Lisa Henry > Status Update

A reviewer can review however they like. A review can be "I hate this book because the cover is orange."

I'm a reasonably smart person. If I decide that the colour of the cover is no reason to rate a book with one star, I'll ignore that reviewer's opinion. But it's not my place, or the author's, to tell the reviewer they have no right to that opinion.

I do appreciate the comment with the rating so I can value judge them :)

But, required? Bullshit.

Vivian wrote: "I do appreciate the comment with the rating so I can value judge them :)

But, required? Bullshit."

Exactly!

Constructive criticism? That's what workshops are for.

The reader is a customer, not an MFA professor.

Workshops, and beta readers, and editors... by the time publication comes around, that ship has sailed.

Lisa wrote: "Workshops, and beta readers, and editors... by the time publication comes around, that ship has sailed."

I maintain it's too many self-pubbed writers taking shortcuts, lured by success stories, who don't realise no publishing house does not equate to no workshops, beta readers, and editors.

Ruh roh, something happen today? Or just one of those thoughts that starts and then won't let go.

@Camille, I think that's a huge part of the problem, and it's a real shame since it gives all SPAs a bad name, and some of them are fantastic!

@Smurfette: nothing specific! It just seems to come up over and over again. And over and over...

It is a shame because I think self publishing is such a great way to circumvent the homogeny of publishing houses and get one's work out there.

But the writer still has to do the work...

Absolutely. Self publishing is great, as long as it's not treated as a shortcut.

have we, all of us, not just writers, lost the art of accepting criticism?

Emma Sea wrote: "have we, all of us, not just writers, lost the art of accepting criticism?"

I blame participation trophies :-)

true story: the university I used to work at had end-of-year awards. The recipients were told not to speak about getting one, and the ceremony was private, small, and unpublicized, because it would make the other students feel bad.

I wonder if anyone actually asks the students how they feel. I don't remember feeling bad about whoever won whatever when we did end-year awards lo those many years ago.
If anything, doing it semi-secretly makes it seem unfair, not the other way around.

Emma Sea wrote: "true story: the university I used to work at had end-of-year awards. The recipients were told not to speak about getting one, and the ceremony was private, small, and unpublicized, because it would..."

So work hard but don't celebrate your accomplishments?!

I can't even comment further on how sad and ludicrous this is.

however, I have seen some authors being very gracious about negative reviews and comments (heh, shocking, I know.)

It always wonders me when people say that readers should provide 'constructive criticism'. If there are 100 readers with 100 different 'advice' on how a story should be to make it better, would the author follow ALL those suggestions? What works for one reader might not work in others...

Emma Sea wrote: "true story: the university I used to work at had end-of-year awards. The recipients were told not to speak about getting one, and the ceremony was private, small, and unpublicized, because it would..."

Oh, that seems incredibly depressing. Accomplishments should be celebrated!

Emma Sea wrote: "however, I have seen some authors being very gracious about negative reviews and comments (heh, shocking, I know.)"

When the choice is "gracious" or "look at the crazy raving lunatic" I prefer to go with "gracious" every time.

Ami wrote: "It always wonders me when people say that readers should provide 'constructive criticism'. If there are 100 readers with 100 different 'advice' on how a story should be to make it better, would the..."

Absolutely. If it's a SPaG related issue (which I hope would only apply to self pubs) then that situation could be addressed with a bit of hard work. But if it's crit of the characters or storyline then you have to accept that not everyone will like every story you write or every character in a story. As an author you should have the courage to stand behind the product of your fevered imagination.

My own reviews are exactly that - reviews for ME. To remind me what I liked about a story, whether I would read again. Sometimes they don't even make sense to anyone not in my head (I normally stick those ones in private notes because it's just embarrassing for an author to be posting a rambling mess).
Sometimes I completely forget other people can read them and am surprised when other people 'like' my review. I don't know why cos I use the like button on reviews of my books.

Emma Sea wrote: "however, I have seen some authors being very gracious about negative reviews and comments (heh, shocking, I know.)"

