Yes! That someone is me! You guessed it. Anyway, in lieu of all the grumbling I would really like to do, I will leave you with a few links that crossed my path over the past week or so.
- First, a couple of news items from GraphicNovelReporter.com: For an exhaustive slideshow review and preview of the best graphic novels of 2012, as reported at BEA, check here and proceed to drool. Among other things, I’m looking forward to new titles from Raina Telgemeier (author of Smile) and Derek Kirk Kim, co-author of Level Up.
- Also, going on RIGHT NOW (well, this week) at ALA is a brand-new Eisner Graphic Novel Prize for Libraries, “a contest that will award libraries with $1,000 worth of Eisner
Award-nominated books, $2,000 in a voucher to be used to buy more
graphic books, and a $1,000 stipend on top of all that to go toward an
event or signing featuring a graphic novel creator.” How awesome is that? Read the full article here. - Lastly, there’s been a fair bit of discussion lately on the Kidlitosphere Yahoo Group about When Good Authors Go Bad. That is, when an otherwise perfectly sane human being sees a less-than-favorable review of their book and goes apeshit in public, to the detriment of his or her reputation and to the dismay of the blogger who worked hard on his or her review. We don’t like to think about this sort of thing happening–we authors AND bloggers try to be professional–but the truth is, it does happen. On the CBC Diversity blog, read one author’s perspective on what to do with a bad review.
As a blogger, I try to be diplomatic when highlighting what I see as a book’s weaknesses, and I generally don’t review books that I can’t say something positive about. (Of course, there are plenty of other reasons why I might not review a book on this blog–please don’t assume, if we didn’t review your book, that it’s because we didn’t like it!) However, other people approach reviews differently.
As an author, I don’t have control over other people’s reactions, and they’re entitled to their opinions. I can’t control whether someone writes a review that is complimentary, or professional, or accurate, or fair, but I certainly can do my best to control how I react in a public forum. Bloggers are not necessarily professional reviewers, but I see myself as a professional writer, and I want to behave accordingly. That means if I feel like I have to throw a tantrum about something someone says about my work, I’ll throw my tantrum in private and make my cats stare at me in bewilderment. In public, I’ll do what seems appropriate, which in many cases is nothing at all. Because, when it comes down to it, once my work is out in the world, people are going to think what they think, and I no longer have control over my babies after they’ve left the nest.
My job is to write. End of story.
(Okay, sorry, I DID grumble a bit. Whoops.)
