Waiting is over, but the review is not what I had hoped, but it's not a negative review, either. So, where does that leave me?
If the review had been really positive, I had planned to find an agent with it, but it's not. At least I don't think it's strong enough to land an agent. So, I must go on with my Plan B.
Here are some of the excerpts from the review that I might use to market Five Stones (a Korean-American tale inspired by Pride and Prejudice).
"The setting plausibly retains the values of Austen-ian England." - Kirkus Reviews
"The competent...prose has some good ideas." - Kirkus Reviews
"Kim cleverly adapts characters and situations." - Kirkus Reviews
"A Korean-American setting helps this reboot." - Kirkus Reviews
"Updating the story among an upwardly striving immigrant community makes good sense: The setting plausibly retains the values of Austen-ian England (marriage, conformity, material success, loyalty to family, good manners) within the larger context of American individualism." - Kirkus Reviews
If you want to read the whole review, please go on to Kirkus Reviews and you should be able to search for it by the book title (it's not "published" right now because the reviewer made some mistakes and the assistant editor is trying to correct the mistakes. I'll talk more about this later).
Now, on to more important matters....
The PROS:
1. I've always been insecure about my writing (English is my second language and I majored in Mechanical Engineering in college), and Kirkus Reviews assured me that I was a "competent" writer.
Actually the whole excerpt is..."The competent, workmanlike prose has some good ideas...," and I'm sure "workmanlike" wasn't meant to be a compliment, but it still makes me happy to think about the "competent" part. I'll just have to work on the "workmanlike" part even though I want to dismiss it was a subjective. But I know this much. If I want to accept "competent" and be happy about it, I have to accept "workmanlike" and work on that.
2. I think I did get some good excerpts from the review, and I'm grateful for them. But Kirkus Reviews' policy is that if you're using part of their review as excerpts to promote your book, you have to make the review available on their website (which I think is fair).
3. The reviewer referred to my previous book, Waiting for Appa, in the review, and I guess that's increasing its visibility. But since the review wasn't overtly positive, I'm not sure if it's going to be all that helpful.
The CONS:
1. The reviewer referred to my previous book, Waiting for Appa vs Waiting for Apa, but he/she misspelled it. So, I've asked the assistant editor to correct the mistake, but I have yet to hear back from him. I'm not sure what to think of this mistake.
2. The reviewer referred to Cal Berkeley correctly once, then referred it as Cal Tech the second time. So, I've asked the assistant editor to correct the mistake, but I have yet to hear back from him. Again, I'm not sure what to think of this mistake.
I don't know how much reviewers get paid, but they do get paid, and it's disappointing that the details that the reviewers chose to point out weren't correctly spelled or referred.
3. When I signed up for the Kirkus Reviews Indie program, I had a choice of sending a digital copy or a hard copy. I sent two hard copies (at the cost of $17.25). I wasn't required to send a digital copy, but a digital copy was requested and it took me a while to send it (my computer went through a meltdown stage, then recovered). I feel as if I could have been penalized for this delay, because due to the lack of digital ease in searching, I feel that my reviewer limited himself/herself to first several chapters and didn't venture beyond them to quote widely from the book.
So, you writers out there, choose your words carefully, and if and when you decide to get your book/manuscript reviewed by Kirkus Reviews, send it digitally.
I'm still thinking about what to do next. I've been reading some e-book success stories, and I think I need to research a little longer to decide what to do.
Good luck and keep on writing!
