World, Writing, Wealth discussion
All Things Writing & Publishing
>
How Do You Respond to Criticism of Your Work? 6 Patterns to Recognize
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Quantum
(last edited Jul 09, 2017 12:11PM)
(new)
Jul 09, 2017 12:10PM
Thoughts?
reply
|
flag
I'm more a #4 guy (You sit on the feedback for a while). Of course, if the comment concerns a major error, I'll look into it and see how it could be corrected.
Everyone is going to have an opinion on your workEveryone is going to have a different opinion on your work
Not everyone is going to like your work
You should keep your opinion on what critics think of your work to yourself
I like my work being criticised as long as it is not vindictive. Some reviews are false, dishonest and vindictive. In those cases, I fight back. Otherwise, I try to learn from feedback if it is worthwhile. For instance, if someone says that this work was a complete failure, then they must also explain "how". I'm happy with any reasonable explanation.
Hm, I suppose I am #4. If the criticism is coming from my target audience and is consistent, I am certainly interested and can be persuaded to make changes.
I've learned heaps from feedback so far. I have not experienced vindictive criticism.
I'd like to hope I'm a number 4. I've learnt enormous amounts from feedback and critique, like Graham. In reality, not everyone will like my work, so I have to be realistic about it.
I've had some poor reviews on my work, and some good ones. I choose not to comment on either. The most I'll do is 'like' a review on Goodreads - I never used to even do that until a few friends from a Goodreads group said how much of a thrill they got when an author 'liked' their review.
Having said that, after the first few reviews, I don't generally read them.
I do appreciate critiques from Beta readers and editors, because I'm too close to my own work to see its flaws.
I don't think I do anything of the six.. Having written a contentious stuff, it wouldn't make sense not to expect a fair share of negative reception. A single review may not be indicative reflecting just the taste of the reviewer, however if some issues are recurrent, that's something that likely requires addressing.
Mehreen wrote: "I like my work being criticised as long as it is not vindictive. Some reviews are false, dishonest and vindictive. In those cases, I fight back. Otherwise, I try to learn from feedback if it is wor..."You actually fight back Mehreen? Aren't you worried about being labelled a "badly behaving writer"?
Eldon wrote: "Mehreen wrote: "I like my work being criticised as long as it is not vindictive. Some reviews are false, dishonest and vindictive. In those cases, I fight back. Otherwise, I try to learn from feedb..."Not necessarily. I behave better than how the reviewer has behaved in the first place. Are we to tolerate any garbage in the name of honesty? Anything at all without sufficient explanation? I don't think so.
I had a giveaway on this site in January. Thirty books, given away, yielded three reviews, and one just trashed it. I got nothing out of that review, not a "good but", not" I liked this," zippo. And she admitted that she hopped from book to book.I looked at it and wrote a rebuttal. She made a glaring typo and I caught her in it, and added my comment to hers on Amazon. But never again. There will always people who like to tear down what somebody else has created, simply to give themselves an air of authority.
We write the way we write, and it's as personal as how we walk, how we breathe and how we smile. There may be minor adjustments, but we're stuck with ourselves.
I only once felt obliged to make a rebuttal to a rather narrow-minded reader who had called one of my novels 'an outright attack on Christianity' and 'a blatant support of communism'. I politely replied that he was wrong about me and that I was simply an atheist and humanist. Two other readers then commented in my defense, saying that the idiot was completely in the wrong.
There have been since then a few times when some really moronic comments tempted me to reply, but I held my tongue, since the vast majority of my readers seem to love my ebooks.
There have been since then a few times when some really moronic comments tempted me to reply, but I held my tongue, since the vast majority of my readers seem to love my ebooks.
I was on the receiving end of author criticism following one of my reviews - not a pleasant experience. I strongly urge my fellow writers never to respond. It put me off writing reviews (which I was doing a lot of at the time). I take the point that dishonesty should not go unchallenged but... Who loses? The reviewer or the author.I too was supported by other reviewers - which was nice. I did not change my review even though I was tempted to downgrade further.
Now I probably over rate to avoid any potential kick back -
Just as an aside, the best put-down I ever saw was in The Economist. They described a book on affirmative action as "not as bad as other tomes on this topic."I would PAY to have them say that about my books.
Philip wrote: "Just as an aside, the best put-down I ever saw was in The Economist. They described a book on affirmative action as "not as bad as other tomes on this topic."I would PAY to have them say that abo..."
