Join me on my road to publication (part 11)

My multipart series chronicles the ups and downs of an ordinary person striving to becoming a novelist in the real world. The series will span more than five decades.

If you’ve read parts 1-10, you can skip the intro (though it’s a fascinating intro 😀):

I’m the author of ten published novels, three novellas, and two nonfiction books. Seven of the novels, the three novellas, and one of the nonfiction books were traditionally published. I self-published the remaining three novels and nonfiction book.

This might seem impressive to some, but it goes without saying that I’m no Stephen King, especially when it comes to our respective bank accounts. Despite boasting over 70,000 purchases/downloads of my books, my total cash royalties are in the low five-figure range because (admittedly) most of the sales were free or inexpensive ebooks. Regardless, it’s likely there are authors who would trade places with me, which might be viewed as a depressing commentary on how extraordinarily difficult it is for a no-name to hit it big.

Though I’m not the only author on Substack chronicling something like this, my story has unique elements that I believe will be informative and relatable to writers and readers. Over the next several months, I’ll post a bimonthly account of my journey to publication—from the 1970s when I was a young man with big dreams to a recently retired dude who hasn’t given up on those dreams quite yet. Here is part 11.

The scary power of a lone-wolf reviewer

A few months after books 1 and 2 of my six-book epic fantasy series debuted back in 2012, sales began to steadily rise. During a 99-cent promotion arranged by my publisher, book 1 hit number 30 on Amazon. That’s number 30 out of all books, not just fantasy.

At the same time, I also started getting reviews. Most of us no-names can rustle up a dozen by begging relatives and friends, but the reviews from strangers are the ones that really count. I went from 10 to 20 to 50 to 80 … and more.

And the sales kept coming, too. Momentum was on my side. I wasn’t zooming toward New York Times bestseller land, but I was rising steadily up the rankings.

Then something weird happened that played a disturbing role in the derailment of my chugging train.

Out of the blue, I was taken to task by a lone-wolf reviewer who was highly offended by some of my sex scenes. To provide some context, I admit that the series had a few scenes with descriptions of explicit sex, but compared to the Game of Thrones orgyfest (of which I’m a big fan 😀), my scenes were relatively tame, IMO. So it’s an understatement to say that the review caught me by surprise.

Most of you probably remember that Amazon used to allow people to comment on reviews. Also, there was a public reviewer ranking system. The more reviews a person wrote, the higher up the ladder they went. My new nemesis was a “top reviewer,” which meant that his opinion carried a lot of weight. Nowadays, Amazon no longer allows comments on reviews. It also did away with its public reviewer ranking system. But back then, “top reviewers” had legitimate power, and I think that at least some of them enjoyed wielding it, sometimes at an author’s expense.

The lone wolf basically accused me of being a pervert. In fact, he became so incensed that he contacted my publisher by phone to complain about it.

Not long after his review posted, several other people commented, saying things like “I was going to buy this book but after reading this review, I definitely won’t buy it now.” Thankfully, quite a few others supported me with comments like “the sex scenes seemed pretty tame to me compared to other books I’ve read.”

My publisher and I discussed what to do about this. In the end, we mutually agreed that it would be best to not interact. Clearly, the guy was itching for a fight, so defending myself would have likely turned things even uglier than they already were. Since the majority of my other reviews were 4 and 5 stars, taking the high road seemed like the best course of action. Hopefully, the whole thing would blow over and life would go on as before.

Only, it didn’t.

My sales immediately slowed down. It wasn’t as dramatic as 100 sales a day down to 10, but I’d estimate that it was at least a 50 percent reduction. And the worst part? The sales never fully recovered. Was all this just a coincidence? Maybe. But I don’t think so. I wonder now how much of a role the “top reviewer” status and the ability to comment on reviews played in this. Would a negative review like that carry less weight nowadays? Or would it have the same damaging results? I’ll never know.

One thing I do know: It was a punch to the gut that hurt for a long time afterward. Whoever threw the punch has probably long since forgotten about it. But it still burns in my memory.

Up next: Striving to remain viable as a novelist.

Promotional note: Anyone interested in a free ARC copy of my newest release, The Death Wizard Chronicles | Volume 1, can get it here on NetGalley.

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Previous episodes

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10