Reviews Part II

Okay, I'll admit it. I check up on how the book is doing on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com at least once a day. I've been told not to do that, that the rankings they post aren't a good indicator of the book's actual sales.

I do it anyway. Plus, as I put in an earlier post, both of those sites post reader reviews, which are not really "reviews" in the traditional sense. But they are (occasionally) fun to read. For the most part, they're just little blurbs by people who read the book and want to say what they thought. Sometimes good, sometimes really bad and sometimes in between.

So here's the funny part. About three weeks ago I got the absolute worst review of my nascent publishing career. Someone on B&N.com savaged the book. They were so brutal in fact, that some of my frustration contributed to the writing of the previous post.

Now, as luck would have it, I check B&N today (with the intention of re-reading the awful review for the two-hundreth time in three weeks) and what do I find? An even newer review, this time by somebody who did like the book (and who actually seems to have "gotten it").

I guess this is how it happens sometimes. No one reviews the damn thing for almost a year, and then I get two in as many months. At least people are still reading it.