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While I was at the movies, we watched several trailers. When the trailer for "YOU'RE NEXT" came on, I leaned over to my husband and said, "You know that whole family is going to die, right?" He gave me an odd look, but when it was over he said, "How did you know?" (We'd never heard anything about the movie, and the movie we'd come to watch wasn't a horror flick at all). I told him, "Any time someone says, 'You're next', it's NEVER good." Think about it. When have you heard that phrase and had something awesome happen? I can't think of a thing. Images that come to mind are: murder (like the movie), the dentist, the gynecologist, the DMV, the metal detector at the airport....things like that. I don't think of ice cream cones or hot air balloon rides. But maybe that's just me. Even though the movie YOU'RE NEXT has some pretty high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, it's not on my list of movies to see. I'm a wimp. But I will say, I wish just once someone would say, "You, over there! You're next!" and then they hand me a chocolate cookie or like a million bucks. That would be nice. Maybe then, I'll have a much better feeling about the two words YOU'RE NEXT.
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 I live in a household on non-readers. Husband included. Not a one enjoys reading for pleasure and they only read if they have too. It hurts my heart especially since I'm a writer and I LOVE to read. Where my kids got this nonchalant view of reading, I have no idea...wait a minute. Yes, I do. It's from their father (there is no "proof" of this, but why not just blame the man anyway).
Actually, there's probably a lot of reasons for my children's lack of reading, but lets be sure to point out that I'm NOT one of them (Again, there's no data to support this either way, so let's not go there). When my children were little, I tried everything--buying new books for them at the book store, taking them to the library for story time and getting them their very own library card, reading books to them, listening to audio books in the car and on their little Preschool Playhouse cassette players. I tried, folks. I really did. They just never quite caught on to the love of it. It doesn't help when their dad doesn't read books either. Don't get me wrong, he reads, just not books. He reads blogs and the news. That's his extent. But guess what? The other day my husband came home with a book from the library. The library! I had no idea that he even knew our city had one. I'm impressed. The book is called ALL THE WAY HOME; Building a family in a falling down house. I'm not sure what this means; both for reading in our family or what the heck he's doing with a book like this one. What is he trying to say here? Anyhoo... this is a step in the right direction. Now, I just need to sit him and his book in a very open part of our house so the children can witness this miracle. Actually, another surprising thing happened yesterday. It was the first day of school and my daughter came home, set the oven timer for 20 minutes and then sat on the couch and read a book. A book! ALL ON HER OWN! What strange universe is this?!? Whatever is going on, I approve. I SO approve! If my boys should break out a book, I just may kill over (literally) with the shock of it all. So far they're a no go, but a mother can dream can she? True, it was just the first day of school, so anything can happen today. It may have just been a fluke with my daughter. And true, I haven't seen my husband crack open his library book yet, but folks, I'll take it! I'll take whatever small steps I can get in hopes someday my family will jump aboard the reading train and read their way to happiness! Ahhh...fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. (Please don't be a fluke. Please don't be a fluke). How do you encourage reading in your household? What kind of books do your lovely kiddos enjoy? Any suggestions you may have are much appreciated. Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards. -- Aldous Huxley Last night, as I was sitting with the other mothers, watching our daughters at cheer practice, I noticed something that concerned me.
Before I point it out, let me explain that cheer practice is an hour and forty-five minutes long, and as interesting as cheer practice can be (it really does have its moments) most of the moms spend their time doing something to make that hour and forty-five minutes go by a little more quickly. Most of the mothers have a smart phone of one kind or another. Several moms have iPads or fancy eReaders (those lucky ducks), but the thing I find astonishing is that very few of the moms (maybe one...maybe) are actually using that time to read. The iPads and iPhones are busy playing games. Lots of Candy Crush and Angry Birds going on. Several iPads are playing cartoon videos to keep younger siblings entertained. No one is reading....myself included (shame, shame on me). And to kind of put this in perspective, cheer practice is EVERY Monday and Wednesday night, AND my daughter has tumbling practice on Thursdays. It isn't like the moms are playing the games or busying themselves scanning Facebook or Pinterest once in awhile, it's ALL the time. There is very little, if any, reading going on. Now to be fair, there is this one mom who brings a new library book with her to each class (a library book...wow. Who visits the library anymore? I'm impressed). So what the heck is going on? We amazing humans have created this technology to better enrich our lives. We have the capacity to pluck books from the air (like magic) and download them onto our devices, yet...do we? I'm no better. I'm not. I have three children who each own iPods and I know for a fact that not one of those iPods contain a book. Lots of music and games, but no books. Whenever I've suggested downloading a book, my kids look at me as though I've suggested they become nudists. It's an odd thing, reading a book. They don't see it as enjoyment. They see it as work. (I blame the schools for that, I do, but that's for another post for another day). My iPhone is filled with books and on occasion, I do read, but not often enough. I need to be a better example for sure. So what do we do? Book stores are dying a slow and painful death. Libraries are struggling. How do we fix this...or can it even be fixed? I want you to look around you, where ever you are right now, and notice the people with their iPhones and iPads--on train rides, plane flights, cafe shops, etc...-- what do you see? Be honest. Are people reading or are they playing? Is technology killing off books with its ability to search the web from anywhere and to entertain us with movies and games? Will books be faded out like a vinyl record --things to collected and treasured by the very few? Do we really want to be known as the Angry Bird Era? I don't. I really don't. I can make a change...but is it enough? For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth. --Bo Bennett Most readers before making the decision to buy a book look at what others are saying about it. More specifically, they peruse the reviews--the good and the bad. I, myself, tend to scan the 1 and 2 star reviews first. My reason: THEY TEND TO BE FAR MORE BELIEVABLE. They tell the truth. Now don't get me wrong, there are some seriously bizarre people out there who thrive on the negative. They're not pleased with anything in life, the poor souls, and it shows in their reviews. And of course, there are those carpet bombers who leave a 1 star review just to pull down a successful authors ratings (these can be bought too--shameful, huh?). What I'm talking about are the 1 and 2 star reviews with a great deal of meat behind them. I read those first. Why? Because more and more now days it's hard to trust a five star review. I'm not alone in this belief either. Check out this article when you get a moment. But Angela! Why would you say such a thing? You're an author! You know how hard it is to get reviews, any reviews for a book and five star reviews are AWESOME! Authors KILL for them! Okay, that's an exaggeration. Authors don't really "kill" for reviews...but they have been known to lie to get them. Ever heard of best-selling UK crime author, RJ Ellory or another author Steven Leather? If you haven't, then click those links, but I'm quite certain you've heard of John Locke who bought 300 reviews from an online business that actually offered this as a service (the website GettingBookReviews.com shut down but you can read more HERE. Even though this one business is gone, there are dozen of others out there still). Steven Leather admitted to doing this very thing and actually said, "everyone does it".
