Her hands shake as she types in the name of her novel, the keys tapping with precision. Then there is a deep breath, the closing of eyes, and a final tap of the enter key. Do not be disappointed. Someone out there hates it. It’s inevitable. Do not expect a ton of stars. It is your first book. Be brave. Be brave. She scrunches her face and then slowly opens one eye, then the other. Five new reviews. Deep breath. Okay, that’s not so bad. What is the star rating? Four and half stars. Also not too bad. She rolls her neck and shakes out her hands. Maybe this won’t be too traumatic after all.
She begins to scroll the list, doing exactly what every author online advises not to do: she reads the reviews. The first reader claims to have read the book in a day. Years and thousands of hours of work, boiled down into a day? It is both the ultimate compliment and the most ironic. Another reader calls her “an artist with words”. Wow, she didn’t consider that, and yet at the same time she realizes that is exactly what she has been trying to accomplish all along. There is beauty to putting words into just the right order, that they create something that moves a reader, much like a work of art.
There is a three star review with no comment, which instead of instilling a wave of panic over failure, tells her that someone out there that she doesn’t know read her book. Those pages are finally reaching beyond just family, for surely, someone she knows would have made a comment with that rating. She inhales, steadying herself, knowing this deep, intense story is definitely not for everyone. She moves down the rest of the list, laughing at times of the warnings to “be sure you grab your wine before you start reading” and to “prepare to lose sleep”. She takes the criticism into consideration, and then closes out the screen, opening the next project before her.
She runs through the things to improve in this next manuscript, smiling slightly to herself. Most of the comments confirm what she already suspected, as critical as she already is of her own work. Those things she works to make better. But the positive feedback, that is what keeps her typing late into the night. For the most exciting comment of all was, “I can’t wait to read the next one!”
If you have read one of my books, be it Knightess or Lady of the Tournament, please leave me a review. I really do read them, and I take your feedback to heart. Reviews also help define my work for other readers and tell them if my story is worth reading. If you have already reviewed, thank you so much! I am using your feedback to move forward with a slew of other projects. Sincerely, J.A. Stein
Amazon Reviews: https://www.amazon.com/stores/J.A.-Stein/author/B0B7P9TK74?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22786331.J_A_Stein
J.A. Stein 