One of the nice things about writing books and having them published somewhere is that you get reviews. One of the not so nice things about writing books and having them published somewhere is that you get reviews. It is always a mystery as to how someone found a book, why they chose it, and for the most part a writer never knows-- unless they do get a review.
The latest example of this had me scratching my head as I tried to figure out exactly what the review meant. Mostly it was a nice review, but it said the cover was terrible and even titled the review about the awful cover. Now I might normally not have much to scratch my head about regarding covers. They've been disliked before; but in this case, I just changed the cover myself before having read that review. So it presents a question.
Did they dislike the current cover or the one prior to it?
I did a little mental gymnastics as I tried to work that out. The book was free the 16th and there have been no recent purchases of it. So I shall assume that reader got it free. I changed the cover the 17th which meant it would have been seen by the 18th on Amazon's site. The review as written though the 20th. So, did the reader, when they got ready to write a review look at the cover they had purchased.... or the one that is currently on the site?
To add to my uncertainty, I have taken a lot of books, bought some, gotten some free, and not sat down to read them yet which means the reader might've had that book for months or more. That book has had a LOT of cover changes since I first published it. The question in my mind right now though is-- does it need one more? Is what I just did there, that I liked, was it the terrible cover to that reader???
There is no way to ask the reviewer because one of the things readers in Forums emphasize over and over is don't write the reviewers, don't comment on their reviews as it is intimidating and even if you say thanks it is regarded as invasive. So I have to work this out for myself by looking at what I currently have there and deciding if it is good or does it need yet another change?
The reader also caught a glaring mistake which totally amazed me that it had slid by myself and other readers until now. It wasn't a huge deal but it was a VERY obvious mistake in the storyline-- minor, not damaging to the plot, but also not right. I can correct it and will for future readers.... but about that cover.............
