Just noticed

[pegkerr]

that The Wild Swans had a new customer review on Amazon. It's pretty disparaging, too.

If you ever wondered, yeah, authors do read their reviews on Amazon. At least I do. But I couldn't bring myself to read the latest one through all the way.

Bad reviews suck, and there's no point in reading something that would make me feel so bad. I just thought I'd mention that.

Edited to add: You know what I gotta do. I gotta write another book.

Comments

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes you do.

And if it's any consolation, I recently re-read "The Wild Swans" and it made me cry at the end, with the quilt project scene.

[splagxna.livejournal.com]

if you are talking about the one comparing it to daughter of the forest - hah. ridiculous. i've read both books - and liked them both - but comparing them is just ridiculous. they have very different purposes, different focuses.

in your book, the eliza-part of the tale is very archetypal and that's it's not fleshed out in such detail... i have no idea if that was intentional but i think it really works well as a contrast to the very in-depth story of sean and elias. i don't see the two threads as 'mirror' halves, not reflections... more that eliza's thread is an image in the water, wavering and not entirely clear, so that you know what you're seeing but not everything about it, and sean and elias' thread is like actually looking at the scene. metaphor doesn't quite work, since eliza is the original and not the reflection... but you get the idea.

marillier's book (daughter of the forest) is lovely, don't get me wrong. i really enjoyed it, loved the characters and the setting... but to me it doesn't have the clarity or purity that the wild swans does because it strays farther from the original fairy tale. it's also not very deep... i read it, i had a great time, but it's what i would call 'fluffy' fantasy (not as fluffy as, say, dragonlance books, but still fluffy). it's not deep or meaningful and it didn't touch me or stay with me the way the wild swans does. i don't tell friends they have to go read marillier, but i do tell them to read the wild swans.

'what you gotta do' is quit comparing yourself to other people. you're not juliet marillier, nor should you try to be. yes, push yourself to do better... but not better than somebody else, better than your last effort, better than you think you can do.

...and if you're talking about the review just following the comparison one, then - well, it really wasn't bad. it didn't see eliza's story as archetypal the way i do and so it didn't work for that person. they're obviously just not perceptive enough to appreciate your work. :-)

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

I read daughter of the forest quite a while after Wild Swans and liked Wild Swans a lot better. Just my two cents.

[emerald-ibis.livejournal.com]

This really is neither here nor there, but I couldn't finish Daughter of the Forest. As a matter of fact, I couldn't get past the first twenty pages. Perhaps I'll give it another chance some day, when I have time to read for fun again :)

[rachet.livejournal.com]

Seeing that I just reread it about a month ago and was still caught up in the story as if I didn't know what was going to happen.....Peg, it's a work of art.

And yes, I cried again at the end.

I read the review. It's worth ignoring.

But I do agree you need to get writing another book. :-)

[ionas.livejournal.com]

Some people have perceptive lenses that seem to comply with a totally different prescription. That does not diminish your gift for insight and art!

Please do write another book.

[misia.livejournal.com]

As both a writer who has had her books savaged (and spammed) on Amazon and as a fan of "The Wild Swans," I say *phhhthtbttththtthttt!* to that reviewer, who apparently has moldy potatoes where her critical sensibilities ought to be, and a resounding "yes, yes!" to your writing another book for me to read.

Amazon.com reviews are so often, as my mother so sanely put it, really only worth the paper they're printed on.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Hold on, I'll go vote "Not Helpful" on it. ^_^

[pinkfinity.livejournal.com]

Did I ever tell you that our copy of TWS, which I've owned since before I met you, is a 1st ed, 1st printing?
<3

[blackholly.livejournal.com]

I used to read amazon all my Amazon reviews, google myself, and generally look for what readers thought of my work. Somewhere around when Spiderwick came out, I just had to stop. I realized that I could find ten of the nicest, coolest, best-written reviews in the world, but if one person wrote one bad review--that was the one that would stay with me. That bad review was the one I believed. It's the one I would still believe, if I let myself see it.

While it is easy to say that nothing is going to please everyone, it is harder to actually believe that. One thing that made me feel better was going to read the Amazon reviews of books I thought should be above reproach. There are always a few nasty reviews. That made me realize I was never going to be able to write my way free of bad reviews.

Another thing that made me feel better was realizing that often people who emailed me critical things (how could you roast those cats?!? why are they five books instead of one!?! what is up with all that swearing?!?), upon getting an email back from me, became very complimentary. People criticize, by habit, even books they actually like. It is baffling, but true. Ask Cassie. She gets that all the time.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

(I do read my reviews on Amazon, too, but it's obscure enough that all the reviews have been friendly.)

But definitely, write another book. I, for one, will be glad to read it.

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

And what I gotta do is start posting reviews on Amazon. That would be a good one to start with too. I really loved it!

[silme.livejournal.com]

Hey, I read that book, and I liked it, darn it. And I'm an English teacher (in England!) who's mean and nasty. ;)

I think that some of the more negative, vitriolic reviews on Amazon need to be taken with a pillar of salt -- not just a grain. :)

[aome.livejournal.com]

We can't please everyone, no matter how much we'd all like to. (Case in point: I know tons of people who have swooned over the HDM trilogy. I had to force myself to finish and thought it was okay, not terrible, but it just didn't grab me, either.)

