Are reviews such a good thing after all?

Let’s face it, us writers thrive on praise. We like nothing more than when someone comes up to us and says ‘oh my god why haven't you been published before?’ or ‘that book made me cry, the characters seemed so real’. Feedback is healthy for us, let’s us know what works and what doesn’t. Rob, one of my dear friends read the original Summerset and ripped it to pieces, pointing out it was grammatically incorrect, filled with typos and generally a mess – but the story was astounding! I cried for ages thinking that now my book was on general sale, I would be considered the Ed Wood of the publishing world – the writer who made her name by producing really crappy books. However Rob did me the biggest favour. I went away, re-read Summerset and realised everything he was saying was true. When I got the chance I re-edited, got rid of the mistakes, made it read in proper English, not South London English and I feel comfortable now knowing it is in the public domain looking like a ‘proper’ book.

This is all well and good coming from a well-meaning friend who only wants to see you succeed and not look like an idiot. However, when you put yourself into the public domain you suddenly open yourself up to all sorts of crazy people with agendas of their own. Another writer friend of mine, Kelly Moran has recently fallen victim to a reviewer on Amazon.com who has printed lies about her for the whole world to see. He hated the book, but that’s irrelevant, we’ve all got to expect that not everyone will ‘get’ us. What you don’t expect is the sheer hatred that some people will feel towards anyone that is getting on with their lives and achieving something. It seems this person is waging some sort of vendetta against Kelly and her friends, so no doubt he’ll see I’m connected, so I’m expecting a crap review of Summerset on Amazon any day now. Ce la Vie, if his life is that sad, so be it. Sometimes bad reviews can spark people’s curiosity.

I recall writing a very honest review on the site youwriteon.com and it’s never in my nature to be scathing, so I would have been constructive to this particular woman, anyway, a few days later, she did a free will review of my book Teenage Kicks, completely savaging it. She had no reason to do this, she hadn’t been assigned it, it was purely because I’d not been nice about her awful book. I feel if you’re going to be that sensitive to criticism, get out of the game cos not everybody’s gonna love ya! However, to deliberately target people and wage vendettas against them is just sick. Still, I guess it’s a warped sort of flattery; at least you’re important enough to bother with.

Ciao for now

Karen

PS: New game – celebrity truths. Have you ever based a character in one of your books on a real person? I confess that Bertie in Mad About the Boy was based on Will Young – there, I’ve admitted it. There are others, but I couldn’t possibly reveal them yet!