By Wilfred Bereswill
Okay, so your friends and family have read it. They heap on the praise and it makes you smile; gives you that briefest of moments that gets you back behind the keyboard. The little things that keep you going on your work in progress. Those little praises don’t really make your work any better, but most of us need our ego stroked now and then, so in that aspect they serve their purpose.
Then there are those honest critiques. Either from critique groups, a professional colleague, a freelance editor, or wherever. They can sting. Hurt the pride. Bruise the ego. But, they can make that work better, more polished. A good critique can make your work sing. It takes a thick hide to listen to those negatives, but once you gain the right perspective, you realize those voices, negative as they might sound are on your side. They are the brave ones, willing to tell you what they know will hurt to make you better. Kudos to all those that have stepped up and put their selves out there to make me a better writer.
But all this time, somewhere deep down we have doubts. After all, literature IS extremely suggestive. No doubt, whatever you write, someone will love it and someone will hate it. But we all fear those negative comments. As if somehow they are an attack on us; on our souls. Who we are. We have a hard time separating ourselves from our writing.
So how does all this tie in? Here is the story. The small press that published me skips the Advance Reader Copy (ARC) stage of the publishing process. They go from proofs to print. So, what does that mean? It means that advance copies are not sent out to various publications for reviews prior to publishing. Many publications will not review a book after it is released.
Soon after it’s release in July, I had my publicist send a few copies out for review, with no luck. Then about a month ago, the Book Editor of the Post put up a blog, titled “Why don’t we review every local author’s book?.” In the blog, she went on to explain how publications across the nation are cutting out their book sections and how the Post has precious few inches for reviews. Competition for those inches is huge. Much of the space has to be dedicated to the big names.
I added a short comment to the blog thanking her for the explanation. A few minutes later, I received an e-mail from her thanking me for my comment and a request for another copy of my book for a possible review. She explained that she must have misplaced the earlier copy. So, a quick trip down to the Post Dispatch building downtown and another $13 investment and I was in wait mode once again.
This past Saturday morning I received a Google Alert. There was a hit on my book title’s search. I glanced at the link. It came from STLToday.com (the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s website.) The very brief link description said “REVIEW.” My throat constricted, a huge lump formed in my stomach and that undeniable feeling of my breakfast revisiting came over me. One part of my brain willed my finger to click the link (no doubt the masochist in me), while another part (my ego) screamed, “NO!”
Seems silly, right? After all, I’ve received considerable fan mail and from people I don’t know complimenting the book. But this is a book reviewer. An expert. The holy grail of critiques.
Well, on Sunday, right next to a review of Clive Cussler’s new book, Arctic Drift, there it was. “Local Writer Holds Own With Fine Thriller.” The lead sentence, With “A Reason For Dying,” St. Louis’ own Wilfred Bereswill has written a thriller with a dandy plot and fine characters.” The link above takes you to the on-line version. The review is already clipped and ready to go into the scrapbook. And I’m having a nice ending to the long Thanksgiving Holiday.
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, October 03, 2008
People Are Talking...
by Jennie Bentley
With a month to go until FATAL FIXER-UPPER hits stores everywhere—OK, a month and a day, but what’s 24 hours among friends?—word has started to get around.
Yesterday, for instance, I went to my local Barnes and Noble and bought their entire stock of Romantic Times Book Review magazines. (It’s not as bad as it sounds. They only had two, and I’m not sure what to do with the second. If it comes to that, I’m not entirely sure what to do with the first.)
The reason, of course, is that there’s a review in there. A review of my book. A—no kidding—4 ½ star review. Which is as good as it gets, from Romantic Times. (All right, so one of the stars could have been gold, but still, 4 ½ stars for a debut book is pretty darned impressive. Or so I’ve been told.) I counted (pitiful, I know) and of the seven 4 ½ star reviews of mysteries and thrillers in the November issue, the other six went to—wait for it—Michael Connolly, Jeffery Deaver, Reginald Hill, David Morrell, M.J. Rose and J.D. Robb. Some pretty exalted company there.
You can read the whole thing HERE, if you want. Don’t feel you have to, though. And just FYI, 4 ½ stars translates to FANTASTIC – Keeper, in their ratings guide. Yay, me!
