Does a bad review mean I'm a bad writer?

Helen_Davis · Post by **Helen_Davis** » Tue February 3rd, 2009, 6:16 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]There's no such thing as a "good writer" or a "bad writer." Highly successful writers, in terms of critical acclaim and/or sales (not the same thing by any means, though they sometimes coincide), undoubtedly produced some very flawed manuscripts when they first started out to write. Highly successful books may also have been very flawed as first drafts. And, as others here have pointed out, the quality of a novel may be judged very differently by different readers. (For just one example: Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl sold like hotcakes and has been relished by a great many readers, whereas others have judged it very harshly.)

Very general feedback (i.e., this stinks, or this is the best thing ever written) is essentially useless and should be ignored. Very specific feedback (i.e., two of the characters had nearly identical names and I kept confusing them) can be extremely useful, especially if the same comment is made by more than one reader. It's very helpful if a writer can pull back a bit from his/her own work (this is easier if one sets it aside for a month to a year and comes back to it fresh) to make a dispassionate judgment about whether feedback is (a) too general to be helpful, (b) specific but a matter of a reader's individual taste and therefore also not helpful, or (c) specific and useful because it points out a potential improvement that can make the next book appeal to a larger number of readers.[/quote]

well, I think the males that reviewed it probably didn't like the gender role reversal

Carla · Post by **Carla** » Wed February 4th, 2009, 6:39 pm

[quote=""Andromeda_Organa""]I had a person on Lulu give me a bad review. Should I take this as being a bad writer and stop writing?[/quote]

No, of course not. It means the person didn't like your book. People like different things - and that's just as well, or life would be very dull - so no book is ever going to please everyone. If the person said specifically what they didn't like, it's worth thinking about their comments (maybe in a little while after the sting has faded) and deciding if you agree with them. Sometimes it's helpful to see the book from another point of view. If they haven't said anything specific, best thing to do is forget it and move on.

I couldn't see the review on Lulu in the link in your sig file, by the way. Is it still there?

Volgadon · Post by **Volgadon** » Wed February 4th, 2009, 7:07 pm

"[an attempt] to combine the qualities of the thriller with those of what might be called the decorative novel... From the classical standpoint his consciousness is too crammed for harmony, too neurasthenic for proportion, and his humor is too hysterical, too greedy, and too crude."
This is from a review of His Monkey Wife, John Collier's first novel. The reviewer was none other than Collier himself.

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Wed February 4th, 2009, 11:05 pm

Do tell more, Volgadon. Was Collier trying to rustle up controversy over his book, and therefore more readers? Or was he reviewing an early effort that embarrassed him years later when he wrote the review? Was the review fair? Sometimes authors can be awfully hard on themselves!

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Wed February 4th, 2009, 11:07 pm

I think the males that reviewed it probably didn't like the gender role reversal

There are cases in which negative reviews can attract as many readers as they turn off, and this could be one of them.

Volgadon · Post by **Volgadon** » Thu February 5th, 2009, 5:09 pm

I haven't read His Monkey Wife, but the short stories are really superb. John Collier was merely that sort of wry, self-deprecating Englishman and the review was written as a bit of fun, so as not to take himself too seriously.

cw gortner · Post by **cw gortner** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 10:41 pm

I think negative reviews are part and parcel of the biz. If I get one, I cringe, of course, as it's never easy to discover someone hasn't appreciated what you've written, but if there's something in it that strikes a bell in me, then I consider it. And if I can revise my work, I do.

Online negative reviews, particularly on amazon, etc. can be so subjective, it's often hard to discern what's of value to you as a writer versus the fact that a particular reader didn't like your work.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 11:03 pm

When I got my first bad review, I cried for an hour. Gave myself a terrible headache.

cw gortner · Post by **cw gortner** » Sun February 8th, 2009, 11:13 pm

Oh, my very first one devastated me, too. It was so personal, too, I felt as if the person had kicked me in the stomach. Then I picked myself up off the floor and trudged on.

To this day, however, I still can't look at that review.

Helen_Davis · Post by **Helen_Davis** » Mon February 9th, 2009, 5:22 pm

[quote=""cw gortner""]I think negative reviews are part and parcel of the biz. If I get one, I cringe, of course, as it's never easy to discover someone hasn't appreciated what you've written, but if there's something in it that strikes a bell in me, then I consider it. And if I can revise my work, I do.

Online negative reviews, particularly on amazon, etc. can be so subjective, it's often hard to discern what's of value to you as a writer versus the fact that a particular reader didn't like your work.[/quote]

thanks christopher. BTW, did you get my PM.

OTOH, I found a story I'd written when I was twelve last night. I look at it and wonder where my talent came from! It was pretty funny- I had my characters killing Jabba the Hutt by pouring salt on him!