LOL
How low is a reviewer allowed to go? And why should writers tolerate such humiliation? A reviewer may not decide to write a review if the book is not to his or her choice. But no one has given them any right to humiliate writers. I am astounded to read some the reviews Arundhati Roy's new book has received. Is this some kind of a battle ground for disgruntled readers and failed writers who became reviewers of bad reviews? Or is it a literary ambition we pursue?
Personally I just don't think it's worth it to reply or challenge a review in any way. Even if the review is dishonest, an author challenging the reviewer's right to basically say whatever they want, can only make the author look bad. Most people can spot a dishonest review and will simply ignore it. An author is well advised to do likewise in my opinion.
Eldon, a dishonest review is one thing, a personal attack on the author's character is another thing. If you are ready to play the sient doormat to those who personally insult, then that's your choice.
Michel wrote: "Eldon, a dishonest review is one thing, a personal attack on the author's character is another thing. If you are ready to play the sient doormat to those who personally insult, then that's your cho..."It is indeed Michel. I'm merely offering my opinion on how I handle these situations. If you wish to handle them differently then that's your choice as well. For me, I prefer the tried and true adage that two wrongs don't make a right.
Eldon wrote: "...an author challenging the reviewer's right to basically say whatever they want, can only make the author look bad. "Totally agree. The only time I would respond to a review on my own book is if a reader asked a question like, "is this the last book of the series?" or "why isn't this in paperback?"
I understand that it hurts to see someone criticize the project we devoted our time and heart and money into, and it can feel natural to take it personally. I absolutely cried real tears the first 1 and 2 star reviews that my books received. But those reviews are guaranteed to happen when books are selling. Now that I have like a hundred negative reviews lol, I've realized the only healthy response is to move on and keep writing for the people who are going to enjoy my books.
This article isn't only about book reviews--and, in fact, it mostly isn't. The referenced article concerns feedback from critique groups, professional editors, and (probably) beta readers.From the article:
"But how about cases where the person offering feedback is an experienced professional—someone who makes a living at offering and selling informed feedback? (Like myself?)So, how do you all respond to criticism from these kinds of sources?
Let’s assume (and I know it can be a big assumption) that the experienced professional is self-aware and careful, and can offer feedback that’s useful and isn’t delivered in bad faith—that it’s an accurate and fair assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the work, at least from a market perspective.
I’ve found that writers, if they trust the source, generally respond in a few key ways. Looking for the pattern of your response can be useful in understanding if you’re getting the most from professional feedback, or if you’re inadvertently sabotaging progress."
Alex wrote: "This article isn't only about book reviews--and, in fact, it mostly isn't. The referenced article concerns feedback from critique groups, professional editors, and (probably) beta readers."But how ..."I welcome all feedback, from other writers as well as professional editors, etc. I may not follow their advice but it does not mean I have not listened.
Tim wrote: "You're too soft, Eldon. A bad reviewer should be keelhauled and then flayed 'til their flesh is stripped from their bones - but, I urge you, keep them alive as the flies lay their eggs and let them..."Let's get Tim some anger management classes lol
Marie wrote: "Eldon wrote: "...an author challenging the reviewer's right to basically say whatever they want, can only make the author look bad. "Totally agree. The only time I would respond to a review on my..."
Well put Marie :D
Tim wrote: "You're too soft, Eldon. A bad reviewer should be keelhauled and then flayed 'til their flesh is stripped from their bones - but, I urge you, keep them alive as the flies lay their eggs and let them..."Getting in touch with your inner 'pirate.'
I have a friend who proof reads my novel setup chapters. He has a keen eye and a logical mind that is good at spotting plot holes that I have missed.I find such early critique highly useful.
As for reader input, I have made some very significant improvements to my writing craft and even strengthened characters based on review comment.
On the whole, reviews have been a powerful aid in improving my writing and I find the feedback invaluable.
Alex wrote: "This article isn't only about book reviews--and, in fact, it mostly isn't. The referenced article concerns feedback from critique groups, professional editors, and (probably) beta readers.From th..."
Hi Alex, I normally assess the feedback, try it out - see if it works, and adopt it if it does work.
In my experience, I've received lots of valuable feedback. My earliest writing was very naive and lacking technical skills - feedback has improved my skills enormously (from a low base....)
#2, no way for me. I lean more towards #4. I suspect #5 happens more than people will admit. By the time feedback rolls in, you might be deep into another project/book/series, so you're thus more apt to ignore or overlook it--something people might perceive as "give up and move on".
Some of the other options, to me at least, seem petty.
Michel wrote: "Eldon, a dishonest review is one thing, a personal attack on the author's character is another thing. If you are ready to play the sient doormat to those who personally insult, then that's your cho..."I couldn't agree with you more. Writers are no doormats. But writer's keep silent because somewhere along the line they have been advised to do so for the sake of God knows what? But that was a bad advice.
