What do they know?
Mario here:
Over at the
League of Reluctant Adults, we had a lively discussion when
Kevin Hearne wondered what to do about an especially snippy email from a reader, one that Kevin shared with us on the loop. Kevin's first reaction was to pen an especially nasty reply worthy of the sender's asshattediness. But we talked the gun out of Kevin's hand and calmed him down. Of course, when we send such a message, we expect the recipient to roll over and whimper, "Thank you so much for pointing out what worthless human being I am. Allow me to eat worms and grovel at your feet." But that doesn't happen. If nothing else, we'll get the bile spewed back by some waste of skin who has less to lose than any of us, so our response tends to be to ignore the fool.
So how do you respond to crappy "fan mail" and lousy reviews? We in League shift through the bilge of our one-star reviews on Amazon. We critique our favorites on the League loop and wonder (not too hard) about the personal issues afflicting said reviewer. We speculate about their demented fetishes, usually involving farm animals, funnels, and the ingestion of various bodily fluids and excretions.
Since one factor that leads readers to your books are reviews, we have an interest in gathering as many positive reviews as possible.
Elle Lothlorien regards her one-star reviewers as unsatisfied customers and engages them directly and in many cases the reviewer substitutes their poor review for a better one.
(Which gets back to the League's position that a one-star review is less about the perceived quality of the book than it is the reviewer needing therapy.)
In the long run, how effective are reviews? The critics initially crapped all over F. Scott Fitzgerald's
The Great Gatsby, and we see how that book got pushed into the literary Dumpster.
The top book right now on my TBR pile is
Hammer of the Gods, The Led Zeppelin Saga by Stephen Davis. In their review of LZ's first American tour, Rolling Stone wrote: "...they will have to find a producer, editor and some material worthy of their collective talents." We see how history gave that critic a well-deserved noogie.
You'll get no noogies at the ongoing
Lighthouse LitFest. I'll be reading at their first ever book fair, Friday, 1:45PM, at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop, 1515 Race St, Denver.
But if you get a noogie at
Denver ComicCon 2012, it'll be done with a pencil or a space blaster.
Check me out next weekend at the Colorado Convention Center, downtown Denver.
Saturday June 16, 4pm “Paranormal” with Tamela Buhrke, Jeanne Stein, Lynda Hilburn. (Hyatt Capitol Room 2)
Saturday 6pm “The State of Horror in this Pre-Apocalyptic Age" with Carrie Vaughn, Molly Tanzer, Lynda Hillburn, and David Boop. (Room 104 )
Sunday 10-11am “Great SF/fantasy/horror books” (Room 104)
Extra! Extra!
My first novel,
The Nymphos of Rocky Flats is on sale at Amazon for $2.99.
Labels: Denver ComicCon, Led Zeppelin, LitFest, noogies