{"id":1795,"date":"2011-10-26T08:30:19","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T12:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/?p=1795"},"modified":"2011-10-26T08:33:16","modified_gmt":"2011-10-26T12:33:16","slug":"bad-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/?p=1795","title":{"rendered":"Bad Reviews and the First Time Author"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It is better to do your own duty badly than to perfectly do another’s.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bhagavad Gita
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bad reviews are the tough part of being published. Not that there aren’t other things that are difficult once your first book comes into the world, but reviews from people who hate your work can be devastating, especially for first time authors. Please know that everybody, and I mean everybody, gets them.<\/p>\n

No matter how hard we work to write a good story, to hone our craft, to develop our characters and our story arcs, even the most careful, meticulous work will not please everyone. Even when most of the people who read our work understand and enjoy it, even when most are moved as well as entertained, there will always be people who do not speak our language, who are not a part of our tribe, who simply will not like our books. Sometimes the voice of the author bothers a reader, or the author’s style. Sometimes a reader does not like the protagonist. As hard as it is to read those reviews, those people are entitled to their opinions and to their voices, just as we are. Hard to accept when they hate what we do, but accepting the reality of bad reviews and differing opinions is a necessary part of being a professional author.<\/p>\n

Those are the people who read a book and genuinely, honestly, and openly do not like it.<\/p>\n

Then there are the destroyers.<\/p>\n

There are some people in the world who live to tear things down. They don’t seem to have much interest in what they attack, or whom. They do it for sport, because they like the taste of blood, because they can. I don’t pay much attention to these people anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s easier for me now simply not to read these reviews, but when I began this work, they were very tough to take.<\/p>\n

In this world of opposites, destroyers have their place. But remember always that you also have yours. Every writer, every artist, must face those who would tear down their work simply because it is there. Creators have always gone on creating in the midst of destruction. I think that will be the true harbinger of the end of the world: when creative people lay down their pens, and allow themselves to be silenced.<\/p>\n

Do not be silenced. Keep writing. The world needs your stories. No one else can speak with your voice. No one can tell your stories but you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“It is better to do your own duty badly than to perfectly do another’s.” The Bhagavad Gita Bad reviews are the tough part of being published. Not that there aren’t other things that are difficult once your first book comes into the world, but reviews from people who hate your work can be devastating, especially …<\/p>\n

Bad Reviews and the First Time Author<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[114,361,115],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1795"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1914,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions\/1914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}