tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5711076752515383013.post8618844751980184393..comments2023-10-29T01:06:52.133-07:00Comments on Art Edwards - Laying Down the Law: Hey JealousyArt Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08595801214227949028noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5711076752515383013.post-36589815007968914922010-05-31T20:01:40.931-07:002010-05-31T20:01:40.931-07:00i have found myself in these exact shoes more ofte...i have found myself in these exact shoes more often than not. and sometimes it goes exactly as you described - i get to work and try to outdo whomever it is i'm scowling at. unfortunately i can defeat myself at times, though, by just slinking back into the unpublished shadow, gnashing my teeth and grumbling. great article, though! very, very insightful.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16894354453748813565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5711076752515383013.post-38508253800162302072010-05-31T13:27:36.527-07:002010-05-31T13:27:36.527-07:00Although my first novel, My Splendid Concubine, pi...Although my first novel, My Splendid Concubine, picked up a few honorable mentions and earned some good Amazon reviews along with a great comment from a Writer's Digest judge and a positive Midwest Book Review, when the one-star review arrived, it was depressing like a blow to the solar plexus. <br /><br />I shouldn't have taken it like that but I did.<br /><br />Then a few days later, I awoke thinking, "What about my favorite authors and some of the world's most popular novelists like Steven King (I've only read—or listened—to one of his books)?"<br /><br />I checked. They all had some one-star reviews on Amazon and tons of five and four star reviews. Even National, Pulitzer and Noble Prize winners had one-star reviews.<br /><br />I read and compared a few of these one-star reviews and they sounded the same. <br /><br />Those one-star reviews usually had nothing to do with the actual novel. It was obvious that the one-star reviewer was criticizing the books for something that wasn't there—something he or she may have written if it had been his or her book.<br /><br />My wife's latest book, Pearl of China, has a couple of those types of reviews. Maybe those one-star "cloned" reviews are reactions from "envy" from someone who doesn't have the courage to put his or her own work out there to be judged by others.<br /><br />When I read a book, if it is really so horrible that it is worth one-star, I don't finish it and don't write a review about it. <br /><br />Instead, the book remains closed on a table or shelf gathering dust—forgotten.Lloyd Lofthousehttp://ilookchina.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5711076752515383013.post-44643054662310477462010-05-31T08:15:34.872-07:002010-05-31T08:15:34.872-07:00Celia, I've felt the same way many times.
Mar...Celia, I've felt the same way many times.<br /><br />Mark, buying the hardcover is exactly what I did with Almond's latest. It's actually been kind of cathartic.Art Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08595801214227949028noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5711076752515383013.post-18801631828776501582010-05-31T08:10:14.666-07:002010-05-31T08:10:14.666-07:00Envy would be a more powerful motivator if you pai...Envy would be a more powerful motivator if you paid full price for the latest hardcover of your archenemy's latest, no?<br /><br />You could prop your motivating books in a corner so the cover faces you, and use the power to blast through your next MS, burning even brighter because you're paying your nemesis to keep writing. The upside is that you can carry the hidden kernel of knowledge that people still pay for books, and someday someone will have your book propped on their own corner table of motivation.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17527976055620581559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5711076752515383013.post-87890182748315812272010-05-31T06:29:23.189-07:002010-05-31T06:29:23.189-07:00I don't know if I am motivated so much by jeal...I don't know if I am motivated so much by jealousy as I am frustration ...the frustration which comes from reading certain books in the genre that I write, and something of the same setting and period - books which were best-sellers, too - and seeing that I did and do a much better job! Seriously, I go into the big-box store, leaf through a couple of these books, and think -'you got an agent, and a publishing deal ... on the evidence of this dreck?'Celia Hayeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16261103494038415027noreply@blogger.com