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Open Thread: Oracle Hotline
--Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
I find this question fascinating because it's meant for pro authors and, to me, really illustrates one of they differences between that and fanfic, because "reviews" (comments) are basically the only "pay" fanfic writers get! Of course I read each one and treasure the good ones. I also agonize way more than I should over bad ones, to be honest. But good-bad reviews can be really useful--I mean, thoughtful ones that actually raise issues, not "I don't like A/B and you should write A/C" or my favorite negative comment I've ever gotten, "When are A and B ever going to kiss??" (they'd already kissed twice in the series). Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between feedback that will make your writing better and feedback that just wants to make you feel bad, I think...
I find this question fascinating because it's meant for pro authors and, to me, really illustrates one of they differences between that and fanfic, because "reviews" (comments) are basically the only "pay" fanfic writers get! Of course I read each one and treasure the good ones. I also agonize way more than I should over bad ones, to be honest. But good-bad reviews can be really useful--I mean, thoughtful ones that actually raise issues, not "I don't like A/B and you should write A/C" or my favorite negative comment I've ever gotten, "When are A and B ever going to kiss??" (they'd already kissed twice in the series). Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between feedback that will make your writing better and feedback that just wants to make you feel bad, I think...