My guest this week is Polly Iyer, author of
the new suspense-thriller, Goddess of the Moon,
featuring psychic Diana Racine.
A lot has been said lately about reviews. Who’s
writing them? Who’s trading them? How honest are they? Let’s put aside that
writers have writer friends, and for the most part, we support each other.
There’s nothing wrong with that; we are a supportive group. Are we more
generous when reviewing our friends? If I’m being honest, I’d say yes. Rarely
will a writer with any ethics flip off a one-star review, because we know how
hard it is to write a book. A writer’s subject matter and how she portrays her
characters have consequences when it comes to the judgment of her readers, and
in turn their reviews. How offended is a reader when the storyline conflicts
with their respective beliefs or when a character does something they find
personally reprehensible?
My books have darker subject matters and characters
who often cross ethical lines. Romances take the hardest hits. Readers become
invested in the relationship between the hero and heroine, and they want the
story to turn out the way they want. If it doesn’t, watch out. Mysteries and
thrillers have a little more leeway, but here again, there are limits.
HOOKED
has received a slew of two-star reviews, mostly on Goodreads, where people can
drop a one or two star bomb without explanation. (No, Polly, you can’t please
everyone.) Tawny Dell, the heroine, is a high-class call girl who decides she
wants out. Does she ever apologize for choosing that lifestyle? No. She’s
smart, with a PhD in art history—come on, this is fiction after all—and she
doesn’t consider herself a victim because she never was. There was no kumbaya
moment where she regrets her former profession, no epiphany where she “sees the
light.” There’s a graphic prison scene in MURDER DÉJÀ VU that’s not for
the feint of heart. I could have implied it, but I described it instead because
it was important to the character of my hero. One of my characters—I won’t
mention which book—murders someone in cold blood. I made it look a little like
self-defense, but he would have done the dirty whether or not I fudged the
scene, and the reader knows that. In MIND GAMES, the first in the
Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, Diana admits to being a fraud. She is and
she isn’t. Does that make her unethical? Well, yeah. The way she’s devised her
act definitely puts her in the questionable column. I had written the N word in
that book, more than once. A critique partner flashed red flags all over the
place, and I took them out, except for a less offensive variation, if there is
such a thing. Diana’s father is a racist, and it’s a word he’d use. I got
around it. The reader knows what he’s going to say it before she stops him.
This one time, I gave in to political correctness, and I hated that I did. I
didn’t feel true to myself or the story. In my newest book, GODDESS OF THE MOON, there’s a
whole bunch of possible reader turn-offs, and I’m waiting for the reactions
from my first readers.
So back to my original question―Do you try not to
alienate readers by tweaking a book to make it more acceptable, or do you write
the story the way you know in your heart it has to be, pitfalls included? If
you write edgy storylines, are you ready for the fallout―those one and two star
reviews that zap your confidence just a little? If you do, relax. You’ll get
used to them.
Then, of course, there’s always the possibility
that a reader thinks your book just sucks. There’ll be a few of those too.
ABOUT
POLLY IYER
Polly Iyer was born on the coast of Massachusetts. After
studying at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston,
she lived in Italy, Atlanta, and now resides in the beautiful Piedmont region
of South Carolina
in an empty nest house with her husband and a drooling mutt named Max. Writing
novels turned into her passion after careers in fashion, art, and business. Now
she spends her time being quite the hermit in comfortable clothes she wouldn't
be caught dead wearing on the outside, while she devises ways for life to be
complicated for her characters. Better them than her.
