The One-Star Aftermath:
Thin or cracking ice might have been more accurate, but I’m a writer. I like drama.
By Thio Isobel Moss
If you’ve been following along with me on this journey, you may remember that Blind Spot: The Covenant’s Forfeit had been doing rather well—nothing extraordinary, but quite respectable for a middle-aged introverted debut author who refuses to dance on TikTok. I was having regular KU pages read, punctuated by sales.
Following upon the heels of a one-star rating posted on Amazon and with the restructuring of my Amazon ads, I had one sale in the UK—where the only rating of any kind is the one-star—and 49 pages read in the good, ole US of A. Since then, that well has run dry. There has been no movement in that department at all.
As you can imagine, I did spend some time wallowing in the depths of despair. Here’s the thing, though: I do not doubt my writing. When I wrote Blind Spot, I knew it wasn’t going to be for everyone. That was never the goal. So, no, I’m not going to give up writing and become a wild woman living in a cave in Missouri…although it does have a certain appeal. I’ve caught the bug too thoroughly; at this point, I don’t believe I can stop writing.
I do doubt my marketing. I’ve had one college course on the subject, and that was…seventeen years ago? Something like that. I enjoyed it, but it’s certainly not my area of expertise. As such, I’ve made some changes with low expectations.
I need an audience that enjoys multiple POVs, though I don’t intend to write that way in every book. I need an audience that enjoys density and layered plots. I need an audience that engages rather than scans. So, I swapped out Paranormal Romance on Blind Spot’s categories—yes, I knew it was a terrible fit from the get-go, but I couldn’t find anything that fit better—and swapped in Literary Fantasy.
Is Blind Spot Literary Fantasy?
No, it is not.
But there is overlap. Readers of literary fantasy tend to tolerate dense worldbuilding, layered plots, and multiple POVs—exactly the traits that some of my positive reviewers enjoy.
So this category change is not a declaration; it’s an experiment.
I changed my seven keywords to narrow my audience so that, hopefully, those who can enjoy my book can find it more easily. I also changed my description so that it mentions the multiple POVs right off, framing expectations.
I also decided that I need to show confidence and display trust in my readers. I’ve started putting excerpts up on the blog and through a link at The Moss Library. Through ChatGPT, I discovered that on Bookbub Ads, you can send a reader to a custom URL rather than your book page. This does affect how Bookbub estimates your readership, but folks are reading the excerpts.
I have also reviewed my bids on Amazon Ads. The season is changing, and more people are buying books. The competition, and therefore the bids, have risen. I need to rebuild the data that tells the algorithm where to put my book. Incidentally, I have learned that much of what I tore down could have been altered, and I would have lost much less data. Please do not repeat my mistakes. They’re heartbreaking!
In any case, I have increased my bids, and the system has responded. There are still very few clicks, but it’s early days. I know it will take longer and cost more than it originally did. Unless I suddenly get an avalanche of new, glowing reviews—and by avalanche, I mean three or four, depending on how glowing they are.
Sadly, such reviews are hard to come by.
I’ve read a few articles on how to use negative reviews to your advantage—comparing them to your positive reviews and such. Well, there was no review for the one-star, but I can contrast the positive reviews with the negative reviews:
BookSprout Reviewer, ItstheJo wrote, “This is book 1 in The Covenant's Forfeit series and it is fabulous.
The plot was intriguing, exciting and well paced. World building was awesome and solidly drawn. The characters were so very well written and complex and complicated and absolutely perfect. Cannot wait for more from this world. Thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.”
ItstheJo gave me 5 stars, while Tiffany of NetGalley gave me 2:
“My Thoughts: There were too many characters thrown in mix without much context. I got lost in the dense world building trying to get what was happening.”
Here’s what Penny (4-stars) of NetGalley said:
“Kenny is a very strong character going through what she’s gone through to get where she is, and then she has to be strong when it all starts to go south. I really enjoyed this debut book. It’s imaginative, well-written, and interesting. Recommend.”
But K.M. (2-stars) from NetGalley said:
“Sadly, this one was not for me. I had a very difficult time getting through this book and ended up DNF'ing it after multiple tries. I do want to say that it is very clear the author spent a lot of time crafting these unique characters and the environment they inhabit, and that should be highlighted. However, the high volume of POVs was a little too much to get me engaged in the storyline and invested in what happened to any of the characters. I do believe I will look for future works by this author, but for me personally, it will need to be a story with fewer POVs.”
Finally, we come to Laila, also of NetGalley, who gave me 4-stars and said:
“I liked how each discovery raised the stakes and slowly dismantled the quiet life she had built for herself. Kenny’s instinct to help others, even when it puts her at risk, made her feel grounded and believable.
The worldbuilding was rich without being overwhelming, and the mix of dark magic, humor, and danger kept me engaged. While I would have loved a bit more depth from some of the side characters, the story as a whole was compelling and left me curious about what comes next in the series.”
I do have a 5-star and 2-star rating without a review attached, as well.
So far, the data suggests something simple: Blind Spot works very well for a specific kind of reader. My job now is not to change the book—it’s to help those readers find it.
I’ll let you know how these changes work. Marketing, like writing, is largely a process of experimentation—and sometimes learning from mistakes that are a little painful in the moment.
In the meantime, fingers crossed.
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