[Danikka]
Hey there, welcome to the Snailed It podcast with Danikka and Erin, brought to you by Authors Own Publishing.

[Erin]
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Snailed It podcast with Danikka and Erin. Today we are talking about reviews.

[Danikka]
Reviews.

[Erin]
Reviews, dreaded reviews you can think if you are an author, but they don’t need to be.

[Danikka]
Yes, it can be quite a contentious topic and it does lead to a lot of, like I haven’t been on TikTok in a long time, but I know when I was on TikTok it led to a lot of drama, TikTok drama.

[Erin]
Well, and Instagram drama. I do feel like I’ve seen recently a lot, or not super recently, but semi-recently, a lot of the why readers shouldn’t give books three star reviews.

[Danikka]
Oh yeah, that’s come back up again.

[Erin]
I can’t remember the reason for it, but I was just like, as an author, obviously I want you to give my book more than that, but as a reader, if I see them all as five stars, I’m like, who’s been paid off here?

[Danikka]
Yeah, exactly.

[Erin]
Yeah, it’s not believable if there’s not range.

[Danikka]
No, no.

[Erin]
And also, if you think the book is only worth three stars, then say that.

[Danikka]
Yeah, I get frustrated by three star reviews that then go on to rave about the book. I like to be raving and only giving three stars and that’s annoying.

[Erin]
Yes.

[Danikka]
If you’re going to rave about it in a three star review, then give more.

[Erin]
Give more stars, or at least say what took away from it as well.

[Danikka]
Yeah, exactly. In saying that, I’m not someone who really gives a lot of reviews. I’ve started to try to use Storygraph a little bit, but I don’t know. I’ve just never been someone who sticks to doing it very well. I know Steph, our podcast manager, she uses Storygraph quite religiously. She uses it a lot and she does a lot of art journaling, and so she’s got a book bingo.

[Erin]
Oh my god.

[Danikka]
I love what she does with her book bingo.

[Erin]
They’re so beautiful.

[Danikka]
Yeah, her art journal is so cool. But yeah, she quite meticulously records what she reads and her reviews and what she liked and didn’t like about things. And I love how she does it. But yeah, I just have never gotten on that train.

[Erin]
No. I have a list. I like to say what the book was and who wrote it, but I don’t even say anything about it or if I liked it or not. It’s literally just a list so I know what I read.

[Danikka]
What you read, yeah.

[Erin]
Like largely pointless.

[Danikka]
I rely on scrolling back through my library to check what I’ve read.

[Erin]
That’s smart. Yeah. But because as a reader, I don’t pay attention to reviews, so I don’t really write them. So I’m just like, I read it and then I close the book and then I move on to the next book.

[Danikka]
Yeah. I read the blurb.

[Erin]
Yes.

[Danikka]
And I read the sample. And if I like the sample, then I’ll read the book. So I don’t know. It’s kind of hard.

[Erin]
But as an indie author, I have tried to do more reviews though.

[Danikka]
Yes. Yes, because they are important for authors, which is why I started Storygraph. Because I like that it’s an alternative to Goodreads and Amazon.

[Erin]
Yes.

[Danikka]
Because as much as Amazon is extremely important for indie authors, we do want to try to build an alternative. I’m passionate about that, which is why I went with Storygraph. So I am trying to do more reviews, which is why I have been trying. I’m making an effort. But we wanted to talk about it because, yes, they are very important for authors, but we also wanted to talk about it because they’re all valid.

[Erin]
All reviews are valid, whether it’s a one star, whether it’s a 0.5 star, whether it’s a no star because you seriously hated it, or a five star. Because I think when it comes down to it, reviews are not for authors. They are for readers.

[Danikka]
Yes.

[Erin]
And you can be as offended as you like, but they’re not for you.

[Danikka]
Yeah.

