Bite your tongue and move on
Posted 2 September 09 by Scott Andrews
And today’s lesson is: never, ever, EVER, respond to an online review, except perhaps with a self deprecating joke at your own expense. And even that’s playing with fire.
Read this review, then the comments, to witness the estimable Christopher Fowler, of whose work I am a great fan and who I know to be a spiffing and generous chap in person, coming seriously unstuck.
The problem is that no matter what you say in response to a bad review, no matter how measured you are, what defences you mount, what arguments you put forth, you inevitably end up sounding like a whining, petulant arse.
It’s one of the ‘net’s most effective forms of alchemy, taking passionate and reasoned defence of one’s own endeavours and making it read like the stroppy ‘well, I never liked you that much anyway’ of a spurned lover.
Just don’t do it, folks. A bad review is toxic to authors, but that toxicity is multiplied tenfold by engaging with it.
FWIW, I thoroughly enjoyed The Victoria Vanishes, but then I’m a huge Edmund Crispin fan – which I owe to Mr Fowler, who turned me on to Crispin – and a devoted Bryant and May aficionado.
