The View from Here
By Guest | May 3, 2011 |
Therese (Walsh) here. Please welcome today’s guest, Therese Fowler. Therese’s third novel, Exposure, about the dangers of teen “sexting,” releases today by Ballantine Books. Said Eleanor Brown, New York Times bestselling author of The Weird Sisters:
Complex, gripping, and rich with emotion, Fowler’s 21st-century Romeo and Juliet beautifully blends ripped-from-the-headlines drama with honest and carefully drawn examinations of family, loyalty, honesty, and the power of love.
Therese holds a BA in sociology and an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University, where she also taught undergraduate creative writing before leaving to write fiction full-time. Her work is published in nine languages and is sold world-wide. I’m thrilled she’s with us today to discuss something we don’t talk about often enough: why authors need a thick skin, long after they land their first book deal. Enjoy.
The View from Here
Back when I was masochistic in a different way than I am now, I used to have a blog. I launched it in late ’06, right after getting my first book deal, when I discovered that the prevailing advice on the web was that ALL NEW AUTHORS MUST CREATE A WEB PRESENCE FOR THEMSELVES. Really, it came across just like that, in all caps.
I had a website built immediately, and even then I felt a little guilty for not having done it sooner. Yes, my debut novel, Souvenir, wouldn’t be released until early ’08, but it would have been ideal to begin building an audience even farther in advance. Or so the advice went. For the record, I now believe that’s rarely, if ever, true for fiction writers.
Along with the site, I launched the blog. A lot of what I posted was writing advice; I have an MFA and some creative-writing teaching experience, and was glad to share what I knew with whoever might find it useful. Periodically I would blog about “the view from here,” sharing my pre-pub (and later post-pub) journey with the twelve and then twenty and then maybe two hundred regular visitors my blog accumulated. I was naively open with my thoughts on how thrilling the journey was, squeeing about things like meeting Big Literary Personalities and being treated like one myself on occasion.
At first I wasn’t aware of blog trolls and lurkers and didn’t imagine that the message I thought I was sending—Hey, it happened to me, it could happen to you, too!—might be received as anything different. I didn’t know that the literary community was peppered with angry, jealous types who were all too willing to hide behind the anonymity of the Internet and certain trade publications and do their damnedest to kill buzz if and when they got the chance.
I learned the hard way. A few times, trolls left comments on my posts that really shook me up. I got a few strange, snarky emails. One trade publication panned my debut, really eviscerated it, at the very same time another gave it a starred review. At the time I thought, How can this be? First of all, the book just can’t be that bad or no one would publish it here, let alone in the ten other countries it had sold to. I thought, Aren’t the reviewers pros? (No, they aren’t. Some are fabulous and fair, some are the opposite, and you don’t know who’ll get your book.) And I quickly saw that Amazon automatically features only one of those publications. One anonymous reviewer’s word becomes THE most visible assessment for months ahead of release, and no early reader reviews can be posted ahead of publication.
To be clear: I’m not whining about a poor review. I’m a professional and can deal just fine with genuine critical feedback. I’m telling you about how a review can be demonstrably wrong and yet still stand as if it were authoritative. I’m facing this issue again with my new book, Exposure. The book got a wonderful pre-pub reception from media (USA Today ran the first of the features last week), and there are two dozen early-reader raves on Goodreads that contradict that one “official” review, but readers can’t see media coverage that hasn’t run yet, and most don’t go to Goodreads when they’re looking to maybe pre-order your book.
Does this situation make me crazy? Of course it does, especially during the pre-pub stage, when writers feel like their pale bellies are exposed for all waiting scalpels. I wonder sometimes who’s hiding behind those comments and emails and reviews. I wonder what it is about my books, or about me, that provokes these things—or whether it’s about me at all. But that, my friends, is the lay of the land.
So the view from here, on the day my third novel gets released into the wild—er, the world—is very different from the one before me in late 2006. Back then I was nervous but eager. Today, I feel as if I’m standing upright in a field during a thunderstorm and can’t run for cover. It’s exhilarating and scary all at once.
This is the nature of the beast we affectionately call “publication.” The first half of that word is “public,” meaning available to any and every literate soul out there. If you make or allow your work to be made public, you invite every kind of attention and every kind of opinion—and the more widely your work is read or talked about, the more kinds of attention it will accrue. As Chris Daughtry sings, “be careful what you wish for, ‘cause you just might get it all…and then some you don’t want.”
Write the best book you can (that should go without saying), but while you’re at it, rub on some skin-thickening cream to help you through querying, and then editing, and then reviews. Hope for glowing reports when the book goes out. Hope for raves. They do happen. But be prepared for snark, for sneers, for ugliness, for criticisms of you along with your book, because those can happen too, even to nice people whose books are good. If you doubt this, go read the one-star reviews of your favorite books and those of the most enduring classics. They’re salve to the wounded writer’s soul.
