Good heavens, imagine Saccoccio's reaction if he had gotten that review stamped on his book. But yeah, you really can't control what people think of it, all you can do is try to absorb in whatever useful criticism you can find and try to ignore those that aren't helpful in your growth as a writer.
I read the sample, wow, got through 4 pages. I needed an aspirin. Thank you to the poster, I needed this. I can now say that I really love this forum. Everyone here is passionate about their writing and take criticism well. I have only been a member for about a month and I read as much as I can on this forum when I am at my day job. If this guy were to put 5k words in the novel section, he probably would commit suicide. Every single story I have read here, good or bad in my opinion, is better then what I read from him. I can't believe he is getting 9$ for that garbage.
Criticism is possibly the best tool in an authoring arsenal. If you accept it, acknowledge it and learn from it you can grow and improve your skills. If ever I publish something and get a 1 star review, then I will contact that person, not to spit bile at them, not to antagonise them - but to thank them, and hopefully open a dialogue into understanding why they reviewed the way they did. That way I can learn.
Leslie Nielsen said: If you can't act, teach. If you can't teach, be a critic, because you obviously have nothing creative inside you to start with. Love that quote. That being said, I'm an artist and a writer and back in the day when I used to care about what others thought my work was so stiff (both) and now that I've freed myself from mankind manacles, my work has become vibrant, beautiful and delicious!
Not going to pile on but take this as a teaching point. Not that I'm above piling on or engaging in the Schadenfreude the last two hours of my life has been, but I could easily see myself melting down and losing my will to resist the keyboard. That whole catfish episode was creepy as well. Jesus, what is wrong with people?
Did that author never read up on the ins and outs of publishing before he actually, you know, published? They all tell you not to respond to reviewers, not matter good or bad. Do. Not. Respond. Holy authors, Batman, it`s normal publishing etiquette isn`t it?
Why does ANYONE follow feeds where the author spams their own feed with constant advertising? I don't know why I expect this guy to know how to promote himself successfully but jeez.
Though I had almost forgotten about this thread and this strange man, I feel that the whole thing serves as simply another example of how our cultural dive into digital engagement, individually and en masse, has exposed many sides to human nature that we had previously masked with social lying and cultural blindness. It shows that many people are much more broken than most people want to deal with, and mob behavior is a real thing that can't be moralized away. It exists as part of what we are whether we like it or not. One could sooner moralize away our pinky toes for their unfortunate attraction to door jambs or coffee table legs.
I just checked out his stuff. A lot of reviews, so he is doing something. Kudos for that. I will not comment on the writing. Perhaps he has learned from that awful lesson life dealt him. We can only hope.
There is a great deal of suspicion that he bought those reviews. When you go back far enough they all become 5 stars, and consist of the same phrases over and over again.
Hmm, that is a little questionable. I`ve heard of that practice but never seen anyone actually do it. I guess there`s no way of proving that sort of thing one way or another.
Well the reviews don't say "I was paid X for this." I see a lot of reviews on Amazon I suspect were bought or were written by the author's friends and family. No way to prove it.
Um, isn`t friends and family rating banned now by Amazon? I heard on another site that writers were complaining about how their ratings were being withdrawn if that happened.
Well if your review starts out, "I'm the author's mother, and he's a really sweet boy..." I should hope amazon would pull it.
No, it`s more than that, I think they can tell if your a friend from Facebook and Twitter and all that, then they cull your rating if they find that you have posted it for a friend`s book. Pretty sure I read it on Konrath`s blog.
Yeah... he spams his youtube videos quite a bit >.> There's other stuff in there but eh... I'd follow someone if all they posted was promos if the promos were all different and for different things (and which I cared to know about... like metal music or something)
Wow. Just wow. If this guy was the JRR Tolkien of crap, then this is his "Lord of the Rings." I have been sitting here for ten minutes trying to find the perfect thing to say about this... thing. I almost want to do a line by line copy and paste of his story because I just couldn't stop thinking these wise cracks. I mean you almost have to review it. What, with lines like "Beseech me for mercy, for this time tomorrow, the rest of the world shall baptize you as the guttersnipes who thought they knew magic." (Um okay...) and "disintegrated like dead dandelions losing their seeds to the wind" (such poetry). I mean, these lines don't write themselves. This is a story that clearly takes itself way too seriously. And I thought I was pretentious with my fantasy novels.
Yeah, if only the guy spent as much time on his novels. "This time next, year, Rodney, we`ll be millionaires".
I'll be the devil's peasant and throw you guys a link to a youtube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGl3FQp34ife4beSPe-uJ7tnbWpR_IS7w&utm_content=buffer0ba72&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer Full of videos, where the author himself reads the text. It's a nice idea for advertising, but I don't think it actually works in practice.
Interesting, the small part I listened to sounded ok. It might work better if you didn`t actually see the author reading it as it distracts, plus he didn`t look exactly thrilled. Maybe if it was just a picture of the cover and you just heard the voice over. It would be like an audio book.
I just saw this old thread. Thanks for posting it, Jack. It certainly gave my my heel-kicker laugh of the day. Seriously. Dylan, eh? He wishes....
