Now that I’m sort of kicking around Facebook again, and trust me, I’m doubting that decision every single day, I’m starting to see different perspectives and different ideas and, at least some of the time, it’s starting to look very similar to what I’ve faced before.
Take this as an example, something that’s going on right now. It’s really one of the problems that writers face and why so many people never actually go anywhere.
So I popped on this morning and someone wrote a long, heartfelt diatribe about critiquing people’s stories and how you should never actually criticize anything because you might hurt said author’s feelings. It wasn’t quite as bad as I described it but that’s essentially what was being said.
Therefore, I responded, as have a lot of other people and, to their credit, I’m not seeing much support for the emotional appeal expressed in the original post and they all seem to be rallying around me, although that was certainly not my intent. Effectively, I said that if you can’t take honest criticism of your work, then you’re going to have some serious problems becoming successful. Granted, not everyone wants to be successful, not everyone wants to be a published author and that’s fine. That’s something entirely different. If you do manage to get a book out there though, you need to have a backbone so you can weather the inevitable criticism that will be hurled your way and they’re not going to care about your feelings at all, nor should they.
Whether anyone likes it or not, writing for publication is a job, it isn’t an emotional journey. You are writing so that people will buy your work. There are a lot of factors that go into it, of course, but once you can convince someone to pick up your book, it’s what comes between the covers that makes the real difference. People are either going to like it or not and their reasons for liking it or not are varied and multi-faceted.
The one thing they are not going to care about is your feelings. People review books, not for the sake of the author, but for the sake of other potential readers. They’re not trying to help you, they’re trying to help other readers. It’s only once you reach that point that you know if you’ve got the skills to make it as a published author. You should have had as many beta readers as you could beforehand, those can help you to sort out the problems from the successes, but then we get to the advice given on Facebook. Don’t actually tell the author what’s wrong with the book. Just stroke their ego. Make them happy. And that’s not going to help at all.
Critiques should have nothing at all to do with the author. They are 100% about the work in question. This is where I start to look at the amateur contingent and shake my head sadly. They aren’t concerned about the truth, they are only concerned about their feelings. They lack the backbone to hear the truth and that’s why most of them just aren’t interested. They’d rather hear the comforting lies instead of the very uncomfortable truth and, for some reason, they think that’s how it will always be.
Then it hits publication or an agent gets hold of it and you find out if your work is really all it ought to be. All concern over your feelings are swept aside and it’s just about the words on the page. Are they good enough or not? This isn’t about you, it’s about your book.
That’s not to say that you ought to be cruel when critiquing a book. You just have to be honest. If you see good things, include them in the critique. If not, don’t just make something up to spare the feelings of the author. Honesty is the name of the game and that honesty needs to be brutal. You need to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth and if you can’t do that, you have no business looking at it to begin with. Because here’s a bit of reality that a lot of hopeful authors don’t want to acknowledge. Readers aren’t going to care about your feelings. If your book sucks, they’re going to say so. Reader reviews are some of the most harsh places you can go and they should be. This is where everything else is stripped away and people who have put down good money for your work get to rate it as they please. You don’t have to like it, that doesn’t matter, but if you’re not ready to see the horror show that is the review spaces of most newly published authors, you’re never going to survive.
Therefore, telling people the truth from the very beginning is not only useful, it’s essential. Again, don’t be cruel for the sake of being cruel, but if something doesn’t work, say so. How is the author supposed to learn if you’re tip-toeing around their fee-fees? Your characters are bad? Here’s why. Your plot makes no sense? Here’s the places it goes off the rails. Relationships don’t ring true? Say so! The critiquing process is all about improvement, not self-congratulations. If you’re writing for personal validation, you’re doing it all wrong. If you’re throwing a temper tantrum because you’re not hearing what you want to hear, just give up. You’re never going to get anywhere.
And, of course, there were people who complained that everyone wasn’t focused on fee-fees. Sorry, that’s not how reality works. Tons of people were telling these few misguided souls how wrong they were. I threw in a couple of times but mostly, I just let others do it for me. I made my point, I don’t need to say anything else unless someone asks me a specific question. Not whines, asks. There is a difference.
This is really why so many amateurs fail entirely. They pretend that it’s all about their feelings and that’s absolutely false. Writing for publication is a business. You work because you have to work, not because you want to work. It’s great if you can enjoy yourself along the way, but ultimately, you are producing a product for potential buyers. That money allows you to keep doing what you enjoy doing, but that enjoyment isn’t the point, it’s a by-product. If all you’re looking for is happiness, wow did you pick the wrong path. This is hard work. It always has been and it always will be. Anyone who thinks that writing for publication is getting up at noon, wandering around in their underwear for a while and typing for a little bit, you have a very skewed perspective on the life of the professional author. It doesn’t work that way. The sooner that people disabuse you of that absurd notion, the better. Ultimately, it isn’t about you at all. It’s about what you can do and what people who trade their hard-earned money for your product think of it. Whether you like it or not, they’re not your friends, they don’t care about you, they just want to be entertained. You can either spin a good yarn or you can’t. How are you supposed to figure it out if you’re terrified to listen to the unvarnished truth?
It’s sad how many amateurs never get that through their heads. It’s why they fail.
