Rolfe's Ramblings

I'm baaaaaaack! Missed me? (Mya!)

It's been three weeks since Fated Maids and the Royal Slug debuted. To everyone who's supported me so far, even if you didn't like the book, THANK YOU! Book reads make the world go 'round!

With that being said, what I'd like to talk about tonight is NOT intended to be a callout post for anyone, simply a passing thought.

Fated Maids currently has two websites where you can browse reviews for the book. One's Goodreads. The other is Amazon on the book's page itself. As of this post, the current Amazon rating is 3.8 stars. While I'd like to pretend my book is perfect, it's not, and I think 3.8 with a handful of mixed but honest reviews is an accomplishment.

My Goodreads page, however, is sitting at a not-so-great 2.5 stars. I try not to obsess over unfavorable reviews and of what I've seen, none of them have been malicious or overly mean which is good, too. (I did get a snort out of the person who said the plot must have gotten lost in the maids' cleavage.)

This leads me to wonder about perception of a book's quality when star ratings are so divided. It's my impression that lot of people don't read the reviews, simply see if a book's stars are high enough for them to hit that "buy" button. But what do people do when they see a book that's rated low on one site and high on another? Do they assume one of the sites has been gamed to get the book a higher rating than it deserves? Do they average it out in their head? Do they buy the book, cross their fingers, and hope for the best? I sure hope it's that last option, but my hopes aren't high.

If anyone knows, please tell me. I'm so curious!

The short version is this: I didn't expect differences in taste to also translate to differences in review site usage as well. It's probably one of the things that's surprised me most as a new author.

In any case I don't have much to talk about in the way of book stuff because something is making me horribly exhausted (like, 15 hours of sleep a day exhausted) and it's cutting into my ability to work. I've got a doctor's appointment coming up soon and I hope they can fix me!