Criticism is never easy to take but this fella went a tad overboard. Somewhat ironically his ranting is a lot more interesting than his book appears to be. (In my opinion)
This got blown way out of proportion but I think we should all recall the times when a visual-media star (Broadway actors, movie actors, TV personalities) reacted highly negatively to the paparazzi, or maybe a rude audience member, or something of the sort and singled them out, swore, and got super angry. A lot of those careers ended. Not all, but many. So, I think the lesson here is, put your Customer Service smile on and just ignore anything that inflames you. You do a lot of damage to your reputation.
In this age of a growing internet and social media people really need to get thick skin. Negative criticism should be seen as a learning curve, if he really wanted to please everyone to go as far as defend his work over such a small minority of negative reviews, learning what could have been done better would have been the better (and more career positive) thing to do.
From what I gather, the guy is just a pansy (not trying to be harsh, just honest). Seems he prefers the 'Quantity over quality' when it comes to his way of approaching writing, writing as much as possible within a short time frame (paraphrasing of course). This will inherently turn out people that will see his pitfall in trying to produce a mass of works, by the way he writes strictly for the sole purpose of a buck. Add in the fact the guy is thin skinned, and spineless about the fact that not everybody is going to sing his literary praise and prowess. I for one think he is a drama queen, by getting all defensive about a bad review. Maybe if he tried to be more of a man and not some hipster pansy, he would be better off in the long run. Someone should tell him that every one gets bad reviews, and not take it so personally. Just my opinion, seeing as individuals bring their personal opinions out when they do reviews on things. To conclude this mini soapbox: Dude needs to get a pair of balls, and learn from the criticism. Or stop writing since he can't take negative feedback.
I thought when I saw this thread bumped I'd see this story: British Writer Tracks Down Teen Who Gave His Book a Bad Review, Smashes Her With Wine Bottle It was a year ago but he just recently pleaded guilty for the crime. He tracked her down through FaceBook and drove something like 500 miles to find her. Now he has sixty-six one star reviews on his book and only one other review, five stars that sounds like a paid review. And by the looks of the seller rank, he isn't selling any books.
Geez... I sure hope he actually is understanding the message of no means no as he says he is >.> What a world where we can't feel safe shredding other people's hard work.
A negative review (that was downright patronizing and disgusting) kept me away from writing for two years. At the end of the day, customer reviews are all that matter. If the general consensus achieved is "Hey, I had fun reading this book.", then you've succeeded as an author.
Negative comments and complaints are more likely to be voiced (Whether in forums, reviews, customer service, etc.) and are typically the minority. The happy majority almost never voices themselves because they don't have a reason to. So, most of the time you get negative comments, remember it's the smaller part of a minority being vocal. Don't write to be successful, don't write to get only happy comments, that's just a sad and depressing road. Just write your best and what makes you happy. Eventually, you'll get like-minded comments.
Yeah. If I had a book that received a low rating, I would comment something like: "Then you should give that book the punishment it richly deserves: The Trash Bin!! Hope you find a better book! " If I'm lucky, in that hypothetical scenario, one of the comments will actually bring to light something I missed on, to which I would then say, "What is wrong with me? Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I'll study this very carefully." Critics can be our best friends too. Even though it's been months since this thread first started, Dylan still blows my mind. Really? A low rating on a book is the worst thing in the history of mankind. It's like something from an Orwellian novel. We're no longer allowed to shred someone's book that we spent our hard-earned time and our hard-earned money on, or else folks like Dylan will throw a hissy fit and call us big bad meany-mean heads. .__.
The lesson here is that reviews, positive or negative, should be ignored. Stop dwelling on the past; write a new book.
First rule of book fight club: Don't respond to a review because nothing good can come from responding to a review. Hm. I read some of the reviews. The characters apparently have the ability to kill with words. (?) Good thing the author doesn't or else we'd be royally screwed.
I feel sorry for this guy, he obviously needs help for the narcissistic personality disorder he's got. I mean, you can be grumpy about a review and feel you've been misjudged, but he's is delusional, to put it mildly.
He's like the Shamalayn of literature. Just wait, he'll one day pull a Lady in the Water where a mysterious character tells his self-insert that his writing will be so profound, so important, so culturally significant that it will inspire millions up to and including a president of the United States as well as members of the European Union and the United Nations. It'll be so critical to our survival as a collective human species that even religious leaders from all the religions will heap praises on the book. His self-insert will redefine humanity with the book. His book will be the second most sought-after and bought book other than the Bible, his book will be discussed about, written about, and dissected over and over for nearly a thousand years!!! Just wait, people. That's my prediction.
