Reviews/Validation

I spoke about this before, and it was about a year ago, but it's something a writer deals with on a daily basis, and we're talking about validation and reviews on another loop, so here goes....

Yes, I read my reviews. Yes, I prefer the ones that gush. I dislike the ones I don't think do justice to the book. Yes, I'm a writer who not only studies other people's work, but have some pretty high standards anymore about what constitutes is a good book or bad book.

I was a reviewer once, after I was published. I did three reviews. But in the last I danced around a book that I thought was predictable. I decided I couldn't do reviews and be honest. So I'll talk about books to my friends, and may say a few things about the Huge Stars, and will be anonymous in judging published contests, but you won't ever see me doing stars at amazon or anywhere else.

As for being a writer. Good reviews, fan mail and everything else is a DRUG. If you get three emails today that say they like your book, you need four tomorrow that say your book was the best they'd ever read and they sleep with it under their pillow. You CAN'T depend on this drug.

The only true validation for an author must be an inner validation -- that you wrote the book of your heart the best you could with the resources you had at the time. So I try my best (and fail) to practice this inner validation thing.

May only your story occupy your writing time.
Robin