Two ways to handle criticism

[yendi]

Alice Hoffman chose to publish the phone number and email address of a critic on her Twitter feed, and encouraged her readers to dogpile on the critic.

Brad Meltzer seems a little better at laughing off his bad reviews.

(Aside: Meltzer's latest book really is predictable, and is also one of his weaker efforts. Still worth checking out of the library, though, especially if you're a Superman fan.)

The former is ganked from shadesong, and the latter from coppervale.

Of course, no one mentions the third way many authors respond to critics, which is to, you know, say nothing in public at all.

Comments

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I have linked to here and added my own pontifications (http://pbristow.livejournal.com/515349.html).

[desperance.livejournal.com]

no one mentions the third way many authors respond to critics, which is to, you know, say nothing in public at all.

...Which is the hardest thing ('specially when they're, y'know, wrong, and obviously all they need is to have this pointed out by the person best qualified to know...), but still I think the smartest thing to do.

I did once have a plan to post a photograph of Harry Ritchie on my website and invite people to go through and click anywhere upon it; wherever they clicked, they would kill that pixel. And so, gradually over time, his face would rot away...

But I never did it, for I am good author, me. I ignore reviews. Oh, yes.

[yendi]

I did once have a plan to post a photograph of Harry Ritchie on my website and invite people to go through and click anywhere upon it; wherever they clicked, they would kill that pixel. And so, gradually over time, his face would rot away...

Ha!

But I never did it, for I am good author, me. I ignore reviews. Oh, yes.

In all seriousness, I can't imagine anyone truly ignoring them, but I'd like to think most folks know to keep their griping off, say, their Twitter feeds. :-)

[mfree.livejournal.com]

3'rd choice: yes, the "Whatever, dude." approach to criticism.

[litch.livejournal.com]

I think the third option, not responding, is cowardly and closeminded.

One of the reasons I am something of a transparency activist is that I really believe criticism and dialog can improve performance/results. And I think it works both ways, it can improve the criticism you receive.

Sure if you can't if you can't avoid responding in a childish and unprofessional way it is probably better to no respond. But it IS possible to take the highroad and real value can be derived from doing so.

[allroads.livejournal.com]

“The author doesn’t deliver.”
So Alice Hoofman was criticized for not delivering, and didn't think think to maybe hand deliver a FedEx package or flowers or a pizza for Roberta Silman?