Wow! My first bad review!

Posted on Amazon:

Quote :

A little misleading
I bought this book hoping to learn more about Audie Murphy,
but was disappointed. The book just compares Audie and other heroes to
mythological heroes. It's not at all a biography, just a scholarly
study.


Good for a college mythology class I suppose, but useless for a fan
of Audie Murphy.

When I was doing my student teaching, my cooperating teacher once pulled me out into the hallway and proudly showed me where someone had written, just under her name, "is a b**ch." She said I wouldn't be a real teacher until a student applied that epithet to my name. (It didn't take long at all.)

Does this review make me a real writer?

I did a little tracking and found the reviewer, who never gives her real name, but posts tacky comments on sites everywhere from LA to Chicago, actually lives in Dallas, and misspells the same words as a frequent poster on the AM site I help moderate, and who seems to enjoy dissing my comments. Hmmm.

Ann

Ann,
I read your book. It is not only a good biography but goes beyond that. It delves into the characteristics of a hero.
Seldom do readers get the same thing from a book. I think the person who made the comments had preconceived notions of what they wanted to read. It got too deep for them.

I have a hard time believing anybody got a book "hoping to know more about Audie Murphy", frankly. Come ON.
The idea of using him as an avatar of mythic hero is interesting, the idea of a straight biography of him is peculiar.

The review was a hit job. Too bad. Well, if that's the only one you get, you're in business. At least he didn't say you (or Audie) were a bitch.

Ann, Some people have their nerve.

I would wager the person did not purchase the book or read it.

Just a meanster!

Several here listened to my NPR radio review that shocked me. The reviewer even described it as grammatically correct but disjointed and then went on to praise the story.

What goes through a reviewer's mind to say a story is "grammatically correct" - it wouldn't be published by a respected small publisher if it wasn't "grammatically correct."

That's why I often say it takes courage to publish, to put ourselves out there in the public arena to be praised or trounced at the will of experts and those with other motives.

Take heart in all the praise and remember my favorite little book, The Four Agreements and "take nothing personally."

DK, you probably know from previous threads that I, too, admire the the don and his Four Agreements.

Alas, I am undone by the stipulation to "never gossip."

Ann

:-)

I've lost my book - that gossip piece must be under the impeccable with your word part.

I'm undone by assumptions, and taking things personally. I can handle the do your best and truth telling..........

dkchristi wrote:

That's why I often say it takes courage to publish, to put ourselves out there in the public arena to be praised or trounced at the will of experts and those with other motives.

I read an interview with Vera Wang when she came out with her clothing line for Kohl's. She was asked if she thought Kohl's shoppers would like her stuff (briliant question -no, I'm sure she thought they would hate it, that's why she did it ). She answered that as a creative person, all you can do is put your work out there and hope people like it.

I really like that answer, and I think about it when the self-doubts on my own stuff start up.

Ann -that "reviewer" sounds like she knew you and had an agenda.

Amazon reviews. I get good (five stars) and bad (one star). So, typically my books once they have 10 or more reviews end up with an average of two or three stars. I suspect that lots more books would get the same (good and bad reviews and am average of two or three stars) if the reviews were genuine. But loads are not.