Comments on: “OUCH! That hurt…” Bad & less than stellar reviews

By: Jenna

Jenna — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 03:02:27 +0000

Your books DEFINITELY appeal to my friends and I, and I hope you’ll keep writing them (because if you don’t, I will cry a lot. I mean… A LOT. Like, I would never get over it. Could you live with ruining most of the adult life of a perfect stranger? How could I possibly hold a job if I cried all the time? HOW COULD I DO IT, SPENDLOVE????).
Also, what time frame are you looking at for book three? I feel like I’m already starting to get teary-eyed… chop-chop.

By: Photobomber

Photobomber — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 01:14:21 +0000

OMG, I loved your reaction almost as much as I love your books. Your fantastic. Mr. One Star possibly was confused by the whole rating system and thought that 1 star meant you were #1. Yeah, that’s it! Crisis averted!

By: Jada

Jada — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:20:10 +0000

Good for you for working through this and being honest with yourself.

By: Mandi

Mandi — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 23:31:13 +0000

You want bad reviews, you should do the shootout I do. I am clearly a glutton for punishment for going back, but the comments they make sometimes make me wonder if they actually know how to read. (Today, for instance – my story starts with the FMC tripping, hurting herself and commenting about how her foot is bleeding. Comment “I don’t understand where the blood comes from. You should tell us that.”)

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 22:00:06 +0000

Oh and a seller on Amazon has your book for sale for nearly $85!!!

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:54:50 +0000

At the end of nearly every class we fill out a survey. One of my teachers won’t read hers until the final is graded. She says there can be 150 surveys talking about how awesome she is and how much the student learned/was inspired and 1 “she’s a harpy” comment. That 1 bad likely from a student who was going to fails gets to her. I don’t think it is ever easy to be critized.

Before I write any review that is negative I ask myself is the book a genre I would normally read and would I have paid for the book in the store based on back page and what not. If my main reason for reading the book was it was free or it was outside my usual genres I consider if I should write a review. I also mention that in my review. I have emailed with a few authors to know they are real people and real people deserve honest curtosity.
I have noticed in the age of the internet and now with so many of us with access on our phones, there become more and more keyboard warriers who will say err type things they would naver say outloud or in person.

Oh yeah and I loved both your books.

By: Albin Johnson

Albin Johnson — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:54:13 +0000

Ah, sounds like you’ve arrived! I wouldn’t let it get to you. I am bracing for the onslaught of cutting remarks over my writing but the good news is you’re a writer and you have something to be critiqued. That’s a huge accomplishment. You have a voice and a story and it’s yours. I’m proud of you and I love your writing style. More, I respect your thought process. You’re in the game now and all suited up for some hits – so it’s good to get them, feel the sting, and learn from it. You’re right, you can’t please everyone (and you don’t want to). I’ve already started rethinking a lot of stuff I loved reading as a kid and I’m not very gracious to them for their mistakes – yet they are successful. Your job is to take the critiques and become better. And I know you will.

By: Stuart Jaffe

Stuart Jaffe — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 16:56:39 +0000

Congratulations! I’ve always considered getting bad reviews to mean two things as a writer: First, it’s a rite of passage, so welcome to the club that we’ve all been a part of all the way back to Shakespeare and before. Second, it means you stirred somebody’s emotions strong enough that they took the time to write the bad review — true, you’d rather stir their emotions the opposite way, but at least you’re hitting them somewhere. Thus, the worst review you could get IMO — “Meh. It was okay.”

By: Chaos Mandy

Chaos Mandy — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 15:19:50 +0000

As a reviewer, it’s hard to write bad reviews. But it isn’t fair to anyone to sugar coat every review. But your books are awesome to a lot of people, so it’s something to be proud of!

And go Kaleidoscope track!

By: Allen L. Wold

Allen L. Wold — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 15:09:16 +0000

In my somewhat longer experience, there are three kinds of reviews: positive, negative, and bad. Negative reviews hurt, of course, but once you calm down, you can see which parts can be relevant to your future work, and which parts don’t matter. Positive reviews make you feel good, but after you calm down you discover that maybe they said things they shouldn’t have, such as comparing you to other writers who you do not at all resemble (as has happened with me). The the bad reviews, where it soon becomes obvious that the “reviewer” (quotes to signify that that the title “reviewer” may be spurious) is more concerned with showing off how clever he or she is, and is writing for the money (as I know all too well from a really bad review from someone I will not name on the internet — ask me some time).

The best reviews are those thoughtful ones which credit you for what you did well, and which point out with courtesy where you could have done better. Think of our evaluations in the writer’s workshop. Those are immensely valuable.

But you got reviewed, and despite the pain, someone may read it and say that what the reviewer didn’t like is really just what the reader is looking for. I’ve had that experience too, as a reader.