The one where I thank the lovely reviewers on the blog tour for Christmas at the Cat Café and talk about being derailed by the early negative reviews
August and September were a crazy couple of months in our household both writing-wise and personally so I’ve fallen behind on so many things. I’ve been ridiculously late in posting a couple of birthday cards (i.e. on the day of the person’s birthday) and even missed a friend’s birthday completely which is very unlike me as I’m normally completely on the ball with things like that.
One of the writing-related things to fall by the wayside has been the blog tour for Christmas at the Cat Café.I’ve been very slow in thanking bloggers for their posts, haven’t shared everything on Twitter (yes, I know it’s really called X but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it!) and I’m nearly a week behind with my end of tour thank you post. The tour ended on 30th September. Eek!
Better late than never, here’s a huge THANK YOU to all the bloggers/reviewers who took part in the blog tour for Christmas at the Cat Café and Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Resources for organising it.
I was really apprehensive about this blog tour because I received some scarily negative early reviews for this book. Thankfully my fears that I’d written a dud have been unfounded and there has been a lot of love for Castle Street, the cat café, my hero Tabby, and all the cats and kittens. Phew!
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m always honest and transparent about the lows of my writing journey as well as the highs, so I’d like to talk about the negative reaction on the early review site.
First thing to put out there is that I don’t like the early review site at all. In my opinion (and it’s an opinion shared by a lot of authors I know), it’s broken. It started off as something really good and positive – an opportunity for bloggers/influencers to get an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of books which they could read for free in exchange for sharing their honest opinions with their following. Hopefully they’d pick books which appealed to them, they’d love what they read, and their reviews would be positive. They’d give authors quotes which could be used in the early promotion and they’d help create a buzz ahead of and around release date because they’d amassed a big following. This is not so much the case anymore.
Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of genuine site users who do have a strong following on the socials and/or on their own blogs/websites who use the site properly. But there are way too many who completely abuse the system, using it as a way of bagging free books and, scarily, often grabbing books that aren’t within their preferred genre. It’s often obvious from reviews that they’ve not read the blurb because they declare their dislike for things which are spelled out in the blurb as being part of that book. They then give the book a 1 or 2-star review to keep their feedback rating high (they don’t get approved by publishers if it’s low).
There seems to be a culture of skim-reading books to presumably achieve self-set targets on sites such as GoodReads. A case in point of this recently was where a reviewer gave an author friend a 3-star review for her latest release which she had claimed to read in an hour. An hour?! I know there are some very fast readers out there, but that’s ludicrous. Skimming and skipping out chunks is not reading and what on earth is the point in that? You’re not actually getting to know the characters or immersing yourself in the nuances of their unfolding stories.
Anyway, back to the negative reviews for Christmas at the Cat Café, let me explore what they were.
Complaint #1 – There were cats in it
I don’t know about you, but if I saw a book with seven cats pictured on the front cover, with a title that includes the words ‘cat café’, a blurb full of cat puns and frequent mentions of cats, I’d kind of expect to find cats in the book. And if I really didn’t like cats, it probably wouldn’t be a book I’d choose to read.
I’ve been stunned by how many early reviewers have given negative reviews because of the cats. A scary number of these negative reviews include the words: I don’t like cats / I’m not a cat-lover / I’m not a cat-person. For example this 3-star one: I've loved all of Jessica's books and whilst I didn't hate this one it is probably my least favourite. Not sure why. Maybe it was the cat theme, I'm not a cat fan
It turns out there are a lot of people out there who don’t like cats. That’s fine. But if that’s you, then step away from the cat book about cats! It’s not for you!
Which takes me onto the second complaint…
Complaint #2 – There were too many cats in it
As well as the cat-haters, there were reviewers who could have maybe coped with a few cats but not the volume in my book, as demonstrated in this 2-star review: I’m afraid this one wasn’t for me. I like cats but this was over the top – 15 cats! I mean, seriously! 15!
