He means well. He’s trying to protect me. I get it.
When I first saw my book, “There Are No Men,” live in the Amazon Kindle store I was thrilled, and eager to share my enthusiasm with the man I love. What else would a romance writer think to do first, right?
Jim proceeded to pull it up on his computer and read the whole entry, studying in that “engineer” way of his. He then proceeded to explore similar books and read some of their reviews. Obviously some of them are harsh – even for books that I thought were fantastic.
Before I finished my book I told Jim that I fear bad reviews, and what they will do to my confidence. He looked confused and said (I’m NOT kidding), “What would someone even write for a review? It’s a story and it has an ending.” The New York Times will not be asking Mr. Scott for his literary appraisals any time soon. Shocking.
Taking it all in he finally said, “Wow, this is a tough business you’re getting into.” Grrr…..
I know he is a “cautious, think about things for ten years and research them for 5 before doing them kind of person.” And I am a “crazy, compulsive, jump face first off a cliff kind of person.” He will never write a book (but that’s mostly because he doesn’t even like writing a text message of more than two words), so he looks at it all differently than I do.
But – and I truly hate saying this – he’s kind of right. This IS a tough business. So far I have a 4.7 review average on Amazon. But some day a reader will hate my characters, the story line will hit a nerve, they will tell me I am bad, an idiot, and I should stick my pencil in my eye and stop this ridiculous notion of being a writer. When that happens I will silently thank them for caring enough to write a review, and get back to my second novel – forward motion – face off the cliff!
So yes, a tough business. But no matter how much I love writing and following my passion, it is the marriage of business and creativity that will make this thing move forward. Kind of like our impending marriage. Opposites complete and uplift each other – in love and writing.
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