BOOK NEWS

It was bound to happen sometime! Quite frankly I’m surprised I’ve gone this long without it! ... I got my first negative review.

Now I think in the matter of twenty minutes I have flitted through all five stages of grief.

I’ll be honest – I don’t like bad news (who dose). And I’m not sure how one is supposed to respond to such, but I have been accused that I freeze up. I do. Too afraid to admit what I might really be feeling (and somewhat too out of touch to identify it immediately) instead I go cold. Then I thaw and try and untangle it all.

I was debating sharing any of this on my site, but I felt that it would be a bigger service if I did. So here goes:

You know those rather negative voices Mariah has – I gave her them because I have them in my own head. So a battle raged internally – if I admit that there is ONE person out there who doesn’t absolutely love my book...what does that say about me?

A sane person would think something along the lines of: that says that I can’t please everyone. That I’m human. That that one person and me just might not be best friends.

An insecure person would think something along the lines of: I should give up. Who am I to try and sell my book to one more person. I’m a failure.

So, back to the five steps of grieving ~ one: Denial:

There I stood at the kiosk in Chapters peeping my book and low-and-behold my average rating was 4 out of 5 maple leafs and there was an inviting button to see what my reviews were. I got excited and I had to check! A good friend once told me that what others think of me was none of my business. I haven’t headed her advice yet.

I read this gal’s eight paragraph review and I laughed it off! (denial). It was funny, right? And it was about time. And it didn’t hurt me. Lies. Lies. Lies.

So I walked away wanting to feel confident and sure when really what I was feeling wasn’t close to that.

Second stage: Anger:

So then I decided who was this chick? Who was she to cut apart my work? My hubby creeped her page and found that she’s an art student. Well, let me tell you – she’s never written a book! Nor had to publish it! Or sold over one thousand copies in a year (which is like damn good)...

But it’s really not about her. So on to phase three – Bargaining.

This is where my positive inner voice wrestled it out with the loud negative one. This is where I had to remind myself that I’ve received over twenty good reviews, three on the same site this girl had posted and so many more via email. And for every good review given there has to be tenfold more that aren’t writing in. But then Mrs. Negative had to interject that for every bad review given there had to be the same fold more too...

This could go on for eternity and as the war waged it led to phase four – Depression.

Depression looks gruesome. I’ll be frank: it goes something like, “nobody likes me, everyone hates me – I may as well eat worms.” And really there is no answer for it. It came down to a choice: was I going to let this beat me or was I going to pick up my socks and get on with it?

Thankfully I moved into phase five – acceptance.

Guess what? There is someone out there that has read my book and not liked it enough to post it. Wow, she must have felt really let down. Or been in a bad place?

There is only one point I want to talk against in her review. She says – I quote: “To suggest that a misfit character can be fixed with some trendy clothes and a haircut” this reviewer has missed the point. I never mean to imply that clothes and a new hair style fixed Mariah. What was happening was that Toby’s belief in her made her feel more confident inside and so she was able to show that through trusting his judgment on wearing new clothes and changing her hair. That was her outward expression of her inner confidence. Sorry for the confusion.

Anyways, I hope I can leave this in the past. It is done. Everyone is entitled to their option. And I do want to hear it (I’d just rather hear good news), but how will I learn if I’m not given constructive criticism. However I’m not certain that’s what she had for me – I have read, thought about and decided that she and I will not see eye to eye.

I feel my story was almost too realistically based in places. I know that that age is a time twisted up in hormonal changes and great emotions. And I know that for someone like Mariah she’d find those choices (the bad ones) would draw her in... But she was not my advice for how young girls should be – Toby was the voice of reason in this instance. I hope that my readers take his advice to navigate through those tough times.

And on a happier note ~ “Stuck – Facing Forward” is off to my editor! She will be taking her time to go over it, seeing as I don’t have the ability to publish that until “CHiP” is done. But the process it beginning – so for all of you who want to read “Stuck” it’s on its way finally!

I was informed Monday that my ‘guy’ is going to work on the cover art for “CHiP” today. I haven’t heard from him but I’m going to believe that that is good news. So hopefully this will be a published book before September.

As for my YOU TUBE spot – it’s received over 90 hits in the past three days. Not as much as I’d like (I dream BIG), but I’m gonna say that’s good! And hope that it continues to grow.

And just to throw it in: I have had 1235 copies of “Safe” leave my possession – broken down that would be something like 75 given away for promotional (for reviewers and for the Vibe spot I had), then Chapters says that they have something like 120 on their shelves (waiting to be sold, so I don’t consider them actually sold yet). That means that in less than one year (because it was in August that I did my press release and was accepted into Chapters) I’ve sold over one thousand! Four more (thousand) and I’m a Canadian best seller (I think I can do that in less than four years).

Until next time,

Aviva B.