If you follow writerly circles on the internet, you’ve probably seen it before. Someone posts less-than-kind things about a book. The author of the book responds. Maybe it starts out as a reasoned discussion (though not necessarily), but generally it devolves rather quickly into “you’re just not smart enough to understand my work” and/or “how can you be so mean to me?” Sometimes it even gets to threatening people with the FBI.
If you’re a writer: DON’T DO THIS. I can’t possibly say it as emphatically as I’d like. DO NOT EVER DO THIS. There’s very little you can say to a bad review that doesn’t make you look like an idiot. Even a short “I’m sorry you feel that way” is not going to sound good. It sounds snide.
If you’re a reader–well, what can I say? You don’t owe writers anything–especially if you paid for the book. Be kind if you like, but do it for yourself if you do.
Those who have been around here a bit know I’m a big proponent of beta readers, and this is one reason for that. Think you can do a better job of tearing my book apart than my hand-picked list of red-ink-wielding ninjas? Well, maybe you can. But I can take it, because they got there first.
One of my books got a one-star review on one of the sites where I keep tabs. It’s my first one-star review. There’s no reasoning given.
That’s okay. He/she has the right. I’d like to link to an awesome post I read once, wherein an author apologized sincerely for not writing the book the reader wanted to read, but I have lost it.
If you know what I’m talking about, toss a link in the comments, pls?
Happy reading!