Today’s Small Sermon
Jan. 17th, 2012 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmerriamDear Writer,
Here’s the deal: Once the publisher releases your book out into the wild, once your book is in the hands of the reading public, it is no longer your book.
Yeah, your name is on the cover and spine. You wrote the words, constructed the plot, made sure of your themes, bent all of your not inconsiderable literary skills in the commission of lovingly constructing a narrative of unsurpassed beauty.
Good. That’s your job.
Thing is, no matter what you’ve done as a writer, the reader—the precious reader who we are trying to entertain in exchange for their latte and beer money—is going to bring their own interpretations, thoughts, unique tastes, biases, and all of themselves to your book. Their reading experience and interpretations of your prose is colored and informed by their life.
This is true for amateur reviewers. This is true for professional reviewers. This is true for any reader.
So I would caution you, Dear Writer, to not engage with reviews of any sort. I don’t care if the review is negative, snarky, mean-spirited, and calls your dog ugly. It doesn’t matter if you think the reviewer/reader completely missed the point of your deathless prose, intricate plot, and shiny themes.
Do not engage. Do not try to tell the reviewer why they are wrong, that they misread your story. Especially do not engage if the reviewer attacks not just your book, but you personally.
Leave it alone. Let them look like stupid jerks. Carry on with the business of writing The Next Thing. No matter how tempting, do not allow yourself to be drawn into what will be a very public confrontation that will, no matter what, make you look stupid.
You do not and cannot control what people say about the book once it is published, because it is not your book—or at least not your book alone—anymore. That’s part of the price you pay as a published author, this loss of control.
Take a deep breath. Settle at the keyboard. Write the next book (or whatever you write). Don’t engage. Don’t argue. Don’t fret about who is right or wrong. Don’t be a jerk.
Just write.
Here’s the deal: Once the publisher releases your book out into the wild, once your book is in the hands of the reading public, it is no longer your book.
Yeah, your name is on the cover and spine. You wrote the words, constructed the plot, made sure of your themes, bent all of your not inconsiderable literary skills in the commission of lovingly constructing a narrative of unsurpassed beauty.
Good. That’s your job.
Thing is, no matter what you’ve done as a writer, the reader—the precious reader who we are trying to entertain in exchange for their latte and beer money—is going to bring their own interpretations, thoughts, unique tastes, biases, and all of themselves to your book. Their reading experience and interpretations of your prose is colored and informed by their life.
This is true for amateur reviewers. This is true for professional reviewers. This is true for any reader.
So I would caution you, Dear Writer, to not engage with reviews of any sort. I don’t care if the review is negative, snarky, mean-spirited, and calls your dog ugly. It doesn’t matter if you think the reviewer/reader completely missed the point of your deathless prose, intricate plot, and shiny themes.
Do not engage. Do not try to tell the reviewer why they are wrong, that they misread your story. Especially do not engage if the reviewer attacks not just your book, but you personally.
Leave it alone. Let them look like stupid jerks. Carry on with the business of writing The Next Thing. No matter how tempting, do not allow yourself to be drawn into what will be a very public confrontation that will, no matter what, make you look stupid.
You do not and cannot control what people say about the book once it is published, because it is not your book—or at least not your book alone—anymore. That’s part of the price you pay as a published author, this loss of control.
Take a deep breath. Settle at the keyboard. Write the next book (or whatever you write). Don’t engage. Don’t argue. Don’t fret about who is right or wrong. Don’t be a jerk.
Just write.
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-17 05:22 pm (UTC)Leave it alone
Date: 2012-01-17 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-17 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-17 08:01 pm (UTC)Yes, I'm making fun of myself there.
It was hard for me to accept that not everyone can become a transparent eyeball and perceive things clearly as opposed to through their ego filter. Actually it's still hard for me to accept. But I'm getting there.
In an attempt to not make myself look stupid there (heh) - I don't mean that everyone should like it. Just that, in my ideal world, their reasons for not liking it would be based on the work itself, not on extraneous things. Oh well.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-18 05:18 am (UTC)What would you do? Is there any way to ask for a double-check when it's not a matter of opinion?
(Then again, I once got into an argument with a friend over whether there were any telepaths in Ethan of Athos, so possibly "objectivity" is not a thing that really exists. I still haven't figured out what she thought the book was about.)