Have a Heart

Broken heart symbol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My heart hurts. It’s true. I have been blissfully ignorant of one thing while I attempted to take the next step on my publishing journey. Book reviews. I always knew that there would be others reviewing my story and my writing skills once I got my book out there, but never could I imagine the emotions flowing through me after reading each one.

I tell myself to quit checking them, but I can’t help it. I know certain reviews could potentially make me a better writer for addressing each of their concerns, but I hadn’t considered the fact that some people forget that authors are only human and have feelings too. Especially those with private accounts and unidentifiable screen names. How convenient for them.

Twisted is the first novel ever written by me. When I started writing it, I had no real writing background, except for reading others work and some random courses on grammar. Of course, by the time I had rewritten and edited Twisted, I had learned a lot more, but I still have a lot to learn. Don’t we all?

The reason my heart hurts is because it keeps experiencing the ups and downs of book reviews. Until I was published, I had only received rave reviews from readers, with no complaints except that book two wasn’t ready for them to read on. I am still getting those, but now unnamed individuals from around the world are free to rant and rave about what they did and didn’t like about my story and my skill as a writer.

While one person says, “Found this book on a chance. Boy I was pleasantly surprised it kept my attention. Hot steamy and couldn’t put it down. Cannot wait to read the next one!!!!”, the next person is finding any way possible to bash it and me in the process.

I myself didn’t realize the effect a book review might have on the author. I can now say that if I ever have anything not-so-nice to say about a book (which isn’t super often), I will be sure to also announce what I did like about it, in fairness for the next reader to understand how I came to rate the book. I also hope that this post reaches some of those others who tend to write bad reviews. I ask that you take a look at yourself and your own life and make sure you aren’t taking unrelated personal frustrations out on the author.

Wow, what a rush. If you’re new to writing or still unpublished, I wish there were something I could say to help prepare you for that first blow, but I don’t believe anything could ever quite prepare you for it. I only hope that you’re lucky enough to bypass that unpleasant stab to your heart altogether.

Me, I like to write controversial, sassy, confident characters that apparently rub some people the wrong way. In other words, there will be plenty of icy javelins heaved my way in the future. I’m lucky to have a good support system though, so I think I can handle it.