As you know, I’m very vocal about my reaction to artistic work. When I love, I love hard. When I dislike something, I am pretty clear about that as well.
And you know, it works both ways. As someone who produces what you might call creative work (if you were drunk, perhaps), I too, receive less than glowing reviews of what I do.
But you know, that’s just part of the process. When you put your work out there, you are inviting a response. And it won’t always be positive. Well, unless you put it up in an Etsy forum. Then everyone will tell you how awesome it is. Of course, privately they’ll still be saying it’s a piece of shit, but the important thing is that they misled you into wasting your time and money making crap no one will ever buy.
You cannot escape it. Even if you just give your work to loved ones who would never say anything negative to your face, it doesn’t mean they won’t laugh in the car on the way home. No matter what you do, there will always be negative reaction to your work. You just won’t always hear it.
My point, and I do have one, is that criticism is the price you pay for having an audience. You have to find a way to live with it. If you’re really sensible, you can look at it objectively, take the input you find useful, and reject the observations you disagree with. Because at the end of the day, we’re only talking about opinions, and the one that really matters is yours.
So it was with great amusement that I found this negative (but restrained) book review linked on Twitter yesterday:
Then, a response from the author:
And this:
And finally, this:
Something tells me that no matter how many books about seamen Ms. Howlett writes in the future, she will never be more widely read than she is today.
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