Typical...Ouch...Rejection as seen by Jamie Hill

According to Wikipedia (so it must be true) : The word "rejection" was first used in 1415. The original meaning was "to throw" or "to throw back". Makes sense to me.

Every author has a tale about that first rejection. I've told my story numerous times...an outrageous, 120K manuscript and 27 rejection letters...I barely knew what I was doing back then. That book didn't get published until I knocked it down to a tight 60K.

Instead of rehashing that tale, today I'm going to talk about reviews. Obviously the word rejection shouldn't go hand in hand with the word 'reviews', but occasionally, ouch. In my defense, I've received many more good and decent reviews than negative ones. But those first few bad and so-so comments stuck with me.

There was the man (I'm picturing a middle-aged, paunchy man) who didn't care for my first romantic suspense novel and said it read like a romance novel intended for women. Huh? Excuse me? He was obviously not my target audience.

Some reviewers haven't liked my sex scenes, thought the supposedly sexy dialogue was cheesy, and didn't think I'd rounded out my characters enough. These are all points other people/reviewers have loved about my writing, which goes to show taste is subjective. An early reviewer rated my story in an anthology very low, suggesting it smacked of incest because my ghost was acting promiscuous in front of her ghost father.

Oops. My ghost bad. Okay, that one's not available anymore.

A while back I opened my email to another review. I'll share the last line with you.

It is short, which made it easier to get through and fans of the author’s writing may enjoy this story, as it’s typical of the writing and plot of her offerings.

Typical. Ouch.

One of my critics said, "That's just not the type of book I like to read." (I hate to break it to you, Mom, but that's the kind of book I like to write.)

Fortunately, there are people (and reviewers) who like my work and seem to get what I'm trying to do.

Some of my favorites include:

The talented Jamie Hill creates a story of romance and suspense that is both sensual and realistic. 

A short story that will have readers seeing the light that is Jamie Hill.
 
Jamie Hill is at the top of her game with her new release and I look forward to reading more from her in the future!  


Bottom line for me...rejection sucks. It stings, but I try not to sweat the small stuff and take joy where I can find it. The 'light that is Jamie Hill' line brings a smile to my face every time.


Find all my titles here: http://www.jamiehill.biz/ or at my publisher's website, Books We Love: http://bookswelove.net/authors/hill-jamie/ and if you've enjoyed something I've written, please leave a review on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0044DJ9TM

Go ahead, make my day. 

Reviewing for Attention

Good morning - Here I am with my new grandson!  I'm on vacation . . . today is my writing day.  I popped out onto our blog and realized I didn't have a scheduled discussion set up for this morning.  I decided it's a good time to share what happened to me last week.  I went out to Amazon.com to check on my books.  :)   There it was ... shock .... upset ..... did I really read that?? Is my book really that bad??  NO!  I received the following 'horrifying' review - oh, I did not add the misspells in the review!

     1.0 out of 5 stars High Hopes Dashed July 27, 2012 - By Doobie = I don't like to give negative reviews to first time writers, because I think they need encouragement to contine in the craft.
     However, I cannot in my heart of hearts as a reader, review this book honestly without telling the other readers the truth.

     The first chapter was wonderful. Great storyline, few misspellings, grammar was acceptable. Then I moved on to the next chapter and that it is where it fell apart.
     Twins born to a woman who died in childbirth...good start. One child lived with the true father, the other kept by the woman's husband. We are still okay. Then we had the "dads" taking the children to meet each other at age sixteen.
     After that, the story became more and more farcicle. There were inconsistancies in who was talking. "He" when it should have been "She." Unbelievable dialog, grammar errors, punctuation errors, misspellings, etc.
     I could have forgiven the typos and punctuation if the story had been interesting enough, but it wasn't.
     It is my hope that the author will take another look at her book, tighten up the story, give it more believabilty and republish. She had a good thing going at the beginning and I wish her luck in making the rest of the book match the first chapter

You can only imagine how devastated I felt?  I spoke with my publisher (Books We Love) and she told me, "First don’t worry about the one stars, there are a few stalkers out there who deliberately give one stars."  Say what?  Really??  they have nothing better to do with their time?   "...Again, everyone gets an occasional one star from those Amazon “stalkers” who look for romance books to pounce on – they are notorious – Nora Roberts and Stephen King get them as well – they are largely discounted by readers who consider these woman nasty bitter cranks."

      I truly had never thought about that. I was upset when reading Ginger's recent blog about the 'nasty reviewers' ... it angered me.  This was a first time for me - and it hurts. Why do some people get a perverse pleasure from trying to destroy someone else?  It's beyond me.  The following day I went back out to Amazon to check again' and read the following review!  I don't know who Lillian is  - but I'd love to give her a hug!

     5.0 out of 5 stars The Other Review is Ridiculous - Woman Doesn't recognize regional dialect August 2, 2012   By Lillian - I'm a huge fan of Rita Karnopp, although I have not previously reviewed her books because others always say it better than I can. However when I came across this and read that ridiculous review, I had to go back to my book and yes re-read to see if I had missed anything. The top of my pet peeve list is readers who display lack of knowledge by failing to recognize "deliberate misspellings" "dialect" because the author is speaking in the language of character.

