Monday 27 June 2011

Writers and reputation: when writers review books

Every now and then I go through Goodreads ratings to check what readers have to say about my book and those of others. It was at such a time a few days ago that I noticed other writers leaving one- to three-star reviews and ratings for competitive indie titles. Having worked in PR for a few years, I was seriously shocked. Surely, as a writer one understands the magnitude of one's reputation and the impact it can have on one's career as well as the fact that the writers community is small and everyone knows everyone.

As a writer, reputation ranks almost as highly as skill and novelty. We would never find the likes of Stephenie Meyer and JK Rowling rating a fellow writer's work because it's not in their interest to alienate both fellow writers and their fanbase/followers, who are potential readers of one's own book. From a PR perspective, this is a huge no-no. In fact, traditionally published authors are often encouraged to endorse each other's books and so widen their markets and target audiences.

Indie or not, I suggest never to rate a writer's work below four stars. If you can't give it four stars, then don't leave a rating at all because leaving a trail on the Internet is forever and someone's bound to find out sooner or later and might not take kindly to it.

To all fellow authors out there, we're writers and not reviewers. What you may not like, others might end up loving, hence, it's not in your best interest to insult any reader's (or reviewers') taste and lose potential sales. Since you have your own style and expectations as to what fiction should read like, you're not unbiased. By leaving a low rating, you're not helping your reputation in the writing community either because people will start talking about you, and certainly not in glowing terms.

Sometimes silence is worth more than gold!

To your publishing success!

Friday 24 June 2011

New release promotion

To celebrate the imminent release of BEELZEBUB GIRL: Dating a demon, everyone buying a print copy of A Job From Hell will receive $2 off. Just go to


and enter discount code 9MCLN86T

Best,

Jayde


Wednesday 22 June 2011

A Job From Hell at ataleofmanyreviews.blogspot.com

Check out what the lovely ladies at ataleofmanyreviews.blogspot.com have to say about A Job From Hell:


Thank you so much to Leisha for taking the time to read and review my book. Also a huge thank you to Julie for the helpful emails and kind words. These ladies rock!