Authors love reviews. They help get our works noticed, we DO read them, and learn from them. However, please remember authors are only human and our books are our babies.
So you've read/or partially read a book that you didn't like. For some reason this has made you angry and you feel the need to lash out...so what do you do now?
I hope you stop and think for a moment before you fire off a rude review. Take the time to list your objections...objectively.
Not
long ago I received an e-mail from a fellow author. She'd received her first negative and RUDE review - on her debut novel. Understandably,
this sweet, funny, smart lady was/is upset. She's also so embarrassed she asked me not to name her or the reviewer.
Of course, I have to honor her request. Her reticence forced me to climb down off my white charger, to lay aside my mightily sharpened pen, and think things through. I began to understand her reasoning. Identities aren't germane to the point necessary to get across here. Secondly, I don't want to give any publicity to a reviewer who seems to relish in being hurtful and cruelly negative.
So all names and places have been changed to protect the innocent (meaning me and my friend). We will be referred to as writers/authors. And the not so innocent (hence to be known as the Rude Reviewer).
This is, I feel, a subject many authors can weigh in on as I bet it's happened to many of us. As
writers, we understand the grim reality - not everyone is going to like our
stories. A reader might object to our writing style, find our plots unrealistic, or
hate our characters. I'm okay with that. My skin isn't paper thin. Sometimes, though, it isn't what is
said as much as how it is said. Remember that old adage?
It reminds me of what I always told my children. They were allowed to say anything they wanted to me but with the precondition it would be done respectfully. An early lesson on how to constructively temper their words. (No, at the time it didn't always work out well but my children have grown into wonderful and caring adults).
The Rude Reviewer, however, could stand to learn that very remedial lesson. Constructive criticism is welcomed, wholeheartedly embraced, by every author I know. It is the most important tool we have in our constant drive to improve our skills.
The Rude Reviewer, however, doesn't stop at being just brutal with their opinions. They go over the line by using scorched earth tactics. It can never be necessary to negatively question a writer's intelligence or comment on their appearance.
Though entitled to their opinion on any author's work that is all it - their opinion. They might unhelpfully dismiss the entire work as stupid and without redeeming characteristics yet there had to be something that made them pick up the book in the first place. They were drawn to the cover, blurb, or excerpt.
Unfortunately, it didn't live up to expectations. Now if only they'd give a concise review while leaving out personal insults.
I lost interest in this particular Rude Reviewer when she admitted she hadn't finish the novel. Her
prerogative, of course, but I have read the book. It was quickly obvious to me that the reviewer hadn't read beyond the first
chapter or so. If she had then she might have seen the bulk of her questions/complaints
were dealt with.
Since it was obvious she didn't know what she was talking about, it made the majority of her criticisms less
constructive and more insulting. A reviewer can't claim a character lacks redeeming characteristics if they haven't read the entire story. They don't know if the character grew.
All that can be said is the reviewer didn't like how the character/s seemed to be in the few pages actually read. Anything else is dishonest on the reviewer's part. An entire book can't be dismissed as worthless and unreadable when only one brief glance was taken inside. Again it is well within the rights of a reviewer not to finish or even read a book. I've often set
a book aside after only reading the blurb or a couple of chapters. For some reason or another (mood or taste in genre) the work simply
didn't capture my attention. That is all I can honestly report if called upon to give my opinion.
Remember this Rude Reviewer stated she hadn't finished the book. How, in such unnecessarily harsh words, did she think she knew enough to call
the book's plot into question? She hadn't read far enough to see how the writer wove the story lines together. How could she call the characters one
dimensional if she hadn't read far enough in the book to see if they were fleshed out? All
this reviewer could have legitimately said is that she didn't care for the first twenty or so pages she read of an almost three-hundred page novel.
What she did write seemed simply gauged to insult and hurt.
Within
the first few sentences the Rude Reviewer's post dissolved into nothing more than a personal
attack on an author she'd never met. My friend stated she felt as if not only the book's parentage had been called into question but she'd called her baby
ugly.
