In this article I’m going to break a golden rule and talk about a negative review I received. Normally talking about reviews of your own books is not a good idea. However, I do think it’s important that we talk about how useful and positive a negative review can be.
I want to talk about this review because I think it’s great example of how a review from someone who didn’t like the book but wrote something useful and positive thing for both authors and readers. I have nothing but appreciation for the reviewer, who took the time both the read my book and write about it, and I hope that the readers of my blog will show this reviewer the same respect.
This particular review will form a kernel around which I talk about the relationship between authors and reviewers, and how to deal with other sorts of negative reviews. Once again, please let me emphasise that this is not an attack on the reviewer, who I believe wrote and an excellent and accurate description of why they didn’t enjoy the book as much as others might. The main objective is to show why their critique is so well written, how to see the positives in someone not liking what you wrote (and potential lessons to learn), and then look more broadly at negative reviews.
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Book bloggers have become an essential part of publishing.
If you are an indie author you are not going to sell many books without them. Far more importantly than that, you will never find a more engaged, passionate group of book lovers – and, asides from ourselves, these are the people we write for, right?
In this article I’m going to talk about why book bloggers are so important and what they do, about book blog tours and the one taking place for my novel Vile, about how to find the Book Blogger for you, and some does and don’ts when dealing with these very important people in the world of publishing. I’ll also be reviewing all of the blogs that are reviewing my book on the blog tour. Vengeance! (Just kidding. Probably).
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When someone watches your film or play, reads your book or short story, listens to your audio drama or podcast, they are making an investment of time. Every minute could be spent on something else: their family, the washing up, playing computer games, or god-forbid another writer’s work. Every minute they give you must give them more than they’ll get from getting up and going somewhere else. Otherwise, guess what they’ll?
Yet writers rarely think in terms of time. We talk about word limits, when we have one,
or target word counts, when we’re trying to convince ourselves we can sell our
150,000-word teen thriller. But time eludes us. In this article I’m going to
talk about how to think about your writing in terms of the readers use of time,
and points in your story where time is especially important.
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You will get criticism whether you want it or not. As a writer, or any creative, it will be a central part of your existence. A central and very painful part of your existence. So how to you deal with it? How do you use it?
As I write this, I am in the morning before the Sunday night reading of my new play. It will be followed by an audience Q&A. That’s right, the audience will give me feedback right when I most want to slit my fucking wrists. So this essay isn’t a mere academic exploration. It’s a survivors guide. How do you take criticism, and make use of it, without killing yourself and/or burning your work?
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It’s been a challenging year.[i] As a consequence, I missed last month’s blog post deadline and am perilously close to missing this month’s. The primary purpose of this article is to get something, anything up on the site. I am also going to explore some of the reasons why keeping the blog going is difficult, and what I can do to make things easier. You may find this post helpful if you also have trouble achieving apparently simple objectives.
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