(no subject)

[coraa]

Has anyone ever seen a situation where an author defended themselves in the face of a less-than-positive review, where it came out with the author looking better than if they'd refrained from involving themselves?

I've seen authors involve themselves in positive discussions without problem. And I've seen authors say neutral things like 'Thank you for your review' in response to negative responses without problem. But I can't think of a single example of a time when an author has attempted to defend themselves from, or refute, a negative review, where the author has not come out looking measurably worse.

Comments

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And I get that negative reviews hurt. (I wince whenever I see an author explaining it as, "Readers just don't know how much it hurts!" Yeah, actually, I think we do, because pretty much everyone has had something they've worked hard on and/or loved criticized before, and yeah, it does hurt.)

It's just that I don't think that the author's pain means that I should have to not talk about the book, or to lie about my experience of the book. And I can't help but interpret the angry, defensive responses as an attempt to stifle discussion, which I don't appreciate.

[maggiedacatt.livejournal.com]

"Readers just don't know how much it hurts!"

My response to this: If you're not ready for this pain, don't put your work out there. Period. Not everyone is going to like it.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

For me, it's even more that... that I think that statement assumes that fiction writing is Special. That even if you've had harsh criticism of your work before (whatever your work may be), you can't possibly understand what it's like to be criticized for fiction writing, becuase it's Different, and Special.

And yeah, it hurts like heck to hear how your fiction writing failed. But it also hurts like heck to hear how your other work failed. I just don't believe that it's something that Can Only Be Comprehended By Artists.

But you're absolutely right, part of it is that if you're not okay with people sometimes disliking your stuff and saying so, you shouldn't publish. And if you can't handle seeing the criticisms, then you have a very simple option: don't go seeking out reviews. That will remove both the pain of hearing that someone didn't like something and the temptation to leap in and defend yourself. Of course, you also miss out on hearing about people who loved your stuff, but, well, trade-offs.