1. Galadriel says:

    That is sadly appropriate.

  2. Paul Lee says:

    I’ve always thought authors loved to hear feedback.  I thought struggling self-published or small-press-published authors would especially crave some honest thoughts from readers.  I like to give feedback when I have a concrete and specific thought (otherwise, I don’t really like expressing hollow opinions, like the stereotyped quotes from the article).

    I don’t write many reviews, mostly because I’m slow and don’t know how to manage my time, but when I do, I almost always read the book through twice, more carefully the second time, searching to bring to light a hidden aspect of the work.

    So, how can I provide feedback to authors that actually is helpful, if thoughts and opinions are helpful at all? 

    • Kaci Hill says:

      Writers do. But we like useful feedback. 0=)
       
      Personally, I prefer to know what worked, what didn’t, and what I could do differently.   I know that sounds horribly vague, but it’s true. One other thing that’s always neat is, if you’re an expert in a field, and the writer clearly isn’t, then a friendly feed-back email is priceless. 
       
      Course, I think on the writer’s end, it’s a tight-rope-walk to be clear enough without spoonfeeding the reader, and it’s also important to learn how to distinguish between the reviewer’s perspective (Ex: Maybe the one girl comes from a controlling background, so she’s more likely to be sensitive to something most people wouldn’t think twice about) and the actual problem. It’s always good, on the writer’s end, to explore criticisms like that further. And, you know, sometimes the character’s supposed to be a controlling jerk. 😉

  3. Steve Taylor says:

    As a fan of book reviews I found your post to be hilarious. The best humor is always closest to the truth. And you hit the nail on the head. Thanks

  4. Fred Warren says:

    Feedback is always interesting, at least. I find that most of it is helpful, in the sense that it highlight things readers noticed that I should consider in writing future stories, and it gives me a feel for what is important to my audience. A smaller fraction is useful–information that tells me what needs fixing (or should continue) and perhaps how to go about fixing it.

    The funniest thing about feedback is that it’s so often contradictory. For every person who enjoys the pace of a given story, for example, there will be another who hated it because it moved too slow or fast for them. Some people will offer comments that make you wonder if they even read the book. It can get confusing very quickly. As in my highly-exaggerated scenario here, it’s hard to tell who’s right, who’s wrong, and who just dropped in from an alien spacecraft. Sometimes people enjoy or hate a book for reasons I never would have imagined. A fan’s a fan, even if they use your book for a doorstop or really sink their teeth into it, like Charlie.

    In any event, I try to accept feedback in the spirit in which it’s offered. It’s important to remember, as Kaci noted, that everyone brings their own experiences into the reading of a book, and their interpretation of it, for better or worse, is filtered through those experiences. 

  5. Lostariel says:

    Writing is worth it; writing is worth it… This is the kind of material that makes a good story, so it’s all worth it…

  6. Maria Tatham says:

    Fred, this is very funny!

    Inane!

    Urbane and witty!

    Goofy!

    Brilliant!

                
      

        

         

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