Oneiromancy
n. The practice of predicting the future through interpretation of dreams.
I have an internal alarm clock that goes off at strange times. It happens when I dream about bad reviews. There’s no going back to sleep at that point.
These dreams are full of vitriol, attacking my novels in the ugliest possible manner, complete with ridiculous phrases that only my imagination can conjure up. The poison drips off the page, the words re-forming while I’m reading and rushing to get to the end of the sentence before it bends around a virtual corner.
In reality, I know that I can’t please everybody. I’ve had the same book draw comments of, “It’s too long,” “It’s too short,” “The characters were well-drawn,” “The characters were shallow,” etc. But still…
In my heart, I want everybody to love me!
*cue Sally Field*
I have to force myself not to withdraw, afraid of biting comments—and even trolls. The alternative would be not to look at the reviews, except the good ones feel so…well, good. Occasionally, I can learn from a bad one, too, if it’s constructive.
Most writers have the same problem. I take comfort in knowing I’m not alone. How do you block out the Sally Field moments?
I wrote a similar post to yours! I’m sure all writers have this problem. Thank you for sharing.
Hi, Joanne! Writers, in general, are sensitive. How else could we write? Thanks for stopping by!
I don’t mind a well constructed bad review with information about what I can improve on. The types that get me is when someone gives you a one star and states they didn’t read the book. It has only happened once or twice to me, but I hear other authors complain about this often. It is great to be in a community that understands about these things. Great IWSG post, Laura.
Hi Ciara! Yeah, those suck. I’ve seen some one star reviews that were given because Amazon was late shipping it to them! O.o The worst are one star and NO review at all, leaving you to wonder why.
That would be the worst! No review. My poor friend got a one star on her editorial review. Seriously, that’s what they wrote. They didn’t buy to book or read it, just rated the editorial review. It was crazy. I’m glad we can all laugh about this sometimes.
People amaze me, the things they go out of their way to skewer…
Fortunately my bad reviews were emailed to me and not posted to Amazon. I made the changes and self published the second version of Breakthrough.
That’s cool, Stephen. It sounds like they were constructive for you.
I think reading reviews will be very difficult. I’m not in that position yet, but I guess you have to suck it up like you would with a bad parent-teacher conference or a bad performance evaluation at work. It’s out of your control except for your reaction to it.
Exactly, Tonja. Of course, my heart will argue the point with my head for a few minutes.
Your post is so relevant to me – having just had an amazing month where my book was free on Amazon KDP for several days I have now had over 10000 downloads of my book. I guess the old clichés of ‘pride and fall’ spring to mind but I admit I have been riding high on a wave of optimism and a few actual sales following the freebies. Things were going swimmingly – mostly 5 stars for my reviews, I was up at no 10 in the charts for the romance genre. Then the wave crashed on the rocks this morning with 2 new shiny horrid reviews posted on Amazon (one star a and 2 star) – neither had bothered finishing the book, both slated it and both deleted it. One of them admitted it was not a genre they would usually read but heck as it was free they took it anyway and discovered why they do not read that genre. I later checked their other reviews and found that they both mostly gave 1 or 2 stars and appeared to get through 3 or 4 books a day (I guess if they don’t finish them they can do that many!). So now my copy book is blotted – my star rating is toppled off its 5 star average and the 2 reviews at the top of the list will likely stop any sales dead in the water. Your nightmare is my reality see you in my dreams!
It’s my reality too, Emma! That’s part of the problem with free days – you end up with people who don’t even like the genre. On the other hand, free can sometimes be the only way to get noticed. It’s a real dilemma.
I still would like all readers to love my work, but yeah, I know that’s not possible. I think the best thing to do is to ignore the reviews that don’t give constructive criticism. So what if a story is “too short.” It’s the way you wrote it. Now too many reviews about lack of character depth and the like can make an author sit up and pay attention. It definitely can be hard, though, and make someone insecure.
Hi Cherie! The ones that bother me the most are rated without any comment. I have no idea why they didn’t like it. But it goes back to you can’t please everybody. Thanks for stopping by!
I think any one of us writers could have written this post. It’s one of our universal fears. And while it is true that you cannot please everyone, just pleasing someone should be enough. I think we all have an inner Sally Field. I know I do. I just try to never allow her too free a rein. Let her smile and clap her hands when someone gives you a good review, but ignore the trolls. They’re ugly anyway, and you don’t want them as friends.
Well said, Nancy! I let Sally out to squee at a 5 star review, then shove her back in place. Trolls have bad breath too…
I know I’ll be riding this same roller coaster this summer after my book is out. Remind me to stay strong.
Yay, Carol! Buckle up your seatbelt. You have lots of supporters at the Tiki Hut to cheer you on.
I relate, Laura. I sort of quit reading them. Some people will never get us, and we will never please them. Might as well work on pleasing the folks that do. I say right up front my short stories are ‘short’, most of them are even free. Does that stop people from complaining? No. Shrug. I have to let it go, or I’d never write another thing.
Ain’t that the truth, Mary! It’s amazing what people don’t get…or outright ignore!
I think we all go through that! I recently had an author review my book and he felt the secondary characters weren’t well developed. Not two weeks later, Sia McKye posts her review and she raves about the secondary character development.
It all comes down to people’s expectations and how we can’t please them all.
But I want to please them all, Alex! Oops, Sally Field just jumped out again.
Laura, I sympathize with every independent author who runs into this, as I have. One person complained that the POD version of my first book fell apart in her hands. Did she ever wonder if I was the one who improperly applied the glue? Or if some not-very-well-paid quality inspector at Lulu or Createspace was having a bad day because her child was ill? Please don’t let this sort of thing ruin your sleep. Indie authors like ourselves are easy targets for those persons in our world who are looking for someone to put down — and confirm their own hoped-for superiority. Imagine the horrific dreams they must suffer.
Hi Ron! Yes, we all have a bullseye to advance another’s superiority and that could be applied to anything in life. As authors, we wave our target around more. The kind of complaint you received is ludicrous and yet happens too often. Thanks for stopping by!
Writing is very subjective. What one person loves another will not like. That’s just the way things are.
My head realizes that, Michael. I’m still trying to convince my Sally heart of that.
Hi Laura, I’m new to the IWSG family and wanted to introduce myself, #260. Since I was tagged in a little game of “Lucky 7,” I thought it would be fun to extend my tag to you. Please check out my blog when you get a chance.
Hi, Michael! Nice to meet you. This is my first posting for IWSG.