[Erin]
The only ones that I think, not that they’re not valid, but kind of, is when you are pointing out, especially on Amazon, for anyone who is reading in KU or an ebook, in Kindle, if there are typos, all of that sort of thing, don’t give them a bum review for that because that can get your book canned on Amazon. You can tell the author, send that info straight to the author because the author will be like, oh my God, thank you. I’ll fix those up because we can do that as indie authors. We can fix up those typos and resubmit our stuff.

[Erin]
Yeah.

[Erin]
I saw someone talking about that recently as well.

[Danikka]
And I think just being overtly cruel and just hate. If you’re not going to be constructive or actually leave an honest review where you’re using words that are constructive.

[Erin]
And not for the author, for other readers.

[Danikka]
Other readers, exactly.

[Erin]
Because if you’re just like, oh, I hated this book, it was shit. But why was it shit? Why didn’t you like it?

[Danikka]
Exactly.

[Erin]
Because that’s hard for other people to form a judgment.

[Danikka]
Exactly.

[Erin]
On whether or not they want to read it. The only ones that I tend to read now are three and below. If I’m trying to decide if I want to read a book, I’ll go and read the one, two and three star reviews. I’d be like, what were the issues that everyone found? And if there’s a lot of the same ones, I’m like, okay, this is interesting. But then often they won’t turn you off reading.

[Danikka]
No, no. A lot of people read books because of those low reviews.

[Erin]
Yeah. Especially in romancelandia here where it’s like, this had too much language and too much sex. Tell me more.

[Danikka]
Sign me up.

[Erin]
Yeah.

[Danikka]
Yeah. And I think it’s a really important lesson for authors. You really need to separate yourself from those reviews and realize that they’re not for you. And some authors are really good at that.

[Erin]
Yeah. But then also Kate Schumacher, she said that she goes on and reads her sort of lower ones as well to see if there’s things that she can do to improve. And I’ve done that before as well, because if there are things like story structure or character development, or like, you know, you weren’t feeling chemistry or whatever between characters, like that’s stuff that we can work on.

[Danikka]
Yes. And Kate uses that to check if she’s hitting her target market with her marketing as well, because that was something she talks about with her TikToks. By the time this episode comes out, you would have heard her talking about getting viral TikToks in her social media episode. So when her TikToks went viral, she had a couple go viral that were specifically about the romance subplot in The Call of the Sea. And her books are fantasy first with romantic subplots.

But with those viral TikToks, she attracted a lot of romantasy readers. And so she ended up getting a lot of reviews from those TikToks where people were saying that there wasn’t enough romance, there wasn’t enough spice. Because one of the TikToks that went viral was quite spicy, because it was from one of the spicier, well, it wasn’t even a spicy scene, it was a steamy scene. Because Kate’s always very particular, she says her books are steamy, not spicy.

[Erin]
Not spicy.

[Danikka]
Yeah, but the TikTok that went viral hinted at maybe they’re being spiced. So then she got a lot of upset readers who thought that they were getting a spicy book when it was more steamy, more fantasy focused. And so that was, you know, quite frustrating, because you can’t control what goes viral when you’re marketing a book.

So now she’s adjusted her marketing to make sure that she always specifies that, yes, there is romance and yes, there is a bit of steam, but, you know, it is not the main focus of the story. So reviews are very helpful for authors in that way, if you can, you know, armo up a bit and read the reviews. I am, you know, not an advocate of having a thick skin in the industry, because I think that I read a really good post from Scrawled Work Edits, I think it’s her Instagram, or their Instagram handle about, you know, having a thick skin in industry being like an ableist term, because a lot of authors are neurodivergent and, you know, with the RSD, I can’t remember what it’s called, rejection sensitivity dysphoria. And so, you know, we’re just not able to grow a thick skin.

[Erin]
Yeah. And also, why should you have to? It’s like women in business being told that they’re too emotional. What the fuck does that mean? Maybe you’re not emotional enough.

