My last book was published before teh intarwebs were quite such a huge deal as they are now. However, there were plenty of reviews to be found, and I gulped them down. The bad ones didn't usually depress me for more than a day, and less than that after a while, because most of the reviewers weren't actually reading the books I had written. That was a pity, but I didn't feel that it reflected on me, since you can't please everybody. The effect noted by Tolkien, that passages disdained by some readers were by others especially approved, also helped -- it was fairly clear to me that I'd just have to choose which readers I wanted to make happy, and the general tenor of the bad reviews made me not much want to please the reviewers. I got more charitable later and would just think, Oh, well, I don't write what X wants to read. Poor X, X has to review it anyway; what a drag.
I had one balanced review that really did cut to the quick, because the reviewer was in fact my kind of reviewer and did understand the book, but was not altogether satisfied with it. That really stung when the book was my new shiny accomplishment, but later on I was able to value it extremely. (I'm talking about Delia Sherman's review of Tam Lin in, if I recall correctly, The New York Review of Science Fiction.
I don't think you'll really know how you want to handle reviews until you've read a bunch; it depends on temperament, yours and the reviewers', as much as anything. Experience helps too.
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Date: 2008-11-01 04:20 pm (UTC)I had one balanced review that really did cut to the quick, because the reviewer was in fact my kind of reviewer and did understand the book, but was not altogether satisfied with it. That really stung when the book was my new shiny accomplishment, but later on I was able to value it extremely. (I'm talking about Delia Sherman's review of Tam Lin in, if I recall correctly, The New York Review of Science Fiction.
I don't think you'll really know how you want to handle reviews until you've read a bunch; it depends on temperament, yours and the reviewers', as much as anything. Experience helps too.
P.