I'm a Goodreads Librarian, just a normal one, not a super one with powers or anything, and even I avoid going on there unless I'm adding a book to my TBR or marking something I've read, or I've been requested to update a cover/blurb/add a book. Oh and giveaways although I have no luck at winning. *shrugs*.
haha well it’s weirdly comforting to know it’s bad for…everyone? The problem is that I love reading and talking about books and that really is a central hub of where that’s happening!
That is true. I used to get my fill of that on Twitter, but since it's under new management I am afraid I might have to figure out how to use it again.
I feel this in my soul, which is why I don't go onto GoodReads at all. (You're so much stronger than I am!!) Once, almost five years ago, Kirkus absolutely annihilated me with a review that was so laughably bad, I shouldn't have let it get to me--but I did.
I still remember a quote from it: "Angst-ridden backstory and deeply regrettable prose."
It's burned into my memory. I'll never forget it. And yet, five years later, I'm on a NYT Most Notable Books list, so like -- what I'm saying is reviews are almost always more a reflection of the reader and their personal quirks than of you at all, and somewhere out there is a person rating the Mona Lisa one star because she's not smiling enough. (Which is just as ridiculous as it sounds, right??)
For what it's worth, I adored LITTOSK so, so much, and I'm really excited for Cold World!!
Oh I also did see a Publisher's Weekly review that said my book was "light-hearted but shoddily constructed" but that one just made me laugh. Put it on my tombstone.
Reviews are definitely all subjective! And for me, how they hit depends at least in part on my own mood, which of course the reviewer has no knowledge of or control over. So they're subjective on both sides, which is really quite the mind-fuck.
I appreciate your kind words of solidarity, and about my books! The Dead Romantics was DEFINITELY a Notable Book for me for 2022, but then . . . I've been a fan since Geekerella! ;)
"Light-hearted but shoddily constructed" is probably my new favorite phrase now -- what a *mood*. What a *vibe*! I, too, am light-hearted yet shoddily constructed.
And absolutely -- it's so hard to discern someone's opinion of your novel based on a one-to-five starred rating that was originally created for appliances and mass-marketed objects, and not, you know, pieces of art, but readers have to work with what they got. Capitalism, man. It's awful on all sides.
This is so timely--I feel like everyone in my debut author slack is constantly debating the pros/cons of reading reviews, or commiserating that even though they know they shouldn't, they haven't found the will yet to stop. I love the quote from the book you mentioned, too. So true!
I know some people who read every review they get! And I don't know, maybe if you do that you become more immune to them somehow? Does that happen? Or do you just spend your days watching the number go from 3.6 to 3.46 to 3.5 and obsessing over it? Either way, I know I try my best to just ignore reviews altogether -- don't read them, don't engage with them, don't even talk about them -- but you can't avoid them completely and sometimes it's cathartic just to admit that yes, they can hurt your feelings. We're writers, we have feelings!
I'm a Goodreads Librarian, just a normal one, not a super one with powers or anything, and even I avoid going on there unless I'm adding a book to my TBR or marking something I've read, or I've been requested to update a cover/blurb/add a book. Oh and giveaways although I have no luck at winning. *shrugs*.
haha well it’s weirdly comforting to know it’s bad for…everyone? The problem is that I love reading and talking about books and that really is a central hub of where that’s happening!
That is true. I used to get my fill of that on Twitter, but since it's under new management I am afraid I might have to figure out how to use it again.
I feel this in my soul, which is why I don't go onto GoodReads at all. (You're so much stronger than I am!!) Once, almost five years ago, Kirkus absolutely annihilated me with a review that was so laughably bad, I shouldn't have let it get to me--but I did.
I still remember a quote from it: "Angst-ridden backstory and deeply regrettable prose."
It's burned into my memory. I'll never forget it. And yet, five years later, I'm on a NYT Most Notable Books list, so like -- what I'm saying is reviews are almost always more a reflection of the reader and their personal quirks than of you at all, and somewhere out there is a person rating the Mona Lisa one star because she's not smiling enough. (Which is just as ridiculous as it sounds, right??)
For what it's worth, I adored LITTOSK so, so much, and I'm really excited for Cold World!!
Oh I also did see a Publisher's Weekly review that said my book was "light-hearted but shoddily constructed" but that one just made me laugh. Put it on my tombstone.
Reviews are definitely all subjective! And for me, how they hit depends at least in part on my own mood, which of course the reviewer has no knowledge of or control over. So they're subjective on both sides, which is really quite the mind-fuck.
I appreciate your kind words of solidarity, and about my books! The Dead Romantics was DEFINITELY a Notable Book for me for 2022, but then . . . I've been a fan since Geekerella! ;)
"Light-hearted but shoddily constructed" is probably my new favorite phrase now -- what a *mood*. What a *vibe*! I, too, am light-hearted yet shoddily constructed.
And absolutely -- it's so hard to discern someone's opinion of your novel based on a one-to-five starred rating that was originally created for appliances and mass-marketed objects, and not, you know, pieces of art, but readers have to work with what they got. Capitalism, man. It's awful on all sides.
This is so timely--I feel like everyone in my debut author slack is constantly debating the pros/cons of reading reviews, or commiserating that even though they know they shouldn't, they haven't found the will yet to stop. I love the quote from the book you mentioned, too. So true!
I know some people who read every review they get! And I don't know, maybe if you do that you become more immune to them somehow? Does that happen? Or do you just spend your days watching the number go from 3.6 to 3.46 to 3.5 and obsessing over it? Either way, I know I try my best to just ignore reviews altogether -- don't read them, don't engage with them, don't even talk about them -- but you can't avoid them completely and sometimes it's cathartic just to admit that yes, they can hurt your feelings. We're writers, we have feelings!