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Divia
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Post by Divia » Fri October 17th, 2008, 8:57 pm

I understand that authors can feel bad about the reviews. But I dunno to go on a MB and say "help me out!" that just sad. The reviews are there for a reason.

I'll say this. I woudl buy her stuff all the time, but now not so much. I didnt buy her last novel and I have no intention of buying any of her novels in the future unless she picks up the intensity and starts writing something good.

Look back in all fairness I can say that the only one I REALLY liked was BI. Virigin's lover was eh, Constant princess was eh, Queen's fool downright sucked, and TOBG was good at the time but now I dont think I would enjoy it. Too many duds if ya ask me.
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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Fri October 17th, 2008, 8:58 pm

[quote=""cw gortner""]I don't think it's very good form. I've had negative reviews on amazon for both my books, and while it does hurt, it's the way of the world. You roll with it; not everyone is going to love your work.[/quote]

I agree, absolutely. Of course you get a sinking feeling when you see less than five stars on your work, but you deal with it. Whining ain't a pretty sight and can be downright damaging. When an absolute slew of reviews are negative and all the reviewers are singing from the same hymn sheet, a wise author generally takes note of the comments.
IMO some authors have a very shrewd business sense though. One's fan board is going to be a place where one can count on support to try and bury those negative reviews. In some cases a very knowing steel fist in a velvet glove is driving the 'sob-sob, shocked, hard done by poor ickle me.' scenario.
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

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nona
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Post by nona » Fri October 17th, 2008, 8:58 pm

I would think one could use the negative reviews as a way to 'fix' some flaws maybe not all cause your not going to win over everyone who reads the book, but you could see what the people want or expect as far as regular readers go. does that make sense?

ex: as far as everyone is saying PG shouldn't have told the story in the same manner as TBI.

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diamondlil
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Post by diamondlil » Fri October 17th, 2008, 9:17 pm

[quote=""nona""]I would think one could use the negative reviews as a way to 'fix' some flaws maybe not all cause your not going to win over everyone who reads the book, but you could see what the people want or expect as far as regular readers go. does that make sense?

ex: as far as everyone is saying PG shouldn't have told the story in the same manner as TBI.[/quote]

***SPOILERS***
(Although to be fair if you know the history there are no spoilers here!)


I haven't read TBI, so I wasn't aware that the format was the same. I think that the format could work though. There are other authors who have used a similar format. The problem here for me was that the characters were one dimensional, and that I don't think that she really knew who her main character was. Everything in the book pointed at Mary being the main character, so we got to see what Bess was thinking about Mary, and what George was thinking about Mary, and what Mary was thinking about Mary, but then in the author's note, PG said that she wanted to concentrate on the time where Bess of Hardwick was involved in the guarding and imprisonment of Mary. This leads to a couple of anomalies. Mary was a guest/imprisoned for twenty years. This book covers 3 or so years, with a couple of additional brief chapters to mention the Babington plot and her execution. Actually her execution is not really covered in the book, but rather in a foreshadowing dream of one of the characters. There is nothing about what was it that finally made Elizabeth decide that Mary had to be executed or anything like that.

I would add in terms of the review that Misfit posted from Amazon, the only thing that the review missed out on, was the everyone hates Cecil point of view that was prevalent throughout the book!


And there is most of my review!
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nona
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Post by nona » Fri October 17th, 2008, 9:23 pm

it does not spoil anything for myself this is one PG I'm skipping which is sad cause I was somewhat giddy about it coming out, she could have made it 'wow' but after all the feedbak I feel let down and I haven't even picked it up.

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Sat October 18th, 2008, 3:10 am

I guess its just a knee jerk reaction to defend oneself, and I guess I can understand why PG and other authors do it. But then I see authors on here who take the punches and keep rolling. What makes them just go with it while others need to take a stance and fight?

I agree that if there is a majority of people telling PG that her Mary book sucked and these are the reasons for it, then ya think she'd take notice. Best selling author you maybe, but that could be only cause of your name. If she keeps churning out crap it won't matter who her name is people won't read her stuff.

I think this woudl be a perfect chance for her to step back, realized she dropped the ball, gather up her wits and make things better.

Eh, but what do I know?
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princess garnet
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Post by princess garnet » Sat October 18th, 2008, 2:01 pm

[quote=""Judith""]Here's one thread. Not sure if this is the correct one, there could be others! ;)

http://www.philippagregory.com/forum/vi ... .php?t=600[/quote]

Yes, that's the thread. Sorry for not posting the link! I didn't understand why she wrote such a thread. :confused:

I still appreciate Jean Plaidy and Margaret Campbell Barnes for their novels on the same people.

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boswellbaxter
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Post by boswellbaxter » Sat October 18th, 2008, 2:28 pm

Look under Amazon Antics in "Chat" for the non-Gregory related posts re: authors on Amazon.
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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Sat October 18th, 2008, 2:29 pm

Thanks, I had a feeling that split was coming :D

Helen_Davis

Post by Helen_Davis » Sat November 15th, 2008, 6:27 pm

[quote=""michellemoran""]Very disappointing. I've put it back on my bookshelf half-way through. It's too bad, because Mary had a life that could fill several novels.[/quote]

Yeah, I agree. I started it and put it away after 10 pages

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