Musings on Reviews

Book reviews... if you're a writer you have to live with them, like it or not.  My second dark-fantasy novel, Shaman's Blood, is shaping up to be one of those books readers either love or hate. 5 and 4 star reviewers "got" what I tried to do and loved it, while the 1 and 2 star reviewers didn't get it and didn't want to, not one bit.

So it goes. As a writer, while I don't enjoy the bad reviews, on some level I'm still pleased that a lot of people seem to be reading the book. And in this digital age where anyone with access to a computer can create a blog or join a site like Goodreads and call themselves a book reviewer, reviews carry less critical weight than they used to. If you've spent time learning the craft of writing knowledgeable, literate book reviews, you'll be slightly appalled to see that much of what passes for book reviews these days is pretty pitiful. Misunderstanding the plot and rehashing it badly is not a book review.

There are still competent reviewers out there, of course, and when you get one of those, it's like a gift from a dragon's hoard. A skillfully written book review, even an unfavorable one, can reveal things about your writing that are useful in honing your skill. It can help you spot aspects of plotting, character development, tone, diction, and so forth that you may need to work on. And praise for doing something well is golden.

How writers deal with reviews--whether positive or negative, competent or amateurish--is as personal as the books they write. I have a fantasy writer friend who becomes paralyzed when bad reviews surface. She says her muse goes into hibernation and refuses to come out, threatening to never let the author pen another word. Eventually she gets over it, but on some level, her joy of writing her books is lessened.  Another friend of mine who writes M/M mysteries & romances says he never reads his reviews. He doesn't write for reviewers and really doesn't care what they write about him, one way or the other. He writes for himself and his many fans. He's been criticized for having this attitude, but that's how he deals. And it seems to work because he sells a lot of books.

I guess my own attitude toward book reviews falls somewhere in between these two. A really poor review might leave me stunned for the time it took to read it, but unless I feel there's something useful for me to glean from the review, I let go of it and move on. This is especially true if the reviewer is not literate - I allow myself a moment to despise those types of reviews, acknowledging all the while that the so-called reviewer has just as much right to post what they think as anyone else. 

I tend not to read every review I find, but instead just look for trends. If there's something everyone mentions that was a problem for them, I take note. Or if some aspect of the book continually gets high marks, I remember to keep that going. The important thing is not to let reviews sap your writer's creative energy. As my friend says, who are you writing your books for, anyway?

I'm curious to know how other writers deal with reviews. Have you published and gotten reviewed, for better or worse? How did you deal with it, and have the reviews had any effect on your style or creative output?

Writing Weekend

I spend so much time running my small literary press Kitsune Books that I often don't leave time for my own writing ventures, sometimes going months without writing anything of my own (marketing fliers for Kitsune Books authors don't count!). So with the long Labor Day weekend at my disposal, I'm setting this weekend aside for some of my own projects that have been sitting patiently curbside, waiting for a little attention.

I also figured out how to get back into my personal Facebook account, which I'd been locked out of since the new "improved" privacy/security measures went into effect. After about six days of locked-out frustration, I finally figured out that if you click on the "Yes, this is me" button, you won't get back into your account - you'll just go around in a endless loop, always ending back on the "Your account has been temporarily locked" screen. So I finally wised up and clicked on the "No, that wasn't me" button, which then gave me a bunch of nifty ways to prove the account belongs to me. So essentially, I lied and got back in. Go figure.

The point is that I'm no longer distracted by trying to crack the FB ridiculosity code and can focus my full attention on my writing. I have this great notion for a short story (too late for JournalStone's competition, but there's still Absent Willow Review) that's been bubbling for awhile and I think is finally starting to cook. Time to get fully immersed in the wordstream and let the ideas flow. But... wait. Insert real life snake drama out in the yard, where a fat 5 1/2 foot long Diamondback decided to take up residence in the leaf litter around the carport and started challenging me a good 30 feet away when I went out to burn some trash. Bill points out this is a good thing, because there is a gradual trend evolution-wise toward rattlesnakes that don't alarm-rattle as a survival trait. Because normally when a snake rattles at a human, it (the snake) gets shot dead. Those that stay invisible survive. They're the ones you step on without seeing them. This snake was clearly not one of the new breed and did in fact get shot dead. Bill nailed it on the first shot. Not bad for self-professed "old geezer" with questionable eyesight!

But back to my story. Totally lost the thread of what I wanted to write, but was cheered by the knowledge that the Diamondback encounter I'd written for Shaman's Blood was accurate as to the sound of the rattles and the state of excitement of the warning snake. Yeesh.

Facebook FAIL

As some of you may know, I've been locked out of my personal Facebook account since last Friday, which was about the same time a bunch of new security/privacy changes went into effect. I tried to log on, and got a password/identity error screen. Tried resetting password, but every time I tried to log in with the new password, the "temporarily locked out" screen appears.  I've tried every trick I can think of to get past the "temporary locked out" screen, but nothing works. It says that if you click on Okay to indicate this is truly your account, you'll regain access within 24 hours. Obviously it doesn't work, or I'd be logged in by now.  Have sent the FB bug report numerous queries, etc. but no response.

