Life has
been very good to me. Concerning my new adventure, writing, I have had GOOD constructive
criticism from proofers of my books. Every one of them spot on. But even they at times apologized beforehand.
LOL. Bonnie (of Organic Discourse) was
the first to really bore in on my ‘errors’.
She was spot on and I learned a lot from her. It had a lot to do with me
only knowing her via the internet. She guided me thru ‘Finally Love’ and the
book was a success.
My Sherry
and friends Evelyn and JoAnn have also corrected me and justifiably so. So, after 9 books, I decided to shoot for a
larger audience. An audience outside friends, who wouldn’t hurt my feelings for
anything. Most folk who read my books,
know me, which makes a big difference.
Once,
during my AOL Journal time, The Shipslog was ‘Journal of the week’. That was during the time we first starting
hiking the trail. WOW what an honor. Comments sky-rocketed. BUT when my book on
the AT was published, I wasn’t ready for this:
Amazon, yep, Amazon recommended my book “The
Appalachian Trail”. WOOPEE! However when
I opened up to a new audience, I was not ready for my FIRST ‘negative’ review”
Review:
ZERO STARS (what? I am used to getting reviews
from ‘friends of FIVE STARS!) Then it
got worse……………
Quote: “I
will never forgive Amazon for recommending this book (?) It was a complete
waste of time and money, etc (and it got worse).” OUCH! Boy that hurt!
There
were a few more negative comments, I did actually get some 5 stars, LOL (mostly
from friends, of course).
But I sat
back to think. I have read negative reviews on books I have enjoyed. Not all of
us enjoy the same authors. But in this
case I do understand most of the negative comments (after I cried a little.
LOL).
When
anyone thinks of a hike on the AT they research and buy books that will help
them understand the hike. We did. Most
folk are solo hikers and are interested in the day to day needs, I wrote a
short novel and included actual ‘happenings’ on the trail. It was not a book of advice for hiking the
trail.
Many
hikers are young and would never think of using vehicles to aid in their hike
that would be ‘cheating’, or ‘blue blazing’, as the hikers would say.
My first
feelings were, ‘I would like to refund these folks money.’ That is the honest
truth, I still would like to. Since I cannot do that, I have to take into
account that these folk took time to EXPRESS themselves, they could have just
cursed me under their breath and went on. But they took their time to say how
they felt, good or bad.
So I says
to myself, ‘put on your big boy pants, suck it up, and if you can improve from
the comments do it.’ Of course that was after I quit fussing and crying! LOL
Nite Shipslog
PS: You gotta love Bonnie, She posted this on a forum we follow:
Well, you've hit the big time when you get
complete strangers to review your book.
PS: You gotta love Bonnie, She posted this on a forum we follow:
Well, you've hit the big time when you get
complete strangers to review your book.
************* ************
Ever feel like youare driving the top one, in a race with the one below?
Life is good!!!!
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6 comments:
When you open yourself up to public review, you never know what kind of opinions you might get. Some people are never satisfied and are willing to express it. For every one of those there is probably lots that liked the books, but didn't take the time to comment on it. I never rate a book, but I probably should. I think it's wonderful that you write books and share a lot of your own experiences in them. You'd get 5 stars from me!
Im sure there are more people that like the book than don't. The ones that don't just have a different interest. The book was good and made me want to hike someday when I would have never even though about it. I learned a lot by reading it.
Remember, for every negative comment posted, there are three positive comments that never posted. The same way news is. Bad news overrides good news.
Suck it up butter cup
Lisa
Reviews are subjective, like pain is subjective. I could rate my mild headache at a 9 of pain, where someone that just had surgery would rate their pain as a 6. Take it in stride and don't dwell on the negative ones too much. All writers get them, even those that sell lots of books and have been writing for years. At least you have written and published books, a lot of people can't say they have.
Betty
Hmm, I'd like to see that oaf (reviewer) try and do better!
Reminds me of the quote: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, take a big bite and chew slow.”
I agree with Lisa. Satisfied customers are much less likely to say anything v. the grouches. Until the Big Corporation took over responding to social media reviews (e.g., TripAdvisor), that was part of my job ... and the negativity grew really disheartening. We, of course, couldn't come out and say, "Hey buddy, did you bother to read our website or do your due diligence before you checked in." Same thing for your book. I really (really!) enjoyed it, but I knew going in not to expect a primer.
Nevertheless, I'm sure it stings, and I'm sorry for that.
I think some people live to be critical and that is their life. They are
not a happy person. I think Life is an up hill battle for them trying to find themselves they are never happy. I have heard nothing but good reviews from
very intelligent people. Some people are jealous
when you're a writer rejection slips are a fact of life. every person is entitled to their opinion. You just have to tuck the criticism aside and move forward.
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