[Danikka]
Yeah. Just being expected to accept cruel feedback and try to find the positives in it. Like

[Erin]
I might find the positives at some point, but I’m allowed to be pissed off initially.

[Danikka]
It’s kind of like this podcast episode is like, yes, I almost think of it as like, because I’m not an author, like I do write and maybe I will be an author one day. I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet. But like, I kind of almost think of it as like a plea to readers to like, yes, you need to leave reviews because it’s good for authors. And they’re for other readers, not for the authors. But it’s also like authors are humans.

[Erin]
Yeah.

[Danikka]
With the publishing industry changing the way that it is. And with social media, giving readers the access to the authors that they do have. And the readers love it.

[Erin]
As do the authors.

[Danikka]
As do the authors. Like it is an amazing relationship. But I think the and people talk about this all the time, the danger of that parasocial relationship and that lack of barriers is people forget that people are people like they just think of them as this personality online and they can just kind of say whatever they want.

[Erin]
Yeah.

[Danikka]
They don’t get to see the consequences of that. So when leaving reviews and things like that, I think it’s just important to be constructive.

[Erin]
Yeah.

[Danikka]
And think about how other readers are going to take away and use those reviews to make decisions about what they’re going to read. But then also, you know, the author is maybe going to see those reviews. And if you don’t have anything nice to say about the book, you can still leave a review.

[Erin]
100%.

[Danikka]
And you should still leave a review. Don’t tag the author.

[Erin]
Never tag the author. I don’t know if authors need to be tagged in any reviews. Like, I don’t mind being tagged in them.

[Danikka]
But like, yeah, because they’re not really what it’s for.

[Erin]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Danikka]
I mean, it’s nice for us to share them and stuff. Like if you tag us in a story or something, and then we can reshare it.
Yeah.

[Erin]
But yeah, they’re not for us.

[Danikka]
Yeah, yeah. I think it’s just as the internet continues to just and social media and reviews and things like that continue to just be an ongoing part of our existence. We need to maybe just rise above that urge to just say whatever we want.

[Erin]
Yeah.

[Danikka]
And not think about who it’s going to impact or how.

[Erin]
Well, it’s like that thing of like, would you say it to their face? Yeah. And look, you might, because when you were saying, if you were talking to an author about their book to their face, you might be like, do a bit of a compliment sandwich. I liked this.I didn’t like this. I did like this.

[Danikka]
Yeah.

[Erin]
Also fine.

[Danikka]
Yeah.

[Erin]
I was going to say something else for authors, but now I’ve forgotten what it was. It left my brain. You can enter the reader spaces. Like if you want to read the reviews of your book, wherever they are on Goodreads, on Amazon, on Storygraph. So you can go, but you need to be a ghost there. Yeah. Like no one needs to know that you’re there. If you see a bad review, don’t. Don’t engage. Because like, what are you getting out of it?

[Danikka]
Yeah.

[Erin]
Yeah. Arguing with someone who didn’t like it. Because, oh, that’s what I was going to say. The other thing I think that authors need to remember is, well, like that example with Kate finding the wrong audience. Like books are art. Art is subjective.

[Danikka]
Yeah. Yeah.

[Erin]
Not everyone is going to like your book as much as you’d love to think they will. They won’t. And if they did, you’re kind of not, you’re maybe not doing it super right. Because you should be. Well, I think Jessie says it too about blurbs. Your blurb should be alienating more people than it’s drawing you.

[Danikka]
Yes. Yes.

[Erin]
Because you want the people who want to read your book. You want to find the people who are going to love your book. There are people who don’t love your book are going to read it. And that’s fine. But yeah, people are not going to like it. Which is okay. Well, it’s like, have you seen that review of Pride and Prejudice? The one star review of Pride and Prejudice. It was just a bunch of people going to each other’s houses and talking. And it’s like, yeah.

[Danikka]
Exactly. Yeah.

