Negative Books Reviews

A couple days ago while listening to OPB, my area’s NPR-affiliate, I listened to a debate about the value of negative book reviews.  That link takes you to a podcast of Tuesday’s program.  This debate begins at 17:05 and ends at 37:30.  Lee Siegel is a critic-turned-writer who has recently decided to stop writing anything negative in his New Yorker reviews.  Fleur Macdonald is the editor of The Omnivore.

Siegel’s argument can be summed up as negative reviews being, to use his word, passé and that the modern times require treating authors with kid gloves and wrapping us in cotton.  He continued to say that many reviews are political or written out of personal vendettas.  When asked if he regrets his own negative reviews, he said no, and defended them because he believed in what he said.  He went on to say that reviews in general are now irrelevant, and reviews need to focus on the positive.

Fleur countered that entertaining readers is never passé.  She conceded that personal motives can affect negative reviews, but that many readers are enjoy writing “hatchet job” reviews.  She mentioned a book she actually bought due to a bad review, and pointed out that negative reviews will be the place to find out if certain books, ones based on fact, make a lot of factual errors.

Both did ultimately agree that newer authors should be treated a bit kinder, though Fleur does not believe this means that nothing negative should ever be said.

The ah-HA! moment came when Siegel admitted that his change-of-heart came after he started writing and was subject to a negative review.

Fleur scored a slam dunk about how the reviews are for the readers, not to stroke writers’ egos.

From the standpoint of a reader, every book out there has small moments that can be fluffed up into positive reviews.  After a while I get bored reading nothing but positive after positive review that reads like a personal friend of the author wrote it.  The reviews that seem to take “if you can’t say nice, don’t speak at all” to heart only give once side of the story.  What do reviewers note like?  That which does not appeal to one person might be exactly what appeals to another.  I personally have read books and seen movies I might not have if it weren’t for what seems like negative reviews.

As a writer, the negative reviews can be more helpful to improving my writing and finding where I’m not connecting with readers than the positive reviews.  Of course it’s helpful to know what readers like to know what to continue doing.  But it’s equally, if not more, important to know what the readers dislike enough to speak about.  As I said last Wednesday in my post on a lack of research, the small things can jar a reader out of a story.  The rest of it can be spectacular, and the writer can do more of that, and be praised for the positive.  But without the errors pointed out, those grating little pieces of glass in the bottom of your foot will remain.

Stephenie Meyer famously ignores anything negative about her books.  She does this so hard that her brother, Seth, filters all of her e-mail for her.  This includes constructive criticism.  He is so convinced that “it would be ignorant to believe that criticism of any kind does not hurt the person to whom it is directed” that anything critical, no matter how constructive, will not reach his sister.  If only she had listened to the negative or constructive criticism fans tried sharing about their disgust over a teen boy, Quil, “imprinting” on a toddler named Claire (“imprinting” is when a werewolf – who it turns out aren’t really werewolves when Stephenie wrote herself into a corner – and a human are subject to a magical bond that they can not break, and that means they are ideal sex partners, a perfect pairing to pass on their different number of chromosomes).  Few fans took it well when a teen boy and a toddler were made into sex partners, even though they’re supposed to wait until the younger one reaches 16 years old or so.  But her refusal to listen to her critics, her own fans, led to Jacob Black and Bella and Edward’s NEWBORN daughter imprinting on each other.  As you can imagine, even fewer fans were comfortable with a 16-year-old boy and a newborn being magically-connected sex partners.  This might have been avoided had Stephenie not shielded herself from the reviews that weren’t about farting unicorns that poop rainbows and glitter.  Instead fans of the first three books returned Breaking Dawn en masse.

Reviews, both positive and negative, are our performance reviews.  Those who buy books are the real bosses of authors.  Without their money, authors don’t get paid unless among the lucky few who get a small royalty.  “Write for yourself” doesn’t entirely work if you’re hoping to get others to part with their money.  If you ignore those who will pay you, ignore their reviews of your performance that could help you avoid the same mistakes in the future, you will have fewer people buying your books, or worse, people so angered that they return them.

