Thursday, May 24, 2012

Some Characters Belong To Their Readers, Not Their Authors

A while back I Tweeted/Facebooked that I had 28 reviews for my most recent book, Vanity, Vengeance & A Weekend In Vegas (starring Sophie Katz) on Amazon and 27 of them were five stars. Obviously I was happy with that and my focus was on the 27 five star reviews, not the 1 three star review (which was posted by a "reader" who hadn't read the book yet but was upset that it wasn't in audio). But when my Facebook/Twitter readers saw that there was a three star review they were indignant, particularly since the reviewer literally hadn't given the book a chance. Immediately they started commenting on that one review and marking it as "unhelpful." By the end of the day that reviewer had gotten so much negative feedback she actually removed the entire review all together.  Now I have thirty-one reviews for Vanity, Vengeance & A Weekend In Vegas and they're all five stars.

This whole incident gave me pause. As usual I had grossly underestimated the passion and loyalty of Sophie's fans. Furthermore, I had underestimated their protectiveness. It's tempting to say that it's me they're being protective of and I know that some of my readers feel personally connected to me through my blog and Facebook posts but for the most part I think they were being protective of Sophie. I spend so much time with Sophie and her friends, creating new adventures, new relationships, new sexually charged encounters and so on that I forget that this character doesn't just belong to me anymore. Thousands of readers see her as a friend.  A close friend.  One they can count on to be there for them, to make them laugh, to help them escape from the stressers of their every day life. And I'm moved by that. I'm touched that I've been able to give her to so many people and that she has brightened so many lives, even if it's only for the length of time it takes to read a book. It motivates me to keep writing her stories to star in. I don't want to take her away from anyone.

I would never want to take away somebody's friend.

Kyra Davis

4 comments:

Sebastian Clouth said...

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Sebastian Clouth
Books Editor, Before It's News
Sclouth@beforeitsnews.com

krisgils33 said...

I am not a fan of people posting reviews that have nothing to do with the actual content of the book. I don't always read all the reviews and might only be looking at how many stars the book received and that can definitely skew my perception.

I love when characters stick with me long after I'm done reading the book. That's when you know it's a really great book!!!!

kyradavis said...

Yes, if the review had actually been about the book I would have defended the review and the reviewer to my readers no matter HOW bad the review it was. But by rating it without reading a single word of the text...well, it made it almost impossible to defend so if she got a lot of negative feedback from my readers then it's really on her.

And I too really love it when the books I read expand my circle of friends. Great characters never leave you and I'm honestly humbled that my characters have managed to befriend so many of my readers

Kristi said...

I see a lot of that on Amazon, or they'll rate it one star because of the price. You and some others are on my auto buy no matter what, but if it's a new author I always go to Goodreads and read the reviews. Unfortunately I don't trust Amazons reviews any longer.