Tim wrote: "Alex wrote: The referenced article concerns feedback from critique groups, professional editors, and (probably) beta readers.Feedback from a critique group, editor or beta readers is requested op..."
That is correct.
Mehreen wrote: "I couldn't agree with you more. Writers are no doormats. But writer's keep silent because somewhere along the line they have been advised to do so for the sake of God knows what? But that was a bad advice."While this may not be the thread for this discussion, I cannot in good conscience let this statement go. Mehreen, it absolutely is not bad advice. If I may, allow me to share a story with you and the group.
I knew an author once who challenged a reviewer right here on Goodreads over something they felt was inappropriate. This author was shredded to the point of quitting writing by the reviewer and their followers. Merciless comes to mind.
I also know reviewers who refuse to review indie books for the very reasons you seem to think are okay. They simply don't want the hassle of dealing with an irate author who doesn't agree with them.
Bottom line, if we choose to publish and put our work out in the public space then we accept people will judge it, and not always fairly. Anyone who buys a book has the absolute right to review it however they see fit. It may not be fair but neither is life.
By retaliating against them, all we accomplish is shining a bigger light upon the offending remarks and risking not only our long term success, but the success of all our indie colleagues. For every one of us who fires back, I'm sure more than that number of potential reviewers shy away from indie books because they, perhaps rightly, view us as unprofessional.
Eldon wrote: "Mehreen wrote: "I couldn't agree with you more. Writers are no doormats. But writer's keep silent because somewhere along the line they have been advised to do so for the sake of God knows what? Bu..."Why did the writer stop writing? I would have stopped the reviewer from reviewing utter nonsense. Sometimes they do write "rubbish" that the literary world could be saved from. They are a nuisance and should be plucked out!
Hmm... in spite of the fact that I attempted to redirect the discussion, it seemed to succeed only temporarily. Not unsurprisingly, It appears that "bad" reviews are a touchstone for many writers in this group.I'd just like to take a moment to encourage everyone to remain within the bounds of civility.
@Alex: In those cases, the answer to the question "how do I respond" probably lies somewhere in the middle. Every professional is still human and has bias, so I think it's best to consider the feedback and respond with a "thank you" or ask questions if you have any. To take the advice as gospel could have negative consequences just like disregarding every criticism might. I am grateful to Jane Friedman because it was from her blog that I learned to self-publish. But if I had blindly rushed to follow other steps in the same article, I might have signed on with a vanity press and never made it this far. It's important to approach this business with a balance of reason, intuition, and an open mind to criticism.
Quite right, Marie. My response to Alex's question is number 1 to a criticism that may not agree with. I have not self-published. I have always had a legitimate publisher. I have even published with Cambridge university press for an academic publication. And I too stay away from vanity presses like the plague. However, no writer is immune from the onslaught of "bad" reviews, it appears, be it prestigious award winning from the big five publishers or small presses or self-published.
I'm with Eldon on this one. There are reviews, and there are deliberately sourced critiques.Deliberately sourced critiques are about putting your work out for feedback, in order to improve it. It can be provided in a number of different ways, but writers should expect those providing critique to be critical and to find our flaws. Sometimes we'll agree with the comments, and sometimes not, but they are valuable because they provoke us to examine our writing.
Reviews are different. They are the reader's thoughts on what they've read. Realistically, not every reader will like our work. And that is OK. Occasionally there will be a vindictive review - for whatever reason.
But...we authors are building a brand. How we react to those reviews is how we'll be viewed by readers. If we want to be taken seriously, (in my opinion), we need to behave with professionalism and not anger.
Here's a thread on 'authors behaving badly,' here on Goodreads, which gives you some insight into how readers feel about authors responding to negative reviews. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Negative reviews add credibility to the entire assortment of reviews. All positive looks suspicious.Some negative reviews may actually entice readers loving things that were criticized.
Haven't encountered vindictive ones. I'm pretty happy with my negative reviews: they were helpful to me even though I hadn't agreed with some of the points they made. Often 'liked' them and praised the reviewer in a comment...
However, I don't rule out answering whoever about something explicitly malevolent, although hope i never need to..
Nik wrote: "Negative reviews add credibility to the entire assortment of reviews. All positive looks suspicious.Some negative reviews may actually entice readers loving things that were criticized.
Haven't e..."
quite agree w/how negative reviews add to the review ecosystem and, yes, sometimes, there might be a need to respond to particularly "malevolent" ones.
