tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post3577478588571984224..comments2024-02-25T05:24:24.948-05:00Comments on Beyond Easy: Chapter Wherein the Author Copes with Negative ReviewsPatrick Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02410016566636603639noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post-58353858709574156602015-10-05T18:33:45.960-04:002015-10-05T18:33:45.960-04:00Well, for what it's worth, I liked your damned...Well, for what it's worth, I liked your damned book. One of my friends thought it was very depressing (which didn't detract from the quality), but in my mind that's what made it very real. If I wrote a blog that anybody read (anjmac.blogspot.com plug plug) or had any real pull I would certainly put it up. Keep writing. You don't need to be successful for it to be worth it. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12436060667388980835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post-25419787309232919012012-09-14T19:09:49.173-04:002012-09-14T19:09:49.173-04:00Just when you think you're done creating your ...Just when you think you're done creating your baby, the next gargantuan mountain to climb is to SELL THAT BABY. A lot of great authors had their work torn to pieces before people changed their minds about it. Critics are strange and fickle like that. Chuck Palahnuik's Fight Club didn't get off the ground for a long ass time. So if its any consolation, your book might end up as a cult hit. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post-14112618515777695732012-09-02T20:40:20.765-04:002012-09-02T20:40:20.765-04:00Hi Pat - I'm a longtime reader, first time rep...Hi Pat - I'm a longtime reader, first time reply....er.... <br />I'm a blogger/aspiring writer from Australia and I've followed your Final Fantasy reviews. I ordered a paperback version of The Zeroes and I read it from cover to cover. I thought it was a very good book and indeed challenging at times. Many of the situations portrayed in The Zeroes I can see in both myself and my friends around me. <br />It is indeed a shame that something of this calibre is ignored whilst rubbish *coughTwilightSagacough* sells like crazy.<br />Being an aspiring writer myself, i can understand of trying to get somewhere when it's only one in a thousand writers (or so) who actually do. So if your book has reached someone (even if they happen to be on the other side of the Pacific Ocean) then that's small degree of victory<br /><br />Keep fighting the good fight :)Alchemisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10042979137859702493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post-74503360152650109872012-08-31T12:19:17.451-04:002012-08-31T12:19:17.451-04:00You can't let success (or lack thereof) determ...You can't let success (or lack thereof) determine whether or not you should be doing something. Success is what we all want, but it doesn't mean much if it's not achieved in the right way. Would you feel better about yourself as a writer if you were the person who wrote the Twilight or Hunger Games books? Would you be satisfied if you got rich and (relatively) famous off of writing those kinds of simple-minded pieces of anti-art? (Not that books like that don't have their place, but I think those are two particularly awful examples of what that kind of writing is supposed to be) Success isn't determined by you, it's determined by everyone else. You could be the greatest author in history, but if nobody buys your books then you aren't successful. Generally, being a great author will get you success, but there is no way that 100% of great authors (or painters, or filmmakers, or musicians, etc.) get the success that their work is due. Sometimes things just fall through the cracks. Ultimately, the only thing in your control is <i>how</i> you choose to write. There's three ways to do things: The right way, the wrong way, and the Max Power way (which is the wrong way, but faster). Pick one of those ways and go with it. There are plenty of reasons to stop doing anything artistic, but a lack of success isn't one of them.siefkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01909748477014438436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post-88148149665596681062012-08-31T12:15:42.098-04:002012-08-31T12:15:42.098-04:00What exactly is "deserving" or "und...What exactly is "deserving" or "undeserving" cynicism? Is this just a neat new way to phrase "first world problems"? Not everything needs to be about who is suffering the most or who is the most worthy of sympathy. "The Zeroes" approaches the suffering of its characters sincerely because the characters themselves approach their own suffering sincerely! One of them is the fucking narrator! I don't think any of the points that the "Unbound" review brought up are relevant. Would it make the reviewer feel better if there was a foreword featuring a series of inspiring stories of people who have suffered greater and faced more challenges than the characters?<br />Pretley Sandershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12220313558400794253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post-50646591683204867252012-08-31T08:53:57.053-04:002012-08-31T08:53:57.053-04:00"The Zeroes" is a great book. It _is_ bl..."The Zeroes" is a great book. It _is_ bleak as shit, I don't know if I "got it" but it definitely affected me. <br /><br />Post the bad reviews, even if only to desensitize yourself. <br /><br />How will you be vindicated down the road if you can't concretely point out the bastards holding you down? <br /><br />If the fuckheads trying to pick the carcass of the publishing industry could recognize art in a novel, they'd tell people not to read it just like you say they did - they don't want people to think, they want people to buy more crap.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00627343433276805685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post-24670091546688617952012-08-31T01:39:49.803-04:002012-08-31T01:39:49.803-04:00It's funny, because becoming aware of how you ...It's funny, because becoming aware of how you managed to get a book put together was a major inspiration for me attempting to do the same thing, albeit with poetry, and if there's anything less marketable and more reviled than the novel, it's the book of poems. I'm not expecting much, really, just something that I can put on my shelf and think "Yup, at least I did *something* with my life I can be proud of," but as recently as yesterday, when I finished the most recent poem for the book, I was hit with the terrifying thought that, after the let's say 5 years I've been SERIOUSLY writing, I may not have advanced my craft at all. But either way, I suppose that someone out there will one day appreciate my work, and most certainly there are those who appreciate yours. We may not ever have any sort of celebrity, even literary celebrity which is as much of an oxymoron as exists, but if one can make even one other person think, isn't that something?<br /><br />Either way, as shallow as it is to say, and how much the empathy is misguided, don't let the it get you down. It may be Sisyphean but, hopefully, it at least you're doing something that you enjoy, even if the Sophists don't get it. Ivan T. W.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07864445965228639180noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post-90311394656835568092012-08-31T00:53:26.605-04:002012-08-31T00:53:26.605-04:00I've since asked my dad what he thought about ...I've since asked my dad what he thought about it since the last time I brought that up, and he said that he liked it but there was no way he could have made it sell, not with the small publisher's limited resources.<br /><br />I think he specifically said some books by design are unsaleable.Tigthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11018253211543720641noreply@blogger.com