On Reading your One-Star Reviews...because Your Book is a Work of Art

by: Julie Cantrell

(Today, author Julie Cantrell provides a counterpoint to Randy Ingermanson's blog post last month, which likened reading your one-star reviews to eating rat poison. Even as I struggle to decide which reviews I'll read as a now-published author, I find both arguments compelling. Again--if you're an author and you take Julie's approach, please share in the comments! If you can't handle reading those one-stars, go ahead and admit that too if you want! And a massive thanks to both talented authors for sharing their strategies with us. --Heather Day Gilbert)

Julie Cantrell’s debut novel, Into the Free, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly and went on to become both a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller. It received two Christy awards, including Book of the Year, as well as the Mississippi Library Association Fiction Award. Like Into the Free, the sequel, When Mountains Move, was named a top read of 2013 by USA TODAY and LifeWay Christian Stores. Julie is writing her third novel from her home in Oxford, Mississippi where she operates a sustainable organic farm with her family. 

Learn more: www.juliecantrell.com

The Author as Artist
by: Julie Cantrell

What happens when we watch a film? View a painting? Listen to music? We not only expose ourselves to a work of art, we react to it at an emotional level. And if we’re willing, those emotions can take us to a higher intellectual plane as well, nudging us to think more deeply about our own beliefs and actions in this world.

Each person reacts differently to each piece of art based on personal experiences, psyche, and mood at the time we view it. Art is meant to evoke strong reactions – whether positive or negative – and as artists, writers must accept and acknowledge both extremes from our readers without taking any of that feedback personally.

As a novelist, I separate myself from my work. It’s not always easy to do because these characters become such an integrated part of me by the time the stories hit shelves, but I never take a review to heart. I don’t swell when the books are well-received, and I don’t plummet when they aren’t.

I rarely read my reviews, to be honest. But sometimes I do visit Amazon and skim through the latest reader posts. While there, I don’t just read the five-star reviews, as some authors insist is the only way to maneuver these minefields with my soul intact. Instead, I go straight to the one stars and then work my way up. 

Today, Amazon lists my debut novel, Into the Free, as having 402 reviews. Here’s how it breaks down.

            5 Star               305

            4 Star               69

3 Star               17       

2 Star               7

1 Star               4

So what did the folks who hated this book have to say about it? I want to know. Not because I want to get my feelings hurt, I am human after all, but because I enjoy hearing other people’s opinions.

One reader said, “This book has a worldly view of Christianity” and advised readers not to waste their money or their time on this story, while another gave it a one-star because: “This is a Christian book.”

Another said folks should read it “only if extremely bored,” while another thought the level of abuse described in the beginning was so intense she could “not make it past the first chapter.”

See how subjective these are? Those are the comments that make up the four one-star reviews this book received. And each one contradicts the other. It’s either too Christian or not Christian enough, too boring or too dramatic.

How can a writer please every reader? The simple answer is, we can’t. (Click to Tweet!) And we shouldn’t even try. Our job is to provide the art and then to sit back and let readers react as they may.

I value those one-star reviews as much as I do the five-star ones. Why? Because those readers FELT something when they read this book. The words I put on paper stirred their emotions on a strong level and got them thinking. That is my goal as an author. Not to convince everyone to feel or to think like me, most of my characters don’t even think like me, but to get my readers to feel and to think. Period. 

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A Girl With A Pearl Earring Lives Here by Dayna E. Mazzuca

I'm pleased to welcome a guest blogger today, Dayna Mazzuca. I think you will find her words inspiring. :)Marcia Laycock

I’ve yet to meet a writer who didn’t also have an appreciation for visual art. Maybe that’s because the two have a lot to say to each other. When you add in the all-important layer of faith, the cross-overs are endless. I noticed this the other day…

There is a small painting on my refrigerator door. It’s a copy of the famous work by Jan Vermeer called Girl with a Pearl Earring. The original oil on canvas resides in The Hauge, Netherlands. My small painting is a copy of a copy, magnetized and worth less than ten dollars at the local bookstore. Still, I adore the picture of a young girl, with her blue headdress, gold jacket and tear-shaped pearl earring.

One day, after paying the bills and getting the kids their lunch, I wondered what it would be like to have a houseful of original artwork. I imagined the Girl with a Pearl Earring hanging above the sofa in the living room. I envisioned an original dancer by Degas in my daughter’s room and a sketch of a flying machine by Michelangelo in my son’s bedroom. I would love one of Caravaggio’s paintings, perhaps the Calling of Matthew, with its emphasis on the compelling look of Christ. In the painting Christ reaches out an arched finger to Matthew, the tax collector who is sitting at a table, hunched over the piles of coin he is busy counting. It is as if Christ’s call to come follow him extends past our immediate concerns, offering eternal reward in their place.

I began to daydream... A bungalow full of priceless paintings would attract a lot of visitors. We would have to install security systems, regulate visiting hours and install carpets. A whole cottage industry would follow.

The daydream didn’t last long. I made my sandwich and closed the fridge door, only glancing at the Girl with a Pearl Earring. But the glittering thought made an impression. After all, isn’t a humble home transformed into a world-class art gallery a lot like an ordinary life made brilliant by the life of Christ within?

Isn’t faith that is real and alive better than art that is flat and inanimate? Doesn’t God take the basic stuff of our lives, our circumstances and dreams and turn them into something precious and holy in his sight? Isn’t God the master artist?

The difference is that works of this world need to be guarded, insured and cared for, while the incredible life of Christ within us is meant to be shared and enjoyed by all. It is meant to be contemplated not only by the critic, or the serious student, but by everyone. The life of Christ is an invitation to come, taste and see the difference that God can make in anyone’s life. To see God’s work in us on display, right where we live.

As writers, we have the insights of an artist—but as faith-filled artists, we also get to enjoy the joys of knowing beauty lived from the inside out.
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Dayna Mazzuxa works (and lives) as a writer, poet, creative workshop leader, and homeschooling mom of two on beautiful Vancouver Island. Her topics tend to focus on the value of spiritual disciplines in everyday life. From parenting to writing, from work to relationships, from money to leadership, faith matters.

Ms Mazzuca has studied theology and taught writing and literature at the college level. She holds an honours degree in political philosophy and a diploma in Journalism Arts. She is a former award-winning community journalist, and co-author of a book series on spiritual formation.

Dayna's writing has appeared in magazines, newspapers, high-profile websites, educational packages, literary journals and on-air. And she blogs, sometimes willingly, at daynawrites.blogspot.ca

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