By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about
gaining distance from our books. I
really feel that’s vital to both editing them effectively, gaining a critical
perspective of them, and learning from negative feedback.
One way to gain distance from our books
is to write another book. The authors I
know who wrote one book (and were traditionally published), fell into this
“only child syndrome” with their book…they helicopter-parented it and were
genuinely hurt over poor reviews. Hurt
to the point where they were immobilized and couldn’t move forward with writing
again.
Another way to cultivate this distance is
to adopt the most businesslike attitude we can about our books. Because, if
we’re sticking with publishing as a career…it is
a business. I think that’s where writers
got off-track so many times in the past.
We didn’t understand our contracts, we didn’t understand the nature of
the industry, we didn’t understand our responsibility to our book…which is to
promote ourselves as a brand and work on the next story.
As a business, there’s a research and
development angle. Knowing what
resonates with our readers and what they dislike about our books helps us to
improve the stories and secure our readers’ loyalty to a series. I’ve gotten positive and negative feedback on
all my books and keep track of it on very basic spreadsheets. I think studying the reviews/feedback this
way helps us maintain distance from the work…otherwise, reading our reviews can
be extraordinarily painful. But getting
something positive out of a negative review can help make my next book better.
I get emails and Facebook messages from
readers. I read each book’s highlights
on the book’s product page (the text that readers highlight or comment on with
their Kindle device). I sometimes
venture onto Goodreads—although you really do
have to be strong there because reviews can be particularly vicious on that
site.
What readers like helps me, too. They
frequently have suggestions about plot developments they’d like to see happen
in future books. I’d be crazy not to
listen to these, but it does reach a point where I realize only I know what’s
best for my stories. I’m not writing my
own fan fiction, here. But I can see
trends, if many readers are interested in certain plot points. Relationship arcs, story arcs…whatever piques
reader interest the most. And it
frequently does influence my writing.
There definitely seems a shift to me in publishing toward a sort of
crowdsourcing of ideas in writing. Sites
like Wattpad, where authors release
stories chapter by chapter and readers give feedback are influencing this
trend, too.
If you go this route, I’d collect this
information over a period of time and probably not on days where we’ve just had
a rotten writing day or are feeling insecure about our ability. One thing does help—keeping a Word doc with
copy/pasted positive feedback or reviews or emails. This can really help, especially if you’re
dealing with a crop of bad reviews (sometimes they go in cycles).
How do you keep a professional distance
from your book?
And…Happy Thanksgiving to my American
friends. I’m going to take the remainder
of the week off from blogging to celebrate the holiday—and be Doctor Mom to my
teenager who is getting his wisdom teeth out. :) I’ll be back again on Sunday with
Twitterific.