Constructive reviews, including criticism, are how we learn how to improve.

So yes, we need these reviews.  We need the good and the bad.  Now what we don’t need are the reviews by people who openly admit hating the genre and so insult a book for being that genre, or reviews that are nothing more than hating on an author with nothing useful about the book.  But that is the topic of another blog post.

A lack of research in writing

Two topics have been weighing on my mind for a while, about authors and research.

After a brief Twitter near-argument with EJ James’s husband, Niall Leonard, I decided I decided I needed to get one of them off my chest.

A lot of people from the area I now live, good ol’ Washington itself, in the town “blesses” to be Ana’s hometown, have asked why Christian gave Ana a Blackberry when he was otherwise hooked on MacBooks and iPods.  I learned today that Erika thought that the Blackberry was the most popular phone in the US.  A little clicking around would have shown her the iPhone has not only been popular, but is the phone most people think of when hearing “smart phone.

See, I asked why Blackberries, which were tanking worldwide by early 2012, were used in the books instead of the more popular iPhone, especially considering all the other Apple products.  Niall claimed popularity is perception and that I was “trying to be ahead of the times” and that the IPhones weren’t popular yet by the time these books take place, which is 2012.   I said yes they were, even in business, very quickly after their initial release (they were being adopted by businesses within two week of release in 2008).  I was there in person when the iPhone was announced at MacWorld 2008 and was in the first group of people in the world, outside the developers, to see the phone, and was in the middle of it on release in June of that year.  As a tech employee at that time, I had connections up in Washington, in Seattle, who complained about the phones selling out before they could outfit their staff with them.  I am correct in this matter.  A literally one-minute-long Google search answered why the Leonards thought the Blackberries were the most popular phones in 2012.  See, Blackberries were the most popular phones in 2012…in their home region.

Do you get where this is going?  That’s right.  I have a major pet peeve about a lack of research.  I’m sure the title of this post gave that away.  Niall, an author himself, is defending not researching what you write.

See, if an author sets a story in the real world, whether or not there are supernatural elements for the characters, and wants people to shell over their hard-earned money, then the author has the obligation to spend a few minutes on Google making sure the factual details are correct.  Despite Niall’s claim to the contrary, facts aren’t subject to an author’s perception.  The issue of whether or not the iPhone had attained popularity in the US, the settings of these books, prior to 2012 is just one example of a lack of research in these books.  ”

This is a problem that has gone on for ages, but is less acceptable in an era when most people in the first world have access to the internet.

An example that strikes me particularly hard is The Babysitters Club.  Like most girls in the late 80’s and early 90’s I was hooked on them.  Like a lot of kids, I thought books set in the real world would have told the truth about big topics and serious matters.  I think a lot of old fans will nod to this – the issue of Stacey’s diabetes.  Diabetes was portrayed as a disease always requiring insulin and one bite of anything with sugar could lead to death, or at the least a hospital stay, despite this being false.  It was presented as a disease that always needed insulin, which is also false.  Stacey’s symptoms included such common things as being thirsty and needing to go to the bathroom in the middle night, which are correct – when they are excessive and in combination with other symptoms she wasn’t mentioned as having in her backstories.  Many of my friends were scared they were diabetic because they occasionally woke in the night to pee or get a drink of water because of this series.  On occasion a kid was correct, but the overwhelming majority of the time the incorrect presentation caused needless fear.

