A Writer Sees Stars

As writers go, I have a skin of average thickness. I am pleased by a good review, disappointed by a bad. None of it penetrates far enough to influence the thing I write next. (Rachel Cusk)

Book reviews have been around as long as writers have been writing books. I'm guessing that even before books were printed, storytellers around the fire pits got reviews, and they probably weren't any happier with listeners spitting in their fire to show they didn't like a story than writers today are with bad reviews. Even famous writers don't like bad reviews.  Danielle Steele says, "A bad review is like baking a cake with all the best ingredients and having someone sit on it."

I've gotten bad reviews and I try to be like Rachel Cusk and let them slide off me. As much as I want to, I can't write a book every reader is going to love. But that sure would be nice. When I first began writing, any review a book received was a printed review in a magazine or newspaper. The average book didn't get many reviews. Now the internet has changed all that. Reviews are everywhere and anybody can write a review. Amazon and Barnes & Noble e-mail you and ask you to write reviews of the books you buy or download. And of everything else you buy too! A reader can join up with Goodreads and review every book she or he has ever read. On there you don't have to say anything. You can just click on a few stars and either make a writer jubilant with five stars or be in despair over the one star slams. 

All this to say that my free book, Scent of Lilacs, has been getting a lot of new reviews on Amazon. (By the way, it's still free if you haven't downloaded it yet or know an e-reading friend who might enjoy the story.) The reviews have all been surprisingly positive which is great. Sometimes with free books, the readers can slam the book because it isn't the type of story they would normally buy. I had one reviewer say about one of my Shaker books when it was offered free a while back that "free was too much to pay for this book." The very fact I remember that points out the problem with reading reviews. I can get a dozen glowing reviews and not remember a word of any of them, except maybe those lovely works "I couldn't put it down." But let me read one of those one star reviews and the words flash like a neon sign inside my head. 

But tonight, I'm going to share bits of some of the 5-star remarks about Scent of Lilacs with you. 

"A beautiful heartwarming story. I loved it. It is so human and full of love. Some beautiful lessons about God's love for all of us." (E Carlson)

"I loved the voice of Jocie, the thirteen year old pastor's daughter who tells most of the story."  (Breiann)

"Loved, loved, loved this book! I laughed and cried. I'm so glad I read it." (Cindy)

"It is clean, funny and good. I enjoyed it so much I bought the next book..." (Dianne)

(I love those that say my story made them smile or laugh. I've always wanted to be funny. Always!)

"...a moving mystery of life including narrative arcs for each of the characters." (IJ Palmer)

"Lots of unusual, imperfect characters add to the great story line." (Book Addict)

I could pull out lots more excerpts. To date, Amazon has 185 reviews for the title, including the one where the reader said she "tried and tried" to read the story but just couldn't it was so dull. Had to throw that bad one in to balance the  others. But most of the reviews have been kind, even enthusiastic and lighting up all five stars to make this writer happy to see stars.    

 

A good, sympathetic review is always a wonderful surprise. (Joyce Carol Oates)

It's enormously cheering to get a good review by someone who seems to understand your work. (Kenneth Koch)

I am glad to get good reviews, but I try not to dwell on those any more than on the ones that aren't so good. I just have to try to write the next book better. 

If you wrote one of the reviews on my books, thank you. Reviews matter. On the internet a review is sort of like word of mouth and everybody knows that having a friend recommend a book is the very best advertising a writer can get. 

Have you ever written a review online? Or told a friend about a book you've read?

Brownies, Blog Tours, Book Parties & More

Okay, so I took my camera to my Hometown Book Launch today and forgot to take even one picture to share with you, my cyber friends and neighbors. I could have at least taken a picture of those brownies I baked for my reading friends. But I was too busy talking to think about pictures. So you get a picture of Spring instead. Soon we'll have flowers like this blooming in the warm sunshine. March is mere days away and the flowering time of the year won't be far behind.

