Customer reviews of SOMETHING MISSING

Reviews of SOMETHING MISSING have begun to pop up on Amazon as part of their Vine Program.  Amazon describes this program thusly:   

Amazon Vine™ is a program that enables a select group of Amazon customers to post opinions about new and pre-release items to help their fellow customers make educated purchase decisions. Customers are invited to become Amazon Vine™ Voices based on the trust they have earned in the Amazon community for writing accurate and insightful reviews. Amazon provides Amazon Vine™ members with free copies of products that have been submitted to the program by vendors. Amazon does not influence the opinions of Amazon Vine™ members, nor do we modify or edit their reviews.

The reviews so far have been excellent.  On a five star scale, no one has rated the book with less than three stars, and it currently has an average rating of 4.5 stars. 

Even the most critical of reviews contain a good deal of praise.

I have a friend who has published a few books and he strongly advised me against reading reviews such as these, but I couldn’t resist.  It’s been thrilling to discover what people  think of the book, and a few of the more critical comments are probably true.

In fact, one of the critical remarks has altered my approach to the current manuscript ever so slightly.  I think the reviewer was quite right in his critique of my writing style, and as a result, I saw room for improvement.

So reading these reviews, both positive and critical, has been helpful.       

Besides, I’m known for having an exceptionally thick skin, the result of a lifetime of unwarranted attacks and persecution and a slightly inflated ego.  I can’t imagine that any single review or collection of reviews could dispirit me to any serious degree.

I hope.