That
made me laugh but it also got me thinking. Why would anyone tell a parent their
baby is ugly? Maybe a winsome personality would change the eye of the beholder if they'd only looked close enough. So what pleasure/satisfaction does the Rude Reviewer get from being a bully?
I wonder if most Rude Reviewers have ever attempted writing a book? If so they have to know each page carries pieces of the writer's
heart and soul.
The story is obsessively nurtured from the moment of conception. Once those pages, so viciously dismissed by the Rude Reviewer, were only a tiny
spark in the author's mind. It was the very beginning of creation when cells began to split and reform until the first pulse of the fetal heartbeat was heard. The idea slowly grew into a
story line. Only when formed enough, viable enough, did the author cautiously opened a new file, stare at the blank page, and begin to type.
With
that first intro sentence came the acceptance the author was indeed pregnant with book. The fetus grew
to term as each scene and plot device was struggled over with a fierce desire to get them
just right. Research, verifying facts, and sweating over sentence structure commenced until
the bare bones of a story could be seen. Finally the skeleton began to flesh out, stretching into a torso with tiny arms, legs, feet, and hands.
Characters were equally nurtured. Encouraged to grow while the author struggled to maintain some sort of control over them. The writer sat in front of the computer screen until their eyes blurred and the coffee pot ran empty. Hearts swelling when the story
developed into a cohesive beginning, middle, and end.
An author never forgets
when those last words are written. That's when the true labor pains start. The
book is born as the story concludes. Then comes home
schooling. A brand new phase starts as the story's continuity, verbosity, and every comma is edited. Until all is crafted to the best of the writer's ability. Then it's time to face the
excruciating next step. It's time to send their baby off to finishing
school.
It's a
leap of faith. Trusting our babies to the scrutiny of unemotional
editors, copy editors, and beta readers. By the time a book reaches market it has been read and re-read repeatedly.
Each word dissected and weighed.
Yet the
author isn't offended by any negative feedback from these professionals. Even pointed remarks are made with the purpose of education and never to offend. All desire to improve the end result. They want to help our
babies grow.
Only then is the diploma offered. Contracts are signed. With pride and
joy shining on each freshly printed page, these published babies are sent out
into the world.
The author watches with maternal anxiety and pride. Hearts were laid bare in the hope of connecting with a reader. The sincere desire that someone will get a few hours of
pleasure from our imaginations.
And
then some Rude Reviewer, who hasn't even had the decency to read the entire work, decides they know enough to dismantle and demolish the entire thing. Their hateful words nothing more than an attempt to annihilate all the effort by smearing the author's abilities, education, and appearance with acid-laden words.
This is
what happened to a very talented woman. She is now second guessing her
talent -which she's got heaps of - and has been left feeling her best wasn't good enough.
Let me say once more that I'm all in favor of reviews, and they don't have to be glowing. Though, of course, those are always nice to receive.
Before purchasing a book (and most certainly with my own work), I read the reviews - good and bad. I appreciate and take to heart those filled with useful and well thought out comments. For me, those giving detailed examples are most appreciated. I admire a person who succinctly states their opinion and tells me where they think I could have improved the plot or a character. All without dissolving into a rant about
how they can't understand how an author got published in the first place. If they sink to the level of making a snide remark about the author's photo, it taints everything else they've said, and I immediately discount their opinion.
Since when does an author have to be of a certain age, weight, or level of (what mainstream media considers) attractiveness to write romance or love scenes?
So to those who've received a rude review - it was meant to derail self-esteem so don't let them succeed. Some reader might actually purchase your book just to see what all the negative fuss was about.
Don't take to heart someone else's pathological need to tell the world they think a baby is ugly. Remember, the Rude Reviewer gets some sort of sick pleasure in denigrating others or they wouldn't do it. I doubt they'll ever go away so all we can do is ignore them. Focus on the helpful, the balanced, and constructive reviews.
But doesn't it make you wish you could see the Rude Reviewer's baby...
REMullins: author of It's A Wonderful Undead Life, Vampire In the Scrying Glass, and A Vampire To Be Reckoned With
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