Reminder to self:
In the upcoming months, I’m certain there will be plenty of times that I will need to remind myself that:
- I should think before responding to a review.
- Even if it’s not of my book.
- Especially if it’s on a blog, and responding (even to a positive review) might kill the conversation, because then it runs the danger of becoming about me instead of my book.
- I should think
threeten times before responding on a message board. - Even if it’s not about me or my book.
- Especially if it’s about me or my book. Then make that fifty, and maybe seek help first.
- Many people won’t like my book.
- For reasons that might not make sense to me.
- For reasons that do make sense to me.
- For reasons that might have to do with other books more than about mine.
- For no reason at all.
- For a lot of reasons.
- Nothing I say will change those reasons. But it may add to them.
- Many people will make assumptions about me and/or my values because of the books.
- Some of them will be right.
- Some of them will be wrong.
- Some of them will confuse me with my characters.
- Some won’t stop to consider that something in a book might be a deliberate step away from myself.
- Some won’t stop to consider that whatever assumption they make is based on their interpretation of the novel, which, as pointed out very often on many message boards and blogs, has nothing to do with and/or conflicts with author intent.
- Those assumptions, based on the books, have nothing to do with who I am.
- My books aren’t perfect.
- I know, it’s a shock.
- No, it’s not really that surprising.
- I probably shouldn’t talk about why they aren’t. Just say, “Yes, I fucked up”, and move on.
- I probably shouldn’t say ‘fucked up’ anywhere but my blog.
- I need to adjust my line item formatting in the style sheets to include letters in the sub-lists.
- Because the second one is ugly.
- And outline form is nice.
Word, girlfriend.
Excellent, excellent post, Meljean.
1. Great points, good for authors and readers a like.
2. I like lists, so outlines work wonderfully for me.
3. I don’t think you have much to worry about, 250 pages in and the book is fabulous.
Lara and Jaq — I just hope I can keep to this
Tara Marie — woot! I hope the remaining 500,000 pages are half as good :joker: and I promise I won’t comment on your blog.
Excellent post.
A good lesson for us all.
I know I regret when I respond in haste. I hate message boards. As soon as I hit “enter” I someitimes wish I hadn’t sent it.
In the end, you can’t please everybody and not everybody will like you. I know that. And no, that’s not a surprise either.
Can’t wait to read that regency of yours that Jane gave a tidbit of praise for in a previous post/discussion.
Hi Keishon — I often wish the same thing, and partially because once it’s there, it’s THERE. And during a discussion I’ll often begin to see things a little differently as different sides are presented, so that by the end, although my original stance might not be something I’d back away from, I do end up wishing I’d thought it through a little better or qualified it.
All too often I just focus on one part of something, and only after a while do I think: aw, shit! we were talking completely at cross purposes!
But with just a little patience, maybe I wouldn’t have.
I think I may ask Jane to be my PR person. If this book gets buzz, I daresay it’ll all be due to her efforts*. Oh! but to clarify, although the first novella in the series is a regency and one section in the novel takes place in the regency period, but it’s primarily a paranormal contemp. I just have about 800 years of shared history to relate, so a nice chunk of it is historical.
*And, Sybil, you too
I found out the hard way that people just think different. My father and I have had jobs to do together before. We will each make a decision and not have a clue what the other person is talking about. Usually an hour into ‘why would you do it that way?’ I realize that we are getting the exact same result but he came at it from the west while I came at it from the east.
It was a real shock when I figured that out. Now whenever my dad and I are trying to solve something I will try to think of the solution from the complete opposite way I am currently thinking to see if my father is saying the same thing.
Okay, i have no clue what that has to do with this conversation but … oh, since my dad loves me and I love him we don’t end up fighting each other whereas I can imagine that if I had to work with someone who *refused* to even try and figure out what I’m talking about it would be very *fist* inducing.
Huh. Next time I’m just going to say, great post!
Cindy
Yep. Take the high road, baby, hard as it might be.
I’ve already trained my CPs to let me bitch and moan to them, but not to post or respond.:???:
LOL, Cindy — sometimes it is learned the v. hard way.
Colleen — yeah, I’m not sure you can go wrong with the high road. It should be my new motto: When in doubt, don’t type or hit send.
oh cute post! And true. I don’t know how ya’ll do it. It takes guts to write and put it out there for the world, it would be harder to not respond to negative comments.