As some of my twitter followers recently heard, I received a nasty email from a reader this week. It was MEAN. The reader said that she had purchased my novel -- a $14 paperback -- to read on vacation and that she was disappointed that it was "another book by a self centered Californian who thinks she's the center of the universe." She was so disappointed, in fact, that she thre the book in the trash! It wasn't even good enough, she said, for the used book store. Yikes!
The book in question, by the way, The Last Beach Bungalow, is about a breast cancer survivor who is struggling to find her way in the world. I didn't know what to make of this note. I thought about deleting it. I thought about writing back and saying, WTF?? I decided on a middle ground because I didn't think she should get away with what she had done. I mean, she took TIME out of her DAY to tell me that she threw my book in the trash? I wrote to her and said, "Did you expect an apology? For my writing a book that I thought might resonate with other breast cancer survivors?"
She wrote back and said, "Certainly not. I just thought that before you write your next book you might want to consider that some people don't want to hear about your narcissism and politics when we're just hoping for a book to entertain us." I don't know what about my book was narcissitic or political -- honestly I don't. But in any case, I would never change what I write to please someone. Sure, I want my books to sell, and to resonate with a wide audience, and I try to make my work as engaging as I can, but try to include this woman in the mix? No thanks. So I wrote her back and said, "Actually, no, I won't consider that. I write books that are as true to my vision of the world as I can make them, and I attract readers who find something in them that is comforting, inspiring or entertaining." And then I wrote the best line I've written in a long time week: "Next time you feel inspired to write an author, I hope it's to tell them you loved their work."
It's a brave new world, where writers have to be open to their readers -- via twitter, blogs, emails. I guess for all the good notes we get, we have to take some bad, too. But I didn't like it....
4 comments:
That was such a nasty thing to say! What an evil person, i think they are the narsasstic ones thinking that every book should tailor to their likings. You will not gel with every book you read but thats whats great about books, there are so many for all types of people, what makes them think that people should write books that they like! And if they begrudge paying that amount for a book may i suggest that a library stocks novels that you can rent for free, that way if they dont like it then just return it! dont throw it away as some other person may find guidance and inspiration from the book that they so selfishly discarded.
So sorry to ramble on but people make me so angry sometimes.
Dot let it get you down, they are obviously narrow minded, you should be glad you dont attract that kind of reader.
Hope you have a great day
hugs
Gem
x
People do go out of their way to pass around negative energy. I'm sure this kind of person has never taken the time to praise an author. I personally would like to take the time to thank you for sharing this experience. What a selfless thing to do.
I love your perspective and thoughtfulness. I appreciate your sharing this post. That lady doesn't deserve all this attention from you and I pray that she realizes that SHE isn't the center of the universe! So she didn't like the book, so what. but why did she think she had the right to tell you to change for her? silliness and disrespectful, imo.
And I will continue to eagerly await your next novel!! :)
I'm also thinking I should write to one of my favorite authors and let them know I admire their work. Thank you.
Golly. Did it not occur to the reader to NOT purchase your next book. Ok, so she wasn't happy (though I can't imagine why, I liked the last bb...) but why try to pass her misery off on to you. Go figure. Makes for a weird discussion. I say it's time for all of us to move on or as you suggested, WTF? Move on. Keep on writing.
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