Recently, I completed publishing my trilogy, and as a person who sells a product, the value of my trilogy is not its actual worth. It's not the time and effort that I put into making it, nor all the things I put on hold just to complete it. The only thing that dictates the value of my product is the king that sits atop everything else and will judge my work as a diamond or a piece of garbage: the reviews. Recently, I received my first negative one.
I knew that this would happen someday, and I have a very thick skin. Honestly, I couldn't care less. You can't imagine how much I appreciate a negative review. The reason for that is because it highlights the things that my project lacks. Hence, it gives me a hint as to where I should focus on improving my work. However, please read the following 1-star review...
Besides the fact that the individual is probably just an ignorant troll, there is no rational train of thought in that review. Firstly, how can you judge a book when you've only read three chapters (I bet it's only one)? Secondly, what part of it do you consider nonsense? I personally consider the whole review nonsense, and here I am, trying to make a point out of it. Thirdly, nobody knows how many books you've ever read or which ones, so counting books is not an optimal comparison (so, if you've only read one of Kafka's books, one of Orwell's, and mine, then it only makes sense).
As I scanned through the 56 reviews he's made, apart from the fact that he's clearly not my kind of reader, most of them are somewhat like that. Even the few books he liked are rated at 4 stars. From a psychological point of view, I understand it. This review comes from an author with plenty of published books, none of which ever gained any acclaim. Reading the guy's profile, there must be some family issues as well (parents ignoring him, girlfriend ditching him, living without any friends). I fully understand why the review is sloppy. People like that always try to gain attention in every possible way. It's the fast and easy way that they find to replenish the love, care, and attention that their family/friends never gave them. From the bottom of my heart, I pity these kinds of people.
To conclude: it is the quality and NOT the quantity of people's opinions that one should trust. There could be a good product with bad reviews and a bad product with good reviews, especially when it comes to writers. People's opinions are helpful up to a certain extent. The rest is determined by a person's conscience and critical ability. And no, the numbers that a book sells mean there is good promotion and marketing, not that a book is definitely a good one.
However, 80 years of unceasing consumerism has clogged many brain filters. I'll write more about it and my ideas for a new political system that could manage the world so that ALL of us would be truly happy. Until then!
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