Now it’s true Ann M. Martin didn’t have internet access back then, but she claims to have been a school teacher, and teachers have to know at least the basics of illnesses likely to affect their students.  This is an instance where not doing the research resulted in many terrified little girls.  I remember being horrified when a friend of mine, back when the original edition of this book was still on shelves, was asked to take some cookies to her diabetic sister by our teacher.  The teacher was killing my friend’s sister!  I realized later that that teacher, a teacher like Ann, was required to know facts about diseases affecting kids.  Other lack-of-research issues abound in that series, but none had quite the impact as diabetes.  However her particularly horrid treatment of autism is egregious, and I won’t even start on that one.

Certainly by the time Twilight came around internet access was common even in small towns.  Yet in an early chapter if the first book in the series a teacher grabs a student’s hand and stabs his finger without informing the student.  This is against the law.  It’s assault.  I don’t think I even need to go find laws backing why you can’t draw blood on a minor without notice.  A couple of the bigger issues taking less research to learn is that Stephenie Meyer sent Bella and Edward several miles into the ocean to a secluded island off the west coast of Brazil for their honeymoon:

and that Rosalie’s family wasn’t hit at all by the Great Recession because her father was a banker.  In reality bankers were among the hardest hit. They had the most to lose since they kept all their money in the same investments as their clients, and they lost all.  They didn’t even have little family farms to go to, and often knew nothing of how to do manual labor.

But if we loop back to the top, the bigger issue with Fifty Shades is that adequate research was not done.  Erika pulled a standard slave contract off the internet and passed it off as  submissive contract after a quick search-replace, and otherwise refused further research on BDSM.  While this is just dangerous, other things irk locals, of which I am one.  The book has them driving south through Vancouver to get onto I5 to get to Portland. Let’s take a little look at a map.

If you want to drive THROUGH Vancouver to reach a north-south interstate, you’d have to go east or west.  Vancouver has on-ramps every quarter mile or so, and getting to them requires going east or west.  I know because…I LIVE IN VANCOUVER.  The characterization is Portland and Vancouver are just plain wrong.  Never once does it rain in these books.  Ever.  Yes, we do get rain year round, at least mild sprinkles.  Locals I know who’ve read these books has asked why it never rains, even in Seattle.  These details may not seem big, but they not only are vital to bringing a location to life and to make it identifiable to those living in the region, but show respect.  Aside from one, every person I’ve spoken to in this area has been offended by these books, and as a regular at OHSU, a setting in the third book, I can tell you that that hospital is furious with how they were presented.  HIPAA violations galore that would have them shut down in real life.  Just to give you the briefest of ideas, here is a panoramic shot I took last time I was there of OHSU’s very small waiting room where doctors in the books go to give families information on their loved ones (notice the lack of privacy or space to talk privately):

Ultimately what this boils down to is RESPECT.  Unless you’re setting a book in an alternate universe, such as Middle Earth or the not-quite-real-world in the graphic novel Watchmen (which took place during Richard Nixon’s third term in office), I believe it’s lazy writing and outright disrespectful to readers to slack off and not care.  Think of a time you’ve read a real-world-setting book and were jarred out of the story by a detail that would have been easy to verify.  The product you were sold slammed you because the author chose not to research.  I can understand overlooking something once or twice, but doing it over and over again is too much to be passed off as simple error.

Ah, but how much do I apply this to my own work?  Well, during a meal I had the characters drink wine.  I surveyed friends who drink more wine than I do and some real chefs to find out what wine would be appropriate.  This is a wine mentioned only in passing.  I made sure the mansion that was temporarily rented in Sacred Blood was actually available during that time.  I ran an archery scene by some serious archers to make sure the facts were correct.  That trapeze school on the pier in Santa Monica?  Yes, that’s real.  The strip club?  I’ll let you find that one on your own, but it’s real.  I even called a small-town grocery store in Canada to make sure the products I listed in a chapter were actually available there, and used Google Earthview to make sure I used the right roof color.  To make sure the topography was right in locations only in minor scenes I still consulted with others who know better.

