Early Reviews

As I mentioned a few posts ago, Harper Collins Australia gave away 10 copies of The Painted Man to a book review website called Booktagger. Booktagger allows users to list books they have read, and share their opinions.

In a promotion, the site offered the copies to the first ten Australian readers to register with the site and request it. The books were all taken, and again the anxiety began.

Will they like it? Will they hate it? Will anyone even bother to read it, much less post a review? Heaven knows, I get plenty of free advance read copies of books that I never end up reading.

Every time a piece of my work is put “out there”, I get these feelings. I have such a love/hate relationship with my writing that it is impossible for me to be impartial and see it as others might, and even if I did, readers are as wide and varied as snowflakes. What one reader loves, another will hate. There are going to be people who despise my writing and are willing to stand on a blog pulpit and describe why in great detail for all to see. I feel like I have to be tensed and ready to roll with the blow to my ego, letting the pain go as I search the review for things I might actually improve in the future.

I always expect the reviews will be bad. I am never entirely satisfied with my own work, and always expect that others will be unsatisfied as well. That many people have enjoyed it so far never seems to help this feeling. Reviews by friends and family, however heartfelt, always feel a little biased, and reviews by publishers are business decisions based on sales potential, and are thus colored in their own way. Against the only critics that really matter, real fantasy book readers, people known for being smart and critical, I am as yet untested.

But the Booktagger readers live on the other side of the world, and don’t know me from a wallaby. They have no reason to say anything nice about me. Surely, if I could trust anyone, it’s them. And how stoked would I be if they liked it?

So with both excitement and trepidation, I started checking the review page for my book, waiting to see if anything popped up.

Since then, five out of those ten readers have posted reviews on the website, with a new one being added almost every day this week, and they’ve all been good so far. It’s am amazing feeling, and makes up for all the nights I spent banging my head against the keyboard and cursing the words (or lack thereof) on the screen.

You can view the ever growing list on Booktagger’s Painted Man Review Page. Another reader posted her review elsewhere, and it was quite positive, but if you haven’t read the book, be warned, because it contains something I consider a major spoiler.

Posted on June 16, 2008 at 6:50 pm by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Musings, Reviews, Writing
2 Comments »

2 responses to “Early Reviews”

  1. Very cool news. Last I looked there were only 2 reviews up. It is not only encouraging to hear, but validates what those of us who have read it and told you we liked it said. We were not joshing you. Now I must get back to the Bazaar…

    Posted by Jay, on June 16th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
  2. The most crucial statement I keep seeing:

    “I’m looking forward to the next one.”

    That, more than anything, should cement your understanding that you really have done it here.

    Posted by Myke, on June 17th, 2008 at 4:53 pm