2011-07-12

Authors Commenting on Reviews on Their Own Books

Lindsay Buroker has a post on her blog about this very thing.

As I don't have any reviews as yet (oy!), I can only say what I think I would do, knowing how emotional I can get at times.

I wouldn't comment on a review at all. Let me hedge a little: I might comment on the very first review I receive if it's positive. Otherwise, I'm not going to bother, and I'll just forge ahead with my writing no matter what.

Does everyone remember that poor soul who decided to have a popular review blog (set up by a reader who is strictly a reader) review her book...and then exploded at the way the review turned out? I read the post and all the comments, and to tell you the truth, the reviewer was exceptionally gentle in his review. I then read a sample of the book...my.  The poor dear. I think that with a little more writing knowledge under her belt, she'd be a good writer.

But I digress. This is what I'm afraid I might do; having a bad day due to something or other, and I take it out on the reviewer. And then I'd get depressed about my writing, and I'd have to go thru all that angsty crap again. (You know: "Am I any good?" "My writing sucks." "I'm never going to write again.")

So...what would you do? Is this something you'd do, or is it something you've done? What did you say?

Like Lindsay, I'm curious as to what others would do/are doing.
Posted by Nancy Beck at 3:52 PM
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3 comments:

Angie said...

I commented to say thanks the first few times, but now I don't comment on the review directly. I'll usually post to my blogs about reviews, and express my thanks there, but I've seen even a pleasant thank-you comment by the author on a review blow up into the most appalling BS, so I just don't go there anymore.

I've been lucky enough that most of my reviews have been positive, or at least had some great bits to them. I've never had a story completely trashed in a review, although I'm sure my turn is coming. [hides under keyboard] Negative comments actually don't bug me much if there are reasons and examples given -- if I can see exactly what the reviewer objected to and why, then it's feedback data and I can use or ignore it based on whether I think it's useful. But then, I started workshopping as a teenager and have developed an adamantium hide when it comes to concrit.

Crit that's not con doesn't really bug me either. It's frustrating in that it might have been useful but isn't -- that's more a lost opportunity thing. But in general, comments of the "This sucks and the writer's an idiot and I'll bet the hard drive this story is on stinks for a mile around!" or whatever, don't bother me on an emotional level. Someone who'd write something in that realm is an idiot, and I don't care what idiots think.

Reviews of published work are a bit different, in that they're public and in theory some number of readers are using them as data when deciding whether or not to read your story. So even an okay review, or a mixed review with some good and some bad bits to it, spark a knee-jerk Oh No! response, just for a moment. :) Bad reviews -- and some truly horrible ones -- haven't prevented any bestseller or classic from being a bestseller or a classic, though, and every bestseller and every classic has its share of truly horrible reviews. I'll keep that in mind when I get one of those. [grin] For right now, my rational, theoretical side says I'll be fine with it.

Angie

8:13 AM
Nancy Beck said...

but I've seen even a pleasant thank-you comment by the author on a review blow up into the most appalling BS, so I just don't go there anymore.

Unbelievable. The mind boggles (but I really shouldn't be surprised).

But in general, comments of the "This sucks and the writer's an idiot and I'll bet the hard drive this story is on stinks for a mile around!" or whatever, don't bother me on an emotional level. Someone who'd write something in that realm is an idiot, and I don't care what idiots think.

Hah! :-) I hope that when I do start receiving reviews that I'm as thick skinned as you; more of a reason for me not to look at ANY reviews for months and months afterwards - at least, not at this point.

Bad reviews -- and some truly horrible ones -- haven't prevented any bestseller or classic from being a bestseller or a classic, though, and every bestseller and every classic has its share of truly horrible reviews.

This is SO true. I found a link on a Kindleboards thread to a Salon article from last year (I think). It was all on bad reviews for literary classics: Anne Frank's Diary, To Kill a Mockingbird. Some of them were truly astounding, but you're right, those book's authors survived bad reviews then, so there's no reason why I can't do the same. :-)

8:32 AM
Nicholas La Salla said...

I agree. I don't comment on the actual reviews -- and when (because regardless of the quality of your writing, it's GONNA happen) I receive a bad review, I have already agreed to myself not to say a thing. It's not up to us writers to say whether we have done a good thing -- obviously we feel we have, or else we never would have let the book off our word processors, so we are hardly a judge of our own quality.

Writing is so insanely subjective. Look at J.K. Rowling. Stephen King. My own favorite, Clive Barker. They each have wonderful, wonderful reviews. But for every wonderful review, there's at least one awful review.

I read a great comment on this somewhere, I can't remember where, but I'll paraphrase it here: there are six billion people on this planet. Even if you have a million fans, that's still 5.9 billion people that either do not care to read your book or simply don't like it.

Lashing out at reviewers for writing bad reviews is seriously unprofessional. You have a problem with a review? Get back to the keyboard and look at your work as objectively as you can. If their complaints are relevant, take them into account.

There are ways to deal with negative things in a positive way. Create, don't destroy. Every negative review should spur you on to write another novel, a better one.

Great post, Nancy!

Best,

Nick

10:27 AM

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