In the second book (still in first draft mode), the art gallery Juliette went to sold art by the artist I mentioned (though I won’t share it now so you don’t know where in the world she may be), and I verified the road conditions, and when I found out that an accident had happened on one of the roads when Juliette was driving it (yes, the books have dates, though never explicitly stated), I mentioned the two helicopters that life-flighted people out of there.  How rough CPR was?  Real.  How “it” happens with the chin in the third book?  Yes, that’s possible.  Pardon my crypticness on “it,” but that would be a spoiler.

Who would know if I left out that accident, or mentioned a product not actually available, or if a particular ballet didn’t actually happen where I set it?  Does it matter?  No.  I, as an author, have an obligation to my readers, and honestly to the people who live in the various locations, and if I set a story in the real-world, then I need to accurately portray the real world.

In short, I am irked when other authors, commercially published authors, don’t live up to the same expectations for respecting their millions of readers as I have for myself regarding my tens – I’m not yet published, though will be soon – of readers.  Respect them for their willingness to part with money that can take a couple hours to earn and the hours they’ll spend reading your work.

Guest post: C. Michael Powers

Hey everybody,

My name’s C. Michael Powers, and I’m the author of Mirror Images Book 1: The Darkness of Man. Today, I’m going to be spending some time with two of the characters from my book, Gabe and Cutter. So that you understand the animosity between these two, it’s probably a good idea that I fill you in on what this story is about.

When an average Joe’s reflection in the mirror switches places with him, he finds himself trapped in a strange mirror world, battling his way back to the other side so that he can stop his reflection from destroying the life he knows.

“Have you ever wondered why so many people in prison claim to be innocent? It’s ‘cause most of ‘em are,” Dozier whispered.

On the other side of the mirror, lies a horrific world where each of us has an image, our violent replica, capable of fulfilling our darkest desires, and only released into our world when we’re unable to follow through with an evil deed. Gabe Cutter, an average paper pusher, has his life ripped out from under him when his image switches places with him, hell bent on destroying the life Gabe knows, and killing his cheating fiance’. Now, stuck on the other side of the mirror, Gabe must join together with a band of stranded survivors and find a way to get back to his world before his image destroys it. Along the way he battles his way through maniacs, monsters, and ultimately his own heart, as he realizes that the woman he’s been trying to save…wasn’t worth the price of admission.

So, I’ve got Gabe sitting here on the couch in front of me, and I have Cutter, his image (or reflection) live via satellite from the dark side of the mirror. Let’s get this interview started.

Me:  Cutter, I have to apologize, but it looks like we’re having some technical difficulties with the feed.

Cutter: That’s why you should have had me there in person, ya dick!

Me: I understand your hostility, but as you know, having you and Gabe in the same room isn’t a good idea. In fact, having you in the same room with anyone is an all around bad idea.

Cutter just shrugs his shoulders and picks at his teeth with his pinky finger. Gabe watches, shakes his head and laughs under his breath.

Cutter: The fuck you laughin’ at pretty boy?

Me: Calm down. So, the point of this interview is to introduce you guys to the readers and maybe help them understand the mindset of the image. Gabe, let’s start with you. When you crossed through the mirror, you must’ve been shocked, I mean, that’s a pretty wild journey. How did you feel?

Gabe: I was confused, for sure. I had a beautiful woman in my bed, just got up to take a leak, and suddenly I’m being yanked through the mirror. Scared the hell out of me at first. Then I was just confused.

Me: And Cutter, how did you feel?

Cutter: I felt great. I tossed his sorry ass onto the floor and climbed through the mirror. Like he said, he had a beautiful woman in his bed. It was great.

Me: Gabe, what was the dark side like? When you first fell through the mirror.

Gabe: Dirty and violent. Holy shit, bro. I had people trying to kill me left and right. I wasn’t even fully dressed for cryin’ out loud.

He turns to Cutter.

Gabe: Do me a favor, pal. Next time you decide to invade my life and pull me through a mirror, can you at least wait ’till I have more on than a pair of sweat pants?

