Comments on: [GUEST POST] Jeff Carlson on Bad Reviews

By: Jessica Meats

Jessica Meats — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:37:45 +0000

I have a list of events that will tell me that I’ve made it as a writer. I’ve added to this list: I’ll know I’ve made it when people are feeding my books to their dogs and telling me about it.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 17:42:08 +0000

Mike! Excellent question. Classic Old Knee *was* too obscure.

I toyed with naming this archetype the Classic Bleeding Heart or Classic Knee Jerk, but those felt too obvious, not to mention insulting, ha ha.

Mine own politics are fairly liberal, and yet when I get emails or reviews that the “Plague Year” novels are fascist or right wing or whatever, my reaction is, “Wow, this dude’s an old-time old-school knee jerk liberal to think I’m trying to foist some hardline manifesto on him by cleverly hiding my conservative ideology within the story.” There is no conservative ideology. Except to say I read a lot of Heinlein growing up, ha ha. Honestly, I’ve only had a few such emails. But when I do, my mind reels.

And… speak of the devil. I’ve got a bads news comment for y’all today.

Another boner has come along and started posting one-star reviews of “The Frozen Sky,” killing its average score. I’m sure the two ugly reviews posted so far were both written by the same guy because he uses similar phrasing, one of the main tell-tales of a saboteur. Also, one of his accounts has never reviewed anything else before, only his blasting of “Sky.”

If anyone here as read the novella and enjoyed it, please do sway “Sky” back to a positive trend.

A short review takes about as long to compose as a FB post — and as fen and fellow writers, reviewing books is a great habit to develop in our brave new e-world.

You guys rock.

By: Mike Ball

Mike Ball — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:46:48 +0000

What's the reference for "Classic Old Knee"? That is, where does the term come from? Both Google and I drew a blank. The other titles were fairly obvious.

-Mike-

By: Jeff Carlson

Jeff Carlson — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:45:01 +0000

Thanks, Pia. I’m sorry to hear about your own personal Nutcake. It shouldn’t surprise me how common this is in our brave new e-world.

Reasonable Mike… stop being so reasonable! ;>

By: Reasonable Mike

Reasonable Mike — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:41:07 +0000

Jay Lake has discussed how he's been called a religious zealot and an atheist menace for his novel Mainspring; proving there's no shortage of crazy out there.

By: Pia Veleno

Pia Veleno — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 21:44:23 +0000

Hi Jeff,

Great post, thank you!

This was forwarded to me by a friend because I recently suffered my first Nutcake and Dread Saboteur. Knowing others suffer the same helps a bit, but it was the way you wrote about them that I could relate to. We can't take them too seriously, or they win.

I enjoyed your article so much that I want to read more from you. The Plague books sound right up my alley.

~Pia

By: Jeff Carlson

Jeff Carlson — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 05:31:38 +0000

Hey, gang, I’m coming late to my own party after a long day out in the real world.

Tam! Gotta work on the cutthroat put-downs! Aha ha ha.

Joe and Robert, I’m told there are many variations of the pig/idiot/troll saying, but that one’s always stayed with me. There’s something visceral about the barnyard setting.

Mike, thank you, sir. Please email me at jeff@jverse.com. There’s some back story why a long version of “The Frozen Sky” wasn’t my second novel after “Plague Year,” but it would become the largest blog comment of all time. Heck, maybe John will let me write it as another guest post someday. It’s nuts-and-bolts editor/publisher/writer stuff, but maybe interesting to sci fi affectionados. John?

As for the question of To Feed Or Not To Feed My Dog… Hee hee… Maybe a horse would have been more appropriate? A goat?

Thanks again. It was fun to vent!

By: tam

tam — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 03:46:41 +0000

This is the worst post I have ever read.

By: Mike Lawnsley

Mike Lawnsley — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 01:49:41 +0000

Jeff, I liked your article so much I downloaded and read Frozen Sky. Loved it. Now I'm going to go give it a nice review on Amazon, but you have to promise to write more stuff like this! There are too many good sci-fi authors who wrote very good stories but didn't write enough of them. (And bad sci-fi writers who wrote way too much)...

By: Paul (@princejvstin)

Paul (@princejvstin) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 01:24:32 +0000

Thanks, Jeff.

I had gotten a copy of Plague Year a few years ago by a mutual acquaintance of ours who thought I might like it and might review it on that basis.

http://www.skyseastone.net/jvstin/unjvst/007307.html

I would not imagine feeding the novel to a dog even if I didn't like it. That's just crazy.

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:52:19 +0000

“but the reason to avoid such arguments was best put to me like this: Never wrestle with a pig. The pig enjoys it, and you get covered in sh*t.”

I prefer the version that goes “Never argue with an idiot. He will just drag you down to his level and beat you with experience!”

On another note. Congratulations. I am in the market for a new author at the moment and you just made another sale. The plague books look interesting.

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 09:47:07 +0000

"but the reason to avoid such arguments was best put to me like this: Never wrestle with a pig. The pig enjoys it, and you get covered in sh*t."

Got to remember this one!

I never enjoy writing bad reviews, for two reasons. 1) Even a bad book had someone working hard on it. 2) I have just read a bad book.

By: Scotoma

Scotoma — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 08:55:12 +0000

The women with the cat: hilarious. Sure, also very wrong, but still hilarious. It's funny, most writers earn so little yet still manage to attract all the crazy people. Sometimes I wonder why they bother.