Recently, I saw a post in one of the FB groups I’m in for authors, editors, etc. The post stunned me at first, and then I laughed. Not in a mean way. I laughed because I thought, “Why in the world would you want to publish crap??”
Let me start at the beginning.
The woman (author) posted that she got bad reviews on her book. Not because people didn’t like the story but because the book was “not edited,” “poorly written,” or “bad editing.” I didn’t sympathize. I did, however, look at some of the MANY comments. I was not surprised that all of the comments were sympathetic. “I’m so sorry,” “Ugh, people are awful,” “Why do people have to be mean?” and “Why can’t people leave positive reviews?”
If my book were published poorly, I would WANT people to tell me. I would WANT the bad reviews. (Ok, no one wants terrible reviews, but in this case, wouldn’t you want to know your book sucked?). You know why I would want this? So I could pull the book and get it properly edited and republish it.
Now, I'm not saying readers should leave nasty reviews. But a poor review because of poor (or no) editing is perfectly acceptable.
In cases like this, I wonder if her book was edited by a professional. I’ve seen published books where the author claims they had it edited by a “professional,” and the book was crap. Second, instead of leaving the book published and complaining on a FB group to get sympathy, why not pull it immediately to fix it?
I have over ten books published, and a few of them had mistakes—nothing major, one or two things here or there—but when a trusted friend mentioned it, I hopped on that bandwagon. I fixed the mistakes and republished. Phew. All good now. Great reviews.
As I mentioned in a previous post, How Do YOU Take Constructive Criticism?: No one is perfect, and it’s ok to have a few small errors here and there when you publish (and I reference Stephen King). Most times, people won’t even pick up on these errors. Heck, I had one woman tell me the only thing she saw wrong in one of my books was I used a comma and not a semi-colon. I didn’t fix it.
I’m not trying to sound mean. I’m simply trying to help authors. That woman’s post ended with pleading with people to either leave a good review or no review. I guess I’m confused. I’ll say it again. Why would you want to publish crap?
Harsh. Yes. But truthful. I’ve been in this business for many years, not only as an author and editor but now as a publisher, and I would never let anything be published that was crap. In fact, I have edited for a handful of authors whose books were published and then PULLED because people mentioned their books had mistakes. Those authors care. They care enough to be mortified, pull their books, get them PROFESSIONALLY edited (by an EDITOR), and republish.
Authors, I implore you to do the same if someone mentions mistakes in your book(s). Be the BEST version of yourself. You want success? EARN IT. SHOW you care. Otherwise, don’t complain about bad reviews.
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