It was fun having a book party with my hometown friends to celebrate Words Spoken True. I started doing these hometown book events when The Scent of Lilacs was published in 2005. Since that book's setting was my hometown back in the 1960s, I thought the least I could do was have an event for my local readers and friends. We might not be able to actually go back to the Sixties to party, but we could gather in the antique portion of the public library and celebrate me having the book published and Lawrenceburg getting a little book time. Of course, I did change the name of the town to Hollyhill. As I tell my Lawrenceburg friends, the Lawrenceburg series just doesn't have that pleasant roll off your tongue sound that Hollyhill has. 

Once I started the book party tradition, I enjoyed it too much to stop. Before The Scent of Lilacs was published, I wrote for several years without any publishing success, so now I want to celebrate every time I'm blessed with a new novel out for readers. Plus, it's just plain fun talking about my books with friends. Where I used to quake and tremble at the thought of standing up in front of a group of people and talking, now I love it. I feel as if we're having a conversation. I do end up doing most of the talking, but I'm always ready to pass the microphone off if a friend has something to say.

I had some new friends show up today and some of my regulars, who have shown up for nearly every book party I've had, didn't make it. Maybe they've heard my story enough. Words Spoken True did have an interesting path, and a long one, to publication. Maybe that can be next week's post.

As I told you last week, Words Spoken True has been flying around the internet gathering reviews like my little cockerspaniel used to go out on the farm and pick up sticktights. The reviews have flooded in. Most of them have been positive. Some have withheld a few stars.

Here's one of the nice ones. I have a couple of reasons to like this one. First she says nice things about my book. Second, in these days when authors are often pushed to establish their brands, she doesn't mind my books being different. I've always wanted my brand to be "storytelling."

“Ms. Gabhart has seemed to carve a nitch for herself in writing  deeply moving and emotional stories that touch on faith and on  your soul. WORDS SPOKEN TRUE is a beautiful and enlightening  read that I highly recommend.”                      —Marilyn Rondeau, CK2s Kwips & Kritiques http://www.ck2skwipsandkritiques.com/2012/02/14/ review-words-spoken-true-by-ann-h-gabhart/ So at my book party today, we ate the brownies. We talked books. I enjoyed seeing friends and family.  I looked over some of the  reviews coming in when I got home. I wrote this blog post. I  counted my blessings and you're in the number.  Thanks for reading.

The Blessed on Tour

The Blessed is on tour this week, visiting reviewers' blogs in lots of places. I'm here at home, watching from afar and hoping the reviewers will like Lacey's story. It's always interesting reading those first reviews, but that's all it can be - interesting. A writer doesn't want to invest too much energy in tracking reviews. Good or bad.

Some writers don't read reviews at all. I do. I can't seem to help myself. I want to know what people think when they read my stories. But then I say "great" when the reviewer likes my story and sigh and say "too bad, but oh well" when a reviewer is not enamored with my plot line or characters. It's fun to get those "must read" or "can't put it down" or "a recommended read." It's not as much fun to get the negative comments, but at the same time, while you certainly hope everybody in the whole wide world will love your book, that's probably not going to happen. 

Sometimes you're wondering if the reviewers really read your book since in their reviews they get the characters' names wrong or totally miss all your beautiful scenes. Or you think maybe they had a stomach bug or a headache or their teenagers were throwing fits while they were reading. You never think that when they say good things. Oh no, then you think they are wise and intuitive and know exactly what they're talking about. Especially if they color in all those stars on the review pages.

I once printed up a page of blurbs from reviews of my novel, The Scent of Lilacs and was using it to try to convince a reader to give my book a try. The savvy lady handed it back to me without reading the first line and said, "You wouldn't have put anything bad on there." And she was right. 

So The Blessed is out there making the rounds and getting read. But you know, whatever the reviews, I've turned that story loose. I can't do any more to it now. I told Lacey's and Isaac's stories as best I could and then I moved on. I've got a whole new bunch of characters now. A new story to tell. And I'm trying to tell it in such a way that someday it will be out there making the rounds in blogosphere world.

I was a guest on Divine Detours yesterday. Kathy Harris has come up with a great idea for a blog and asks those she interviews if we've ever found ourselves sidetracked from the path we planned to take.  Oh, and she's a dog lover too, so she asks about my dogs. That was a fun question to answer. But I also liked thinking about my divine detours that have brought me to an unplanned or unexpected destination that turned out to be a better place. Maybe I'll tell you about some of those detours in a future post.

