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As someone who almost quit writing 12 years ago thanks to an anonymous reviewer from a major site savaging my first novel--which they clearly didn't read, claiming it featured a "plot populated with talking animals" (???)--by calling out the "laughably flawed prose"... 1/?
...before finishing with the lovely flourish that "even the most generous and undiscriminating fantasy readers will find little to like," boy, do I have some feelings about the latest Locus review discussion. 2/?
It's bad enough that a reviewer wouldn't read the first book of a series before reviewing the second one, or think it was even vaguely appropriate. It's absolutely unforgivable that person would then have the gall to claim a story they haven't read is difficult to understand. 3/?
And beyond the obvious way this erases the brutally hard work of the author in producing something of artistic value, implying it just isn't very clear to the people whose tastes REALLY MATTER, it does something even worse. It erases the author entirely. 4/?
For many years I've reviewed live theater productions in New York. I'm proud to do so, because I believe reviewers and critics have a big role to play in establishing context for not only a given work of art, but the field in which that work is presented. 5/?
Something like this completely undercuts that work. It gives fuel to the belief that reviewers are just part of the chattering class of YouTube commenters with little sense and less wisdom, who just talk about stuff without understanding it. And that diminishes our field. 6/?
And even more important: it directly harms the author, by suggesting they can't perform the most fundamental duty of writing: communicating. How many people read that review and decided "Eh, giving this a pass" because the reviewer couldn't be bothered to do their job? 7/?
In my case, that terrible hack job of a review, the first one I received for my first novel, cut so deeply that I almost gave up right then...and might well have, if another review hadn't arrived shortly thereafter with basically the exact opposite tone and conclusion. 8/?
And for years I didn't talk about this in public, fearing it would sound like sour grapes. "Toughen up, Wilson. Don't ever read reviews. You're too soft. Screw them." But that's not my personality. I was raised to respect intellectual authority, not ignore it. 9/?
Somehow--partly thanks to the help and advice of my editor @Radiojonnypanda, who was just as pissed as I was about that review, because what does it say about him?--I kept going. But it hurt. Always has. And it wasn't because of a disagreement, or a difference of opinion 10/?
It was because that review was saying "Stop writing. You suck at this. Don't write again." And it said these things based on lies. There were no "talking animals" in my book. This isn't subjective. The reviewer didn't read it, and the review was still published. 11/?
And all of this was towards a cis white guy, who didn't have to deal with any of the micro and macro aggressions suffered by BIPOC writers in this business. How many of them received these kinds of reviews? Quit, because why should they willingly invite more if them? 12/?
I don't know what the whole answer is for this situation, but I know the first steps. If you're a reviewer: read the goddamned book. If it's a series, read the first book before thinking you can review the second. Do your goddamned job; stop shaming the reviewing profession. 13/?
If you're a magazine, journal, website: vet your reviewers, and don't let them produce lazy schlock. If the tone seems astonishingly harsh, beyond commentary on a given book, follow up. Don't assume it's fine because of a (obviously!) excessive workload or close deadline. 14/?
If you're a reader: give work a chance. Use excellent reviewers like @PrinceJvstin to help set the context of what you might want to read, but don't assume that any one person has a monopoly on taste--especially if the tone seems excessive and unnecessary. Read for yourself. 15/?
And if you're a writer: please don't give up. Take into account the feedback of others; you're writing to communicate, after all. But don't let that feedback overwhelm who you are, why your work matters. Don't let others determine what you should or shouldn't want to do. 16/?
I struggled with whether to publish this thread. Even now, over a decade later, it hurts. And I'm afraid to come across as soft, or uncertain, or too sensitive. But I can't let that dictate what I say anymore, or who I am. 17/?
@k_villoso, I'm sorry this happened to you. I look forward to reading your series. All of it. Thanks for writing it, and for writing, period. Thanks for not giving up. 18/18
