Talk back to reviewers? Bad idea

[sarahmichigan]

For aspiring authors on my LJ friends list, here's proof that an author ranting back because of a bad book review is not a good idea. Anne Rice just makes herself look like a thin-skinned idiot. You have to scroll down a bit for her entry (with five stars for Blood Canticle, of course):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/037541200X/ref=cm_rev_next/002-1677299-2863264?%5Fencoding=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=283155&s=books&customer-reviews.start=151

This is old-ish news, but I was discussing it with a friend over the weekend, so I thought I'd post for your snicker-worthy pleasure.


excerpt:
"If and when I can't write a book on my own, you'll know about it. And no, I have no intention of allowing any editor ever to distort, cut, or otherwise mutilate sentences that I have edited and re-edited, and organized and polished myself. I fought a great battle to achieve a status where I did not have to put up with editors making demands on me, and I will never relinquish that status. For me, novel writing is a virtuoso performance. It is not a collaborative art."

Um, diva much? EVERYONE needs a good editor. Even Anne Rice.

Comments

[madrigalblue.livejournal.com]

On a related note, have you ever read Alice Borchardt (sp?), AKA Anne Rice's sister? I really can't get into their styles, yet I have been told by people reading my work that it looks like I read a lot of them :/

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

I tried to read her werewolf books, but they just weren't very interesting. Now, I'm not a huge fan of werewolf stories anyhow, so I had something of a bias going in, but had they been well-written it might have made me change my mind. The styles didn't really seem all that similar, though.