Reviews

I'm reaching that point in pre-release state where reviews will start to trickle in. This is always a scary time, but so far, things have been good. Explaining why reviews mean so much to authors is difficult because it's one of those things that can't be quantified into sales. In other words, no one can prove that great reviews lead to higher sales. So why do we agonize over reviews so much?

I think it's a combination of a lot of things:

1. We still believe the reviews will effect sales. I mean, there must be people out there who read a negative review and don't buy the book. One lost sale is not just one sale. One lost sale that might have loved the book and told ten friends and then they told ten friends, etc. could actually translate into hundreds of lost sale. Yikes!

2. We are so scared that people won't like our work and place too much importance on the reviews. After all, someone already published the book. It's probably not 100% stinky or no one would have bought it, right? God I hope so. I like to think that for every book I don't like, there are still thousands of people that the book is the best thing they've ever read.

3. Good reviews validate that we are writers and can really write. Now why we're looking for validation from a bunch of people who usually aren't writers or industry professionals, I don't know.

I think the whole thing boils down to fragile ego. Our books are part of us - our feelings, our thoughts - and when people put them down, it's personal no matter how hard you try not to let it be.

And that makes any artistic pursuit (in my opinion) the hardest jobs of all.

Old News

Well, I had a nice long post today that the computer ate. Now of course, I don't have the time or the inclination to repost so you're stuck with nothing until tomorrow. Except this thought - sometimes I REALLY hate so-called technology!

Monday Movie Review

Today's my official posting day at Killer Fiction, so don't forget to read me there too!

The movie is Halloween, a Rob Zombie remake of the old classic.



Saw this one last weekend, actually, but I'm just now getting around to posting about it. In fact, I saw two movies, but I'm going to blog my standard fare - the horror movie.


I have to say that I kinda like this and I don't usually like remakes. Zombie took some liberties with the original script that I think worked. He built in some backstory, showing us exactly what "set off" Michael Myers as a crazy person, and had a decent plot for why he came back to his hometown.

Of course, there was a couple of stupid woman (or technically, girl) scenes. I simply don't understand when the killer is on your front porch and strangling someone, why you run back into the house instead of ducking underneath him and running down the street toward the police and fire trucks at the end of the block - but hey, I guess it all makes for good terror.


My final rating: Definitely worth a view if you're a horror fan and liked the original.

Mega Busy

I'm mega busy today, so this is just a short blurb to tell you all that Barbara Vey, a Publisher's Weekly blogger, has blogged about UNLUCKY today. Hop on over and check it out! I'm always mega-geeked when people love my books and Barbara is a super-cool lady that I've had the absolute pleasure of hanging with at two conferences this year. Be sure and post - we want to make sure Barbara is around for a long time.

Have a great weekend, everyone!