And in this 3-star one: Finally a cat lady story with an ACTUAL cat lady. And I loved all our feline friends, though with 15 cats, I’ll admit even I was on a cat overdose…
Again, if a book is set in a cat café, what did readers expect? One cat asleep in a corner really isn’t going to make fifty customers very happy! A responsible cat café owner will ensure there is a safe space for their cats to go for some peace and quiet away from customers and won’t expect all the cats to be present each day the café is open. This is why Tabby needs 15 cats (it’s actually 16 but one of them is older and was never going to go into the café).
Clearly the early readers complaining about too many cats didn’t get the concept of cat cafés, which takes me onto complaint number three…
Complaint #3 – Cat cafés
Some readers don’t like the setting of a cat café like in this 1-star review: Sorry but did not like this [the book] at all …The concept of a cat café did not sit right either.
If someone doesn’t like the idea of a cat café, I again cannot understand why they would choose to read a book set in one. Even if somebody mistakenly thinks that ‘cat café’ is just the name of the café and there are no cats in it, the cover and blurb should confirm that’s not the case *sighs*
Complaint #4 – Not enough Christmas
I love writing Christmas books but, as those who’ve read my other ones will know, they don’t always purely focus on Christmas. Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes is the only one of my six Christmas releases which is purely set in December and carries a focus on Christmas throughout the entire book but even that includes lots of other themes and ends with a Christmas wedding … before Christmas Day!
This particular story starts in October and follows Tabby’s journey of opening up the Castle Street Cat Café in the lead-up to Christmas.
I personally don’t see the need for a Christmas book to be purely about Christmas but, if it’s marketed as a Christmas book (which this is), I would expect there to be plenty of references to Christmas and Christmassy activities.
There are.
Christmas is mentioned throughout – 185 times, in fact – and the whole book is about gearing up ready for Christmas. We have scenes putting up the Christmas decorations, planning Christmas-themed baked treats for the café, going Christmas shopping, and the annual Castle Street Christmas lights switch-on ceremony which is magical. Granted, Christmas Day is only a small part of the story near the end, but Christmas does feature throughout.
However, you can’t please all of the people as shown in this 3-star review: Lacked any significant Christmas magic … really the book could have been set at any time of year.
Ouch!
I personally think there’s a great balance there – 185 mentions of Christmas (and a whole host more where the word ‘Christmas’ doesn’t specifically appear) gives a pretty great flavour of Christmas but, for readers who prefer not to dive into a Christmas book until November/December, there’s enough of this story set before Christmas to dip into it earlier. Best of both worlds!
Complaint #5 – Not enough romance
I’m a British author who writes women’s fiction set in the England. In the UK, women’s fiction falls under the umbrella category of ‘romance’. Illustrated covers like mine can cover a massive range of styles from light-hearted romcom to emotional women’s fiction. I write the latter.
Women’s fiction can be emotional, typically handles some challenging subjects, and is all about the journey that the (usually female) protagonist goes on. All of my books have the big focus on the journey, the setting, the community. There’s a romance in all of my books but it doesn’t necessarily take centre stage because the story is about the protagonist.
In the USA, romance books are separate to women’s fiction. They are purely about the romance and are probably more aligned with what we’d call category romance in the UK e.g. Mills and Boon books which are strongly focused on the couple from the start. This is often where the problem starts as the early review site is used across both sides of the pond and quite often the reviews criticising the romance do come from US-based readers.
There is a romance in Christmas at the Cat Café. It is a love story. But it’s also a lot more than that because that’s what I write.
The romance in this bookis slow-burn but it’s absolutely there and the development of the relationship between the couple progresses across the entire book. But several early reviewers disagreed and here’s some examples of the reviews:
3-star: This is meant to be a romance, and while there are slight romance vibes at the very end of the book, the rest is romance free
3-star: This is also being marketed as a romance when the real hints of the story going that way don't start until well after the 50% mark. I would have set my expectations differently had I known
2-star: There was nothing to keep me interested. I was reading thinking "where is the romance? I thought this was romance." I double checked and it is a romance. We don't see a romance until basically the end. It feels like it is thrown at us
Will just point out that it WAS marketed as women’s fiction, not romance. Will also point out that the romance is there throughout and is slow-burn. I do sometimes wonder if readers are reading the same thing that I wrote because I know it’s there because I put it there!
