Ugh…Reviews!

 

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I recently found out that Amazon has the power to remove whatever reviews they want.  Their reason…any reviews that can be considered biased, will be nixed.  So, this pretty much sucks, when friends and family support your work and want to help you out by reviewing your book, only to find out that because of their close relationship to you, the review is null and void.  I understand it, to a point, because apparently, it can skew a potential reader’s decision on whether to purchase a book or not.  This is a recent policy because the reviews on my debut novel, Behind the Mask (2014), haven’t been removed and one of them has the same last name as me.  Just saying!

Anyway, I’m glad I’m now aware of this little nugget because though positive reviews are great to receive, I also want them to appear genuine.  And certainly, don’t want them to come across as false.  Even though I know they are legit, some may not believe that.

This brings me to another area of reviews, an extremely ugly dark side.  One that I knew existed but honestly avoided.  Maybe I subconsciously chose not to read reviews for fear of what I’d see, but when I happened to notice the sudden removal of reviews for my latest book, Unmasked, that’s when I spotted a truly mean-spirited review (dated from April 2016 – Kindle Edition) of Behind the Mask   This particular review was beyond scathing and this person did not hold back.  And I’ve always said, can’t please everyone and I still stand by that.  Plus, I’m the first to admit, my debut novel was filled with typos, grammatical errors, and the writing wasn’t the best, not by a long shot.  But what it was…was something I was passionate about and put my heart and soul into for many years.  I know a good editor would have done wonders for it, I’m not naïve or stupid, but editors are costly, so I opted against it.  Probably not the wisest of choices.  And for me to put myself out there was HUGE, and for those that know me, I’ve never been one to seek the limelight or be center of attention, so just allowing others to read my work was a big accomplishment.  And I knew I had to grow a thick skin, that people were going to be critical and I had to learn to take it.  I’m open to constructive criticism.  Pointing out mistakes in a tactful way is fine and welcomed.  Being bitter and doing it in a harsh manner, comes across like a personal attack, especially when it’s someone’s debut novel, that he/she self-published.  It’s a learning process.  I’m sorry that person had such an awful experience reading my novel; I never thought I’d provoke that much negativity and be cut down to the core like that.  Hating a story is one thing, loathing the writing itself took it to a whole other level.

That said, it did make me go back and do the one thing I hadn’t done in a while—read through the entire book of Behind the Mask.  The mistakes are glaring, and stick out like a sore thumb.  It’s like reading the good, the bad, and the ugly all rolled up into one.  Not making excuses, well maybe I am, but this was my first attempt at writing a novel, so I guess it could have been worse.  Regardless, I’ve decided to clean it up, which is something I should have done sooner, but after I read it over so many times back in 2014, that I most likely began to skip over all the mistakes.  It’s easier to do than one might think, which is why an editor is definitely needed.

So, in closing.  For those, who have copies of the original Behind the Mask, whether paperback or Kindle edition, I thank you very much for reading through the mistake-plagued version and for all the positive feedback.  When I’m finished revising (no story changes, just a more polished version with fewer mistakes) I’m going to submit it on Amazon.  Kindle owners may or may not get an update that the book has been revised.  I’ll make an announcement when I’ve done it, just in case.

Lesson learned #5,789 – don’t read reviews  🙂

 

Kindle Countdown Sale – Behind the Mask

BehindtheMaskBookWebsiteBefore the sequel read about how a masked gunman became a reluctant hero to a young woman who would forever change his life.  My debut novel, Behind the Mask, Kindle edition will be available on Amazon.com for only $.99 starting this Friday, May 11th, 2018.  The sale will continue through Friday, May 18th, 2018.

