Hal Eisenberg's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"
BOOK REVIEWS - MY THOUGHTS
A MESSAGE TO WRITERS (AND BLOGGERS)
Hi All! In case you stumbled on this blog, my name is Hal Eisenberg and I published my first young adult, contemporary novel, OVERNIGHT SENSATION, about 6 months ago. During this short period of time, I've been fortunate to get some great reviews and ratings and thought I'd share some of my observations with both writers as well as bloggers about them.
The fact that someone would actually take the time to read my book and then write down their thoughts is amazing to me. Especially since it does not follow the path of what's popular. For example, you won't find any shape shifters, demons, ghosts, or hunky vampires in love:). Instead, it deals with the real world and in particular, the real world's obsession and fascination with fame by asking the question, "What would you do if you suddenly became famous but didn't deserve that fame? Would you come clean? Or would you try like mad to hold on to that fame?" And it does it in what I hope is a clever, funny way.
I find it very gratifying to read the reviews of my book as they trickle in, even though it has not been out very long. I'm also amazed at the wide variances of opinions in those reviews.
For example, while some reviewers have praised Overnight Sensation for its mystery element, describing how they had no idea how it was going to end, what an intense imaginative ride it was, and how the plot twists surprised them, others have written that it was predictable.
And while some have written about how they couldn't put it down and how it made them want to keep reading, others have felt compelled to focus on some grammatical errors rather than the story itself.
Overnight Sensation has a lot of dialogue because it surrounds four teenage boys who are best friends that hang out together in school, in their homes, at parties, with girls... in other words, they do what many teenagers do. After turning over the first draft to my first editor, she said, "Instead of having the main character describe what is going on, you should have more dialogue between the boys, but refrain from using too much "I said" or "he said", as it becomes repetitive. If they're following the story, the reader already knows who's speaking." This made perfect sense to me, so I went back and added dialogue while pulling out many of those phrases. Still, some reviewers have stated that there's too much dialogue while others stated that they had trouble figuring out who was speaking...
Then there are reviews praising the accurateness of the dialogue saying things like how I must have teenage boys or how I must have consulted with teenagers because I nailed it, while another wrote how the dialogue seemed off and that teen boys don't talk like that. Well, the truth is out on this one - I do have teenage boys who are with their friends at our house all the time and I did consult with them on terminology and phrases, so let me assure those in doubt, that dialogue is as real as it gets!
So, if you're a writer and reviews of your book start to come in, I urge you to keep in mind these things when reading them:
You can't please everyone and you never will. However, if you keep at it, you will please some, and when that happens, when a reader clicks with your story and gets it and writes about it, it will put an extremely wide grin on your face.
If you write young adult fiction, or any genre for that matter, realize that there are millions of readers out there from age 12 to age 90 and their take on your book will be as varied as their age and experience.
And finally, when you get a review that makes you groan, go pick out some of your favorite books or authors of all time and read their reviews and look at their ratings. Know what you'll find? That your reviews and ratings are not far off from theirs. Sure, they may have a best seller with thousands of reviews, but it all comes down to the same thing. The joy of writing comes from pulling a story out of your brain and sharing it with the world and that's really all you should focus on because that's all you can control. The rest is up to interpretation.
Hi All! In case you stumbled on this blog, my name is Hal Eisenberg and I published my first young adult, contemporary novel, OVERNIGHT SENSATION, about 6 months ago. During this short period of time, I've been fortunate to get some great reviews and ratings and thought I'd share some of my observations with both writers as well as bloggers about them.
The fact that someone would actually take the time to read my book and then write down their thoughts is amazing to me. Especially since it does not follow the path of what's popular. For example, you won't find any shape shifters, demons, ghosts, or hunky vampires in love:). Instead, it deals with the real world and in particular, the real world's obsession and fascination with fame by asking the question, "What would you do if you suddenly became famous but didn't deserve that fame? Would you come clean? Or would you try like mad to hold on to that fame?" And it does it in what I hope is a clever, funny way.
I find it very gratifying to read the reviews of my book as they trickle in, even though it has not been out very long. I'm also amazed at the wide variances of opinions in those reviews.
For example, while some reviewers have praised Overnight Sensation for its mystery element, describing how they had no idea how it was going to end, what an intense imaginative ride it was, and how the plot twists surprised them, others have written that it was predictable.
And while some have written about how they couldn't put it down and how it made them want to keep reading, others have felt compelled to focus on some grammatical errors rather than the story itself.
Overnight Sensation has a lot of dialogue because it surrounds four teenage boys who are best friends that hang out together in school, in their homes, at parties, with girls... in other words, they do what many teenagers do. After turning over the first draft to my first editor, she said, "Instead of having the main character describe what is going on, you should have more dialogue between the boys, but refrain from using too much "I said" or "he said", as it becomes repetitive. If they're following the story, the reader already knows who's speaking." This made perfect sense to me, so I went back and added dialogue while pulling out many of those phrases. Still, some reviewers have stated that there's too much dialogue while others stated that they had trouble figuring out who was speaking...
Then there are reviews praising the accurateness of the dialogue saying things like how I must have teenage boys or how I must have consulted with teenagers because I nailed it, while another wrote how the dialogue seemed off and that teen boys don't talk like that. Well, the truth is out on this one - I do have teenage boys who are with their friends at our house all the time and I did consult with them on terminology and phrases, so let me assure those in doubt, that dialogue is as real as it gets!
So, if you're a writer and reviews of your book start to come in, I urge you to keep in mind these things when reading them:
You can't please everyone and you never will. However, if you keep at it, you will please some, and when that happens, when a reader clicks with your story and gets it and writes about it, it will put an extremely wide grin on your face.
If you write young adult fiction, or any genre for that matter, realize that there are millions of readers out there from age 12 to age 90 and their take on your book will be as varied as their age and experience.
And finally, when you get a review that makes you groan, go pick out some of your favorite books or authors of all time and read their reviews and look at their ratings. Know what you'll find? That your reviews and ratings are not far off from theirs. Sure, they may have a best seller with thousands of reviews, but it all comes down to the same thing. The joy of writing comes from pulling a story out of your brain and sharing it with the world and that's really all you should focus on because that's all you can control. The rest is up to interpretation.