Cutter: That’s what you get for wearin’ sweat pants. Who the fuck wears sweat pants? If I’d been bangin’ that broad in the other room and needed to take a piss, I woulda got up naked, dick swingin’, pissed, and been back in bed in a jiffy. There you go, C. Michael, you wanna know the difference between me and this douche on your couch? One word—sweatpants.

Gabe shakes his head and turns back to face me.

Gabe: So I was barefoot in a pair of sweatpants, getting my ass kicked by the locals. Apparently, Cutter pissed off some maniac named Goody Bones, so he and his followers were all over me.

Me: I can imagine how crazy that was for you. Cutter, you had a much easier time adjusting.

Cutter laughs out loud.

Cutter: Yeah, you can say that. Your world is all sunshine and flowered shower curtains. It’s sickening. Nobody on your side was a threat. Hell, I was the threat. I was killin’ folks left and right. It was a fuckin’ riot. Never had so much fun in my life.

Me: You both realized all sorts of differences between the worlds. Let’s do this. I’ll say one word. You guys tell me the first thing that comes to mind.

They both laugh and agree.

Me: Food.

Gabe: I don’t even remember eating. Seems like it was mostly soup over there. Weird animals and roots tossed into dirty water.

Cutter: You guys have the weirdest shit. Packaged stuff. I was on the road most of the time on your side. I remember the first time I walked into one of your shops. Packaged beef, the dried stuff, jerkey…amazing.

Me: Action

Cutter: There was none. Late night TV? People running around with full body pads holding a ball? Your life is lame as hell. All that action on your news stations? You know, the murders and thefts and blazing fires? All that shit is done by people like me, from my side of the mirror, who’ve crossed over into yours. We’re the party. We’re the fuckin’ game changers, the ones who bring some excitement into your world.

Gabe: There was a lot of action on the dark side. I barely had time to breathe, man. It was nuts. Monsters like you wouldn’t believe. Little creatures, big ones, underwater ones, dry land ones…seemed like everything tried to kill me. Just once I hoped a freakin’ regular ol’ dog would just walk up and beg to be petted.

Me: Women

Gabe: Wild. Ivy was a firecracker. And Alleycat, gorgeous. They definitely don’t hold back. See, the images are the darkest versions of us.  If your dark side is a murderer, then your image is a murder. If you’re a pyromaniac, your image will be setting fires all over the place. But not everyone has an evil dark side. Some are just sexual fiends. It’s all they think about.

Cutter: You’re given me a hard on over here. Shit’s not like that on your side. I had to take what I wanted.

Gabe: You’re a fucking animal.

Cutter: Fuckin’ right I am.

Me: It’s hard to tell you guys apart sometimes. Physically, you’re nearly identical.

Cutter: I’m better looking. He looks like a college kid or some shit. Pathetic. I’m what you’d call ruggedly handsome.

Gabe: Your dirty and greasy. An animal.

Cutter: You’re lucky I’m on satellite you little bitch, or I’d cut your fuckin’ throat.

Gabe: How did that work out for you last time?

Cutter loses it and starts flipping out. He’s cursing up a storm.

Me: Ok, last one. Gabe, you go ahead and answer while he throws his temper tantrum.

Cutter: Fuck that, I heard you. What’s the question?

Me: Friends

Cutter spits.

Cutter: Friends? I don’t have any damned friends. Well…Ivy…no, I don’t have any damned friends. Who needs ém?

Gabe has his head down and seems to be in deep thought.

Gabe: I made friends over there. I met some great people. I wasn’t the only one stranded on the dark side. People risked their life for me, all because they heard I was the Haissem and that I’d make things right, for both sides of the mirror. A lot of good people died…for me. Can we stop this now?

Cutter: Like I said, a fuckin’ puss.

