The joy and horror of reviews
It’s always a nailbiting moment when an alert comes in with a new review… and these last two weeks have had a number of those.
There’s always trepidation on the air as I hit the link, see the stars, and my heart skips a beat.
The title often gives a clue as to what is liked/hated, but there’s a reluctance in the eye to read more…
Every moment and every forthcoming word just waiting for the tide to turn… to discover that despite the kind words at the outset, they’re going to have found something that nags and gnaws, that just they straight up hated…
Or worse than that, they could turn around and tell you that you’ve made a huge mistake giving up everything to become an author. Wasted your days writing, become a waste of a person for thinking the stories you love are worth telling…
Then you come to the end, and there’s a sigh of relief. Because there was something – maybe just one thing – that resonated. It might have been the characters or plot, the themes or subtext.
But there was one thing, and if you got one thing this time around, that means next time you could get two or three things right…
And worst comes to worst, even if you get a bad review – at least you might get something for your gravestone that sums up your life completely…
But, y’know, please don’t take that as encouragement to write hilarious bad reviews.
… Please…
… Pretty please?…