Complaint #6 – Too much fibromyalgia
This is a story about a chronic pain condition and I’ve been very vocal in identifying this as fibromyalgia. There have been loads of positive reviews from readers with fibro or other chronic pain conditions thanking me for the accuracy of my representation of this and for making them feel visible in literature. There have also been loads of positive reviews from readers who were unfamiliar with this condition and feel they’ve learned a lot, and from those who know someone with the condition and feel they have a better understanding of what their friend/family member is going through as a result of reading Tabby’s story.
But there are plenty who didn’t enjoy this. Here’s just a small selection:
2-star: … feel like I was being taught about fibromyalgia at times
[Yes, you were!]
2-star: I had to drag myself through a lot of it. I found the constant reference to the main characters [sic] fibromyalgia quite draining after a while
3-star: I do think it’s very important that people understand the difficulties experienced by sufferers but felt it took over the story at times
[That was the point. It’s about what it’s like to live with chronic pain!]
3-star: … love Jessica’s books but unfortunately this one didn’t quite hit the mark for me, there was a bit too much about her illness for me and not enough about the cafe and what goes on in one
1-star: Sorry but did not like this at all. I felt the first part of the book was a medical lesson in fibromyalgia which I did not like at all. Really disappointing as I like Jessica Redland
Complaint #7 – I failed them by writing a story they didn’t want to read
That last quote was one of several which effectively told me off for writing a dud! It wasn’t the story they wanted. It wasn’t a repeat of anything I’d written before.
Again, just a small selection …
2-star: I've enjoyed a lot of this author's books but I'm afraid this one wasn't for me
2-star: I normally love Jessica’s books and was so excited to read this one but…
I do get it. There's always going to be a book that doesn't resonate, even with fans, but it still hurts.
Publication day usually brings a combination of excitement, nerves and exhaustion. I’ve done a lot of these now, so the nerves aren’t usually too bad but these negative early reviews made me actually dread publication day for Christmas at the Cat Café. I felt weary and reluctant to check the charts. I opened the blog tour postings with a pre-prepared wince just in case they started with the words, I usually love Jessica’s books, BUT …
But they didn’t, and I couldn’t be more relieved.
The frustrating thing is that I love this book. I believe in this book. I am extremely proud of this book. Yes, this book teaches readers about fibromyalgia, but no more than the Hedgehog Hollow series educates readers about the plight of hedgehogs, no more than Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop teaches about chocolate-making, and no more than All You Need is Love explores Parkinson’s and dementia.
I would argue that ALL books teach something – sometimes major, sometimes minor – and I’m sorry if there are readers out there who would prefer that an invisible illness remains invisible because I don’t regret for a moment that I wrote a book about a character living with this condition.
I actually got really upset on my Facebook Live after publication day when we were talking about how I felt on receiving gorgeous messages from readers who have fibromyalgia about how much it meant to them to see a protagonist with it, presented realistically and sympathetically. This led me onto how much the early negative reviews had upset me – not because they were negative (I can certainly laugh off the comments about not liking cats, not liking this many cats, and even the accusations of no romance or very little Christmas because I know that’s not the case) – but because the comments about not wanting to learn about fibro gave me yet another heart-breaking insight into what it must be like to live with a chronic pain condition. The disinterest of others. The lack of understanding. As if there aren’t enough challenges to face. It all seems so unfair to those fibro warriors out there.
And breathe!
To end on a positive note, it’s nearly three weeks since Christmas at the Cat Café was released and there are 356 reviews/ratings on Amazon, 80% of which are 5-star and 14% of which are 4-star – a very different story to the early review site.
Thanks again to all the amazing bloggers/reviewers on the blog tour and to all those who’ve left lovely reviews or ratings on Amazon, Audible and elsewhere. I’m delighted you’ve loved Tabby’s story. And thank you to all those who’ve sent me messages of gratitude. You’re why I keep writing!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the cat facts and the blog tour quotes I’ve interspersed around my little rant! And I have some good news too. If you haven’t already read Christmas at the Cat Café but you’re a Prime Reading subscriber, it has just gone into the Prime Reading programme today. Woo hoo!
Wishing you a purr-fect end to the week.
Big hugs from the cats and me
Jessica xx