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?

Birthday Stories to Make You Smile

"Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." (Satchel Paige) 

Happy birthday to me! Do you like having birthdays? I do. I may not like counting them up, but I do like having them. I didn't have either of these desserts today, but as pretty as the top one is, I'd take the homemade chocolate pie any day. Can't put candles on it, but the smoke detector would go off anyway if you tried to put a candle for my every year on a cake or pie. What about you? What is your favorite birthday dessert? Do you have to blow out candles? I guess I should have said do you I get to blow out candles. Kids think it's fun anyway. You can check out Jim's birthday story from last Sunday to prove that's true.

Most of the birthday stories I've been getting tell about a party or a day that's special. But Kathy sent in one that made me smile and remember. Here's what she told me. "Definitely a memorable, not favorite, was the one when my husband gave me an ironing board as a gift. 'But you needed one' was his sad lament. 'But I didn't want one' was my equally sad response."

I wrote back to Kathy and told her I totally understood. My husband gave me a floor polisher once. Not a cheap present but one I definitely "didn't want" just like Kathy. Sometimes husbands are clueless even when they're trying hard. Or maybe they aren't trying too hard! LOL. My husband has brought in some winners in the present line, but he's also come home with some questionable gifts. Like the aluminum can masher. Useful, but a birthday gift? Or the apparatus that was supposed to pick up litter. Puzzled look on that one. Or the set of dishes from the auction. Only a couple of the saucers had chips! 

But then he also brought me in a Cockerspaniel puppy once. That made up for a lot of those more questionable gifts. Then he got a salvaged desk from an old office somewhere and had it beautifully refinished for me. I've written a lot of books using that desk. And he really did think I'd like that floor polisher. His mother told him it was a great gift. What difference did it make that, at that time, we lived in an old farmhouse where the pattern on the linoleum rug in the kitchen was worn down to the black backing in spots? It could also be very clean and polished. I used the thing - then. I still have it, but only as a souvenir these days. Oh yeah, and he insisted on buying me another floor cleaner last Christmas. Some guys never learn!  

Remember, you still have time to enter my giveaway for the Shaker Christmas decoration and mini-quilt along with books, of course. Full details on the Events & News Page on my website. You can enter by leaving a comment here with a way to contact you should you be one of the winners. Or you can e-mail me. www(dot)annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com. Don't forget to tell me if you're one of those people who "never win." I have a special drawing and prize for one of you so that you won't be able to say those "never win" words again. Also I'd love it if you want to share those special birthday stories. Not necessary to enter, but I have such fun reading your stories. 

There's also a giveaway going on Goodreads for Orchard of Hope, that will be out soon all dressed up in its new cover. 

Thanks to all of you for the birthday wishes. I'm feeling much loved and I want you all to have a piece of pie. I'd bake it for you, but I have these edits to get done. :) Thanks for reading!!

   

    "I don’t let old age bother me.  There are three signs of old age: Loss of memory .... I forget the other two." – Red Skelton

Something New

Hi, everybody. I jumped feet first into the electronic social pool this week and joined up with Facebook and Goodreads. I'd been talking about doing Facebook for months but had to meet that July 1 deadline first. Once the new book was off, I had to carry through on my resolve to put a presence out there on Facebook. I have a few Facebook friends already. Thanks to you who may have befriended me. I'm amazed at the speed of the network. And I'm still feeling my way and trying to decide the best way for me to do Facebook settings, etc. Appreciate any advice you old hands at Facebook want to offer a newbie.

Then a publicity person at my publisher, Baker Books, got in touch and asked me to join up with Goodreads. That's something similar to Facebook except on there the friends/members just talk about books. They list books they've read and rate them with stars as well as write reviews if they want. A lot of my books are listed on there already and have been rated over a hundred times. Some good ratings and some not as good ratings. One thing that's true about any author is that your book can't be everybody's favorite - even if you want it to be.

Anyway Baker wanted to post a giveaway on Goodreads for my new book, The Believer, and in order to give away a few early copies I had to be a Goodread member. So now I've signed up with them and I'm trying to remember the books I've read so I can add them to my list. There are people on there with hundreds of books listed. I may have read hundreds of books, but I probably - no I won't remember all the titles. Now my sister could do a better job of this. She's been keeping a list of the books she reads for years. I do that now too along with a short personal review about whether I liked the book and why or why not, but I wish I had started years ago the way she did. I'll have to tell her to join up with Goodreads so she can brag on the many books she's read.

I haven't really gone out fishing for friends at either site. I guess I'm hoping friends will just swim on over and jump into my net. And some already have. Isn't that amazing? But if you're a member of Goodreads, you can go to their book giveaway page and sign up to win an early copy of The Believer. A bunch of people already have. There are lots of other books on there to be given away too. Of course, you can still send me an e-mail and get in on my July drawings where the odds are sure to be lower than on Goodreads.

Thanks to all of you who have said you'd like to go to the "Brunch with Ann" at 10 a.m. on July 25 at Shaker Village in Mercer County, KY sponsored by Corinth Christian Bookstore. Of course some of you have said it might be a little too far to drive. I understand, but I do wish you could all be there. And you at least will get the highlights on here or in my newsletter after the event.

I'm looking forward to that traditional Shaker breakfast which is the reason you have to buy tickets. My talk will be on the house, but we'll have fun. I'll leave time for Q & A because that's my favorite part of any talk I do about writing. I never know where the questions might take us or whether I'll be able to come up with an answer. So far I always manage to answer something. I think the Lord has give me a gift for gab after making me so painfully shy when I was a child. In my next blog on Sunday, I plan to write about the different gifts the Lord blesses us with and how sometimes those gifts are surprising.

Again, as always, thanks for dropping by. Hope your week is the best you've ever had and that you are feeling loved and appreciated. And if you're on Facebook or Goodreads, come on over and we can be friends there too.