 Meanwhile I'll enjoy going blogging with The Blessed. Hope you're enjoying your week too. I sent out a newsletter today. If you're not on my newsletter list, you can sign up from my website. Ann's website

Happy reading! Hope you're enjoying the heart of summer.

One Down; One to Go

Got my edits done for The Blessed. Just sent it off to the editor and got back one of those instant "out of the office" replies. But I got it sent in and that's the big thing for me with everything else going on with my mom. I told my editor I did some of the edits in the middle of the night with a foggy brain so who knows whether I improved the wording or totally messed it up. I guess my editor will know and then I'll know shortly thereafter if she sends it back with some big question marks. No, I think I got the changes made. The thing about editing is that you can always see something else to improve. Always. Lacey's story in The Blessed is a lot different from my other Shaker books, but I'm hoping readers will take to Lacey when the book comes out next summer. I certainly did. She's a no nonsense girl who does what she has to do to keep going.

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Now I get to start on my copy editing of the galleys for Angel Sister. Out of the frying pan into the fire. I haven't even read the comments of the copy editor to see what needs doing. I didn't want to have it worrying me while I was finishing up the other edits. One book at a time.

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It's exciting having two books released in one year. A lot of authors of inspirational fiction release even more than two books a year. I admire their work ethic because writing books takes time. Editing books takes times. Coming up with new ideas takes time. Trying to publicize books takes time. But then everything takes times. The seconds keep ticking by no matter what you're doing or not doing. Watching the hummingbird work through the blooms on the million bell flower on my window sill takes time. Sharing my journal thoughts with you takes time. Hummingbird watching and journaling - that's time well spent.

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And that's the thing with time. We want to spend it well. Do what has to be done, for sure, but also use some spare minutes just being glad for our blessings and glad we are breathing and thankful we're so busy that we feel rushed. I love writing. I love editing to make that writing better. I love hearing from readers and getting to know you. I even like reading reviews - sometimes. The Seeker's blog tour has been interesting. I've been able to respond to some of the bloggers, but due to my nights at Mom's with no internet, I'm running behind on messages and such. I do thank all the bloggers who read my book and wrote their opinions. Most have been good. Some have been great. A few have been... well, we won't talk about them. Accentuate the positive. Right?

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Hope much positive is happening in your life and that you aren't sweltering in the heat wave. It's a bit cooler here today, but yesterday when I got in the car to leave my mother's, the temperature flashed 100 degrees. Definitely the dog days of autumn. My poor dogs don't want to step out of the shade when we go for a walk even at almost sundown. So stay cool. Drink some sweet iced tea or how about an icy grape sno cone and read a good book.

From My Hand to Yours

From my hand to yours - I have my first winner in my giveaway. Charmaine, you're the winner on an autographed copy of The Seeker!! Thanks for commenting here on my blog and entering my giveaway. I'll be e-mailing you to get a mailing address. Somebody else will win next week and the next and the next. So keep sending in those entries and you might win a copy too.

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A new book is so much fun. And a little nerve racking too, because you're never sure how readers are going to respond. Will they like the story? You sit on pins and needles and wait for the official reviews. That is, the ones in magazines and at on-line book review sites. And the unofficial reviews. Those are the ones from friends and family. You want everybody to love your book. But that doesn't always happen. Once on my last Hollyhill books, I got a terrible review from a reviewer who had loved my first Hollyhill books. But then other reviewers liked the book she hated. So you never know. But I'm not wanting to think about unhappy reviews. I want to think about all the readers loving my new story. And I think people will enjoy the Civil War setting and my two main characters, Charlotte and Adam. That's the thing, most of the time. If readers like your characters, then the story works.

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Of course sometimes readers are supposed to hate your characters. Last night I got a reinforcement of that when a reader came up to me and said she was scared to death while she was reading The Believer. I couldn't figure out what in the story would have scared her, but then she said, "When that Colton showed up, I just had to close the book and do something else for a while." Now while that's not usually what a writer wants to hear - close the book - in this case it wasn't all bad. It meant I had made my bad guy real to her. Of course, I think I'd still rather hear "I couldn't put it down." That's always music to a writer's ear. A lot better than the one where people tell you, "Oh, I used to love to read, but I don't have time to read anymore." That one's sad for me and for them. Reading is so much fun!!

