The Fallout from Writing Edgy

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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.

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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.

Read more about Polly and her books at http://PollyIyer.com. 

Bad Reviews: Leaving and Receiving

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Marla Madison, author of the suspense novel She's Not There, is my guest.

My recent blog on reviewing received nasty feedback, one comment so bad that Blogspot censored it without printing. Since then, I’ve kept my blogs as non-controversial as possible. I’ve bravely decided to revisit the issue in question—bad reviews.

As a writer who’s been on the receiving end of a bad review or two, I must admit that despite knowing everyone receives them, even the most popular writers of the day, I nevertheless take them to heart and agonize over every one. And then get over it.

My request to reviewers is this: If you hate my writing so much that you feel the need to give it a one or two star review, please take the time to tell me why you didn’t like the book. While authors understand their work cannot be everyone’s favorite read, most of us will take criticism with an open mind and use it to improve our writing.

The thing that incited a near blog-comment riot was my frustration with reviewers who leave a bad review without reading the entire book. It is my personal policy not to leave a review for a book I don’t finish. My detractors, unfortunately, found one that I had done a while back (I’d forgotten about it), and called me a hypocrite. They got me on that, but I did put into the review what I didn’t like and why I didn’t finish the book.

I rarely leave negative reviews on books I don’t finish because my taste is rather narrow—I only read suspense and there are many things I don’t like in a suspense novel, e.g. a focus on drug crimes, gangs and super complicated conspiracy theories, to name a few. This is singularly my own prejudice, so I’m reticent to cut down an author for their inclusion.

My one exception to this rule, and I feel the need to mention it in the event I come under the microscope again, is for the authors I read regularly. Top-ten authors whose works I follow religiously, will get a candid review from me, whether I finish the book or not. Although it’s unusual when I don’t finish a book written by a favorite author.

I’m kind to new authors. Downloading many of the free suspense books available daily on Amazon, I find few to my liking, often only reading a few chapters. I don’t leave reviews on them. Maybe I should, but that’s what I do. I have found a few real gems in the free collections, and when I discover one of them I take the time to leave a review on both Amazon and Goodreads.

Marla Madison

Please share your own policy for reviews. I’m always interested in how others feel about a subject.

Thanks for reading. Come visit me on my blog at http://marlamadison.blogspot.com or contact me at mam887@gmail.com

She’s Not There, available at http://amzn.to/mQebPH