KKR posted the footage of the talk she gave at 20BooksTo50K this year and I think it’s well worth listening to for every aspiring creative. The link below is to her website which has the YouTube link because I also think her business posts are worth following as well.
https://kriswrites.com/2019/11/30/my-talk-on-perfection-at-20books/
One of the two quotes I wrote down from the talk is worth mentioning:
“If everybody loved your story, it’s mediocre.”
I will admit I make the mistake of reading my reviews. Even though I have seen time and time again that they don’t drive my sales. They might convince someone on the fence one way or the other, but honestly I do not believe that most people buy or don’t buy my books because of the reviews.
And I think the myth that a certain number of reviews gets you Amazon promotion is wrong. That’s misunderstanding cause and effect. If you organically get enough sales to generate a certain number of reviews then sure that may catch Amazon’s attention. But the reviews without the sales? No.
Anyway. Because I make that mistake, one of the things I have to remind myself of is this:
My books are not for everyone. This is especially noticeable in fiction. Theme, voice, style, all of that plays into whether or not someone will like a book. (With non-fiction it’s more a question of whether the book met the person’s knowledge level although style still comes into play.)
And in the same way that not everyone likes me as a person (I’m a licorice personality, you either like me or you really don’t), not everyone will like my books.
Which means it’s dangerous to look at the negative reviews and act on them. Because those are not my readers. Those are the people who’d meet me in real life and want to change me. They’d tell me I’m too loud or too opinionated or too full of myself. Or that I shouldn’t follow my own path. Or that I should dress more “appropriately” according to whatever standard they live by.
In real life I’ve long ago dismissed those people. You don’t like me? Eh. Okay. Life is too short to try to twist myself into someone else’s ideal. I like who I am. I like my life. I’ll keep on it with it, thanks.
But with writing it’s harder to be dismissive because I’m trying to sell what I write to other people. And there is this temptation to write something that makes you likeable. That everyone can agree is “good.” Even though I know from my own reading that there are hugely successful authors I love and hugely successful authors I can’t stand.
I know the world allows for a vast range of writing (and people) to succeed. But the struggle to keep other people’s opinions away from my writing is very, very real.
I don’t do critique groups anymore for that reason and am very comfortable with that decision because most are the blind leading the blind, and I’ve seen talented writers rewrite a novel every single time someone else offers an opinion to the point that they never make it past that first novel, which is a tragedy.
But ignoring the reviews is one I still struggle with. Someday I’ll get there and stop reading them. In the meantime, the other quote I wrote down from that talk was, “My book. It’s good. Screw you.”
Haha. Easier said than lived, but a good reminder. The reason each of us has a chance to succeed at this is because no one else can write what we write in the way we write it. As long as we embrace our individuality, that is.
M.L. Humphrey 