Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Can't Please Everybody...



It was bound to happen. After weeks of four and five star reviews I have to admit I probably got cocky.

The feedback had been all I'd hoped for. Review after review assured me that I belonged in the writing world...that my first novel was a shining example of imagination and skill. Maybe I'd be a bestseller, like one of those people who became social media darlings within months thanks to Facebook, Twitter and word-of mouth.

THEN "Thoeba" would become a blockbuster movie, starring Elizabeth Banks as Thoeba, and one of Dakota Fannings unknown younger siblings as Kayla. And people would talk about me in trendy circles, and the pressure to follow up with nothing less than brilliance would be...

Wait...What? A two star review on Goodreads? WTF?

I don't know her. But she IS a professional book reviewer. Which made me wonder why she hadn't commented on it.

More curious than upset, I politely thanked her for the review and asked her, "in all seriousness", what she didn't like.

Her quick response was friendly, VERY nice. She just couldn't get into it. She said she felt bad about that. She didn't put it on her blog as a regular review, or post it on Amazon because she felt it wasn't a bad book, or even a badly written book. She just didn't get into it, and she hoped I understood.

Ah, there go my dreams of uniting the globe with a message of tolerance and world wide empathy. Goodbye, Nobel Peace Prize.

Just kidding. But I think I DO understand. Not everybody is going to fall in love with my concepts. But at least I was honest to my work, and I hope others continue to like 'Thoeba' and my next novels. I will continue writing and learn from people who don't agree with me.

But it's funny...I thought this would hurt more.

Illustration by: aref www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

7 comments:

  1. Well that's a better bad review! I'm glad it just wasn't her thing, and not that she thought poorly of your mad writing skillz :)

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    1. Yeah, to be honest I thought she was going to slam me and tell me how much I suck. Whew! I got lucky.

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    3. And I meant to say Thanks Magz <3 'mad writing skillsz'. *Blush*

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  2. Its ok Donna..there are thousands that WILL get into it and love it like we do!

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  3. I have no idea why my name came up as duh lol ....probably one of Dre's profiles

    Cathy

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    1. Lol! I was wondering who that was...Thanks Cathy! I was m,ore concerned with skill actually. The thing I DIDN'T want to hear is how pathetic/amateurish my writing was. I'm totally fine with her not liking the concept. Maybe she prefers vampires or sorcery.

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