Read 'Til You Drop

I think less of writers that fight back in public at reviews and people's opinions. Everyone that writes knows that there are going to be people who don't like their writing. It's sad, but it's a fact of life.

I think it's better for a writer to ignore the crazies (if possible) or learn what they can (if there's anything valuable to the opinion) and move on.

There are a lot better things to focus on...like all the positive responses and all the people they've touched with their writing.

Though hurt feelings are inevitable, of course, and that's what hugs are for. :)

Hey Mindy -

I commented on the Hamilton riff on another blog, and Rice is a huge beacon of what not to do.

It's troubling, because in both cases, a lot of us feel like we're looking UP the ladder at Anne and Laurel - and whatever they've achieved isn't ENOUGH.

I think we can all relate to what they're feeling, and I can climb inside every word you posted... but, man, I'm feeling the opposite effect: the more my books sell, the less relevant and important the lousy reviews are.

"So, you don't like my work... I guess I'll have to be content with these other sixty thousand readers who do. And the hundred thousand or so in other countries. All of whom will probably buy my other six books... so, thanks for trying, but here I am anyway!"

You know?

And re: Amazon reviews - I can't stress over a bad review from someone who claims to be a 'fantasy and mistery reader'.

;)

I think it's safest to avoid taking critics of any stripe to task short of slander. No matter how correct an author or artist may be in his or her arguments, the entire thing always comes off as pathetic or worse.

I had the opportunity to see Laurel K (as my friend and I refer to her in the aftermath of this incident) at a major SF convention several years ago. She was already quite successful but spent every panel she sat on (that I attended) whining about how badly-treated she was by her publishers and how awful the life of a professional writer was.

She was eventually taken to task very pointedly but skillfully by a couple of other Names (one VERY successful; the other one probably about on par with Laurel at the time) who seemed to think telling roomfuls of wannabe authors how much success sucked was kind of rude.

Shortly thereafter, friend and I saw her full-page ad in Entertainment Weekly. Starring a picture of her.

She needs to get over her whiney self.

Writers who sound off in public pretty much lose my support, right there. I no more would support an author criticizing his/her own fans than I would want to hire someone who snarks on their current boss while in an interview with me. It is, simply, unprofessional.

Further, my thought is: I am not reading your [generic your] books because I luuuuurve you as a person, but because you write a good story. If you make a lot of noise and call attention to yourself, you're getting in the way of your story, as though your personal opinion is the reason I'm reading -- and that tain't necessarily so.

In fact, I saw an author at a WFC panel who said, "if a crazy, obsessed fan writes you with a twenty-page letter about your book, cultivate this friendship. He will keep track of continuity for you, and happily." Apparently the author -- over sixteen years now, and forty something books -- has written this fan several times, getting back eighty-page letters with all these details, and even (!!!) a full, six-hundred page printout with every single character that's appeared in any bloomin' story -- with all pertinent details! And places! And times!

He added, laughing, "okay, so I don't think the guy has a life -- that is, he does, but it's my work. That's okay. It makes him happy, and if you're willing to put up with a full doctoral thesis on an annual basis, it can be a productive working friendship."

Now there's treating things professionally!

If you win, you look like a bully. If you lose, you look like a jerk.

It just isn't worth it.

Honestly, if I ever get published, I don't know how I'll be able to stand some of those amazon reviews. Some of the criticism is constructive, but every now and then you'll come across a review that makes no sense. They'll criticize a book for having swearing in it while ignoring the good writing, or, even worse, they'll bash a book for doing something good, like possessing complex characters.

But when authors retaliate, especially ones that are wildly sucessful, it just ends up looking... petty. I mean I was okay with Laurel K's rant at the beginning when she was simply asking people that dislike her books to go elsewhere, but once she started really getting into it, it got quite scary. I admire authors that are able to role with the punches. Those who just let their frustrations out in amazon reviews (oooh I remember that Anne Rice one. I was convinced that she had just lost it) or blog entries get no sympathy from me.