If the picture I paint doesn’t look as sunny as you’d like, I want you to know that in spite of the frustrations and insecurities, in spite of all the other publishing-world issues we read about here on WU and elsewhere, I love my job, and I am grateful every single day. Anything that’s worth having requires effort and fortitude, belief and perseverance. If you can’t give those to your writing, find something else to do. But if you can, and you do, remember that there is always room for another good book—and I’ll be looking forward to reading and recommending yours.
Thanks, Therese, for an honest look at the ups and downs of publishing, and best of luck with Exposure–whose *good* reviews and press have made the best of impressions on me. Readers, you can learn more about Therese and her novel on her website, and by following her on Twitter and Facebook. Write on!
Photo courtesy Flickr’s madmarv00
Many thanks to today’s guest.
You can read more WU guest posts by visiting this link.
Wonderful words to write by. (Love the Chris Daughtry quote too, lol!) I can imagine how frustrating the situation must be for you, but you sound like you’re bearing up well, probably because you know what really matters: what the readers think. (And you, of course!)
Congrats and good luck on the new book! I know I plan to read it. :)
Hi Therese! Thanks for this honest post. As we’re all pushing to reach your success I think we forget that criticism is part of every stage of this game. A published friend gave me this advice: You have about thirty minutes to relax after each met goal. Finish book, worry about agent. Land agent, worry about submissions. Get book deal, worry about edits. Book published, worry about reviews. Worry about next book sale!
I’m really hoping to have such worries at some point, BUT it’s great to be reminded of reality. I wish you luck with your release– and I’m sure lots of good reviews will negate a nasty one!
Oh, Therese–the exact same thing happened to me with my first novel. I absolutely consider myself lucky to be in this position, to have a book out there in the world at all, and like you completely don’t mean this as a whine, but honestly it’s a crazy system. My computer-tech savvy husband actually did some digging and identified the ‘anonymous’ reviewer who reviewed my book for this particular trade publication. Turns out she’s a reader who loudly proclaims her hatred of books in my genre. And it’s her opinion that get’s plastered all over my poor book?!
“Today, I feel as if I’m standing upright in a field during a thunderstorm and can’t run for cover. It’s exhilarating and scary all at once.”
That’s a powerful metaphor. Thanks for the heads up.
Congrats on the release, Therese! Boo to the haters. Looking forward to persevering with the help of role models like you.
Great post, Therese! Congrats on your new release, and thank you for your honesty and insights. Best of luck to you!
I deeply appreciate this insight. Thanks for the honest reality check. Writing about being published too often floats on a ‘happily ever after’ theme. You are a happy and continuing writer but there is a gritty underbelly of becoming a ‘public’ persona that you rightly address. Good, gutsy stuff and a cautionary lesson for those of us who trail behind you.
Maybe I’m naive but it seems silly for a huge company like Amazon to publish/feature anonymous reviews by trade publications. Wouldn’t the presumably professional reviewer want his/her identity out there? Am I missing something?
Love the honesty here, Therese! That’s too bad about the haters. Isn’t there always someone like that? Sheesh. Congrats on your release! Your book sounds amazing and the cover is gorgeous! Hugs!
I love reading author’s “views from here” posts, especially the honest ones like this, and there aren’t enough of them. Thank you so much for the valuable resource!
Really loved this post. Thank you. :)
There is no way around the yin and yang of life. This post states this beautifully. Thank you for showing us another view of publishing, and for reminding us that we must believe in ourselves and be unafraid to move ever onward. Best Wishes.
That sort of thing certainly comes with the territory, and even more so when you write about controversial topics. Congrats on the launch, and I for one think the book sounds wildly compelling and relevant.
As my kids gear up to pick their careers, I’ve really tried to give them an idea of the lifestyle they’ll face in their chosen paths. Reality can be so different from the ideal.
What I appreciate about this post is not only the heads-up, but that it reduces stigma. I think many authors suffer with a sense of shame, not understanding that, as you say, bad stuff can happen to “nice people whose books are good.”
Thanks, everyone, for your thoughtful comments and your good wishes!
Thanks, Therese! I think posts like this are important. We need to know about the good and the bad parts of getting published in order to be as prepared as possible, and even then, we can probably only learn so much without direct experience. This helps, though.
I love the idea of “skin-thickening” cream. I bet you someone could bottle it and make a fortune; it’d be a great gift for writers! :)
In all seriousness, thanks for sharing this other side of the publishing story. It’s easy for us to think that one day, if we get an agent, or a book deal, everything will be smooth sailing from there, but we know that’s not the case (and we all need a real reminder every once in a while, so we can be prepared)!
Great post, Therese! Congrats on your new release, and thank you for your honesty and insights. Best of luck to you!
Congratulations on your sparkly new book!
As much as we can and do appreciate honesty when it comes to reviews — whether they be for our own books or those we’re considering curling up with at first chance — honesty is the last thing we can expect from the venomous bile of nasty snarkers!! Oh but how they love to pretend they are serious, honest critics, when it is so very obvious that it’s the worst variety of green-eyed envy that’s pushing their poisonous pens.