quite different. Looking forward to your third being published.

Annecdotist
15/3/2018 05:28:36 pm

Thanks, Irene, it’ll be a while yet!




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    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
    reviews: 32
    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

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    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

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    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.56)

    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
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    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

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