Writing Advice: Being a Writer in Public
Writing is by its nature generally a solitary pursuit, at least at the beginning. You have the idea, and maybe you kick it around with a few friends, but then it’s just you and the words.
And then you want to show your creation to other people1.
Maybe you have a Patreon or Substack or some other place where you show subscribers your WIP (work in progress). Or you just post your WIP for free somewhere. You send your completed manuscript to your beta readers, to agents, to editors, to publishers. Your book is reviewed on blogs, on Goodreads, on Amazon.
Now you have to take something personal, something that was important enough to you that you spent days, weeks, months, maybe years working on it, and you have to listen to what other people think of it2. And what this post is about is how you react publicly to that.
The most important part of this is “publicly.” When someone says they didn’t like your favorite character, or didn’t understand your huge emotional scene, or couldn’t follow your meticulously choreographed battle sequence, it is natural to have a visceral reaction to any negative feedback. It’s okay to discuss this in private with your friends. But as soon as you post a scathing reply to the comment online or tweet about how dumb you think the reader is, or even if you put those feelings into a letter that you send to the editor or publisher, you’re making life harder for yourself as a writer.
First, the online response: there are published writers who have given in to this temptation and sure, there’s a corner of the Internet that will cheer their boldness in standing up to their critics online. The authors who do this seem to get satisfaction out of clapping back, especially at reviews left by trolls who aren’t interested in actually engaging with the book. Everyone hates trolls!
The problem is the same as it is anywhere on the Internet: it’s just not productive to engage with trolls. Not everyone who leaves a bad review or comment is a troll, of course, and there may be times when someone’s genuinely misunderstood something in your book, in which case a polite, helpful response can be good. Just understand before you start engaging with your readers that the way you engage is building your public persona. If you want to be one of those authors who yells at trolls, you can do that! But it’s going to take a lot of your time, and honestly it’s likely to attract more trolls, because you’re giving them attention.
Second: your response to beta readers, editors, and publishers. These are people who will have a significant impact on your writing career. If your response to a beta reader pointing out problems with your book is to argue with them, you’re going to make them less willing to read through your manuscript next time. Editors and publishers have a lot of considerations beyond just “I like this story,” and while their rejections may feel personal, they almost always are not. If you take them personally and respond that way, you’re going to get a reputation as a difficult person. Again, it’s possible to have a conversation about the flaws of your story and the reasons for a rejection—especially in the furry fandom, editors and publishers are more approachable—but if you do, always treat them with respect. I once had a person ask why I rejected their story for some project I was editing, and I replied with a few specifics. Their response? “I don’t think you even read the story.” Now, if you were an editor and you saw that author’s name come up in a submission pile again, how would you feel about it? I would still read the story, but I’d know that it had better be perfect in order for me to accept it, because the author isn’t likely to be easy to work with.
That last one is a big point. If you publish anything, you’re going to be dealing with other people, and the more polite and respectful you are, the more people are going to be willing to/happy to deal with you (and publishers and editors do share their experiences with writers). This doesn’t mean that if you write a terrible story, they’ll take it because they like you, but it does mean that if the story is borderline, they’ll trust that you’re going to work with them to improve it. It means that if there’s a larger investment to be made, like in a novel, the publisher is more likely to take a novel from someone they expect to have a good experience working with. Even if you self-publish, you’re likely to have to hire an editor, a cover artist, a graphic designer maybe. You’ll be selling your books on Amazon, and yes, being polite with Amazon can (but doesn’t always) work; I had a book pulled from their store for inappropriate content, and after I wrote a long, polite letter explaining why I thought the ruling wasn’t correct, and emphasizing that in fact I read their rules and tried my best to follow them, they replaced the book on the store.
Look, your writing career is yours, not mine. I’ve outlined above why I’ve built my public writer-presence in the way I have, and if you find that useful, great. You can certainly build yours however you want, but I hope as you move forward, you remain aware that that freedom to act does not come with freedom from the consequences of those actions. If you decide to pull an Anne Rice and write a long screed about how stupid your detractors are, then you’ll certainly have people applauding you, but there will also be people saying, “Don’t they have anything better to do?3”
There are enough barriers to getting your writing seen that I would personally not like to add more to them. As always, YMMV.
Got a writing question? Comment on this post or tweet @Kyellgold!
Or you don’t! In which case this post is not for you.
You don’t always have to listen, especially after the book is published. I generally avoid reading reviews because the book is already out, and I think reviews are for other readers, not for the author.
Speaking of Anne Rice and negative reviews, this New Republic article is interesting and worth one of your free reads if you haven’t used them already.