Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: thoughtful
  • Music: Rachael Sage, "Beloved."

The lines of interaction.

Common wisdom among authorial circles says "do not respond to reviews." I consider this a mantra, and practically have it cross-stitched on my living room wall. Good review? Happiness. Bad review? Sadness. Review which bears no resemblance whatsoever to the book I wrote, leading me to wonder where the reviewer gets their books, since if they have a dimensional portal, I want to borrow it? Bewilderment. But nowhere in there do you find a class of review that comes with "engage reviewer and either look smug or bitch about how they don't understand your genius."

I will respond to reviewers, if we have a relationship, however casual it may be. The majority of the reviews I link to are found by my helpful Google spiders, which skitter around the Internet bringing me things without concern for my feelings. I tell them they're good and feed them lots of flies. Some reviews, however, come to me because the reviewer emails me directly to say "I reviewed your book." In those cases, I feel entirely justified in replying, privately, with "Wow, I'm glad you liked it," or "I'm sorry this wasn't your cup of tea, hopefully the next book will suit you better." Because we're in a private setting, interacting like people, as long as I'm polite, I'm okay.

The lines start to get a little blurry when newer forms of social media come into play. Like Twitter. If someone @'s me, they know I'm going to see their Tweet the next time I check my @replies. That's the culture of the system, which is built on the expectation of/hope for interaction. I don't answer every @reply, but I make an effort to read them all, and answer the majority. So am I responding to a review, or am I sticking to the dominant culture of the platform? What about on Facebook, where people tag to your profile? They know that doing so will send you a notification. Is that an invitation to interact, or is it a sad reality of the system?

Miss Manners never had to deal with being a polite, professional working author in the Internet Age. I think that's why she doesn't have any pointers for certain kinds of behavior, and why she never considers "get a baseball bat" to be the appropriate beginning to a polite response.

So where are the lines for you? What do you think is the boundary for "polite" authorial behavior—and from the other side, what's the boundary for behaving politely toward authors? Inquiring minds want to know.
Tags: contemplation
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  • 98 comments

phantom_wolfboy

March 7 2011, 21:46:25 UTC 6 years ago

I personally would feel . . . icky . . . bringing a review directly to the writer's attention. It feels kinda like saying, "Look at me! Look at me! Validate my existence!" Which makes me uncomfortable.

seanan_mcguire

March 8 2011, 04:23:44 UTC 6 years ago

I kind of understand it with bloggers who have specifically requested a review copy. If you asked me for a book for purposes of reviewing, I would expect a review, or an email telling me why the review wasn't going to happen. Even negative reviews are usually pointed out in that sort of situation.

phantom_wolfboy

March 8 2011, 04:37:13 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, yes, of course. That's a professional courtesy (and one I hadn't even considered).

I should add that what I said above isn't meant in judgment of anyone else; it's just a statement of how I would feel if I were to do that.

seanan_mcguire

March 8 2011, 04:37:37 UTC 6 years ago

Totally understood!