I always get a little bummed when one of my stories dips below 4.0 on Goodreads. I think some part of my mind still equates that sort of point system with a grade point average. Through most of junior high and high school I had a 4.0 or higher, mainly because most of those schools weighted the grades based on the administrationās definition of difficulty. So I could conceivably get five points for trigonometry, but only four points for art history which is balls. Let me tell you that being able to recognize artists and styles and time periods by looking at a painting is at *least* as cool as being able to calculate sines and cosines.
But Iāve gone off on a tangent.
The point is that four stars is not perfection. A bookās rating is not a grade point average. I wonāt fail to graduate with honors and disappoint my parents if a few most of my stories drop below 4.0.
Last time I checked, only two of my books had a rating of 4 stars or above. And what a weird pair–Paulās Dream and Want Me. On the spectrum of my writings, those two occupy opposite poles. Paulās Dream is one of my better written books and leans a little closer to traditional romance, so I get that. Want Me is also one of my better written books but oh my god itās a dark, twisted, muscle theft story. I figured the theft alone would turn a lot of the readers right the hell off.
The first edition of Want Me was self-published, though, and only available in print. The price point was around sixteen bucks and I think that probably kept new readers from trying it. In other words, if you bought the book you were generally (a) already familiar with my writing or (b) specifically looking for a muscle theft story.
And the reviews for Want Me were freaking great. Almost all of them had some variation of āOh God this is so creepy WHY AM I STILL READING IT???ā which is pretty much one of the most awesome things ever. XD
The second edition of Want Me comes out next week in ebook format. Iām guessing that means its overall rating will plummet to around 2 or 3 stars. But thatās okay. It just means that readers feel strongly about it (in the case of 2 and below) or they think the story is about as good as most of the stories theyāve read (in the case of 3 stars).
Donāt get me wrong. Four and five stars is a rush. But I once got five stars on a book because Ace was strong and sensitive, then one star on that same book because he was weak and unstable. So I try not to take scores too seriously. Itās all relative, and I never took physics in high school. š
Note:While preparing this post I had to link to my Goodreads page. Turns out Want Me has already dropped below 4.0. XD

Want Me will be available April 2nd, 2013 from Loose Id.