The First Bad Review

Yesterday I received my first bad review for my début novel, CHOCOLATE FOR BREAKFAST. Two stars, after more than thirty reviews of mostly five and some four stars. Two stars. The reviewer did not like the book. She wished I had made Bernadette stronger in character and moral fiber.Although I didn't agree with her (I'm assuming it's a female by what she wrote), I accept her opinion. She didn't criticize my writing, she didn't say my characters were one-dimensional, she didn't take me to task for typos or formatting errors. She simply didn't like Bernadette. So is that worthy of a two-star review? Apparently it is!Still, it bothered me (that was yesterday - I'm fine now). So yesterday afternoon I re-read a blog by the fabulous Anne R. Allen, the author of five comic mysteries and a survival guide for writers (co-authored with Catherine Ryan Hyde). You can read this specific post here. What I took from Anne's post is this:

• Without the negatives, the positives would mean nothing. This is true. Up until yesterday, all of my reviews were 5-star or 4-star. A lot of those reviews came from my friends. A few are from strangers, and every bit of positive feedback just lifted me higher. Perhaps this one review took some wind from my sails, but that's okay.
• ...Amazon reviews, which were only mildly significant three years ago, now have a make-or-break impact on an author’s sales.
• Rating existing reviews as "helpful" or "unhelpful" has significant impact. By voting for the most informative and favorable reviews, you have the power toget them moved to the head of the line.
• Anything less than 4 stars means “NOT RECOMMENDED” to the Amazon algorithms. 2 or 3 star reviews are going to hurt the author's sales, no matter how much you rave in the text. Those stars are the primary way a book is judged on AMAZON. Without a 4 or 5 star rating, a book doesn’t get picked up in the Amazonalgorithms for things like “also bought” suggestions. Giving 1 or 2 stars to a book that doesn’t have many reviews is taking money out of the author’s pocket,so don’t do it unless you really think the author should take up a new line of work.
• A bad review is forever. (Well, maybe.*)

*About a year ago, I read an e-book that was a total mess. It was not only poorly formatted and full of misspellings, it was poorly written. Now, I'd be more likely to overlook the formatting problems (as distracting as they were), but it was a struggle to get through the clichés, the overused phrases and descriptions, and it was pretty obvious the author had some unresolved issues with his parents. I gave the book a two-star rating and tried to write a sympathetic review, but stood by the two stars. The author actually commented on my review and lashed out at me! Within a couple of days, I'd deleted the review. It seemed better to leave this guy alone.So, I've got my two-star review and there it is. With a wider distribution (which is what I wanted, after all) comes the fact that not everyone will like what I've written. I ate some chocolate this morning and the world is right again.