The Fallout from Writing Edgy

This is a post from Ellis Vidler's Unpredictable Muse, written on November 12, 2012. I made a few updates. You can read the original here: http://tiny.cc/q37h4w


A lot has been said lately about reviews. Who’s writing them? Who’s trading them? How honest are they? Let’s put aside that writers have writer friends, and for the most part, we support each other. There’s nothing wrong with that; we are a supportive group. Are we more generous when reviewing our friends? If I’m being honest, I’d say yes. Rarely will a writer with any ethics flip off a one-star review, because we know how hard it is to write a book. A writer’s subject matter and how she portrays her characters have consequences when it comes to the judgment of her readers, and in turn their reviews. How offended is a reader when the storyline conflicts with their respective beliefs or when a character does something they find personally reprehensible?

My books have darker subject matters and characters who often cross ethical lines. Romances take the hardest hits. Readers become invested in the relationship between the hero and heroine, and they want the story to turn out the way they want. If it doesn’t, watch out. Mysteries and thrillers have a little more leeway, but here again, there are limits.

HOOKED has received a slew of two-star reviews, mostly on Goodreads, where people can drop a one or two star bomb without explanation. (No, Polly, you can’t please everyone.) Tawny Dell, the heroine, is a high-class call girl who decides she wants out. Does she ever apologize for choosing that lifestyle? No. She’s smart, with a PhD in art history—come on, this is fiction after all—and she doesn’t consider herself a victim because she never was. There was no kumbaya moment where she regrets her former profession, no epiphany where she “sees the light.” There’s a graphic prison scene in MURDER DÉJÀ VU that’s not for the faint of heart. I could have implied it, but I described it instead because it was important to the character of my hero. I’ve had a lot of comments when the hero says he’d like to take the heroine to bed. He uses a word to refer to other times he’s had sex, which didn’t apply to my heroine, yet many people read that it did. Boy, did I hear about that one. One of my characters—I won’t mention which book—murders someone in cold blood. I made it look like self-defense, but he would have done the dirty whether or not I fudged the scene, and the reader knows that. In MIND GAMES, the first in the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, Diana admits to being a fraud. She is and she isn’t. Does that make her unethical? Well, yeah. The way she’s devised her act definitely puts her in the questionable column. I had written the N word in that book, more than once. A critique partner flashed red flags all over the place, and I took them out, except for a less offensive variation, if there is such a thing. Diana’s father is a racist, and it’s a word he’d use. I got around it. The reader knows what he’s going to say it before she stops him. This one time, I gave in to political correctness, and I hated that I did. I didn’t feel true to myself or the story. In my newest book (this blog post was written in November of 2012. Since then I’ve released another book), GODDESS OF THE MOON, there’s a whole bunch of possible reader turn-offs, and I’m waiting for the reactions from my first readers. (Got very little flack from that book. One can never tell.)

So, writers, back to my original question―Do you try not to alienate readers by tweaking a book to make it more acceptable, or do you write the story the way you know in your heart it has to be, pitfalls included? If you write edgy storylines, are you ready for the fallout―those one and two star reviews that zap your confidence just a little? If you do, relax. You’ll get used to them.
Then, of course, there’s always the possibility that a reader thinks your book plain sucks. There’ll be a few of those too.