Keep in mind that most of us have enjoyed TWS. Personally, I thought it was beautiful, and only the second book ever to make me cry. Not only that, but I was outright bawling - I had trouble seeing the pages for the last segment of the book. No one else has ever achieved that in a book for me, no matter how much I love it.

Writing another book would be grand, but because you *want* to, for the joy of creation and something for yourself, and not to prove something to the dweeb who left the bad review.

[dreamingcrow.livejournal.com]

Yes, you need to write another book, but for yourself and the people who consider themselves your fans to enjoy, not for people like that reviewer. :)

[blackjesamine.livejournal.com]

::glowers at reviewer:: Well I read it and loved it and I'm special so there. ::sticks out tongue::

::would very much want to see another book from you::

[ase.livejournal.com]

I gotta write another book.

Yes. Because you love to write, and have stories you want to share with the world. (Spiting the amazon customer reviewers with the praise the next book earns being merely a nice side effect, of course.)

Write, Peg, write!

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Get all your friends to click that the review is not helpful. That'll make it less visible.

But it will knock down your rating; there's no way to fix that.

And I've thought about it.

B

[airemay.livejournal.com]

Gggggrrrrrrr.

I was expecting a story similar to Daughter of the Forest.

First of all, I have never heard of this book. But even if I had, the way this guys sounds it's like he expected every single thing in TWS to be the same as said book. The two are incomparable. If I am getting this right, Daughter of the Forest is about the swan fairy tale. See that? ONLY about the swan fairy tale. What I loved about YOUR book Peg is that you were able to connet TWO stories together. This guy obviously missed that.

miraculously her task of making twelve shirts out of stinging nettles by hand is easily accomplished in just a few paragraphs.

:/ A few paragraphs?

*breathes* This review just makes me angry. You can't go into any book expecting it to be like another. Books are unique. No two books are the same. Even if they are about the same thing, they are still different.

Like the reviewer, I am way biased. I LOVED your book. I stayed up until 6am reading it. I had never gone to bed when the sun was rising before. Sigh.

*schnoogles*

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

Another vote for "I gotta write another book."

Please, pretty please with sugar on it.

[cryptaknight.livejournal.com]

*smites disparaging reviewer*

I'm about half way through Swans and I'm loving every word of it.

[daedala.livejournal.com]

I have voted down the review. : )

[md-jess.livejournal.com]

Ignore them. It's their fault for choosing reading material that isn't suitable for them. It simply isn't possible to have something that everyone loves - but obviously a lot of people love your book which clearly shows that you must have done something very well.

[(Anonymous)]

I find that I have to avoid my Amazon.com reviews. The bad ones depress me for days. The good ones massively increase my anxiety about whether my next book can possibly live up to their expectations. Either one makes it harder for me to write anything at all.

To cheer yourself up after a bad review like that, I'd suggest looking up the one-star reviews of your favorite books by bestselling authors.

--Naomi Kritzer

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I read mine too, the ones by the pinheads as well as the ones by people of taste and discernment. Often, it's possible to learn something from them, sometimes I really did do something that might be fixable next time.

OTOH, sometimes they just wanted a different book -- in this case, that's pretty obviously that. Not much anyone can do about that. The King's Peace has one review that said it's the worst book they've ever read, not just the worst fantasy, the worst book. There's just no pleasing some people.

As for writing another book, get to it!

Reviews

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

Browsing the reviews on Amazon.com and elsewhere can be useful in at least one way: For me, it has taught me that no matter what I write, and no matter how well I write it, some people are going to like it, and some people are going to dislike it. Some people will understand my work, some people will not understand it. How can the same book (pick any book with a significant number of reviews) be both "the greatest book EVER" and "total trash"? In the eye of the beholder. ;-)

BTW, I finally checked "The White Swans" out of the library, but haven't had a chance to read it. I'm in the middle of a bio of the Young Hemingway, at the moment. I'd also be interested in your views on fanfic and serious writing, if you happen to catch today's entry in my LJ.

Gak.

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

Memory said I typed the wrong thing. Memory was correct, for once.

I meant to type "The Wild Swans."

Re: Gak.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

What a relief! Was afraid you'd picked up the wrong book. Well, if you read it (and you like it!) feel free to drop me a line to let me know what you think. Thanks!

Cheers,
Peg

Re: Gak.

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

Was afraid you'd picked up the wrong book.

No, I remembered the author correctly. ;-) Brain glitches like that are just the hazard of doing my Internet stuff on the fly at the library...

[stephdray.livejournal.com]

Well, I think the obvious solution is for me to put the book on my amazon wish list, read it when I have the cash, and then review it for you, because I know all :P

[queerasjohn.livejournal.com]

That's what the Internet is for. Slandering others anonymously.
--Banky Edwards, Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back.

I have no professional advice to offer here, but think about the number of stupid people who unfortunately manage to acquire Internet access. Unfortunately, one occasionally runs across such persons, but that doesn't mean that the stupid people are right. Moreover, I (we) love you, and I (we) love your writing, and above all, I (we) love The Wild Swans and the excerpts of the new book I (we) heard at Nimbus. So, yes. You gotta write another book. :D