No, Mr. Leather, not EVERYONE is doing it. I don't do it and I know MANY MANY wonderful authors who choose to go the honest route, however hard and long it may be. The problem is that there are still authors today (you'd think they'd learn by these bad apples above) who continue to beg, bribe, and even pay for a quick and positive review to boost their rankings. It's true. I've seen it. I'm absolutely shocked because I would've thought we'd moved past this. Apparently, we haven't. My question for these authors is WHY? Why would you deliberately do this to yourself? My guess is the following: Your book sucks rocks and you know it. You know it's not written well or the plot line is weak. Maybe you've had early feedback on the negative side and so in an effort to hide that from the public, you seek out in a desperate move to improve your ratings and camouflage the truth. Like placing daisies on top of a pile of poop. Yes, it is hard and can take a lot of work to get the reviews that are needed to help give legitimacy and value to your book. I've been there--sending out email after email to book bloggers, hoping that maybe they'd be willing to give my book a try. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm building a reputation here. That matters more than anything to me. I'd rather have a handful of honest reviews, whatever stars they may be, than a hundred made up ones. Eventually the honest reviews will reveal the work's true worth in the end and your reputation will be destroyed for trying to take a shortcut. These fake reviews will only result to more negative reviews as readers will ultimately feel as though they've been mislead (which they have). Here's the thing too: These sockpuppet reviews LOOK and READ fake. It really doesn't take a genius to figure out which ones are false and which ones are not (I'm not a genius--though I play one online--and I figured it out): 1) The reviews tend to be quite short. Maybe one or two sentences in length. 2) They usually say something like this: "I loved this book. It was a real good read. I would recommend it to everyone." 3) Usually, there are MANY of these one and two sentence type reviews back to back. Looks a little fishy. 4) What are the odds that THAT many people read your book and posted a review within a short period of days? 5) The reviewer has no profile picture. They have only reviewed one or two books and almost all of their reviews sound the same. True, there are people who set up an account to review a book and have no profile pic or very few reviews under their belt, so that's not always a tell-tell sign, but when there are MANY of these kind of profiles back to back reviewing the same book, I suggest you be a little suspicious. 6) Be skeptical of only positive reviews. Once again, don't get me wrong. There are wonderful books out there with 3 star and above ratings that deserve them. BUT, look at the comments themselves. Do they discuss the characters, the plot, the tension, ANYTHING about the book itself to prove they've even read it? Saying, "I loved this book. It was a good read. I would recommend it to everyone" says NOTHING. 7) On the flip side, be wary of only negative reviews. Once again, there's that whole carpet bombing thing that goes around. So sad. 8) Also, watch out for reviews that tend to sound like plot summaries or rephrasing of the book's description. The best thing you can do, as a reader, is download a sample of the book before purchasing it. Read it and decide from there. It's terrible that the world is so deceptive and that some authors have chosen to stoop so low. Authors who pay for fake reviews, in my opinion, are wanting to sell more books than they are wanting to write them. If selling is the big priority, then by all means creep down the dark alleyways of the internet and find the companies offering what you're looking for. They're out there. Just remember, what goes around comes around. Secrets have a way of finding the light. I heard a quote (though not sure by who, because I can't find it now) that fake reviews to an author is like handing plastic fruit to a chef. They're basically useless. Authors, a word of advice for you: DON'T DO IT. Just don't. The small amount of success you may receive from being deceptive isn't worth it. It's not. Let your work speak for itself, because when you don't it only ends up damaging readers' trust and that, in the end, hurts us all. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Helen Keller. I get that. It's only through tribulation in which a person, fictional or not, can develop, change, and become stronger. A novel about a woman who lives a good life, without pain or conflict, would make for a boring tale. No one would read it. Bor-ing! Life is FULL of trials and suffering, and as readers, we want to watch and root for the main character (MC) to overcome their issues and achieve happiness in the end.
ALL books, the MC must suffer in one way or another, but as I'm developing new story ideas and as I look over my already published novels, I've come to realize a trend in my writing that I'm not sure what to make of: Nearly all of my female main characters suffer from some sort of abuse, whether mental or physical, and a great many of them suffer from "mommy-issues" in which their mothers were terrible horrible people. Why? |
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