My First Bad Review – What's A Writer To Do?
The first negative review of Flesh Wound was posted on Amazon.com this week. Bad reviews are part of being a published writer; regardless of your field of endeavor, you're not going to please everyone all of the time. If you are part of a corporation or other business and receive a bad performance review, it won't make your day but it must be fairly easy to rationalize – chances are overwhelming that working there isn't your life's passion, and you're not crazy about the boss that is giving you the bad news in the first place. In the creative field, it is a bit different. You stand alone with your work. There is no one to turn and point a finger at if it doesn't live up to someone's expectations. This possibility alone can be daunting enough to keep a lot of creative people from putting their work out into the world in the first place.
I'm being a little dramatic here but this is a good chance to talk about reviews from the writer's perspective and how best to handle them. When I was still working in the banking industry, it was common to run customer satisfaction surveys to find out what customers did and didn't like about the bank. What we found over and over again was that the people who take the time to respond to satisfaction surveys fall into two categories: those who are very satisfied, and those who are very UNsatisfied. Those two groups comprise anywhere from 10%-20% of everyone who is sent the survey. The remaining 80%-90% who don't respond don't feel strongly enough about what they are being asked to go to the effort of responding. The next episode of "The Bachelor" or "Survivor" seems like a better use of time.
A review of a book, movie, CD, or other piece of artwork follows the same pattern. If someone really likes it or really doesn't like it, you're most likely to see those reviews.
The negative review posted for Flesh Wound is classic. It is not a "Flesh Wound bored me so I am certain it will bore you, too" type of review. It was a "Jon Say should never write another word as long as the Earth turns on its axis, and anyone who says anything good about Flesh Wound is lying to spare the author's feelings" type of review.
This is fine with me. Here's why.
The worst reaction a writer can get to something they've written is someone who just doesn't care. The work doesn't connect with them. Inspires no reaction. Is utterly irrelevant. In fact, is less relevant than "The Bachelor" or "Survivor".
The negative review of Flesh Wound revealed several interesting things. First, the reviewer read the entire book. That tells me the material affected them in a profound way. When I start reading a book that I don't care for, I stop reading it. It always seems like a better idea to find one that I like. Second, after finishing Flesh Wound the reviewer went to my website and at least read the bio. (They misspelled the URL in their review, but no one is perfect.) Again, that suggests that they felt passionately about what they'd just read. Good or bad, they were moved enough to spend more time on the material. Third, they stated that they read Flesh Wound because they knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who sort of knew who I was or might have seen me once or something. So the obligation they felt to read the book wasn't that great going in. Yet they read the entire book. Finally, they logged onto Amazon.com and wrote their review. Again, more time spent on the material.
Such a strong negative reaction to creative material is generally caused either by a feeling that injustice has been done or the material threatens the reader, or both. Perhaps the reader has written a novel that never got published, and can't believe Flesh Wound did. Perhaps not. Perhaps the themes in Flesh Wound threaten some deeply held beliefs the reader has. Perhaps not. But something in Flesh Wound provoked the reader enough to suggest that all the other reviews Flesh Wound has received so far (12 five-star reviews, 11 more five-star ratings on four different websites) were posted by people who know me, ostensibly because they felt obligated out of friendship to do so and had they posted what they really thought, they would have agreed with this reader.
The fact is that some of the five-star ratings and reviews were posted by people that know me, and some were not. Publishers send review copies of just-published books out to whoever will read them in an effort to get reviews of the material. I conducted one reader giveaway on LibraryThing and gave away 15 copies of Flesh Wound to people who read the back cover and found the plot interesting enough to request a copy, and some of the posted reviews came from that effort. [Note: Around 165 people requested a copy; I only had 15 to give out which were awarded randomly to people chosen from that group by LibraryThing moderators.] Currently, Flesh Wound has received 23 five-star ratings and 1 one-star rating. I can live with that.
So the bottom line is this, as I see it. Flesh Wound is causing strong reactions in some of the people who read it. I feel the material is doing its job if it affects people enough to take the time to post a review of it. The worst thing, I think, is for the material to generate no reaction whatsoever; i.e., to get a bunch of middle-of-the-road ratings where people say the book didn't interest them, or that they read a chapter or two and put it down out of boredom.
The fun part of writing novels for me is writing novels. The reviews that readers write are important because it gives you an idea of whether the material you are writing is striking any chords with them. But it's unrealistic to expect everyone to love what you write, or to hold beliefs that are the same as yours. This contrast can be terrific for a book. (Question: How many people read Salman Rushdie before he wrote The Satanic Verses and had a contract put on his head by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini? Answer: Not as many as after.) So I hope that readers continue to discover my books and they continue to inspire strong reactions.
Now onward! Rubbed Out is now three chapters long, 4,000 words. Writing Max again has been just fantastic. Like greeting an old friend. The challenge of weaving the plot is exciting. I still don't know exactly how the book is going to turn out. That is part of the fun of writing for me – discovering the decisions my characters make that I didn't anticipate when I began writing the book.
Lastly, Goodreads giveaway update: 546 people requesting one of 10 copies of Flesh Wound to be awarded at the end of next week. 
Have a terrific weekend! Take some time to read something that moves you to passion! -Jon
