No Stars
Just found out that my new book, The Golden Girl, got a four-star review in Romantic Times, which is wonderful. But it reminds me yet again not to get too caught up in reviews. Because if I'm going to get excited for a good one, it means conversely that I'm going to get down about the occasional bad one. And one thing I've discovered about the Internet. Opinions, as they say, are like a**h*les. Everyone has one.
A quick search of my name or one of my books reveals tons of reviews. Most are kind, some are glowing, and occasionally there's a bad one. But I have to say that the bad ones, inevitably, are snarky. It seems like reviewing has become its own "art form" and very often the reviewer is trying to sharpen that wit. The attacks even get personal.
A good writing pal of mine just had her first YA come out. It's a poignant, endearing debut. She's gotten some nice reviews. Then . . . she got a review on a site that said, "I'm sorry I spent my money on this book because it encourages the author to continue to write more bad YA fiction." Besides wondering if this anonymous reviewer (not anonymous, per se, but certainly hiding behind the name of her site) has recently been appointed by God as the Final Authority of what makes YA literature good or bad, I don't get why the review can't simply be about the book at hand and instead has to veer off into a personal attack.
So I don't get too caught up in reviews. I realize that very often, the person has an agenda--even if that agenda is as simple as ego-stroking. It reminds me of when my first novel came out a few years ago. Cosmopolitan featured it and called it a "hilarious" book. Well, my second book came out. US Weekly picked it as the Hot Book Pick. And an aspiring writer who has her own website noted the second novel, "was pretty good, which is a good thing since Orloff's first novel 'got trashed.'" Uh . . . I'm not sure where, but for me as a first-time novelist breaking into commercial fiction, I was pleased with the reviews I got. So it was my first taste of the world of personal zingers and snarky sound bites.
So now, instead of taking "the good with the bad," most of the time I don't take either. I continue to create and write and mentor new writers and have fun with my career. I respond to my fan mail and talk to kids at schools about being a writer. And I remember the adage about opinions. Everyone's got one.
A quick search of my name or one of my books reveals tons of reviews. Most are kind, some are glowing, and occasionally there's a bad one. But I have to say that the bad ones, inevitably, are snarky. It seems like reviewing has become its own "art form" and very often the reviewer is trying to sharpen that wit. The attacks even get personal.
A good writing pal of mine just had her first YA come out. It's a poignant, endearing debut. She's gotten some nice reviews. Then . . . she got a review on a site that said, "I'm sorry I spent my money on this book because it encourages the author to continue to write more bad YA fiction." Besides wondering if this anonymous reviewer (not anonymous, per se, but certainly hiding behind the name of her site) has recently been appointed by God as the Final Authority of what makes YA literature good or bad, I don't get why the review can't simply be about the book at hand and instead has to veer off into a personal attack.
So I don't get too caught up in reviews. I realize that very often, the person has an agenda--even if that agenda is as simple as ego-stroking. It reminds me of when my first novel came out a few years ago. Cosmopolitan featured it and called it a "hilarious" book. Well, my second book came out. US Weekly picked it as the Hot Book Pick. And an aspiring writer who has her own website noted the second novel, "was pretty good, which is a good thing since Orloff's first novel 'got trashed.'" Uh . . . I'm not sure where, but for me as a first-time novelist breaking into commercial fiction, I was pleased with the reviews I got. So it was my first taste of the world of personal zingers and snarky sound bites.
So now, instead of taking "the good with the bad," most of the time I don't take either. I continue to create and write and mentor new writers and have fun with my career. I respond to my fan mail and talk to kids at schools about being a writer. And I remember the adage about opinions. Everyone's got one.
posted by Erica Orloff at 7:59 AM
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