     This is a complex book -- obviously too deep for the reviewer who didn't recognize that the words weren't misspelled they were written in dialect, it has a complex plot and as is typical of a Rita Karnopp novel, and certainly not written by a "first time author".
     From all of your fans, Ms. Karnopp, please ignore that reviewer and keep writing your wonderful books with their complex and multi-layered plots, and please never stop giving us the books written so expertly in the language of the characters. Yes, there will be a few people who, like the ridiculous one star reviewer, are incapable of telling dialect from misspelling, but your true fans will ignore them.

That took the sting out of the earlier horrific review! It didn't take away the 'hurt' or the 'disappointment' I initially felt when reading my abilities as a writer being torn-apart . . . but it certainly put my 'karma' back in balance.  I should not have bought into it.  As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "No one can say anything to hurt me, unless I allow them to."

     My publisher later sent me the following list and added, "Look at the good company you’re in." (I just love Books We Love.)

•  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has 2,843 one-star reviews.
• A Wrinkle in Time, one of the best science fiction titles for teens and young people, has 4,359 one-star reviews.
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is funny and insightful and a classic, has 11,212 one-star reviews. Eleven thousand, two hundred, and twelve.
• Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, arguably the most popular work by the most influential writer in the English language, has 2,198 one-star reviews. King Lear has nearly a thousand one-stars.
• Okay, okay, okay. We can all agree that some of those above titles might have elements that some people don't like. But who can dislike a classic children's picture book? Let's say...Where the Wild Things Are. I'm not sure, but I'd wager that's the most popular children's book in America. And it has over 2,000 one-star reviews. Curious George? Nearly 1,000 one-stars. The Cat in the Hat? Over twelve-hundred.

Destiny's Shadow   Montana Territory 1867

When Laura Hewett follows her father out of the mountains she never expects to lose him to an avalanche before they reach their destination of Helena, in the Territory of Montana. With the help of her friend Raven Quiver, Laura arrives at the Prickly Pear Ranch on her sixteenth birthday. Her life changes forever when she learns that the man who raised her was not her real father. Daniel Hewett stole her mother and her, leaving behind a twin sister, Lilly.

Lilly Rolston is spoiled, possessive, demanding, and uncaring; all traits she leaned well from her father, Gerhard Rolston. Lilly is furious to find out not only does she have a twin sister, but she now has a half-Blackfeet brother, Jason Rolston. If it’s true, then she no longer is the sole heir of the Rolston Prickly Pear Ranch as well as the Rolston rich gold-producing Golden Eagle Mine. This is not the sixteenth birthday surprise she was hoping for.

Betrayed by Lilly, Andy Meldrum is bent on revenge and kidnaps Laura. Upon learning he has taken the wrong girl, he goes back and captures Lilly. He’ll trade the pair as slaves to the Blackfeet; putting the high and mighty Lilly Rolston in her place.

AH, THE JOYS OF WRITING

Being an author can mean joy one minute and agony the next. It's not an easy job most of the time. Oh, there's nothing like the feeling of successfully publishing a book and holding that first copy in your hands... looking down at your name and feeling such a sense of accomplishment, Nothing quite compares.

On the other hand, when you write your heart out, complete the manuscript that you think is going to be "it"--the one that makes your mark in the literary world and you get rejected, it's a horrible, defeating feeling. You write in the same style you've always written, but the house to whom you've submitted doesn't like gerunds or adverbs. There isn't enough sexual tension, your characters aren't deep enough, but, oh you've done a great job of avoiding head hopping and your sentence structure is clean. One person can make or break your chance, and that's pretty disheartening.

What happened to panels? Shouldn't more than one person get to choose what's accepted and what's not. We all have such vast opinions. Who is that one person to tell me that my ending wasn't what she expected. Actually, that's what I was shooting for...an ending that no one saw coming. Oh well, it doesn't matter, now I have to decide what to do next.

First I have to dust off my feelings and remind myself that everyone gets rejections. Even the big dogs have binders of them. I don't. I've had the good fortune to have all except one story accepted on first try, so this was a bitter pill. The only other rejection I received was on my debut/swan song Erotica. The reason given: my heroine had an affair and some readers might find that offensive. This from a publisher who offers sex with werewolves, aliens, shifters and mummies, and most likely in any bodily orifice available, but something that happens every day in real life is offensive. Really? I'm pretty turned off by intimacy between a hairy beast with drippings fangs. Give me a choice of cheating or boffing an alien, and I have an affair any day. *lol* Luckily, my second query resulted in a contract, but as I said, Searchers was my one and only Erotica. They're just too hard to write. How many ways can you describe genitalia?

So, as I search through submission guidelines for a new place to submit my manuscript, I try to remain positive, knowing this story will please someone, somewhere. It's just tedious weeding through the jungle to find that one person who'll be in the right frame of mind when he/she reads my synopsis. Sometimes, being an author is like an mosquito bite you have a hard time scratching. It's annoying until you find the right way to contort yourself just enough to quell the itch. I sometimes have a hard time explaining why I continue to try to establish myself as an author, and answers aren't always forthcoming, especially if I'm stressed and tired. I usually fall back on the real reason I keep typing away... because I love what I do, and I can't wait to see where I'll travel with the characters in my next novel or story.