HD Hatcher Guest Blog

Author HD Hatcher is no newcomer on the literary scene.
He is author of In the Heart of the Closet, a
piece nominated for both the 2006 Stonewall Book
Award and the 2005 Lambda Literary Award. He is
an avid supporter of gay and lesbian causes, suicide
prevention programs, as well as Animal Rights.
Hatcher currently resides in the Grand Strand area
of South Carolina, near his hometown of Conway,
with his Life Partner of ten years, Jerry.
A Cold Dark Place
One Too Many (a short)

About A Cold Dark Place:

On a chance meeting, (at a mutual friend’s house) Luke finds the love of his life. Andy is what Luke has been longing for all of his adult years: the perfect man. But, this perfect man is not only straight—he is married to a woman who is more devilish than Satan himself.
In a bittersweet journey that will change his life forever, Luke must reach deep inside and find the strength he never knew existed. A Cold Dark Place is the story of a man who must pick up the pieces of his broken heart after a lifetime of heartbreak and betrayal.

HD Hatcher- On Reviews

So, you have gotten your book published. Your friends and family love it, and readers that you don’t know are leaving favorable reviews for you online. Then one day it happens; the dreaded one star review.

Someone actually hated what others really seemed to love. Are the readers leaving favorable reviews just blowing smoke in an attempt to avoid hurting your feelings? Hardly.

Opinions are just that; opinions. As much as we would love for our books to be the next American literary darling with hundreds of five star reviews, it isn’t going to happen without a little heartache along the way. I can guarantee you that there will be at least one person that is willing and capable of ruining your perfect track record.

I have said this many times, and I will say it again: 

Don’t sweat the small stuff. Everyone is not going to love your style of writing, and not everyone is going to give your book a “stand on their head and clap” review. So be it. But, in the same breath there is someone out there that will.

During one of my journeys through amazing.com, I found an author that had received several bad reviews in a row after previously receiving quite a few positive reviews. The author was heartbroken and was compelled to leave a sincere and tearful apology to the readers that hated her book.

This was such a sweet gesture on the author’s part. However, did it make the one star reviewers change their mind? Nope. Some of them actually came back to their original reviews and left comments within their original review that stated how unprofessional and desperate the author sounded.

I thought that the whole fiasco was mean-spirited and uncalled for.

I myself would never apologize to anyone that didn’t like my work. I poured my heart and soul into every page, and if it wasn’t good enough, then too bad.

It is rare for me to provide advice twice back to back in a single post, but my second word of advice: Stay away from sites like amazon.com and goodreads.com when it comes to your own book. The online world is much more vicious and unfiltered than real life.

Just as there are people that hang on every word of a review to decide their next purchase, there are those of us that really don’t care about what other people think and will still buy your book.

I hope the advice that I have provided was insightful and helpful.

Thank you for having me, and I hope that we can do this again sometime.