All of which leads me to believe that maybe I can do without Facebook.  I have this nifty blog, I'm on Twitter every day, I have a Goodreads account. I guess that's all I need.  It's all I can keep up with, at any rate!

Irene and other blowhards

Watching the Weather Channel's frenzied drumbeat countdown to destruction (wait, wasn't that a Megadeth album?).  I truly wish all my friends and colleagues along the U.S. East Coast safe passage through the storm, and hope even more that the media buildup for this hurricane will turn out to be not so much.

As a Florida native, I've lived through so many hurricanes that I've lost count. Most were not as bad as expected (some were outright duds), but a few were so frightening they'll always stay in my memory. Luckily for me as a writer, I'm using those experiences to craft the opening chapter of my next novel. I think the most shocking 'cane I lived through was back when I lived in Panama City around age 8 or 9, and I remember watching my mother fill the bathtub with water in preparation for the approaching storm. The eye came right over us, and I'll never forget how I listened to the howling winds dying down and then all was silent...bright and sunny, but no usual neighborhood sounds of birds, dogs barking, etc. My parents, my sister, the family dog, and I stood around in the front yard gawking up at the sky with its deceptive bright blue eye, which lasted about 10 minutes. Then the breeze started to kick up, which turned into strong winds, and here it came again.  When it was all over, we had 3 pines down in the yard just barely missing the roof, and a live electrical wire snapping across the sidewalk in front of our house. Huge scary excitement for a young kid. And great grist for the storytelling mill.

Hoping Irene will not be as terrible as predictions are trumpeting. But then again, you shouldn't take warnings for granted. We'll see how it plays out over the weekend.  Hunker down!

My interview on Jeannine H. Gailey's blog

The Kitsune Books 2012 lineup of authors and other tasty tidbits are revealed in my interview on Northwest writer Jeannine Hall Gailey's blog.

Check it out HERE!

In the Spooklight!

Plotting some Halloween fun over at the Horror Writers Association website.  Games, giveaways, fiction snippets, ridiculous pix of members in costume, and much more!  Details coming soon...

Is there a Book 3?

I was asked on a forum if there will be a Book 3, to follow Shaman's Blood, in my Wandjina series. Yes indeed, the story continues after Shaman's Blood. I'm working on Book 3 now, mostly getting my timelines sorted out and making sure they mesh. Same kind of thing I did in SB, where basically the same story is told from two points of view - one in the present, and one from a generation or two back.

The last book will complete the tale, at its beginning where the Quinkan became fused to Alice's bloodline. I know what the final scene looks like, but haven't mapped out yet quite how we get there. All in good time. ;D

Amazon's next move?

Seems like everybody wants in on the book publishing action, even little old Amazon. But this article on Amazon Publishing may pull the covers back further on their latest foray in to consolidating the book industry than they'd like:  http://tinyurl.com/4ykrzsj



I'm kind of ambivalent on this. As a publisher, I have to deal with Amazon whether I like it or not. As an author, I have to deal with Amazon whether I like it or not. As a consumer, I buy from them all the time without blinking. The monolith that is Amazon has been good for authors in many ways, opening up avenues for self promotion and having books listed whether they are best sellers or not.

But Amazon's encroaching control over book production, distribution, pricing, and copyright issues should be something to think about and pay attention to, not that we (small presses and their authors) could stop them if we wanted to. 

A small, useless rant

Working on ebook conversions today (pawned off the hard one to my buddy Pete!), and in reading over the updated stylebook on Smashwords, I just started to see red. Not an appealing red like the background of this blog, but an honest-to-goodness flushed, fuming red that makes me want to punch something. Normally I'm a very mild mannered, reserved sort of person, but as a publisher of artistic, quality books, this was the last straw.

The SW "stylebook" says, "With ebooks, there is no 'page.' By giving up the control of the printed page, you and your readers gain much more in return."  No, we lose the artistic work done by the people who chose the font, paper color, layout design, illustrations, and page flow that makes that book a joy to look at while reading.

Quoth SW: "Page numbers are irrelevant."  No, actually, Kindle and other readers are now putting page numbers in because readers like them and prefer them when navigating the book.

"A reader should be able to consume your book however works best for them, even if that means they like to read 18 point Helvetica with blue fonts, lime background color, and triple spaced lines...Most readers want your words, not your fancy page layout or exotic type styles."  I'm sorry, but that fancy layout and choice of the perfect font to complement the content and theme of the book contributes to the content in many ways, tangible and intangible. If artistic graphic design and careful layout didn't matter, all books would just be a .txt file with no images or formatting.  And if you can't imagine reading a book that way, take a look at an epub file sometime.

I can't express how angry that last smug statement about readers just wanting the words makes me.  The look of the book and the reading experience the formatting produces are, for me at least, integral parts of the joy of reading books. I'm always subliminally aware of the page designer and typesetter's work when I consume a book, and a skillfully put together book is well worth the price.

I've read that ebooks are now outselling print on Amazon, so obviously they can't be ignored. But this attitude of dumbing everything down to the lowest, cheapest level and thumbing one's nose at skill and artistry just make my blood boil!

New outlet for THIN LINE BETWEEN

Very happy to report that my publisher for Shaman's Blood is now carrying its prequel, Thin Line Between. 
Here it is: Thin Line Between ebook