Oh and Mindy, I've read some of those negative reviews on amazon. I think they're all, to be blunt, full of it, but I admire the fact that you're taking the higher ground and not going all psycho nuts on everyone. It makes you look not-crazy, which is a good thing!

This one?

*hugs for you* :)

I believe that authors have every right to go off about people not liking their books but not in such a public scale. I didn't mind Hamilton's rant as much as I did Rice's because Anne Rice sounded like a raving lunatic and Hamilton sounded more disappointed. Though I do think that that was quite a long rant, though not unnecessarily harsh. Negative fans do annoy even me quite a lot, especially being in the Harry Potter fandom where negative fans will rant on and on and on about all the bad things about all of the books. I agree with Hamilton. "Then just stop reading!"

Because you're an author, I'll tell you the thing that bothers me most that some authors will do. I dislike it when authors ban fanfiction, especially loudly and in public. I understand not allowing people to make money off of your characters, but nonprofit fiction seems more like a compliment than something bad.

I really enjoyed the Glasswright books and every summer on vacation, I would find that the newest book had come out and would squee! and buy it immediately. I hope that you've had mostly positive fans.

~Libby

PS I also think it's cool that you're willing to find people and talk to them on your blog. ^_^

I don't really mind an author who chooses to address issues that readers have brought up in her blog or whatever--so long as said author can remain civil while doing so. (For instance, Jim Butcher's recent LJ post.)

The problem with both Hamilton and Rice is that they make themselves sound abso-frickin-lutely insane. I'm convinced at this point they are both in serious need of mental help. If I hadn't already "boycotted" buying LKH new, I would've over this.

Hah!

I blame this entirely on you...and, okay, a little on Diana.

But you can't deny there's a bizarre trend going on here...

To be honest, I think I'm a little disappointed in the author. I know it can hurt their feelings if something bad is said, but as you did say, y'all are professionals. With the good comes the bad.

Reading the sound off posts makes me slightly iffy on reading their work. But if it helps, everything I've read of yours has absolutely fascinated me. I haven't read Girl's Guide to Witchcraft yet, but it's next on my reading list ;)

okay.

Topics/Chats/Rooms marked HATED it!, WTF? or Flame Wars should probably be avoided in the first place. MmmmmMmmm pain - wasn't that high school and our early twenties - why get the passport stamped again?

I think best of authors I don't hear about frothing back and forth directly with the masses. Masses don't get that handy check in the mail. Quiet rants in person over liquor - yes. Open posts online AFTER liquor. Umm. no.

Yes Laurel, we see the sex - hell ...sometimes we smell the sex. I get it there is sex. Dress is up in pretty words like arduer/eur and take it out to dinner. Someone else doesn't get it and sleeps stroking the covers of the early books with all the corpse raising and moral dilemmas - so what.

Take a deep breath, open your bank account info and walk away from the keyboard. (and thanks for telling me Edward is coming back...)

I have to say that LKH sounds a bit more sane than Rice did -- Rice was definitely over the edge when she spewed her little "if you don't like it, then you're a bad reader" spiel. But I've had problems with LKH for some time now -- her books went in a direction I didn't expect from her or her character and didn'y like. I got to the point where they didn't even read as plot to me anymore, and that's when I gave up the hope they'd get better.

Would I turn around and tell her this while standing line or post it on her forum? No. Because, while I don't like the last 4 or 5 in the series, I LOVED the first 3 or 4. These people had to like her books at one time or another or they wouldn't know they'd gone "bad" (so to speak). It's incredibly rude to turn around and tell someone you hate their work. If you MUST say something, then focus on the good.


Do you think better or worse of an author who sounds off in public, defending herself against negative folk?

That depends on how the writer does it. Anne Rice was a lunatic. She told people that if they didn't get the books, they were stupid readers. It was like she forgot that we don't sit inside her head so we don't see what she sees. She sounded derranged and arrogant. (On a side note, I did find the episode rather surprising, especially after the Tom Cruise fiasco -- although, granted, this time she didn't apologize for making an isiot of herself.)