[Erin]
So when you’re feeling shitty about your reviews, just remember every book, every bestseller also has shitty reviews. I bet every bestseller has been DNF’d by multiple people. Hundreds of people.

[Danikka]
Hundreds of thousands of people.

[Erin]
Yeah.

[Danikka]
Like, it’s not just you. The more attention you get, the more negative attention you get as well. The more famous you get, the more haters you have. It’s always going to rise equally. There’s never going to be only positive attention. So maybe just acceptance on the author’s part that it’s not about having a thick skin. It’s just about accepting that there’s parts of the journey that you can’t control. And that are just going to be a part of it.

[Erin]
And if you need to distance yourself from that and delete Goodreads, and especially if you were a reader beforehand, if you need to delete it to remove the temptation to go spiral into some reviews, which we’ve all done. Yeah, don’t do that. If it’s going to tank your mental health, don’t do that. Yeah. Don’t do that.

[Danikka]
Yeah. I think, yeah, you just need to, as an author, as an artist, if it’s going to contribute to you not being able to continue your art, I think you need to prioritize that. Like, yes, Kate’s method of looking at reviews to help with her marketing and things is a very valid approach. But if you are not someone who is able to do that, there are other ways to help with your marketing. It doesn’t need to be looking at your reviews. Personally, I don’t know if I would be able to do it. I’m not that strong.

[Erin]
You could also get someone else to look at your reviews.

[Danikka]
I look at all of my author’s reviews.

Erin]
You have read my reviews. Yeah. So, or you could get, you know, a friend or a partner. Although my partner read one of my reviews once. It’s a really long one. It’s like a really mean comment. And I was like, settle down. We don’t need to do that.

[Danikka]
I think it’s better if the person that you get to look at the reviews is someone who’s also read your books though.

[Erin]
Yes. Yeah. Yes.

[Danikka]
Good point. Because in your case, your partner hasn’t read your books. So that wouldn’t have been very helpful.

[Erin]
But he was willing to just go tell someone to go fuck themselves and, you know.

[Danikka]
Yeah. Yeah.

[Erin]
Which is lovely, but unnecessary. So maybe don’t get someone who is going to jump to you to send some comments to do it.

[Danikka]
Yes.

[Erin]
Yes. Get someone who is going to sort of cherry pick, find the good bits, find you some constructive bits, because that’s what you’d like to hear. Yeah. And then you don’t have to do that. Yeah. You don’t have to stumble across that one star review that was a DNF.

[Danikka]
Yeah. That’s actually a good point. Like if you’ve got critique partners that you write with, you could read each other’s reviews.

[Erin]
Critique Partners are perfect. Yeah. Yeah.

[Danikka]
You can read each other’s reviews and then swap critiques. Like you could do that as like one of your writing catch-up dates or something. It’s collect that information. And then because you’re used to critiquing each other and how each other takes feedbacks, you could collect that information and then exchange it in a constructive way. That’s actually a really good idea. Yeah.

[Erin]
Yeah.

[Danikka]
If I do say so myself. It’s like, yeah.

[Erin]
We got there. We got there in the end.

[Danikka]
Yeah. But I guess the whole point is like reviews are extremely important for your success as authors. Readers are the reason that you write books to begin with. And readers use reviews to find more books that they want to read. So, you know, not everyone’s going to love your books. All reviews are valid because it’s just about readers finding books that they are going to want to read. And some readers read books because of those bad reviews.

[Erin]
Yeah. But also some people will read those bad reviews. I’m using bad reviews in like quotation marks because if someone is reading a one or two star review for a book that they thought they would enjoy, and then they see something like there’s too much language or it’s too spicy or whatever, and they’re like, oh, I’m glad I saw that because I would have read it and really not enjoyed it.

[Danikka]
Yeah. It’s actually a good review.

[Erin]
And then probably left another bad review, like another lower review.

[Danikka]
Yeah.

[Erin]
Yeah. They all have, they’re all important. They all have function for all readers. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

[Danikka]
Yeah. Yeah. They all, yeah, serve their purpose.

