Tag: book

While at last weeks Sister’s in Crime meeting it was mentioned how this was National Library Week, and it got me to thinking of the Libraries in my life.
I suppose the first library I knew was the one in Elementary School, it was a side room to the Multi-Purpose room, and didn’t have a lot of books, but enough for what was needed for the school.
The second Library was when our town opened up a brand new city library. There had been a previous library, going way back to when it was shelves in a corner store. The main library is now a museum, but when the new library was opened my mother made certain that I was the first one there when the doors opened and I was the first to get a library card in the new library.

I was never a great reader growing up. Having to take special course to help improve my reading. Thank goodness for those instructors because they let me know that it was okay to read comic books. “If he’s reading, let him read.”

Later, in Junior High and High School, I spent a lot of time at the school libraries. Mostly it was to get away from the bullies of the school. I didn’t have a lot of friends then, but I did have books. I probably read more books during those lunch hours than I had anytime previously. I’m very thankful for those times.

I would continue to go back to our city library, renewing my library card every few years.

Now I live in another city with a great big library dedicated to the arts. I know I’m going to be spending a lot of time there.

And perhaps one day, one of my books will be in a library near you. Would you check me out please?

The other evening I received a review of my novel.

It was my second review, and it was the worst so far. It gave the novel a two star rating. As you would expect, I was hurt and disappointed by such a review. Yet, over the next hour I was able to read through and digest everything the reviewer said, and quickly came to the conclusion that it really wasn’t a bad thing.

Yes, I know it’s hard to take when someone tells you they don’t like your work and then goes on tell you everything that you did wrong. It hurts. Yet, it’s a pain like growing pains.

It’s like getting a big red F (okay, D) on a test in school after staying up all night studying for it. It hurts, but its not that they want to give you a bad grade. What the teacher and the reviewer want is to get you to do a good job. They want you to succeed.

The reviewer is looking for a really good read and hopes your book is the one.

Remember that the reviewer took his or her precious time to read the book. The reviewer took more time to write a review and explain what they think is wrong with it, what you can do better. They did it because they really want to like the book.

The next day I wrote the reviewer a thank you letter. Yes, you heard me right, I wrote to thank them for giving me a 2 star review. I told them that it was greatly appreciated, and that I would take what they wrote to heart. I would learn from it and use their review to improve the writing of my next novel.

They wrote back, wishing me success on my next novel.

If that wasn’t enough, only hours after receiving the review, I was informed that another website liked my novel enough to post it on their page to help in the promotion. Then a day later another review was posted, and this one gave me 4 stars.

That is another lesson; everyone has their own likes and dislikes, their own opinions of your work. Don’t take the poor ones too harshly, and don’t get too thrilled about the good ones.

Do your absolute best. Those that like what you do will find you and those that don’t it will help you get better.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity

Author - Artist - Voice Over Actor

Tag: book

Libraries

A Bad Review can be Good.