General Q & A Session For The Authors

[Greg Cox]

I am working toward becoming a professional writer myself. In the hopes of learning and growing as a writer, I read lots of reviews, both here on the board and in other places. My question is this. How does everyone handle the constant nit-picking and unkind criticisms that some readers express about your work? I don’t mean the helpful criticisms that we all look for in order to learn and grow and improve, I mean criticisms that aspects of your books aren’t the reader’s tastes or preferences..

It helps to develop a thick skin. Personally, the only bad reviews that really bug me are the ones that move beyond the text to question my motives or fan cred. "Cox obviously churned this one out for the money." "Cox has obviously never watched the TV show." "Cox obviously hates my favorite character." Etc.

The way I see it, the actual words on the page are fair game. Have at them. But don't presume to read my mind and tell my WHY I wrote something the way I did.

Meanwhile, you should almost always resist the temptation to argue with your critics. You never end up looking well.

 

[Damian]

It helps to develop a thick skin. Personally, the only bad reviews that really bug me are the ones that move beyond the text to question my motives or fan cred. "Cox obviously churned this one out for the money." "Cox has obviously never watched the TV show." "Cox obviously hates my favorite character." Etc.

The way I see it, the actual words on the page are fair game. Have at them. But don't presume to read my mind and tell my WHY I wrote something the way I did.

Meanwhile, you should almost always resist the temptation to argue with your critics. You never end up looking well.

Cox obviously never reads the actual criticisms

I kid. I always try to resist calling motives of a writer into question unless there's something to back that up (like the author saying something along that line in their acknowledgements or stating something along those lines elsewhere). And personal attacks are always uncalled for. I don't like the Star Trek novels Marshak and Culbreath wrote and found the Phoenix novels downright poor, but I'm not going to attack them personally over it. They may be the nicest people in the world, I don't know.

But I always enjoy your Star Trek novels and you seem like a pretty easy going guy. Even the few times you might get into a debate with someone here it always seems you try to add some levity.

I guess in a lot of ways it's like hotel reviews. It's always best to just ignore the ones from people that have an obvious axe to grind or just like to have something to complain about. But if it's constructive it's possible maybe that could be useful, esp. if a number of people say something similar. There were some valid criticisms of Star Trek (2009) for instance that were taken into account in STID. The rapid-fire promotions for instance, especially of Captain Kirk. So that was addressed to some extent in STID, perhaps not to everyone's satisfaction (you'll never satisfy everyone). But that was a case where there was some criticism that the writers though, hmm, maybe the critics have a good point there and we can incorporate that into the story.

 

[shapeshifter]

Meanwhile, you should almost always resist the temptation to argue with your critics. You never end up looking well.

Somewhere, Roberto Orci's ears are ringing.

 

[Greg Cox]

Somewhere, Roberto Orci's ears are ringing.

Honestly, I was thinking more about the publishing world. Every few years, there's a dust-up where some Big Name Writer loses their cool and starts arguing with reader reviews on Amazon, or blows up because they got a bad review in the New York Times Review of Books or whatever, and feels compelled to issue a fiery rebuttal. It seldom ends well for the author, who ends up coming off as prickly and thin-skinned no matter how unfair the criticisms may or may not have been.

Speaking of acknowledgments (as Damian was), an amusing/annoying story:

One summer, I wrote a Trek novella for an anthology while visiting my parents in Seattle. I borrowed their computer, since I didn't have a laptop at the time, and mentioned this in the acknowledgments: "Thanks to Mom and Dad for letting me borrow their computer," etc.

Imagine my reaction when a reviewer took this as "proof" that, obviously, I was a basement-dwelling nerd who still lived with his parents!

 

[David cgc]

Honestly, I was thinking more about the publishing world. Every few years, there's a dust-up where some Big Name Writer loses their cool and starts arguing with reader reviews on Amazon, or blows up because they got a bad review in the New York Times Review of Books or whatever, and feels compelled to issue a fiery rebuttal. It seldom ends well for the author, who ends up coming off as prickly and thin-skinned no matter how unfair the criticisms may or may not have been.

Reminds me of my Action Plan in case I ever become the main character of Twitter. Step One: Protect the account so no one new can follow me and no one who isn't following me can see my tweets or @mention me. Step Two: Soft block all new follows from after I gained my sudden infamy. Actually block anyone who was awful at me. Step Three: Log off! No Twitter for at least two weeks, and wait even longer to be sure everyone has moved on through several more outrages of the day before I'm willing to unprotect and try to go back to being another random person.

 

[Damian]

Somewhere, Roberto Orci's ears are ringing.

If you're talking about the um, little incident on Trekmovie.com I recall that pretty well. I was still going there pretty frequently at the time and after that he basically stopped posting comments there. I don't believe he ever went back and of course these days he's not really even involved with Star Trek. I think he was basically producer in name only on Beyond after his story got shelved and I don't think he'll be involved with the 14th movie.

I remember Orci could get pretty animated at times. But that was the only time I ever recall things actually getting what I would call ugly. And Greg's right, fair or not Orci was not seen in a good light after that.

But I just find it bad form as a fan to be nasty to people behind the show or our authors. They don't have to come on here, or trekmovie, or anywhere else to share their thoughts and opinions and give us some insights into what they do.

Criticism is one thing. Even debating with someone here, God knows I know many of us have debated Christopher plenty of times on here (others too, but he just comes to mind because I think he loves a good debate ). But there's no need to be mean about it.

 

[plynch]

On Amazon if you argue with bad reviews it ups the bad ones' weight in their calculation of "stars" (as in four-star" review) and gets them featured more.

