I paid four-hundred-something dollars for a review

Last post I wrote on the importance of reviews. Since then I paid Kirkus to review A Collection of Angels. While this means I literally paid for a review, which has an awful connotation in the implication I paid for a good review, there was no guarantee on the quality of write-up. This isn’t a dirty deed. I could have landed with a reader who hated the novella, or someone who thought it was only passable, and either scenario would have entailed a write-up I’d never want to see the light of day.

Paying Kirkus was a gamble, but I wouldn’t have taken it if I didn’t believe in the quality of my book. Still, Monday I had a moment of anxiety when I saw the email, “Your Kirkus review is ready,” a week earlier than expected. I know it’s wrong to let others dictate how you feel about your craft, but this is a professional reviewing service. They carry clout. A choice excerpt from Kirkus Reviews is much more of a selling point than “The best novel ever!” --Close Friend to Jesse. It would have destroyed my week to discover a professional reviewer had just trashed my book (at my own financial expense, no less).

Here’s the review. 

It’s not AMAZING, at no point does the reviewer actually recommend the book, but it’s not bad. I enjoy (and I say this earnestly, not facetiously) that the single criticism levied against the story is it “threatens to go overboard in creepiness.” A few sentences read awkwardly, and I’m not crazy about ending the article with "will make some cringe and others gag." In the context of the rest of the review it’s not damning, and the part of the sentence that precedes those final words is great, but taken alone, this suggests Collection is nothing more than gross-out horror, and as the last thought, it ends the review with a whimper as opposed to a bang.

So I’ve got a decent Kirkus review. What now? By itself, this review does little. But for the sake of future advertising, I can now superimpose something like:

                              “Leaves a lasting dread.

                                       An undeniably disturbing, reverberating story.” –Kirkus Reviews

on my cover, and I can also take comfort in the fact that any potential buyer browsing the book's Amazon page will see a professional reviewer's comments in addition to reader reviews. Will this prove to be worth the $400+ investment? Way too soon to tell.