Control: Reviews…
I, Dalton Lewis, have to be honest: I get many bad reviews. I feel sorry because I sometimes disappoint you, the reader. I worked like crazy for two months — and took a month off — and wrote a sci-fi space opera about space ship battles that was a re-telling of World War II in space. I wrote it with the best writing of my ability. I tried to do everything possible to write something intelligent and fantastic and entertaining.
I initially had 2,000 downloads which is pretty good for a start for a book, and it sold some copies — I’m near 300 copies sold for my novels, an amount that I’m proud of. I was happy with the progress of the book. Poeple really seemed to be giving it a chance. 463 pages were read in the lending library, meaning three people read the book for certain.
Then the reviews came in. One five star review. Fine and good. Two reviews of three stars. Not great. One review of two stars. All together, 3.3 stars out of 5 stars. Not good — 4 out of 5 is a good number to strive towards.
And the preceeding book in the series? I worked very hard on that book too. It’s called American Starfleet Independence. It’s about a fight over the colony planet of Geldon, and it’s a retelling of the sea battles near Guadalcanal with spaceships instead of sea ships. I was proud of the book, and it sold fifty copies and had 3,000 downloads and 15,000 pages read in the lending library. It was a hit.
The reviews?
“Horrible disjointed writing. Jumps with fragmented conversations and contradictory statements. Good story if it was rewritten. Love to see if there is a better version of this story that makes sense.”
One star — that person gave me one star.
“Had a very jumpy feel about it. Book story not very clear about content of story. I had trouble staying involved with this story.”
Two stars — that person gave me two stars.
“This book has no science fiction and no military in it. It appears to have been written by a high school freshman with no knowledge of writing or the military, The characters and their speech is ludacris. Save your money. By something worth the few dollars this costs. Maybe in a few years of research the writer might make a passable author.”
One star — that person gave me one star.
Ouch.
I work really hard on these books. I’m doing my best. I don’t know how to say this — so I’ll just say it. I have paranoid schizophrenia. My stories will always seem jumpy and disjointed. They make sense to me. I need to make them make sense to everyone, and I’m working on it. I just think that this is frustrating. This sort of review is hurtful.
Why do people find joy talking about how terrible they think a work of writing is? I don’t understand. It’s mean. It’s part of life — it’s allowed. It’s something that people can do.
Suddenly it occurred to me why this terrible thing happens.
I need to write a better quality of novel.
My novels aren’t good enough.
I need to do better.
I don’t know what to say. I haven’t been hitting the emotional beats. I haven’t tapped into people’s base consciousness — showed the way life can be horrible and unfair and hurtful in a clear and beautiful way.
To those reviewers I say:
Thank you. I am taking your criticism into account and trying to do better. I am writing stories that track from scene to scene with characters that are clear and well-defined. I’m learning.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