So I’m pretty psyched right now. And what made it even sweeter, was that it came on the heels of another review, one that was 180 degrees the opposite. That one was from one of the Big Four—Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal—and boy, did the anonymous reviewer hate my book. Enough that the attack felt almost personal. Kind of along the lines of, “whose high school boyfriend did I steal to receive this kind of treatment?”
In the interest of total disclosure, you can read it on this page, down toward the bottom, among the mass market paperback reviews. If you don’t care to—and I don’t blame you; I wish I hadn’t—let me just share that my favorite sentence was, in describing my protagonist, “she’s about as bright as her boyfriend’s crowbar.”
Ouch.
Funny thing is, they both read the same book. But where one thought the “first-rate” mystery was “unusually strong,” the other thought it had “no substance.” And where one mentioned the “bang-up, frightening surprise ending”, the other saw “predictable anticlimactic peril.” Where one thought the heroine was intelligent, the other thought she was dumb as a post. I could go on, but what would be the point?
So who’s right?
Hell, I don’t know. I’d like to think that one of them ‘got’ the book, and the other didn’t. Of course, I’m not exactly unbiased...
Do I care, though?
No, not really. I’d hate to think that someone would chose not to read the book based on the crappy review, when they might actually like it if they just gave it a try. On the other hand, I think I’d hate even more for someone to buy the book as a result of the glowing review, and then be disappointed. If you start at the bottom, there’s no way to go but up, but once you’ve disappointed someone, it’s awfully hard to get that trust back.
Anyway, that’s the view from Jennie’s Planet. Feel free to chime in with your own thoughts, on reviews, trust, or anything else that strikes your fancy.
With a month to go until FATAL FIXER-UPPER hits stores everywhere—OK, a month and a day, but what’s 24 hours among friends?—word has started to get around.
Yesterday, for instance, I went to my local Barnes and Noble and bought their entire stock of Romantic Times Book Review magazines. (It’s not as bad as it sounds. They only had two, and I’m not sure what to do with the second. If it comes to that, I’m not entirely sure what to do with the first.)
The reason, of course, is that there’s a review in there. A review of my book. A—no kidding—4 ½ star review. Which is as good as it gets, from Romantic Times. (All right, so one of the stars could have been gold, but still, 4 ½ stars for a debut book is pretty darned impressive. Or so I’ve been told.) I counted (pitiful, I know) and of the seven 4 ½ star reviews of mysteries and thrillers in the November issue, the other six went to—wait for it—Michael Connolly, Jeffery Deaver, Reginald Hill, David Morrell, M.J. Rose and J.D. Robb. Some pretty exalted company there.
You can read the whole thing HERE, if you want. Don’t feel you have to, though. And just FYI, 4 ½ stars translates to FANTASTIC – Keeper, in their ratings guide. Yay, me!
So I’m pretty psyched right now. And what made it even sweeter, was that it came on the heels of another review, one that was 180 degrees the opposite. That one was from one of the Big Four—Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal—and boy, did the anonymous reviewer hate my book. Enough that the attack felt almost personal. Kind of along the lines of, “whose high school boyfriend did I steal to receive this kind of treatment?”
In the interest of total disclosure, you can read it on this page, down toward the bottom, among the mass market paperback reviews. If you don’t care to—and I don’t blame you; I wish I hadn’t—let me just share that my favorite sentence was, in describing my protagonist, “she’s about as bright as her boyfriend’s crowbar.”
Ouch.
Funny thing is, they both read the same book. But where one thought the “first-rate” mystery was “unusually strong,” the other thought it had “no substance.” And where one mentioned the “bang-up, frightening surprise ending”, the other saw “predictable anticlimactic peril.” Where one thought the heroine was intelligent, the other thought she was dumb as a post. I could go on, but what would be the point?
So who’s right?
Hell, I don’t know. I’d like to think that one of them ‘got’ the book, and the other didn’t. Of course, I’m not exactly unbiased...
Do I care, though?
No, not really. I’d hate to think that someone would chose not to read the book based on the crappy review, when they might actually like it if they just gave it a try. On the other hand, I think I’d hate even more for someone to buy the book as a result of the glowing review, and then be disappointed. If you start at the bottom, there’s no way to go but up, but once you’ve disappointed someone, it’s awfully hard to get that trust back.
Anyway, that’s the view from Jennie’s Planet. Feel free to chime in with your own thoughts, on reviews, trust, or anything else that strikes your fancy.
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