What Happened to the Art of Taking Criticism? Bad Author WTFckery Behavior from Sylvia Massara

From the moment we arrive in this world, we are criticized. Babies are criticized about their looks, how cute they sound when they burp, eventually becoming toddlers that every parent hopes people will find cute and adorable and not the opposite. As we age we’re criticized by our peers and given labels. For some it becomes important to look, dress and act a certain way. We must get good grades or excel in sports and get into a good college. As adults the criticism continues when we venture into the work world. As we enter the dating world, we hope to impress that man or woman we’d like to build a future with. Then if and when we get married, we want to build a stable home, be a supportive partner and wonderful parents to our children.

Criticism is all around us. And if you enter in to a creative field, it is much more intense. Celebrities are criticized down to the smallest detail. Authors can be place in this same category, but perhaps not as intense. Unfortunately with the internet and authors having their own blogs, and posting about their opinions about what is right and what is wrong, it can backfire, especially if the public at large doesn’t agree with you or they feel your post comes across with a nice WTFckery feel to it.

This past week the art of taking criticism was beaten into a bloody pulp thanks to self-published author Sylvia Massara, who took great offense to two book blogs that reviewed her latest release, The Other Boyfriend. One was from Book Binge back in November where they gave her book a DNF and a 2 out 5 rating. The other was from Chick Lit Plus, posted February 7th, where they gave The Other Boyfriend 2 out of 5 stars and part of the review states, “While I thought the plot could have gone a lot of different ways, it turned out to be exhaustingly predicable and one-dimensional”. Apparently Sylvia contacted both these sites to review her book, which they did out of the hundreds they may receive each week.

Sylvia wasn’t too happy with Book Binge’s review and even left a comment saying: “Perhaps one day I will write an exposé on this blog and entitle it: "Heaven preserve us from the amateur reviewer!" Hm. Oh, sorry, was I trashing your little blog.”

Now Sylvia’s very “amateurish” response at Book Binge was under the radar, or at least to my knowledge. But then Sylvia basically did a fail whale of a PR move by a post on her blog, Authors Helping Authors called “Authors Beware of Unprofessional Reviewers”.

Now keep in mind, Sylvia has gone back and deleted a very important section of the post that’s the main reason for the outage from the book blogging community and authors alike, plus the fact that she deleted all 200 comments posted. Thanks to Google Cache, her post has been saved for prosperity. (Big shot out to The Book Lovers Inc. and Has, where you can read the original transripts and some of the comments posted)

The part she deleted (highlighted in red) is where she states:

“Well, for starters, the reviewers were not professional. They were not objective in what they had to say. I found their comments to be subjective and sometimes downright malicious. Two such blogs that have set themselves up as reviewers of books are "The Book Binge" and "Chick Lit Plus". Now, I don't expect everybody to like my books, but what really gets me is when amateur reviewers use words like "predictable" and "one dimensional", but they don't quantify this. They don't back up their comments with facts.”

By her blatantly naming the blogs, she did a whole world of hurt for her reputation, as well as showed her immaturity and lack of professionalism by also making a point in saying:

“Oftentimes, the people who set up these kinds of blogs have never written a thing in their lives, except maybe a grocery list. Most are avid readers who think they are qualified to review someone else's work. So it's very sad when they go about damaging the image of upcoming small press and indie authors with the rubbish they write.”

Sylvia posting her rant shows she can’t take criticism. She has damaged herself in ways she probably never thought possible. Honestly, if you didn’t want someone to criticize your book, because that’s what a book review essentially is, a critique of your work, why put yourself out there knowing a review can go either way with their review? Just because you’re more than willing to allow a book review blog to read your book, free of charge, you can’t expect a review full of rainbows and stars. And then stating that bad reviews will damage the image of upcoming small press and indie authors, is utter bullshit. If you write crap, ala shit, expect a reader to call you on it. They have nothing to gain or lose by posting their honest thoughts, because let’s face it, just as there’s amazing books being published, there’s a lot of crap being published as well. There are those authors who either keep quiet when they get a less than stellar review or act like Sylvia Massara and fly off the handle, expecting everyone to agree with her.

As anuthor, if you can't take criticism from a reader, especially one who buys your book and puts money in your pocket, than you're in the wrong line of work.

And how did Sylvia respond to the comments left? She continues to spin even more WTFckery her way:

“Thank you, reviewers, for all your views. It's a shame you didn't read my post properly, however. I'm not having a go at ALL the reviewers out there, I'm simply sharing my bad experience with a couple of SUBJECTIVE rather than OBJECTIVE reviewers, and asking why these reviewers do not offer CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. I understand that as reviewers you will not like every single book you read, and that's okay with me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But just by seeing your less than charming and sometimes threatening comments, it proves to me and fellow authors out there that you are not being very professional. I didn't set out to attack all reviewers, I simply EXPRESSED MY OPINION ON MY OWN BLOG, JUST AS YOU DO ON YOURS! But OUCH!!! It seems that like me, it really got to you when I had a go at those reviewers who were being less than constructive. BUT AT LEAST I DIDN'T LEAVE NASTY COMMENTS ON THEIR BLOG OR THREATEN TO OSTRACIZE THEM, JUST AS SOME OF YOU DID JUST NOW. So now you know how you make authors feel with your less than thought out comments. PS. THERE ARE MANY WONDERFUL REVIEWERS OUT THERE WHO HAVE GIVEN TRUE FEEDBACK; AND IT WASN'T ALL LOLLIPOPS AND ROSES--BUT THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM AND THE PEOPLE WHO LEFT NASTY COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG IS THAT THEY WERE CONSTRUCTIVE AND CIVIL TO THE AUTHORS. THIS WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF MY POST. AND WHAT I MEAN BY A PROFESSIONAL REVIEWER IS SOMEONE WHO IS: OBJECTIVE, FAIR, AND CONSTRUCTIVE IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER OR NOT THEY LIKE THE BOOK THEY REVIEW.”

If an author expects a reader, book blogger or reviewer to be objective and fair, then the same rules should apply to that author. The art of criticism doesn’t take that much finesse. I’ve learned the best way to handle criticism that comes my way that I may not agree with, is to just smile and walk away.

In the case of Sylvia Massara and her WTF reaction to criticism deserves a big old STFU. Criticism can hurt, especially harsh opinions when an author feels they have poured their heart and soul in to a piece of work and the reviewer doesn’t see it as that. The logical step from the author is to keep quiet, rage privately and move on before they do something they may regret, which tends to always be words posted in the heat of the moment that the public can read.

Reviews are subjective, just like criticism is. How you publically handle both can be very telling.