[Erin]
Yeah. And purpose. That was the word, not function.

[Danikka]
Yeah. Function is the same thing. Yeah.

[Erin]
It just sounded weird.

[Danikka]
I’m trying to think like it all works together in like a beautiful, like organism is like, I’m trying to think of like a better way, like there’s a word, but I can’t think of it.

[Erin]
I know what you mean. I can’t think of it either

[Danikka]
Yeah. Yeah. But it all kind of, it keeps the, it keeps the world moving in the publishing kind of way. Authors write books, readers review them, and then trends happen and we see what readers are loving. And so then authors keep writing more books and we all inspire each other and it all keeps moving. And so that is how this all keeps growing and being a thing.

So I think we just need to really appreciate that readers take the time to leave reviews and create those amazing reading communities the way that they do. And if there’s anyone who used to be not someone who left reviews or used to write reviews and really started to get into it, I really want your tips because I want to be someone who writes reviews.

[Erin]
Me too. Me too.

[Danikka]
And I want to like do it more often. Steph has been inspiring me to start art journaling. So when I get settled in my new place, which I will be by the time you hear this podcast, I’m going to try to get back into art journaling because I used to do it when I was a teenager and much like writing, I stopped doing it. So

[Erin]
Because we start thinking fun things are lame.

[Danikka]
Yeah. Yeah. I keep getting all these TikToks because I’m turning 29 at the time of recording. I’m turning 29 in a couple of weeks and it’s like, your 30s are about rediscovering all the things that you loved when you were 13. And I’m like, yeah, I’m like, yeah, that’s definitely, that’s definitely going to be going to be my thing. So I will probably be doing all of those things, but I’m going to be trying really hard to be leaving reviews. I probably won’t use my handle being an editor. I think that’s a big part of why I haven’t done it yet. It’s because I feel like being an editor, I don’t know. It just feels almost like a conflict of interest, even if it’s not on books that I haven’t edited because I like wouldn’t leave reviews on books that I’ve edited because I love them, all of them. But like, I don’t know. It just feels like a conflict of interest.

[Erin]
You almost need like a pen name.

[Danikka]
Yeah.

[Erin]
So that you can be like, I’m, this is reader Danikka. Reader Danikka’s hat is own, not editor Danikka.

[Danikka]
Well, I, I created an Instagram for my author names. That is just, I’m just holding the handle. I haven’t posted anything on there or anything.

[Erin]
Maybe that’s what you need to do. Yeah. That can be your reviewer.

[Danikka]
Yeah. I need like a reviewer handle on Storygraph. Maybe that’s what I need to do. Yeah. Anyway, maybe that’s what, but regardless, even if I have a handle, I still need the motivation, the tips

[Erin]
We both still need the tips.

[Danikka]
On writing regular reviews and like recording what I read. So if you have transitioned from being someone who doesn’t to someone who does, what helped you?

[Erin]
What happened? Yeah.

[Danikka]
How did you jump on that train? Yeah. I want to know.

[Erin]
We both do. I would also be curious.

[Danikka]
Yeah. Yeah. But I think that’s everything. I think we, I think we covered it. All reviews are valid. We love readers. We love authors. And there has been, I noticed on threads, there’s been a lot of like authors and readers feeling like there’s been a lot of combating between the two groups, which I’m quite sad about because I feel like we need each other. There’s no readers, no books, no authors. Like we just don’t exist without each other. So that makes me sad. So this is a big love to all the readers and a big love to all the authors. And let’s just, let’s just spread the love. Yeah.

[Erin]
Yeah. Don’t let one angry thread send you into a tailspin.

[Danikka]
Yeah, exactly.

[Erin]
We need each other.

[Danikka]
Exactly. But yeah, I think that’s all for the podcast today and we’ll talk to you guys in the next episode. See you next time.

[Erin]
Bye.