murder.booklocker.com

Shortly after I got my first review I was anxious to harvest the wheat, ignore the chaff, and post the glowing remarks to both my blog and website. To my dismay, one whole paragraph (of three!) quoted the back cover. One down. In the two remaining paragraphs I found things like “traditional mystery genre with a touch of romance.” That’s good, right? I quivered slightly when this was represented as “the challenge is how the detective solves the crime and gets his girl.”

But when it came to the actual writing, the reviewer said, “This was a good read, primarily because Chery Hagedorn is a good writer.” She also called it a “well-written tale.” For sure that’s good stuff!

My problem came when I had to decide what to do with the criticism that formed (for me) the heart of what she had to say about the book.

“I must say, however, that I had a bit of a problem with the motivation for the murders. It seems these days that just about anything which annoys a person is an adequate reason to end another person’s life . . . and I don’t think this applies solely to senior citizens. That would be the only criticism I might make of this novel.”

My first response was to reply to the reviewer. I asked her as carefully as I could, “What exactly did you think the motivation behind the murders was?”

Her response was, “Each victim had something about him/her that annoyed or irrated the murderer.” I did an aha! to myself and wrote back, “Thanks. In that case I definitely agree with your assessment. I was shooting for long term abuse by the “activists” who thought they were superior to the card players.”

I came up against this same sort of thing when I interviewed one of my readers.

Writers Group

Meanwhile, I posted (to the Chicago Writers Association) the query, “What to do with a bad review?” – knowing full well that the review I had gotten was NOT a bad review.

But still.

It was the first one I had received and my feelings were a bit bruised.

The group responded:
1. Reviews are like Christmas ornaments: take them out and look at them once a
year. Then put them away and forget about them.
2. Wow, what coincidence. I was toying with posting of a similar nature. I just received my very first poor review. Though I can stack a few excellent reviews up against this one lousy one, this one seemed to pack the biggest punch.
       Of course it would, it’s always easier to take the good than the bad huh. After a few folks telling me “Any review is a good review!” or “It’s not that bad of a review”, I decided to spin it in a positive manner and learn from for future reference concerning what I write and how.
3. Anyway, nothing wrong with a review that has the word “good” in it. And you ARE making the best of it simply with your post to this group (and anyone else to whom you may mention it)…it caused a lot of people who might never have heard of your book to try to find out more about it, and that’s the whole point.

4. Take cheer, Cheryl, your review had the word “good” in it. I know what it’s like though to hear someone say something along the lines of “it’s good and well written but…” Oh Lord how I hate that “BUT!” I’m the kind of person who will forget all about the “good” and fixate on everything that followed the “but.” Even if it was just one person’s opinion.
5. My short answer would be to ignore the “bad review” and wait for one or more good ones. While a rating of “good” may not be glowing or even “very good”, it’s not a “bad” review. And the general rule of thumb is that any review - even a truly bad one - is better than no review at all. It’s still publicity, which is better than no publicity at all. And I’ve never heard of a reviewer turning away a book because it has not gotten glowing reviews from others.

Consolation

Charles Stross has culled reviews of classics from reader comments on Amazon.com which make for hysterical reading. This is a must-read for every writer. Check the following:

1984 by George Orwell:

Caitlyn from Atlanta, GA, wrote: “1984 is the worst book I have ever read. I would advise anyone who is thinking about reading this book to reconcider! George Orwell is not a bad writer, however, this book he does not do evry well on, as some of his others. Prehaps he was getting old and lost his touch. Animal Farm was okay, but 1984 was horrible. It took him forever, it seemed like, to get into the accual book. If someone were to take out all of the useless part of 1984, it would be half as long. Why would he wirte so much about nothing? I havent ever meet someone who could wirte such a boring book about the goverment. I have meet many people who have loved this book, but i dispised it. I am not at all intrested in the goverment. This may be part of the reason that I didnt like it. I would advise you not to read this book.”

Advice from Different Sectors

In an article entitled, “Employee Performance: What To Do About A Bad Review” by Carol A. Guy, she made the following points for a constructive response:
1. Don’t Respond in Haste
2. Respond Point by Point
3. Don’t Be Defensive
4. Keep it Positive
5. Admit it and Move On

On Critics

I found the following list on a site that addressed reviews of software programs. There’s a lot to be gleaned here, but first the list:

“The most common threads that bind bad reviews are:
1. The reviewer doesn’t know how to use the program;
2. the reviewer didn’t actually use the program;
3. the reviewer knows and likes another program so much better that they would never like this program no matter how much better it might be;
4. the reviewer has never done the task that the program solves (be it DTP or accounting) so they’re not qualified to judge how well the program performs its tasks.

Some Thoughts on Fighting Back

One of the responses I got was from Marlys Marshall Styne (member of the writers group) who has an entire blog posting about a bad experience she had with a reviewer.

“Today I noticed what may be a new kind of review: the ‘I didn’t really read the book, but I’ll write a review anyway.’ I don’t object to the negative parts of the review (it’s not technically a “bad review”) but to the fact that it clearly indicates ignorance of the book’s contents and some very basic facts.”

“After correctly listing my name and the book’s title, the reviewer repeatedly refers to me as ‘Dr. Stone.’ First, my name is not Stone, [it’s Styne] and second, I do not have a doctorate. Then he refers to my long teaching career at ‘St. Olaf’s College.’ My father graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and my brother taught there for many years, but I did neither.”

Read the whole post.

The second instance of an author “fighting back” comes from the Author’s Den, where Gary R. Varner writes “O! The Horrors of Bad Reviews.” Definitely worth a read and, in some instances, similar to Marlys’s experience.

This is Gary’s final paragraph:

“Don’t take reviews seriously! Write the best that you can and get your work published. But please choose the review source carefully and stay away from those that may appear to be qualified but really don’t know as much as you do. Sadly, book reviewers have writers against the wall. They can tear your work apart but there is no forum available to the writer to exchange opinions with them or to question their attack.”

An Opposing View

From Neil Gaiman:

“I think that unless a reviewer gets their facts completely wrong, the author should shut up (and even then, the author should probably let it go — although I’m a big fan of a letter that James Branch Cabell wrote to the New York Times pointing out that their review of FIGURES OF EARTH was bollocks*). As Kingsley Amis said, “A bad review may spoil your breakfast, but you shouldn’t let it spoil your lunch.”

Other Places To Go Look

The Intergalactic Medicine Show has an interesting post for readers who want more:“When Book Reviews Go Bad: Negative reviews and how to cope

Ken Rockwell has an excellent article which insists that “Bad Reviews Are Good.” Here’s a few quotes as teasers:

“To be memorable, work must be unique. No one else has done it before, and no one else ever will duplicate it. If your work is great, people will try to duplicate it, but never succeed. Be yourself and be great, or be like everyone else and be forgotten.”

“Bad reviews are good. If you’re not getting bad reviews you’re doing the same old thing. Not that the same old thing is bad - if you love it. Do what you want, and do it well.”