Let’s end the week with the problematic nature of giving reviews to members of your literary community. I tend to go with Randy Susan Meyers’s philosophy: “there are enough professional and amateur critics out there and I know how much even the best-intentioned criticism can hurt, and I don’t want to add one more bad word to their burdens. I either give five-stars or I don’t do anything.” I make exceptions when it’s a blockbuster, book-to-Hollywood situation, as is the case with one wildly successful book and movie that I hated so much I could spit. Still, a friend that I like and respect loved the book — as did others to the tune of millions (audience members and dollars). Lesson: There’s an audience for all of us, and we can’t please everyone.
- Even though her book is titled, THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF NOT GIVING A F*CK, author Sarah Knight still agonizes over how writers/readers can be both honest and compassionate when it comes to the books they don’t always love in her post On Reviewing Bad Books When You’re Part of the Literary Community.
- Now that his book is out in the world, author Michael J. Martinez pulls back the curtain on some of the feedback from agents and editors from the early days of submission and what he learned from those rejections.
- Alas, not all feedback is created equally. Author Susan Duncan offers 5 Reasons When (and Why) You Should REJECT Feedback.
- “There are plenty of hurdles in the writing process: distraction, diligence, envy, arrogance, dedication, time, space, money, nagging, poison, gossip. There is the seductive conceit that lures you, like an animal into a trap, towards the belief that your work is spectacular, whatever that means, long before your work is actually even done; there’s the quicksand of self-doubt so immobilizing that you can’t climb out of it, and the more you struggle, the deeper you get sucked in.” Elissa Altman On Writing and the Permission to Succeed
- Rejoice longhand lovers: Moleskine, the beloved notebook purveyor, has announced a creative partnership with Neo Smartpen to digitize your doodles, outlines, mind maps, and more. Being skeptical by nature, my first question was: Yeah, but is it gonna barf out my words as a picture or actual text? Um, text. That you can email to yourself. The future is now! Check out the video below, and then prepare to hand over a chunk of your savings.