*headdesk*.

[megwrites]

Unprofessional author is unprofessional. Or: there is a damn good reason that you don't respond to reviews and this is fucking well IT.

This is now the second professionally published author who has come to my journal and displayed their fail (the first being Lois McMaster Bujold who MammothFailed epically). Do I have a beacon out that says, "Welcome to the Fail Lounge. Feel free to take your pants off!"?

Let me just enumerate, for any one listening, the biggest reason that it is not a good idea to respond to reviews: you're not going to change their minds. Ms. Stein certainly did nothing to make me feel differently about her book.

Have you ever heard of an author going to a reviewer, arguing, and honestly changing someone's opinion? Has it ever helped that author look like a better person, improved their sales?

If it has, please throw me a link. Because all I can think of are the many authors (*coughcough* Alice Hoffman *coughcough*) who have done it to their detriment.

Comments

[fashionista-35.livejournal.com]

You know, it's funny-- it really absolutely astounds me to see an author respond in a confrontational manner to an unfavorable review in a reviewer's journal/comments to an article. If an author is going to respond in any way, they should do it on their own turf (and even that comes with its own set of rules and restrictions *coughAliceHoffmannLaurellKHamiltoncough*).

I mean, the other day, I got a Google Alert for Adiós-- I clicked it and it was to a blog review, which-- holy hell, the book came out over three years ago, right? And it wasn't the most favorable review. The characters and story were too perfect with a side of squick (which, admittedly, the squick had never occurred to me before, so it surprised me). It wasn't completely negative. Apparently, my voice and writing were kicky and perky and some other adverbs and really, deserved better than my shitty plotting and storytelling.

Yeah... I was mildly annoyed. But then, after I got over the initial annoyance and back into my right head, I realized that a) this post had no responses to it and b) who cares? It's this chick's opinion and she's entitled to it. I don't happen to agree. If (and big if there) I had chosen to respond in my blog, what it would have amounted to would have been this: I refuse to apologize. I can't write the book that everyone wants because then I'd be writing a book for every single reader out there, not the book I want to write. Adiós was not only my first published novel, it was my very first young adult novel after four adult manuscripts. I was feeling my way through the process and learning what worked and didn't work. The book, for me, still works. Clearly, it worked for a lot of people, given the reviews and awards it garnered. It's not going to work for everyone-- for some it was too simple, too easy. What I was trying to do was present a story that showed how even when things are "easy" they don't come without cost and you can still grow from the situations that are engendered. If people don't see that or choose to not see that, well then, I would question whether I was successful.

Overall, I think I was, because I have yet to receive a consistent criticism about that book. The people who have disliked it, have done so for varying and in some cases, vastly different reasons, so all I can put it down to is personal preference and that, I can't do a thing about, so why waste the bandwidth trying, right?

Very little positive can be gained by going onto a reviewer's site and publicly losing your mind. But a hell of a lot can be lost.

And to quote Jimmy Malone from The Untouchables: There endeth the lesson. *g*

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

This entire reply? Is sort of why I love you so much and want to be you when I grow up. I pretty much think that you are right on and made of awesome after reading this. Because first, you actually bothered to read the review instead of making assumptions, and you also *didn't respond*. Which makes you very professional and very smart.

And the response that she deleted before reposting the other one that I linked to? Well, let's just say that it made her look even worse. I think she forgets that LJ notifies via email of any reply (unless you turn the option off), so I have a copy of it sitting in my inbox. Nothing is ever lost on the internet.

Very little positive can be gained by going onto a reviewer's site and publicly losing your mind. But a hell of a lot can be lost.

I believe this is now quote of the week material. Because YES YES YES. This. Right here.

[fashionista-35.livejournal.com]

Heh- love you too, babe.

And trust me, I'm no one's idea of a saint. I am very, very human with a nasty temper and I get angry and I want to vent and scream and decry the lack of intelligence of a reviewer who doesn't get it, but if I do it, I do it in a setting amongst friends (as you've seen in some of my closed posts) or in person, to my husband or a friend or even the dog.

And if I ever publicly act like a complete unreasonable ass, feel free to take me out back and smack me upside the head with a 2x4.