Monday, April 19, 2010

April 19

I have a question for you authors. Do you read and/or agonize over your bad reviews? Google alerts popped up a link to a review of one of my books where the reviewer wanted/hoped the bad guy would stab the heroine and do her in. Wow- that's a lot of hate for a fictional character, don't you think?
I did not click on the link. Here's why. There is nothing I can do to change the book at this point, it is already published.
You can't please all the people all the time and that book got some very solid reviews from all the other reviewers who have read it.
Not every reader is your audience. Each writer has an audience of their own. A group of people who get what it is they write and how they write it. This group always wants to read more even if one book is not as exciting to them as the rest. This reviewer is not my audience.
This does not mean that I ignore all the bad and only look at the good. the wonderfully wise NYT Bestseller, Julie Garwood says this, "Never believe your own press-good or bad." I agree. I believe in the work as I write, revise and edit. After that it's out there for the world. Good or bad it doesn't change who I am or what I do because that part is not in my control.
Still I like to think that "hating" a character means that I got the reader emotionally involved one way or the other. So, I did my job. :)
How about you, how do you handle your press?

2 comments:

  1. (((Hugs))) Nancy!

    And I've already decided that when I'm published one day I will not read reviews - good or bad. Good reviews will make me careless and bad reviews will cripple my muse, so I've made the decision that the only "review" I will ever worry about is the sales figure review!! (if my stories sell, who cares what the reviewers say???) Of course, I still have to get a story published...!!!! :O

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  2. Hi Judy,
    Thanks for the hug and the smile. I know you will sell. You are a good writer with a great voice. Persistence is the key and you are that -so it will happen. I truly believe that. And you have the right attitude about reviews. I do post good reviews-they are a marketing tool. But like you, I try to keep it all in perspective.
    Cheers~

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