LKH's response wasn't so bad, I don't think. If got a bit long for me, so I ended up skimming towards the end, but what I read sounded more like a "why do people have to do this?" kind of a response than a "you're all stupid if you don't understand what I'm doing." She also made it clear that she's not changing to accomodate people who hate the direction she's gone, but that she's going to stick with what she sees as the storyline. And that response works for me. I may not agree with her one what she's done, but at least she's not telling me I'm stupid for disagreeing.

And I do have to agree with her on one note: if you hate the direction the story is going in, STOP READING. What's the point of putting money into books you hate?

I dunno, I guess I'm neutral about it in that I don't judge authors who sound off anymore than I judge the critics/reviewers. Some people are wise and quiet about it, and some are perhaps a little less wise, but nevertheless, human. Being an emotional sort myself, I don't dare cast the first stone, so to speak - I've been guilty more than once of spouting out things before I've had time to think about it ;)

Actually, while I did raise my eyebrow a little at the LKH one, it's nowhere as bad as a rant by Terry Goodkind I read some time back ~ . ^

That's a tough question. See, I just read what LKH wrote and it reminds me of my earlier (and now thankfully privatized) LJ entries. I.e. from when I was younger, less mature. I was good at blowing up online, in a space all my own that I could vent my rage. It's part of why all my entries are friends-only now, and why the tone has (mostly) changed. (All to lessen/avoid the melodrama that is the Internet.) I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's very easy to want to fight back by making an upset blog post. It's the Internet. But that doesn't make it a mature response.

On the other hand, it's really hard to not want to fight back in what is a haven for criticism. There's an article that focuses on negative readers in the webcomics community that really struck a chord with me: http://www.halfpixel.com/2006/12/28/the-death-of-politeness/ ... you don't even have to know who/what he's referring to to understand what he means.

It’s my feeling that there’s a time and a place for everything, and I can even understand the need to rant sometimes, but posting something so publicly about readers and the reader base seems inappropriate, yes. I couldn’t finish reading the post. If I were a person seeking out this author or information about them, and I ran across this, it makes me less likely inclined to even buy their books. It has less to do with the kind of writer they are. It’s about the kind of person they are and whether or not I want to support that person in their craft or trade. It’s how we cope with things that set people apart from one another.

I'm glad to know that a majority of the authors out there, who bravely put themselves on display before the world with their writing, aren't like that.

Hard to say; I'd be tempted to rant and rave myself. But I suppose the classier thing to do is not to rant and rave (in public). Of course not everyone is going to like what you write. Personally I think those people should go find something they do like to focus their attentions on, but that's me.n:)

I think you're absoulutely right to take the higher ground and keep silent. My already low opinion of LKH sunk even lower after reading part of her rant (I couldn't read the whole thing, it was just pathetic). I wanted to tell her to get over herself. It's totally unprofessional.

I'm with Oscar Wilde on this. The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. People can say what they like about my books, so long as they say it loud. And often.

I'm going with the "it depends on how she did it" crowd. I think if someone in the MM trashed an author and they were slanderous or incredibly misinformed, the author has a perfect right to use the MM to issue an unemotional, factual correction. But to whine about negative readers in a blog that's basically an extension of ones professional publicity machine? Tacky.

LKH was maybe not as openly, blatantly insulting as AR, but the nasty sniping was just as bad. (I was hearing Jack Nicholson's "You can't handle the truth!" speech in my head.)

LKH has a rep with the local booksellers (indie and chain) -- we're in her home metro area -- of being a "live my life in public and in my writing" type (e.g. the breakup of her first marriage translated into Anita's original falling-out with Richard) and a bit of a diva to boot. It appears from her recent blog entries that she's experiencing the latest local rhinovirus which for many folks has morphed into an ugly, "cough for a month after you're theoretically well" case of bronchitis. And who among us hasn't sniped at someone whom we normally would take with a grain (or a cellar-full) of salt when we feel lousy?

Not an excuse because it still wasn't professional; just a possible explanation.

Camera Obscura (http://homepage.mac.com/baroose/iblog/index.html)