The Necessary Pain of Reviews
One of the hardest parts of being an author is trying to find ways to better my writing. I am not so conceited as to believe that I was born a great author. In fact, I'm hard put to call myself a good author. Why? Because I know that like everyone I've got lots of room for improvement. So, I try to find ways of making myself better. I read books about writing. I read books in similar genres to get a feel for what works and what doesn't. I have peers read through passages I've written to make sure that it's flowing the way that I want it to. But in the end, I have to write and soon a story is born. After reading, rereading and then rereading again I try to take out all those typos, the glaring mistakes, and to find those little mistakes. Like that comma followed by a period. Oops! :)
Then suddenly, I release my baby into the wild and hope that it survives. But still I wonder; could it have been better? And so comes the sometimes painful task of watching for and reading reviews. Let's imagine for a moment, that you are on your way to Parent/Teacher Conferences for your child. (If you don't have a child, pretend you do.) There are certain things that you really want to hear. Wouldn't it be great if Teacher said, "Timmy is such a well-behaved student; I never have to worry about him." Or, "Suzie is so far ahead of the rest of the class. She's very gifted!" Of course it would! As parents, we want to hear that our child is the best, the brightest, and the kindest. My baby is perfect, didn't you know? And then you walk into the classroom. A good teacher will start off with some positive comments about Timmy or Suzie and then comes the bad news. "Timmy is having trouble with talking in class. He is very distracting to his classmates." Or, "Suzie tries really hard, but she is behind her peers in math. I think she might need some extra help or tutoring." Suddenly your perfect child isn't so perfect and the mama or papa bear in you roars in outrage and threatens to come crashing down on poor Teacher's head. But as a good parent, you want your children to be their best, so you put mama or papa bear back into hibernation and ask, "Well, Teacher, what can I do to help Timmy and Suzie do better?"
Reading a book review is kind of like that for me. I love to see words and phrases like "awesome idea", "creative", "favorite", and "great story". But that isn't always what I see. Often, people have some things that they didn't quite like. And that's great! But for a moment, the mama bear in me wants to come raging out. My baby is perfect just the way it is, thank you very much! But the truth is no matter how many times I go through it, it never will be perfect. So I have to put mama bear back into hibernation and ask myself, "Okay, what can I do to make the next book better?" Because I am self-published, I can use reviews to make the first book even better. In fact, when getting ready for the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Contest, I used a lot of reviews, both online and off, to help get my 240,000 word beast cut down into a meager 150,000. That's right; over a third of my precious baby was chopped out and discarded. It was hard and it was rough and at times it was painful, but now Charming Academy is better than it was before and will hopefully give readers a clearer picture of where the story is going. And I'm sure it helps that it is now a much shorter read. I was able to get it formatted in the way I had wanted to before and now feel so much better about the story and the book. Will everyone suddenly think it's perfect? Of course not! There are still going to be little things and maybe big things that some people don't particularly like; and that is just the way it should be.
So, why should you keep writing reviews for the books you read? Because feedback is the power authors use to become better. I can't improve if I don't know where my problems are. Sometimes I'll see reviews and think, "Well, it doesn't make sense now because you don't have the complete story yet. Wait until the next book comes out, that scene will make sense." And there will be others that I go, "Gosh, I hadn't thought of that. That would be a great idea!" But with every honest and well-thought-out review, I say, "Thank you." Because that review and the critiques in it will help me become the best I can be. So to my reviewers, thanks!
Then suddenly, I release my baby into the wild and hope that it survives. But still I wonder; could it have been better? And so comes the sometimes painful task of watching for and reading reviews. Let's imagine for a moment, that you are on your way to Parent/Teacher Conferences for your child. (If you don't have a child, pretend you do.) There are certain things that you really want to hear. Wouldn't it be great if Teacher said, "Timmy is such a well-behaved student; I never have to worry about him." Or, "Suzie is so far ahead of the rest of the class. She's very gifted!" Of course it would! As parents, we want to hear that our child is the best, the brightest, and the kindest. My baby is perfect, didn't you know? And then you walk into the classroom. A good teacher will start off with some positive comments about Timmy or Suzie and then comes the bad news. "Timmy is having trouble with talking in class. He is very distracting to his classmates." Or, "Suzie tries really hard, but she is behind her peers in math. I think she might need some extra help or tutoring." Suddenly your perfect child isn't so perfect and the mama or papa bear in you roars in outrage and threatens to come crashing down on poor Teacher's head. But as a good parent, you want your children to be their best, so you put mama or papa bear back into hibernation and ask, "Well, Teacher, what can I do to help Timmy and Suzie do better?"
Reading a book review is kind of like that for me. I love to see words and phrases like "awesome idea", "creative", "favorite", and "great story". But that isn't always what I see. Often, people have some things that they didn't quite like. And that's great! But for a moment, the mama bear in me wants to come raging out. My baby is perfect just the way it is, thank you very much! But the truth is no matter how many times I go through it, it never will be perfect. So I have to put mama bear back into hibernation and ask myself, "Okay, what can I do to make the next book better?" Because I am self-published, I can use reviews to make the first book even better. In fact, when getting ready for the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Contest, I used a lot of reviews, both online and off, to help get my 240,000 word beast cut down into a meager 150,000. That's right; over a third of my precious baby was chopped out and discarded. It was hard and it was rough and at times it was painful, but now Charming Academy is better than it was before and will hopefully give readers a clearer picture of where the story is going. And I'm sure it helps that it is now a much shorter read. I was able to get it formatted in the way I had wanted to before and now feel so much better about the story and the book. Will everyone suddenly think it's perfect? Of course not! There are still going to be little things and maybe big things that some people don't particularly like; and that is just the way it should be.
So, why should you keep writing reviews for the books you read? Because feedback is the power authors use to become better. I can't improve if I don't know where my problems are. Sometimes I'll see reviews and think, "Well, it doesn't make sense now because you don't have the complete story yet. Wait until the next book comes out, that scene will make sense." And there will be others that I go, "Gosh, I hadn't thought of that. That would be a great idea!" But with every honest and well-thought-out review, I say, "Thank you." Because that review and the critiques in it will help me become the best I can be. So to my reviewers, thanks!
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