 

[Kilana2]

I'm not a big fan of reviews, especially not on Amazon. I read the novels and form my own opinion.

 

[Stevil2001]

The things students say about me in course evals / on Rate My Professor are far meaner than any reviews anyone has ever written about my fiction. 4.5 stars on Amazon... 3.3 on RMP! (I guess what I'm saying is become a teacher and you'll get used to criticism.)

 

[plynch]

It might be you’re a better writer than a teacher. Or that teachers who require work and high caliber performance are not necessarily admired for that, universally. OTOH there are still some who recognize that what you’re doing is making them better. My kid, in college, wrote a letter back to her HS AP English teacher thanking her for being hard on the kids, bc she (daughter) was the only one among her peers who knew how to write.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Somewhere, Roberto Orci's ears are ringing.

The funniest thing about all that was, he swore at that guy via a quote from Simon Pegg. A quote from Simon Pegg regarding fans and Star Trek Into Darkness.

Orci gets blackballed and Pegg, who swore at fans first (albeit in general not a specific one), ended up writing that 3rd Kelvin movie.

 

[Damian]

I'm not a big fan of reviews, especially not on Amazon. I read the novels and form my own opinion.

Yeah, they're definitely not the best. And a lot of times I think people just write them on their phone like a text message instead of an actual full on review.

The only thing I find Amazon reviews helpful on is trying to figure out if I'm getting the actual right thing I want. Like when I recently ordered the Directors Edition of TMP on Blu-Ray. For whatever reason it doesn't say it on the box so I looked at the reviews to make sure it was the right one. So they can be helpful for that (though I check a couple to make sure I really have the right one and someone didn't just write a review on the wrong thing).

 

[Stevil2001]

It might be you’re a better writer than a teacher. Or that teachers who require work and high caliber performance are not necessarily admired for that, universally. OTOH there are still some who recognize that what you’re doing is making them better. My kid, in college, wrote a letter back to her HS AP English teacher thanking her for being hard on the kids, bc she (daughter) was the only one among her peers who knew how to write.

I actually am fairly certain I am a better teacher than I was a Star Trek novelist! I'm just saying college students are far more critical than Star Trek book readers ever are.

 

[David cgc]

Yeah, they're definitely not the best. And a lot of times I think people just write them on their phone like a text message instead of an actual full on review.

The only thing I find Amazon reviews helpful on is trying to figure out if I'm getting the actual right thing I want. Like when I recently ordered the Directors Edition of TMP on Blu-Ray. For whatever reason it doesn't say it on the box so I looked at the reviews to make sure it was the right one. So they can be helpful for that (though I check a couple to make sure I really have the right one and someone didn't just write a review on the wrong thing).

Uh, the Directors Edition of TMP isn't being released on blu-ray until September, and hasn't been listed for pre-order yet. It only became available to the public at all today.

 

[Damian]

Uh, the Directors Edition of TMP isn't being released on blu-ray until September, and hasn't been listed for pre-order yet. It only became available to the public at all today.

Oh shit. Why do several reviews state explicitly this is the 'directors edition' version then? I checked a couple reviews to make sure.

If it's not then it's going back. I don't want the theatrical version.

 

[David cgc]

Amazon loves commingling reviews from different releases or editions. A lot of time, it makes sense (the movie/book is usually going to be the same, and if that's what's being reviewed, great), but for directors cuts, remasters, or different releases with different special features, it can be very confusing.

 

[Damian]

Amazon loves commingling reviews from different releases or editions. A lot of time, it makes sense (the movie/book is usually going to be the same, and if that's what's being reviewed, great), but for directors cuts, remasters, or different releases with different special features, it can be very confusing.

They should do a better job keeping track of that then. A couple reviews explicitly stated this was the Directors Edition (and if fact when I typed Directors Edition this was the first one that came up).

So back it goes. Ugh.

 

[Cake Is Eternal]

It helps to develop a thick skin. Personally, the only bad reviews that really bug me are the ones that move beyond the text to question my motives or fan cred. "Cox obviously churned this one out for the money." "Cox has obviously never watched the TV show." "Cox obviously hates my favorite character." Etc.

The way I see it, the actual words on the page are fair game. Have at them. But don't presume to read my mind and tell my WHY I wrote something the way I did.

Meanwhile, you should almost always resist the temptation to argue with your critics. You never end up looking well.

Super helpful, thank you so much. I write a lot of book reviews for Treksphere and I try to write them with great love and understanding, even when I am offering critique.

 

[100Pic]

I’ve written over 20 Star Trek book reviews, and I think reviewing books is an vital part of a broader cultural conversation. After all, if people don’t talk about books, how can they be discovered, read, discussed, cherished (or hated)?

That being said, I also think books are an intensely personal experience. Whether you like a book or not is very subjective — more so, I think, than any other creative medium (film, TV, music etc).

For example, I’ve often disagreed with a book’s Goodreads score. Actually, I never take a GR score into account before or after reading a novel. For me, they just never line up with my personal opinions.

 

[Cake Is Eternal]

I’ve written over 20 Star Trek book reviews, and I think reviewing books is an vital part of a broader cultural conversation. After all, if people don’t talk about books, how can they be discovered, read, discussed, cherished (or hated)?

That being said, I also think books are an intensely personal experience. Whether you like a book or not is very subjective — more so, I think, than any other creative medium (film, TV, music etc).

For example, I’ve often disagreed with a book’s Goodreads score. Actually, I never take a GR score into account before or after reading a novel. For me, they just never line up with my personal opinions.

That’s a really good point. I write reviews to engage in conversations with others who love the books. I try to learn from every book I read. And it’s so important to recommend older books that might not have the conversation they deserve as well as to create buzz around newer books.