I just think authors shouldn't reply to reviews at all.

Camille, that's definitely the simplest option, but it's not always practical. I have a bunch of GR friends, and if they bring a review they wrote to my attention, it feels rude to ignore it.

So I'll usually reply something like "Thanks so much for taking the time to read and review" route.

I think sometimes that's the problem with GR -- authors forget that they have two different relationships here. Their friends are friends, but they're also customers. So it's a very casual atmosphere, and possibly some writers forget they're supposed to remain professional as well.

Lisa wrote: "Camille, that's definitely the simplest option, but it's not always practical. I have a bunch of GR friends, and if they bring a review they wrote to my attention, it feels rude to ignore it.

So ..."

I don't respond to reviews, and hopefully all my GR friends know this and understand why, but if they are a friend, and it shows up in my feed, I try to hit the "like" button to let them know I appreciated their time.

Vanessa wrote: I don't respond to reviews, and hopefully all my GR friends know this and understand why, but if they are a friend, and it shows up in my feed, I try to hit the "like" button to let them know I appreciated their time.

That's another good option!

I've considered that, the casualness and the friendships. And that works. It's one of the good things about GR. I quite like seeing what friends who are authors really think of other books and having discussions thereon.

I just feel that from the time an author enters the discussion on their own book they rent the veil. That removal of the fourth wall changes the atmosphere even without that having been the intention. One becomes self-conscious and unimpeded forthrightness is compromised.

I understand thanking the reader, though it's not my preference. But no one can ever take that to task, especially when compared to all the unprofessional craziness we see others exhibit.

further to Lisa'a original point, I recommend this blog post.

Emma Sea wrote: "further to Lisa'a original point, I recommend this blog post."

This is the best posting I've read to date on this! She got it all.
Thanks for sharing.

Most salient: "And that's not what they want to do. They don't want to write; they want to have written. They want the Wizard of Oz trappings of success, the medals and the certificates, the diplomas and badges, but they don't really want to write."

Emma Sea wrote: "further to Lisa'a original point, I recommend this blog post."


That is a brilliant post. It says it all, I think.

Emma Sea wrote: "further to Lisa'a original point, I recommend this blog post."

Ugh...embarrassed hand coming up right here. I was part of that discussion. I was a big part of that discussion. I'm not trying to rehash it all or anything, mostly because I somehow got nudged over into sounding way more extreme than I meant to and actually, oddly, on the other side of the argument than I would normally have been. (How does that happen? One more mystery of the internet.) But I think everyone, and honestly there weren't that many of us, involved got a little aggressive by the end, making it all seem so much worse than it was. I've spent most of today feeling stupid for letting myself get pulled in and also for not realising that some of my defensive comments were being applied to the blog post as a whole instead of just my own comments, taking on a whole 'nother level of wrongness.

Having said all that, Ms. Hilton's post is a good one that makes some excellent points.

You know, there's a blog on Tumblr that does a segment called "Horrible Book Reviews" where in the blogger screen caps one-star Amazon reviews of great literary works.

Every time I get a bad review I think of this one particular one-star review for George Orwell's Animal Farm. It read something like:

"This book is so unrealistic. Everyone knows animals can't talk."

....it's really hard to get upset over anything after that.

Sadie wrote: "I somehow got nudged over into sounding way more extreme than I meant to and actually, oddly, on the other side of the argument than I would normally have been. (How does that happen? One more mystery of the internet.)"

I think many of us have been there. On one occasion I was such a fetid and unmitigated prick to Aleks Voinov that I could only admire him for keeping his temper in the face of my assholery, and merely silently blocking me.

Thank you for saying that Emma. In reading Hilton's blog and seeing one of my comments as she (and presumably the other woman involved) interpreted them, I can actually trace the path of the whole thing's downfall, as well as that the point I was trying to make was being taken as something else entirely and the more I tried to clarify it, the worse the whole thing became. Ughhhh, so embarrassed now.