Marilyn Foxworthy's Blog, page 6
September 20, 2018
Dealing with a bad review, part 3
And now for the conclusion of our exciting adventure, "Marilyn and the Bad Review". Last time, Marilyn said that there's a deeper issue.
The deeper issue is happiness. These reviewers weren't happy. They weren't happy with my book. It didn't make them feel what they were wanting to feel. I don't know what emotion they were looking for, but I didn't provide it - and that didn't make them happy. Their lack of happiness was expressed as a poor review of my book.
You know what the main criticism seemed to be? It seemed to be that my book didn't go into the real troubles associated with establishing a harem relationship in real-life. How would I know anything about that? It isn't what I'm writing about. That aspect of my stories is allegorical. These characters are different aspects and facets of ourselves. And the sex is fun. But it isn't real. Except that it is, if you accept our own multidimensional natures. I am several people. I have different needs and motivations at different times.
All of my books have a preface that tells all of this. It also says that I won't apologize for any of it. I don't mind a critical review that helps me do better. I don't mind that I received a small number bad reviews from people who probably shouldn't have taken up their time reading something that wouldn't give them what they wanted. They did help me reflect and look for ways to improve. I appreciate that.
It's only natural to have my feelings feel a bit bruised at first. I hope 'hat' the bad reviews don't deter other readers who would enjoy a bit of dime-store diversion.
Thank you all who do read and enjoy my writing. Please do follow me and ask questions and connect in a way that helps you feel happy.
The deeper issue is happiness. These reviewers weren't happy. They weren't happy with my book. It didn't make them feel what they were wanting to feel. I don't know what emotion they were looking for, but I didn't provide it - and that didn't make them happy. Their lack of happiness was expressed as a poor review of my book.
You know what the main criticism seemed to be? It seemed to be that my book didn't go into the real troubles associated with establishing a harem relationship in real-life. How would I know anything about that? It isn't what I'm writing about. That aspect of my stories is allegorical. These characters are different aspects and facets of ourselves. And the sex is fun. But it isn't real. Except that it is, if you accept our own multidimensional natures. I am several people. I have different needs and motivations at different times.
All of my books have a preface that tells all of this. It also says that I won't apologize for any of it. I don't mind a critical review that helps me do better. I don't mind that I received a small number bad reviews from people who probably shouldn't have taken up their time reading something that wouldn't give them what they wanted. They did help me reflect and look for ways to improve. I appreciate that.
It's only natural to have my feelings feel a bit bruised at first. I hope 'hat' the bad reviews don't deter other readers who would enjoy a bit of dime-store diversion.
Thank you all who do read and enjoy my writing. Please do follow me and ask questions and connect in a way that helps you feel happy.
Dealing with a bad review, part 2.
In our last episode, I started describing a bad review of one of my books and how I was processing it. Let's find out what happens next.
The main issue with both reviews seemed to be that the story violated the reader's expectations of what the story should have been. It seemed that the reviewers were offended that the story didn't have more 'reality', that Love-At-First-Sight doesn't really happen (except that it does), and to have that in the story offends some peoples sense of real-world experience. I try really hard to give an accurate description of what my books are - pulp fiction wish fulfillment escapist emotionally Utopian vicarious fun and frolic. It's not high-art.
These reviewers read the wrong book. My book wasn't what they were looking for. It didn't meet their expectations for form or content. You know, I'm OK with that. It took me a few days to be OK with that. I want everyone to love my story, or to just not read it. You don't have to. I make that plain all the way along. It's OK.
There's a deeper issue though. Yes, I need to fix factual, grammatical, and spelling errors. I try hard to keep the timelines straight and the story flaws to a minimum and to do my best with continuity. But there's a bigger issue.
Tune in next time for "The Deeper Issue"
The main issue with both reviews seemed to be that the story violated the reader's expectations of what the story should have been. It seemed that the reviewers were offended that the story didn't have more 'reality', that Love-At-First-Sight doesn't really happen (except that it does), and to have that in the story offends some peoples sense of real-world experience. I try really hard to give an accurate description of what my books are - pulp fiction wish fulfillment escapist emotionally Utopian vicarious fun and frolic. It's not high-art.
These reviewers read the wrong book. My book wasn't what they were looking for. It didn't meet their expectations for form or content. You know, I'm OK with that. It took me a few days to be OK with that. I want everyone to love my story, or to just not read it. You don't have to. I make that plain all the way along. It's OK.
There's a deeper issue though. Yes, I need to fix factual, grammatical, and spelling errors. I try hard to keep the timelines straight and the story flaws to a minimum and to do my best with continuity. But there's a bigger issue.
Tune in next time for "The Deeper Issue"
Dealing with a bad review, part 1.
Hey, I'm new at this and reviews are exciting. Well, affirming reviews are exciting. Bad reviews are exciting too, but not in a good way. My books don't have many reviews yet, but almost all of them are great. It feels good.
But one of my books has some less than stellar reviews - and rave reviews as well. Both ends of the scale.
The good review says that they appreciate how I broke some norms and rules with my story telling. The bad reviews say the same thing, except that they hated it. In one case the review liked the story and the rules didn't matter. In the other case, it was the fact that the rules were broken that bothered them. There's only one way to craft a story according to some.
However, the bad reviews also complained about simple editing mistakes. That's valid. I need to fix that. And they questioned a factual statement about anatomy. I need to fix that. So I went back to the manuscript to look for my mistakes. I did find one or two spelling errors that had been missed. I didn't pick up on any dropped words, but the review said that simple spelling errors were rife. Maybe I still have some places where I meant 'that' but the text says 'hat'. My typing does tend to drop the t in 'the' and come out 'he' more often than I'd like. That's a fair criticism too (if you notice those as you read my books, send me a note and I'll fix them right away). I think that maybe the reviewer had a very early edition and I had already gone through a few rounds of corrections, and whatever it was that they were seeing was already taken care of. And that anatomy thing, well, I reworded that to make it more clear that I did understand that part, but the language might have confused that in one place.
I want to know about those things. But there's more to it...
But one of my books has some less than stellar reviews - and rave reviews as well. Both ends of the scale.
The good review says that they appreciate how I broke some norms and rules with my story telling. The bad reviews say the same thing, except that they hated it. In one case the review liked the story and the rules didn't matter. In the other case, it was the fact that the rules were broken that bothered them. There's only one way to craft a story according to some.
However, the bad reviews also complained about simple editing mistakes. That's valid. I need to fix that. And they questioned a factual statement about anatomy. I need to fix that. So I went back to the manuscript to look for my mistakes. I did find one or two spelling errors that had been missed. I didn't pick up on any dropped words, but the review said that simple spelling errors were rife. Maybe I still have some places where I meant 'that' but the text says 'hat'. My typing does tend to drop the t in 'the' and come out 'he' more often than I'd like. That's a fair criticism too (if you notice those as you read my books, send me a note and I'll fix them right away). I think that maybe the reviewer had a very early edition and I had already gone through a few rounds of corrections, and whatever it was that they were seeing was already taken care of. And that anatomy thing, well, I reworded that to make it more clear that I did understand that part, but the language might have confused that in one place.
I want to know about those things. But there's more to it...