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I've only seen a couple of reviews so far for The Seeker. Both favorable. Four stars for Romantic Times Book Reviews where they call the book "an amazing read." Amazing as in good, I'm hoping. And then the Booklist review says "Gabhart's absorbing coming-of-age Christian historical novel deftly juxtaposes Adam's and Charlottee's internal faith journeys against a backdrop of unusual settings." I'm not sure who is coming of age in the story, but the review is still nice. So now I'm sitting back and waiting for your reviews. For those of you who read my book to let me know what you think. Well, the sitting back part's not true. Actually I'm frantically working to finish Shaker book 4. Mr. Deadline is stomping my way. And I'll be teaching at the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference Friday and Saturday about coming up with great characters and revising to make your story better. So I need to figure out how to talk about doing those things. And it's summer with a million other things going on. You know what I mean. You're there too, I'm sure.

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And don't forget, it's not too late to pitch your name in the hat if you want to get in on my book giveaways. Just leave a comment or send me an e-mail from my website. It's always great to hear from readers and friends.

So Many Books...

~~ How tall is your "to read" stack? Or maybe your "already read" stack is the tallest? In this stack I've got a mix. Some I've read. Some I hope to read soon and some I've had a while that keep getting pushed to the bottom of the stack by new books. There are even some I might give away in a book giveaway in the weeks ahead. How do you decide what to read next? Do you make your stack with the most favored book next in line on top or do you like to shuffle through your stacks to see which book grabs your interest on any particular day? I'm definitely a shuffler.
~~ Another question - do you read only one book at a time or do you have several going at once? I used to read only one at a time, but then I decided I could dip into more than one book and manage to keep the stories straight. Usually one of the books is nonfiction or not as compelling a page turner as the other. Right now I'm finishing up Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Somehow it got pushed aside before I got to the end and I'm just now picking it back up. I finished Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier after the Christmas madness was over and now I'm about halfway through Brother Odd by Dean Koontz. In addition I have a couple of devotional books with bookmarks holding my place. And I've got dozens more books of all types I'm anxious to read. But I also have a book I'm anxious to write. That means I've got to read a research book or two. There's always a book to read and nearly always a chore to keep you away from that book you're dying to finish.
~~ Do you keep a list of the books you read so that at the end of the year you can count them up? I've seen some amazing reports of books read on Facebook. One reader said over 400 and another said over 600. Think about it. That's more than one a day for the first reader and almost two a day for the second reader. Even if I counted every time I read A Monster at the End of This Book starring sweet, lovable Grover and didn't just count it once, I wouldn't hit 400, much less 600. As you may have guessed, my grandkids love that book almost as much as I enjoy reading it aloud. But I do admire anyone who manages to read so many books. I don't only admire them, I'm amazed by them.
~~ Do you do book reviews for fun or for pay? I've done a few book reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. I don't find it easy. You have to condense this several hundred page story down to a few sentences without putting in any spoilers. At least I wouldn't want to put spoilers in any review I did. Then you have to say what you liked or didn't like. Of course since any reviews I've done have been just for fun, I don't post reviews of books I don't like. Mostly because I know there are other people out there who like things I don't like, who enjoy stories I don't enjoy. I certainly wouldn't want them to be put off reading a book they would find entertaining by something I wrote. Plus since I'm a writer, I know how bad it feels to read a review that slams your book.
~~ You can get a dozen favorable, even gushing reviews and that one review that says you write like a kid who flunked kindergarten is the one that plays over and over in your head. Which is crazy. But then who ever said writers weren't crazy - at least some of the time. If we weren't crazy, we wouldn't read those reviews. We'd just trust our own instincts and bask in the loving words of our friends and relatives. Ahh, but we want the other pats on the back too. We want everybody to love our characters and their stories as much as we do. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't.
~~ I'm doing edits again. This time on the book that will come out next January. It's got some great characters that surely everybody will love. You see hope is always alive in a writer's heart.
~~ One of those hopes is that you have a great rest of the week and some restful hours to make a dent in your "to read" stack.