The KDP Forums are great for finding threads about reviewers, and authors "Behaving Badly". Yes one stars reviews smart. Three stars or more are cause for celebration, even if as an author, we find the review system a little stilted. Still there are those reviews whether bad or good, that portray your book in a way that is so off base, I have to cringe.
Over a two day free promotion of For The Heart Of A Shifter, I received a one star review. Instead of bringing me down, I had to laugh. She was so far off base,it was comical. I have nothing against Cristian romance, I even find it refreshing at times, but this was obviously what she thought she was getting. How I'm not sure, since it isn't labeled that way, my cover is equally erotic, and my blurb makes it clear that this is a sensual book.
Needless to say, she was "shocked" by the first chapter of the book. The language as she puts it was shocking and vulgar and there was a bestiality feel. Ok Language, maybe. I'm a crude woman, my writing is crude, equally so, are most of my characters. But Bestiality? NO Way! I may write about shifters, but I don't go that far.
To make a long story short, most of the "those who bought this book also bought" preview usually sits on a few other shifter stories and the rest of my books. This morning I was perusing the book page, (Thank you to the lovely woman who vindicated the one star review), and this time I was shocked! Instead of the run of the mill books in the also bought preview, there were all kinds of erotic books in their place. I have nothing against erotica, I even consider the Bear Canyon Shifters paranormal erotica. But some of these were bad. Stuff I would never consider reading, or writing in a million years.
I've braced myself for all the lovely returns that will soon be coming my way. All because some woman felt the need to write a bad review on a book that she should not have purchased in the first place.(Admitted to not even reading past the first chapter) For any readers out there, please use the look inside option before you buy, it's there for your benefit.
I can only hope that in the days to come readers will be kind enough to write reviews, good or bad, on the book as it really is, an Urban Fantasy Romance.
