In the last six days since it went free, “From the Ice Incarnate” has had almost 2,250 downloads, and with so much attention, reviews are starting to trickle in. \u00a0Amazon has a very elegant system, which not only allows other readers to vote on whether a review is helpful, but to comment and start a discussion.<\/p>\n
This raises a question, however; when is it appropriate for an author to respond to a review? \u00a0I’ve seen answers that go all over the board; some readers love it, while others are adamant that writers should never respond in any way–that to do so would be consummately unprofessional.<\/p>\n
From an indie writer’s perspective, this is especially tricky. \u00a0On the one hand, we want to engage with our readers, since that’s a crucial part of making this into a viable career (Seth Godin makes\u00a0some excellent points<\/a> on that subject). \u00a0On the other hand, because reviews are so subjective and judgmental, there’s a very real danger that any discussion involving the author could turn very nasty, very quickly.<\/p>\n Whenever anyone posts a positive review of my work, I want to thank them. \u00a0If I only respond to positive reviews, though, that could make me look like I’m ignoring the critical ones. \u00a0But if I acknowledge the critical reviews that are thoughtful and well reasoned, what do I do with the inevitable one star reviews written by someone who’s just plain crazy?<\/p>\n The last thing I want is to be forced into taking a reactionary position in a public discussion. \u00a0While I’m confident I can keep my ego in check and avoid outright argument, that’s not the only danger I foresee here. \u00a0Besides, I believe very firmly that the story should speak for itself, and for that reason I think it’s better for the author to be as invisible as possible.<\/p>\n At the same time, I really do want to thank those who take the time to post a glowing review. \u00a0Perhaps the best option is to acknowledge them here or on twitter instead of Amazon? \u00a0I’m not sure. \u00a0And sometimes, questions arise that aren’t related to the story, where responding directly to the review is the most efficient way to handle it.<\/p>\n In any case, I’m going to be cautious for now, at least until I find a position that makes sense. \u00a0If you have any suggestions for how I can balance these concerns, please let me know.<\/p>\n And for those of you who have posted kind reviews: thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the last six days since it went free, “From the Ice Incarnate” has had almost 2,250 downloads, and with so much attention, reviews are starting to trickle in. \u00a0Amazon has a very elegant system, which not only allows other readers to vote on whether a review is helpful, but to comment and start a… Continue reading Should authors respond to reviews?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[170,1],"tags":[548,89,252,529,199,554,601],"class_list":["post-5731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-stories","category-uncategorized","tag-bad-reviews","tag-career-decisions","tag-criticism","tag-indie-publishing","tag-questions","tag-reviews","tag-seth-godin","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-1ur","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5731"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5736,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5731\/revisions\/5736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}