@Link the Writer Just so you know, I hope to hell your prediction is wrong. We don't need another ego-trip for our millennia, we already dragged in the bible from the two previous ones. Have you no mercy?
He'll be singing a writer's equivalent of Scar's Be Prepared. Be prepared for the Book of the Century! Be prepared for the writing at hand! Meticulous editing, Spontaneous planning, In time the Critics will soon understand and, SEE ME FOR THE GENIUS I AM! BE PREPAAAAAARED!! <Chorus> They'll see him for the Genius he is! For all time, he shall be adored! BE PREPAAAAARED!! I will be leaving now.
I'm glad this thread got pumped up, because it is extremely valuable to anyone who writes here and hopes to publish someday. I just see him as a guy who has interesting worldview and tried to put that into a fantasy story. It was so important to him that he forgot it's just a story, and as someone pointed out, the whole stuff feels like some sort of wisdom coming from a prophet. It's cool to have your own view to the vast world we live in. But maaaaaan, don't preach and claim it's a cool novel.
I saw this thread pop up and I read my post: It could have been a lot more concise had I known the term "vote brigading" at the time.
Indeed. I remember reading the whole thread that evolved underneath that review by Cath (or something) and being just perplexed at the sheer stupidity this guy spewed out. He pretty much ended his credibility as a reasonable person right there. I looked at other sites about him (especially his twitter account) and also came to conclude that he has a good heart, but lacks any sense of realism and thinks of himself as some kind of messenger of the truth. Delusional, and a narcissist at that. A bad combo, even with the best of intentions. That being said, the whole hype that spread around this review is beyond unfair. True enough, his reactions were plain stupid and he pretty much kept throwing oil onto the fire all the time, but it shows again that writers need to be very careful about how they react to criticism, if they react at all. Had Dylan left that 1-star review for what it was, I am sure a lot more people would have been interested in his work, and he would have saved his image as an author. If he wanted to react that badly, the best thing would have been to send this user a PM and there ask what she didn't like about his work. The review section is just that after all: its meant for reviews, not discussions, especially reader-author discussions. To be completely honest though, it's hard to stay objective when confronted with the arrogance of this guy. I've never read the book. I've read passages of it and they made me cringe. But even if I hadn't, those reactions really threw me off and made me not wanting to have to deal with this guy ever. Including his book. Not wholly fair, but still it shows that authors should keep a low-profile when it comes to reacting to public critique. A wise lesson for anyone wanting to get a book published.
I think it should be an expectation anyone willing to sell their form of art, that there are going to be people that dump on it. It is just a part of life. Hell I do it all the time regarding Abstract Art and Photography. They are the most laziest forms that take no talent or imagination to produce, and therefore don't deserve praise or adulation. And don't get me started on them cause I am particularly nasty about it. Basically the best way to deal with harsh criticism is to learn from it, grow a thick skin, and get on with the next project. I fail to see how 50 Shades gets as much praise as it does, but E.L. James could give two shits less about the negative comments flying her way (she just laughs all the way to the bank). Not the best example but I think you can appreciate where I am coming from with this. Can't please everybody all of the time, just be bloody thankful anyone bothered to spend their hard earned money and took the time to tell you about your work. Good or bad, it is all useful in some capacity. Berating the naysayers will drive even the most die hard fans away, so just take it with a smile and move on.
Finally looked at that review, and all I can think is: that's it? Some excerpts from the first review of my book: "reading like a beta copy rather than a completed work . . . the only character in this book who is a person of color is portrayed as a creepy pedophile . . . Melody comes off as vengeful, vapid, and even Price treats her like her personal fashion consultant (which many gay and trans people are treated as in real life). Wolf’s religious fervor regarding nature is downright offensive if he’s meant to be Native American . . . Slapping diversity on a white background is the first step, but I really would have liked to see this with at least six more months’ editing behind it." Of course I was pissed the hell off. But honestly, this is one of the things you're going to get if you put your fiction out there, especially fiction that deals with sensitive topics like gender or family structures (both of which Saccoccio apparently made a hash of.) The best you can do is try to figure out which people would have hated your book no matter what, which people would have liked your book if you'd done something different, and what you're willing to try differently the next time you write.
