I admire the author above who, even when her first review was negative, thanked the reviewer for at least taking the time to read her book. That, my friends, is Class!

Just sayin!

Anyhow, for anyone’s sanity who writes, you have the best solution which is Just don’t read the reviews.

You know, reading reviews, especially the bad ones, is a very good exercise and preparation for taking criticism in “real” life. It definitely teaches you to take it on the chin, but at the same time it’s very impersonal — you don’t have to face the person voicing the criticism.

This past semester a chapter from my PhD thesis was taken apart (no holds barred) by a group of fellow PhD students and two professors in a rather gruelling 90-minute session. This was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I don’t think I would have managed quite as well if I hadn’t had the experience of dealing with bad reviews. Even though, I was almost reduced to tears at the end of those 90 minutes. But hey, I’ve survived it. *g*

When my first book came out, I googled myself, I read every last link that came up, reviews, blog mentions, whatnot. I studied bookscan numbers, not just my own, but everybody else’s, in enough depth for a dissertation. In short, I drove myself nuts.

So I quit, cold turkey.

For Delicious I have not checked my amazon ranking or reviews, have not googled, and have generally stayed away from bookscan except for the one time my agent’s assistant e-mailed me with the actual number. I know C reviews–heck, D and F reviews–must exist for my book, but I haven’t bothered to find and read them.

And I’m happy to report my mental health is in superlative shape. :-)

As a reader who has given a F to other’s “A++ Best Book Evah!” and an A to someone else’s “Unreadable Triple F POS” I look at all book reviews as simply what makes that particular reader happy. That is all it is.

I can see why some books are wonderful and loved, but I still don’t enjoy them, yet the author writes good books….for other people. Another author can get low ratings but she’s the best author in the whole wide world! For me.

Anyhow, for anyone’s sanity who writes, you have the best solution which is Just don’t read the reviews. I know I wouldn’t. You’ll be in hell forever.

Listen to your editor, take the advice of your beta readers, ignore the syncophants but otherwise, it’s nothing more than trying to please the universe and failing.

I am likely to pick up another book by an author to whom I give a C, but I am almost guaranteed not to do so for an author whom I have given a D or F?

That’s not always true for me. Perhaps it’s a debut novel, or the flaws are major but fixable, or I like the author’s voice.

There are also good authors who bomb. Loretta Chase has written a couple of books I can’t rate higher than a D, but I’m reading her latest and much of it works better for me. I loathed The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes, but will read those three authors individually. OTOH I think I gave a Julie Anne Long a C or thereabouts, and I’m not excited to try her again unless she changes period or format.

while I was cleaning (!), I found about a dozen novels I’d bought and read some time in the last year and didn’t remember a thing about any one of them except that they must have been pleasant reads (aka “C”).

I’m just reading some new research showing that we tend to forget mixed reactions over time. I’ll post on it tonight when I have a minute. So far, what I’m getting from it is that “meh” books and “mixed feelings” books can end up much the same in our memories. So if a C means “meh”, “mixed”, or “average”, and all those categories blur together in our memories, that just reinforces how blunt an approach grading is.

To me, a C book is all around meh. It wasnt full of complete horror and drivel, but it wasnt really that good either. I automatically tend to make an assumption at seeing the C that its average, like most of the other books out there of the same category, with the same characters and plots and twists. So I tend to stay away from the C reviews, just because my own take on what a C grade is is rather harsh.