At that point, I stopped the interview as Gabe no longer wanted to participate. To find out more about Gabe and Cutter and all the other bad ass characters in my book, check out Mirror Images Book 1: The Darkness of Man, now available at Amazon, for Kindle and paperback at:

http://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Images-Book-Darkness-ebook/dp/B007V9GQ7Y

You can also find it for the B&N Nook at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mirror-images-c-michael-powers/1116009479?ean=2940148122722

Check out my website at http://www.cmichaelpowers.com

Follow me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/CMichaelPowers

On Twitter at: https://twitter.com/CMichaelPowers

And on Goodreads at:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6585488.C_Michael_Powers

Author Interview: Candace L. Bowser

Please tell us a little about your new release, “The Mirror. I understand it is a paranormal romance and is doing quite well.

The Mirror” is my best selling novel. It was the second novel I had written, and I wanted to write a piece of work that was completely different from the first novel I had written: a vampire novel. Set in the picturesque backdrop of Bristol Bay, Maine, the Mirror is a complex telling of the history of the Bristol women, the lives they have lived, and the 400 year old curse, which plagues their family. It is not until the matriarch of the family, Annabel Bristol, dies suddenly that her granddaughter begins to unravel what has happened to her family. Bent on freeing the Bristol women from this age old curse, Adrianna sets out on an adventure which uncovers secret sects of the Catholic Church, a group of Watchers assigned to her family, and the truth behind the entity trapped within the Mirror.

What was your inspiration for this particular book? Will there be a book 2 of the series?

I am a bit fascinated with secret societies and history. The idea actually came to me after watching a show on the History Channel about how the ancients made mirrors and how the ones made from Venetian glass were the most highly prized. It just unraveled from there. I have had several readers ask me to write a sequel, stating that they really did not want the book to end, but sometimes this work is complete the way it is. It is my personal opinion that a sequel would spoil it.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? Please explain.

Definitely a plotter because I get an idea and then I think about every possible scenario and spin off; but after that it is kind of a free for all!

I know you are an artist and enjoy doing book covers. (Especially since you did the cover of ‘The Lost Years’ for me). Do you do most of your own covers? Do you see yourself more as a writer or an artist?

I have done all the covers for my books but one, which was done by a dear friend, Chris Zeigler, for the book ‘Thirteen Pieces of Eight.’ I would have to say that my passion lies with writing. There is not a given moment of any single day where I am not plotting and devising something for one of the many manuscripts.

I understand you are a fan of horror. Please tell us what some of your favorite authors and reads are.

Bram Stoker is my hero. I fell in love with Bela Lugosi in Dracula when I was seven years old, and my parents were avid readers, so when I asked if it was a book, they bought it for me. Bram led me to love the works of other greats such as Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, and Algernon Blackwood. Algernon can weave a tale of horror that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. What more could I possibly ask for?

What is your next project? Do you have a release date yet?

I am working on three different projects right now, ‘Claimed,’ ‘Forsaken: Guild of Bones,’ and ‘Dark Days of Remy Broulette.’ ‘Forsaken’ or ‘Dark Days of Remy Broulette’ will be one of the next ones released, though I cannot give an exact date just yet. It just depends on how they want their story told. I am a firm believer the characters dictate the story. So either Reagan McGovern will be pleading with me to finish her story or it will be Remy… either way I win and so do they.

What do you do in your spare time, besides writing? Is there something silly and fun that you like to do?

I love making clothing and dolls. Yes, I said it… dolls. I make custom BJD dolls (sometimes referred to as Dollfies). Mine are a bit different. They are either dark and foreboding or they are whimsical elves. I truly enjoy working with other authors and creating covers. I think every author deserves to see their vision the way they see it and not the way someone else thinks it should be.

Please give me info on where my readers can get more information on your books. 

My website contains all the information about my books, including links, articles, and the back jacket blurbs along with inside information, special giveaways and contests I might be running at www.candacelbowser.com, or if they like they can request a friendship on Facebook. I post updates there as well.