It happens to the best authors and even to the masters. Our masterpieces will not be loved and adored by everyone, and of course, there will be the naysayers and the critics who will simply trash everything because they can. Today’s social media blitzkrieg leaves barren open land for raging review marauders of the best fiction.
For an author who has received my share of good and bad reviews, I am becoming an expert at deciphering them. I am also aware of the credible critic versus the occasional troll. I can detect an objective critique and subjective criticism. Getting to this place was a road paved with heartache and pain. My poor babies being thrashed. And it’s hard not to take it as a swipe to our ego, leaving us in a well of self-doubt.
However, when we look to the masters to improve our literary craft, we can learn from the masters on how to perceive negative reviews.
My author hero John Steinbeck predicted his masterpiece East of Eden would be trashed by critics and the masses. (It actually wasn’t. It was critically and commercially acclaimed). He wrote to his editor prior to its publication:
You know as well as I do that this book is going to catch the same kind of hell that all the others did and for the same reasons. It will not be what anyone expects and so the expecters will not like it.
~John Steinbeck
For an author who has received my share of good and bad reviews, I am becoming an expert at deciphering them. I am also aware of the credible critic versus the occasional troll. I can detect an objective critique and subjective criticism. Getting to this place was a road paved with heartache and pain. My poor babies being thrashed. And it’s hard not to take it as a swipe to our ego, leaving us in a well of self-doubt.
However, when we look to the masters to improve our literary craft, we can learn from the masters on how to perceive negative reviews.
My author hero John Steinbeck predicted his masterpiece East of Eden would be trashed by critics and the masses. (It actually wasn’t. It was critically and commercially acclaimed). He wrote to his editor prior to its publication:
You know as well as I do that this book is going to catch the same kind of hell that all the others did and for the same reasons. It will not be what anyone expects and so the expecters will not like it.
~John Steinbeck
Ahhhhhhh, I relinquish a heavy sigh. The “expecters.” This is what most of us authors face. It’s not what readers expect when reading a book. We are not being reviewed for the quality of our writing, but for disappointing the expectations of readers. Reviews (positive and negative) are often not about the writer and their talent, but about the reader and reviewer.
When a reader purchases one of our books they are expecting to go on a journey and they may not like where we take them. We may evoke emotions they didn’t expect to feel – frustration, disgust, fear, angst, annoyance, love, passion, joy etc. It is these unexpected emotions that may prompt negative reviews. The reader didn’t expect to be disgusted or angered by what we wrote, so they may give us a negative review.
“As for literary criticism in general: I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or a play or a poem is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut
Don’t get me wrong. Good, qualified reviewers can be a writer’s best friend. As writers, we need to learn to take criticism especially when offered positively. This is a tool for learning and improving our craft. Also, a good reviewer will highlight flaws in our books authors may already know exists. Damn them! By in large, a qualified reviewer can steer authors onto the straight and narrow path to writing better books.
I have a few book reviewers I always seek to a review a new release not because they give me stellar 5-star reviews, but because their insight to my work is stellar. I love and cherish the feedback they provide (positive and negative).
While most authors today are searching desperately for commercial success and pleasing everyone, there still exists writers who want to push the limits of their craft, their ideas and characters. And in some cases, it is about pushing uncomfortable buttons in readers. Twisting readers into uncomfortable places is an author’s guilty pleasure and we shouldn’t be ashamed of the emotions we evoke.
When a reader purchases one of our books they are expecting to go on a journey and they may not like where we take them. We may evoke emotions they didn’t expect to feel – frustration, disgust, fear, angst, annoyance, love, passion, joy etc. It is these unexpected emotions that may prompt negative reviews. The reader didn’t expect to be disgusted or angered by what we wrote, so they may give us a negative review.
“As for literary criticism in general: I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or a play or a poem is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut
Don’t get me wrong. Good, qualified reviewers can be a writer’s best friend. As writers, we need to learn to take criticism especially when offered positively. This is a tool for learning and improving our craft. Also, a good reviewer will highlight flaws in our books authors may already know exists. Damn them! By in large, a qualified reviewer can steer authors onto the straight and narrow path to writing better books.
I have a few book reviewers I always seek to a review a new release not because they give me stellar 5-star reviews, but because their insight to my work is stellar. I love and cherish the feedback they provide (positive and negative).
While most authors today are searching desperately for commercial success and pleasing everyone, there still exists writers who want to push the limits of their craft, their ideas and characters. And in some cases, it is about pushing uncomfortable buttons in readers. Twisting readers into uncomfortable places is an author’s guilty pleasure and we shouldn’t be ashamed of the emotions we evoke.
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