I'll be the first to admit it. I'm just a bit sensitive. Especially when it comes to reviews of my books. Oddly enough, I'm not nearly as sensitive to reviews of my paintings or photography. But there is something about struggling with a novel over the period of time that it takes to produce such a thing which makes me just a bit sensitive. The toil, the rewriting, the process of putting your "baby" through the process of editing, before it even gets a cover, and then - it finally hits "the streets" - it seems I can't help but hope people like it.
And then the "real world" happens. There are critics out there who don't get it. I can understand how a person might not "like" a particular work, or how it might not trip their proverbial triggers. But that, unfortunately, is not the world of internet criticism. It is a world of unrestrained volatility, and it kind of reminds me of drivers on the highway. There you are, in your little cocoon, all safe and secure, when someone does something like cut you off in traffic, and you become "the beast" within, and you yell, you cuss, and you might even give the offending driver the finger.
It is much the same with the internet. There you sit, behind your veil of security, provided by some degree of anonymity, and you are free to say whatever you want.
Let me tell you, though, that there are persons out there, who are real, true persons, who have real (albeit often exaggerated) sense of who they are, and what they are. And I would plead with you, if you really think that an author deserves a one star review, that you think twice about putting it on the internet. Better not to have reviewed it than to give it one star - even if you happen to be an anonymous person from Libya.
So, what I have to say to authors who get bad reviews online. I do know just how you feel, but I have nothing more to offer, other than the best thing to do is to keep writing, and hope that your own success might be just a bit of appropriate revenge.
Happy writing!
Drachma
And then the "real world" happens. There are critics out there who don't get it. I can understand how a person might not "like" a particular work, or how it might not trip their proverbial triggers. But that, unfortunately, is not the world of internet criticism. It is a world of unrestrained volatility, and it kind of reminds me of drivers on the highway. There you are, in your little cocoon, all safe and secure, when someone does something like cut you off in traffic, and you become "the beast" within, and you yell, you cuss, and you might even give the offending driver the finger.
It is much the same with the internet. There you sit, behind your veil of security, provided by some degree of anonymity, and you are free to say whatever you want.
Let me tell you, though, that there are persons out there, who are real, true persons, who have real (albeit often exaggerated) sense of who they are, and what they are. And I would plead with you, if you really think that an author deserves a one star review, that you think twice about putting it on the internet. Better not to have reviewed it than to give it one star - even if you happen to be an anonymous person from Libya.
So, what I have to say to authors who get bad reviews online. I do know just how you feel, but I have nothing more to offer, other than the best thing to do is to keep writing, and hope that your own success might be just a bit of appropriate revenge.
Happy writing!
Drachma
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