http://www.dystel.com/blog/2015/11/the-importance-of-feedback/ Mon, 26 Jun 2017 15:15:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.15 http://www.dystel.com/blog/2015/11/the-importance-of-feedback/comment-page-1/#comment-43638 Sat, 14 Nov 2015 05:03:01 +0000 http://www.dystel.com/?p=12112#comment-43638 How do you think thoughtful and respectful critique has changed your work?
– It’s reminded me that I’m not infallible.
– It’s forced me to communicate more clearly in my writing those things I want the reader to know – or not know.
– I learned that I don’t “have” to make a change simply because my readers disliked something. After all, it is MY book; their negative reaction doesn’t necessarily mean I am wrong. Sometimes it means I’ve surprised them with a new idea.

]]> http://www.dystel.com/blog/2015/11/the-importance-of-feedback/comment-page-1/#comment-43579 Sat, 07 Nov 2015 20:36:27 +0000 http://www.dystel.com/?p=12112#comment-43579 That should be “going”, not “good”; espresso typo…

]]> http://www.dystel.com/blog/2015/11/the-importance-of-feedback/comment-page-1/#comment-43577 Sat, 07 Nov 2015 19:47:36 +0000 http://www.dystel.com/?p=12112#comment-43577 Well, as the Scots used to say in the 17th Century, “From ghoulies, ghosties,
long-legged beasties and envious rivals in a writers group, good Lord deliver us…” One of the best fictionalized examples of this kind of dynamic is in Stephen King’s novel IT from the mid-80’s-you don’t have to read the whole thing, just scan the first third of the book till you find the part where the writer character reminisces about his experience in a college writer’s class-it’s obviously based on King’s actual life-while he endures the self-indulgent pretensions of his classmates, he actually has a marketable gift for stuff that isn’t especially “literary” which the others find quite threatening; his instructor’s fit of self-righteous rage when he sells a story the instructor bagged on is worth the price of the book. I’ve sold enough stuff to know my abilities and tend to agree with the writers I’ve met that the best agents are the ones who have no creative illusions about themselves; if Brian Epstein had his own band he was trying to get off the ground when he met the Beatles, chances are history would have taken a serious wrong turn and no one would ever have heard of either of them. (The resulting nuclear war 5 years later is the sort of creative ad lib that a good writer should be able to produce on a moment’s notice) So while I don’t mind running my stuff by someone who looks at it from a money-making viewpoint, I’m not good to invest my time with someone who’ll merely be angry that it’s better than his stuff or that the main characters aren’t gluten-free vegans or whatever. Finding someone who’s focused on connecting with a paying audience is what this game’s all about, and sifts their prospects for the best stuff to make this happen, sorry for the lengthy sermon, hear my train a’comin’………….

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