If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the Kindle App for free at Apple.com or for Android at Google Play

Excerpt from Behind the Mask:

He had never regretted his decisions; stealing was a means to an end. Guilt was something he kept at bay. An expert at being selfish, he made zero apologies for it, but he didn’t enjoy dealing with hostages. He preferred the jobs that were done overnight, where no one else was involved, or the smash and grab ones where everything was done in record time. On the other hand, Charles and Tom took great pleasure in watching innocent people suffer. Up until that point though, no hostage had ever been sexually violated or killed under Liam’s watch, and he had planned on keeping it that way. Even though he did threaten Remi, he never had any intention of harming her. He hated to admit it, but she was absolutely correct in her assessment of him. He was certainly no angel, but she was safe—at least with him. – Behind the Mask

Literary Agent Rejection Letters

Back in June of 2014, I began the difficult task of sending out query letters and a 10-page synopsis of Behind the Mask, to a list of literary agents I found at WritersMarkets.com.  Having absolutely NO clue what I was doing, I researched how to go about the process.  And I’m pretty sure I did it all wrong, but the longer I do this, the more I learn.

So, the query letter was awful, even when I read it now, I cringe.  And the 10-page synopsis, which needed to basically spoil the reader, was harder to write than one would imagine.  But I was undeterred in my quest to make a fool of myself.  I say that because though I felt I had a decent story to tell, I wasn’t fully confident I had succeeded in writing it.

After skimming through the names of hundreds of agents, I just picked out ones that I assumed handled fictional novels.  I typed up the required self-addressed stamped envelopes, stuck in the query letter, along with the synopsis and hoped for the best.

Since I self-published both of my books you can guess what happened.  However, I had heard horror stories about some of the rejections letters authors had received, even famous ones.  Therefore, I was prepared for the slaughter, but surprisingly the rejections weren’t as painful as I expected.  That being said, after the tenth one or so, can’t say they didn’t sting a little.

I sent out 24 in all and got back 20.  Some were just my query letter sent back to me with a few words written on them, stating how they weren’t interested.  Some were a standard stock robotic letter, saying they couldn’t represent me.  But a few were very kind and no one told me it all out sucked.  Or that I should give up writing.  There was one in particular who wrote the most amazing letter and told me how she saw it as a movie, but I didn’t submit a screenplay, I submitted a novel.  Two completely different things.  Not going to lie, can’t say I haven’t thought about the movie version, but I’m a realist.  Even though she didn’t represent me, I never forgot about her letter.  The following are just three of the rejection letters, to show the difference in responses.  The first one is my favorite:

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Remi & Liam…

 

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Dated July 21, 2010 – Behind the Mask notes aka scribbles

As I tweak this website, the one thing I decided to do was separate the two novels, Behind the Mask and Unmasked into separate sections.  At first, I had them listed under a menu titled, ‘NOVELS’ but thought by giving them each their own identity made more sense.  Because even though Unmasked is a continuation of the first novel there are things that are unique to both, that I think people would find interesting.  Or at least, I just think it would be fun to give away some little nuggets of this long journey that has brought me to this point.

For instance, the characters of Remi Catalano and Liam Matthews have been a part of my life for 10 years now.  10 YEARS!!!!  They’ve had many, many, MANY conversations in my head.  Some made it to the books, some did not.  I have tons of notebooks, post-its, and iPhone notes with scribblings that only I would understand what was written.  I’ll read a few now and laugh at how manic they appear.  I used to write while my son was playing travel baseball.  He’d train for hours, so I would just drift off into Remi and Liam’s world.  Never did I think, 10 years later, I’d still be writing about them and letting others read about them as well.

It’s crazy!

 

 

Welcome!

I’ll begin this ‘welcome’ post with a disclaimer…this website is a work in progress.  After blogging via Blogger (blogspot) for years, this is my first time working with WordPress.  And I’m learning as I go so this site may go through many changes and tweaks before I get it to where I’m happy with it.  For those who already know me, that won’t surprise them, because though I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a perfectionist, I’m my harshest critic.  However, I wanted to get this site up and running, instead of leaving it dormant.  And since I’m releasing my second novel, waiting to launch this website, didn’t make much sense.  So, here it is.

–  Heather Carnassale