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Bad Reviews

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Jack_of_Names:
Hello, everyone!

Okay, what this thread is for, is to ask how everyone handles bad reviews, from informal readers all the way up the scale to... "official" reviewrs. I ask because recently, I got my first bad review, off my mother of all people, and it shook my worse than any criticism I ever got from anyone else. There was no constructiveness about it, it was just flat out, "I don't think it's very good."

So, everyone, if you let people read you're stuff, how do you handle bad reviews? I know you're supposed to be tough skinned, but people have to feel somthing! It's human nature. So, do you shrug it aside? Do you take it in? Do you change?

"Can't please 'em all" is a popular saying, but it dosn't stop us from trying. Anyway, original question, how do YOU handle bad reviews?

iago:
It's important with any *public* review -- setting aside the "mom" case -- that you respond to the reviewer thanking them for taking the time to review it.  Do not sink to the level of negativity.  By being a "class act", keeping your cool, and actually thanking a reviewer for a negative review, you've got a shot at turning that bad review into an opportunity for gaining respect in the eyes of folks who read your response to the reviewer.  Plus, there's a very real chance (this happened with a game I helped write) that the reviewer has a bunch of readers who read to find what he *doesn't* like, because they tend to like what he hates.  I've seen several "bad" reviews turn into a force for making sales this year.

... that said, if it's a personal review, like the "mom" case ... Man, that's just plain tough.  The lack of constructiveness is the only thing you should be responding to -- getting defensive will keep *you* from being constructive, too.  So challenge them: take them step by step through the process of analysis, and milk those constructive comments out of them.  They're there; it just takes some digging.  And honestly, as the creator, the onus to do the digging is really on you.  Folks who offer constructive criticism without prompting are doing volunteer work. ;)

Jack_of_Names:
There are times that I think myself wise, and in some ways, despite my relativley young years, I suppose I could be considered so. But you, Iago, and what you just said, is (and are) as wise as a tibetan wise man known to be un-commonly wise amongst wise men. Thanks :D

Paige:
My first thought was, ohmygod, that's cold!! I mean, mom is the one who's supposed to love everything you do and really believe it in her own twisted world view where you're a god /or goddess/ among mere humans.

And then I read your second post and realized you are likely young enough your mother might be thinking she's doing you a favor...saving you from years of disappointment and possibly ultimate failure...better to be a doctor, or a lawyer!   ::)

Whichever the case negative feed back is rough. Really rough. Writing is a very personal thing, while reading is comparatively impersonal, and very, very subjective. Other than time, a negligible amount of money and expectations, the reader invests little if nothing in comparison to what you’ve invested in a piece of work. It’s difficult, if not impossible for a reader, especially a non-writing reader, to understand the emotional connection a writer has to his or her work.
Unfortunately, no amount of explaining or comparing will make a difference. And Mama always knows best so I’d imagine it’d be even harder with her.

I agree with Iago, to be polite, be above the kneejerk hurt and urge to get even. It won’t do you or anyone else any good. The quickest way to bad reviews is to piss off the reviewer. Do it and you can bet they’ll trash everything else you ever write. Just not worth it.

Professionally speaking, getting a bad review on a published work... There’s very little you can do. Whine to an understanding friend, eat some chocolate (works really well for us women), hit something that won’t be hurt, hurt you, or hit back (works great for guys...and girls), cry if you need to...then put it behind you. NO. You can’t please everyone. Everyone has different tastes, different likes and dislikes. Example: There are people who actually think a Rocky SIX is a good idea (shudder) and stranger still, there are people who don’t love LOVE the Dresden files. (Gasp!) You’ll get bad reviews as sure as it will rain in spring. If one person says they didn’t enjoy your work, you can bet there’s someone out there who loved it. The negative voices just seem louder.

Pre-published critiques/ opinions...again, I agree with Iago. A simple, “I didn’t like it,” does you no good. Maybe they didn’t like the premise or the genre or any stories that use the word “said” who knows? (People are weird.) Ask them why they didn’t like it. If their comments make sense, try and learn from it. If they’re just trying to pull you down, or are one of those people who’s elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top...say thanks and then put it behind you. Keep writing. Keep getting better. Eat chocolate, hit something soft and inanimate then keep writing.

Your mom...speaking strictly personally, It’d be a long, long, long time before I showed her anything else. I’d assume she was just trying to point me in a different less emotionally painful, direction, toward a career where the odds of success aren’t stacked heaven high against me. You know better than anyone if it was tough love or callus indifference. And you know better than anyone how to deal with it.
Best of luck to you!!

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: Jack_of_Names on December 20, 2006, 01:45:39 AM ---Okay, what this thread is for, is to ask how everyone handles bad reviews, from informal readers all the way up the scale to... "official" reviewrs. I ask because recently, I got my first bad review, off my mother of all people, and it shook my worse than any criticism I ever got from anyone else. There was no constructiveness about it, it was just flat out, "I don't think it's very good."

--- End quote ---

It depends on the sort of bad review. "I don't think it's very good" tells you pretty much nothing about what the reviewer thinks is wrong with it.

A nice informative review that says "this person doing X in chapter 15 doesn't make sense given how she reacts to Y in chapter 7", I'll think about, and either change or put in the information to make it make sense; when I've been living closely with characters for as long as it takes to write anything of note, I can easily forget what about them is so bloody obvious that I never get round to putting it in the text.

A review that says "I hate the scene with the pineapples" but that turns out on querying to be because the reviewer had a traumatic experience with a pineapple as a child rather than anything about the scene itself, counts as "oh, OK, not going to get an objective opinion here".  So does anything that's critiquing the book for not being what I don't actually want it to be in the first place.  [ Ye gods, Amazon is full of people doing the equivalent of criticising Psycho for all the ways in which it fails to be Watership Down.]

Find readers who are likely to understand what you're doing and be sympathetic to it.  Don't expect someone who never reads SF to get the details of an SF novel you write in a specific tradition within SF.  Know what you're likely to be compared to, whether you want it or not - for example, if you're working on a colonising-Mars novel, it's worth having at some point read Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars and sequels, being the big award-winning and highly regarded colonising-Mars novels of recentish times, because any reviewer who knows the field will have those books in their mind.

IMO, the most useful first-readers are writers about as good as you are or a little better. Writers who are a lot better are liable to either give you advice that goes over your head, or have to put so much work into making it clear what they think would be helpful that it's hard to get them to stick to it; writers who aren't as good as you are liable to give unhelpful  advice even though well-meaning.  [ There's definitely a place for first-readers who go "Wow, this is wonderful, keep going" without any more details than that; that place is in motivating you to keep writing, and not to be mistaken for critical feedback. ]

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