Leonie wrote: "Occasionally there will be a vindictive review - for whatever reason.
...
some insight into how readers feel about authors responding to negative reviews. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... "
agreed. the keyword here is "occasionally".
enlightening read on the GR thread.
My Opinion on Book Reviews
Note: This is my opinion only and as such I would never tell anyone that this is the way they should do things--although I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who asked.
The grand majority of book reviews are honest attempts by readers to express their feelings and ideas about a book and analyze it. In this way, book reviews add value through creation of content related to the book. Yes, even the negative reviews can add value as they can be riffed off of to forge more “positive” ones. Sometimes, even the most inflammatory/defamatory book reviews can add value if the proportion isn’t terribly skewed.
The aforementioned statement brings me to my next point. It’s not as though negative reviews are something new for self-published authors (authors have been subjected to calumny since the beginning of mass publishing and even since the advent of writing itself), although it might be disproportionately served to self-published authors. (Still, I’m somewhat wary of this assertion as I haven’t seen any solid evidence of this view.) Furthermore, as Eldon stated:
”Bottom line, if we choose to publish and put our work out in the public space then we accept people will judge it, and not always fairly. Anyone who buys a book has the absolute right to review it however they see fit. It may not be fair but neither is life.”One might opine that it’s unrealistic to attempt to regulate opinion (notwithstanding FTC guidelines and other laws regulating “free speech”).
But don’t despair! With the advent of the Internet, the book review community is much larger than it ever has been, and, consequently, authors have a lot of readers from which to garner attention (it’s not nearly as stark as when the NY Times “Review of Books” was the only game in town and it slammed an author’s book). Therefore, in a pragmatic business sense, whether or not to respond to a negative review should be determined from the author’s individual strategic marketing viewpoint and plan--for example, as Leonie described in terms of "branding"--(but not so much from an emotional one nor for the greater good). Another informative point is to ask oneself how important reviews are to actual sales. Does a book have to receive more than 50 to make it a good seller? Not really, this author argues:
”Once you get past 50 for a given title, there are basically no benefits…One might sum up this bit of pragmatism in the old aphorism: “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
50 is an arbitrary threshold, but effective for the following reasons:
Criticisms tend to repeat themselves at this point. You’re generally not learning new things about your craft from review #156 that you didn’t learn at #45.
You qualify for all promo sites. Yes, that includes the mighty BookBub."
(http://nicholaserik.com/book-review-m... (referenced from Jane Friedman’s blog))
(Having said all that, sometimes, as individuals, we should defend and promote particularly worthwhile or attack particularly offensive opinions or ideas—as suits our particular ideals--on social media, including book reviews. (Previously noted by Michel and Nik.) Indeed some authors do respond in general terms (or sometimes not so general but usually targeting other writers or other public figures) or as part of their ongoing concerns via their blog or other media outlets. This is no different than in real life.
I read quite a lot, and I leave reviews for them all, unless I thought the book was very poor, in which case I might give the author the benefit of the doubt and not publish a review. I see a review as an opportunity to tell the reader what sort of book it is, how well I thought it was written, and what its good and bad points were. I have had the occasional message back wherein the author did not like what I had written, which worries me not in the slightest. Occasionally I insert a few sentences specifically for the author. The one I am reading now will have such a message - it will be if you compile your own scripts, do NOT use double spacing in then script unless you are absolutely certain the compiler will handle them well. That obviously is of no use to the general reader, but it something that is very easy to fix.When reviewing, I try to avoid judgments based on what I personally like, and I try to be objective. In particular, pet hobby horses have to be put to one side. Accordingly, I hope those who review my work will do the same.
Ian wrote: "I read quite a lot, and I leave reviews for them all, unless I thought the book was very poor, in which case I might give the author the benefit of the doubt and not publish a review. I see a revie..."Seconded.
If I don't like a book, I mostly DNF it, and not rate it. I will typically leave a comment explaining the DNF.
Graeme wrote: "If I don't like a book, I mostly DNF it, and not rate it. I will typically leave a comment explaining the DNF."LOL what is DNF?
Did Not Finish.Here is me DNF'ing an otherwise popular book which I thought sucked real bad.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Graeme, I went to check on that book and it has an average rating of 4.09 for over 3,000 ratings! I also read some of the readers' comments and came out of that wondering about their critical senses. Do these people always rate a book 5 stars just because there is a female vampire and some so-called romance in it? It makes you wonder about the real worth of star-rating of books by the public.
Hi Michel,It's entirely possible that it just totally failed with me and there is obviously an audience out there that loves it.
