One day, a synchronicity alert came up that led me to Sandra Champlain’s website. The synchro is a good one and I asked if we could repost. She said sure and sent me a digital file of her book, We Don’t Die: A Skeptic’s Discovery of Life After Death.
I haven’t read the book yet, but appreciate the synchro. Every author hopes the reading public will love his or her book. And when you receive a negative review, it hurts. It’s as if your child has been bullied and hit. I’ve read books that I disliked but have never posted a negative review. I just don’t buy any more books by that author. As my dad used to tell my sister and me, If you don’t have anything good to say, keep it to yourself.
Here’s the synchro:
My book, “We Don’t Die” is so new that not a lot of people had read it. So, I had a handful of good reviews and I was thrilled people enjoyed it.
However I woke up a few days ago to a new review. Not a 5 star or 3 star or even a 2 star…but a 1 star review. “Poor reading…” the guy or gal called it “…a joke to read.” When I read it my heart sank. I was quick to wonder if I have any enemies that don’t want me to succeed or that simply want to make me look bad. But then I thought of so many people I have experienced, you probably have too, that when having a bad day they really take it out on another. My book probably just touched the wrong nerve in the person and angered them.
If you have read it, you know I talk directly to the reader and have them look at their life, so they have a life that counts. I cannot even guess what the person read or why they said what they did, but I have to trust they felt better for doing it. I am a big girl, I can be strong. I trust that they got what they needed and so did I. A good friend told me “If you try to make everybody happy, you’ll make no one happy.” Even Oprah has people that don’t like her, so I can be thick skinned and realize my book is not a fit for everyone.
Here’s the cool synchronicity that followed. The very next day there was a new review of my book on Amazon. Not just any review, but a review written from Amazon’s #1 top reviewer (out of the 14 million reviews people have written, this woman “Chandler” holds the #1 spot).
I had gotten a tip to contact some of these top reviewers and ask them to review my book, as they hold more weight with readers than some of people who have never written a review. Chandler was the only person I wrote to and she said “No, I don’t do book reviews.” I politely asked if I could send her a book as a gift anyway, because I knew that someone, somewhere in her life would deal with grief and she could have a good thing to give them.
It was this Chandler who read my book and gave a 5 star review the day after the bad review came in. That’s pretty miraculous, I’d say!
We never know why exactly people do what they do or say what they say. Often it can be very, very hurtful. However, if we believe in ourselves, keep taking the best action we know to do, have integrity and trust the process…amazing synchronicities are bound to happen. That one knocked my socks off.
We’ve been very fortunate to get many very positive reviews of Aliens in the Backyard, both from people we’ve met here on the blog and from strangers. That said, we received one review that we found puzzling. Someone wrote that the book was very believable until this reader encountered someone using caller ID in 1970. Huh?
We couldn’t remember ever writing anything about caller ID in the book related to any year. So we both searched the text and were still unable to located any reference to caller ID.
However, we did find one story that took place in 1970. That was Bruce Gernon’s Bermuda Triangle encounter. In that chapter, he makes a call some time after his mysterious flight and leaves a message. I’m not sure whether phones had recorders on them in 1970, but Bruce called an office and probably left a message with a secretary. Again, no caller ID involved. Yet, that’s the headline of the review – ‘Caller ID in 1970?’
It’s one thing not to like a book because of the writing style or what is written, but another thing altogether to give a negative review based on your own misreading of a factual matter. Sheez!
That’s a nice story. Of course you have to be thick skinned to put your writing before the public. About four months ago someone wrote me an email, and said he was concerned I was promoting spirit communication with my book Discover Your Soul Template. He’d bought it and read it. It was obvious he was a Christian. I wrote him back politely and explained that we are all psychically connected with each other whether we realise it or not. I said that I just help make the unconscious conscious. I thought that was the end of it, but a few weeks a later a one-star review of my book appeared on Amazon, and immediately I intuited it was the same guy. I wrote a response, again politely addressing the same points I’d addressed in the email I’d sent him. It only infuriated him, and he then went and wrote another one-star review on another of my books! His final words were that there was only one path to God, and that is through Jesus. I just left it at that. Don’t feed the trolls, as they say. They just get bigger 🙂
Unfortunately there will always be adverse comments, especially on the Internet. These trolls delight in getting a response – so best ignored and forgotten. Many years ago I remember someone telling me that when people start to criticise you it’s a sign that you are being successful – and I feel this is true.
As in all aspects of life, there are different strokes for different folks. But, my parents always taught me that if I couldn’t say something nice, don’t say anything. That has proven to be a most difficult guide to follow, expecially in the world of politics, but it is a “forever” guide, and how much greater the world would be if we could just follow it! Books and movies are diverse in appeal, and folks are not going to agree in their opinions. We even see that diversity here on the blog. But to disagree “courteously and without rancor” seems to be a good rule of thumb. Creative people pour their very souls into their works, and it’s extremely damaging when their efforts go unappreciated and/or severely negatively criticized. Like Lauren, it’s great that this author rec’d a nudge to keep on keeping on. We can’t please all the people all the time. We simply must do our best to do our best, and let the chips fall where they may! Good post, MacGregors.
Cyber bullying is an example of the abuse of the internet, and the anonymity of the internet gives people an opportunity to vent whatever hate they want without personal consequence. When I look at often beautiful and important videos generously posted to Utube, I’m often appalled by the huge number of vicious “comments” that are posted below them, people who probably never even saw the video, just want to vent their hate. I no longer read utube comments (which is sad for the video makers, because I am sure they would like to have intelligent response and appreciation), nor do I leave comments, because doing so has resulted in some of that anonymous vitriol spilling over to me as well.
As an artist, I’m very cautious about what feedback I “let in” as regards my work. You have to be, because sadly, there are many people who for whatever reason, none good or kind or even conscious, will gladly attack creative people. Glad this author at least had a good nudge from the universe to keep on keeping on!