Sticks, Stones, and Bad Reviews

[rj_anderson]

No worries about that subject line, I haven't personally had any bad reviews yet (phew!). But then, I've hardly had any reviews yet at all... and I've been thinking about how to handle it when the comments really start coming in.

To any of my fellow writers who may read this, whether you're ficcers or in a critique group working on getting published or (especially) if you're an established pro -- how do you deal with reviews? Do you:

A) read them avidly, good and bad, trying to see what you can learn from them? (And if so, have they actually taught you anything, or just alternately exhilarated and depressed you?)

B) read only the good ones, and ignore the bad? (And if so, how do you manage to do this?)

C) read no reviews whatsoever? (And if so, why?)

I'm still undecided about the whole thing myself. I love hearing nice things about my writing (who doesn't?) but I also don't want to turn a deaf ear to any advice that could help me improve. On the other hand, as has often been said, "reviews are for readers", not the author, and many authors feel that reading them is really not helpful on a practical level and is only likely to discourage you and hurt your confidence in your next project. I'm not sure what the argument is for reading no reviews at all, though.

Anyway, if you have thoughts on this subject, as an author or a reader or a critic, I'd be glad to hear them.

Comments

[pameladean]

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.

P.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Hee, it tickles me to see you using phrases like "teh intarwebs".

I think you're right about it depending on temperament. Obviously you have no difficulty putting them in a right perspective, and that is an enviable quality. I hope that I can either develop it myself, or find some other means of dealing with it.