Review Replies - a rant
Aug. 30th, 2010 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aearwenThe Tolkien fandom has an aspect that is, frankly, both puzzling and frustrating to me: the insistence on a writer being obligated to respond to reader reviews. As you can tell, I'm not terribly fond of the whole idea.
Some of you know first-hand the work that goes into producing a story or novel: the hours of actually writing the thing, on top of whatever time was needed to do research; the time spent sending each story or chapter to a beta or posting it to a workshop for concrit and comment from fellow writers; and, finally, the time needed to format the chapter/story for posting (often multiple formats because one place uses the HTML "<>" tags and another uses [tag] and a third one will just plain pick up any formatting from the document file itself.)
Then, once a writer has done all that, and has started to receive reader reviews, SOME folks believe that the writer is obligated to spend even more time replying to each and every review written - and doing so immediately, if not sooner.
I'm sorry, but I think that's just bunk.
I would frankly much rather be spending my time working on a WIP than puzzling over just how to say "Thanks, I'm glad you liked that" a zillion different ways. I'd like to think that, when Real Life™ overwhelms me, as it has in the past couple of weeks (self-inflicted, but still overwhelming) I need not feel guilty about not replying to reviews.
But, today, I read a review from LOTRFF that chastized me for not responding to reviews - telling me that my replies are "important." Well, the consequence of this review will be that, after I finish posting "Second Chances", I will no longer be posting to LOTRFF. I will not post where the readers - who are getting free reading material, where I receive no pay for all that work whatsoever other than their very occasional kind words - feel they have the right to harass writers who don't answer the reviews in what the readers think is sufficient time.
Pardon my language, but who the frell do those people think they are? Do they honestly believe that their breaking down and writing between ten and fifty words expressing a little gratitude for the effort that went into crafting the story is such a HUGE benevolence that I as writer OWE them a response??? OWE them anything???
Who did all the work here? Certainly not the reviewers! If there is a comparative debt in the fanfic writer/fanfic reader equation, it sits on the readers' side because so few who read actually review.
But, you know, I'm OK with that. I personally have a policy that I review a story only when I feel it is either spectacularly good, or spectacularly awful. I try to respond to the reviews that ask me questions or which go out of their way to speak to elements of the story. Effort I will acknowledge. Personality I will respond to - and sometimes it wins me a new friend, which I deeply appreciate. But each and every "I like this"? No frelling way! I do not allow myself to be held hostage to the fandom otherwise; I certainly am not going to kowtow on this point either!!
I'm sorry, but there's a point where replying to reviews because it's expected stops being a case of politeness and it starts being a case of being forced into pandering. Do I answer reviews because I want to enter into a written relationship with all these folks, or because I that answering will garner me more reviews later on down the line? While I appreciate the reviews, and there are those folks whom I come to see as people I'd like to get to know better, I really do not want to expand the number of my online acquaintances exponentially, as I don't want to spend the greater part of every day answering emails. (No wonder professional writers end up having others answer fan mail!!) And I may disappoint some here, but I'm not all that attached to the number of reviews anymore anyway.
You see, when I was MMB, writing for The Pretender fandom, I walked away with my very successful novel from FFN and the hundreds of reviews there because of the vagarities of working with FFN at the time. I kept writing and posting to a personal archive - and in the process, got very used to getting few if any reviews. I wasn't writing for the reviews; I was writing because I had a tale to tell.
In the Tolkien fandom, that's still my motivating factor. I have a tale or two (or more) to tell. If someone reads it and feels like they want to comment or concrit, that's great; but I don't require it of them, nor do I feel obligated to respond to absolutely each and every one who reviews. My understanding of a review is that it is the one way a reader can "pay" the writer. If writing fanfic were a real job, would I as writer be expected to say "thank you" to my supervisor/boss everytime I get a payroll check for work I was expected to do? No!! If writing fanfic were a real job, I'd be getting few payroll checks to begin with, and they'd be far between at that - and expecting me to say "thank you" would be work done off the clock to boot.
So I will continue with my practice. I will review only the extraordinarily good or awful stuff I read, as well as the stuff written by folks I know, and I will respond to reviews as my Muse moves me - and when I have a free moment not involved in writing another story or actually living my Real Life™. I absolutely will not be bullied or humiliated into meeting anybody else's expectations of me in regards to replies.
And if folks stop reading me because I'm not at their beck and call through review replies, so be it. I post stories because I have stories to tell, NOT to get reviews.
Sorry. I just had to get that out. Hope I didn't offend anybody.
Some of you know first-hand the work that goes into producing a story or novel: the hours of actually writing the thing, on top of whatever time was needed to do research; the time spent sending each story or chapter to a beta or posting it to a workshop for concrit and comment from fellow writers; and, finally, the time needed to format the chapter/story for posting (often multiple formats because one place uses the HTML "<>" tags and another uses [tag] and a third one will just plain pick up any formatting from the document file itself.)
Then, once a writer has done all that, and has started to receive reader reviews, SOME folks believe that the writer is obligated to spend even more time replying to each and every review written - and doing so immediately, if not sooner.
I'm sorry, but I think that's just bunk.
I would frankly much rather be spending my time working on a WIP than puzzling over just how to say "Thanks, I'm glad you liked that" a zillion different ways. I'd like to think that, when Real Life™ overwhelms me, as it has in the past couple of weeks (self-inflicted, but still overwhelming) I need not feel guilty about not replying to reviews.
But, today, I read a review from LOTRFF that chastized me for not responding to reviews - telling me that my replies are "important." Well, the consequence of this review will be that, after I finish posting "Second Chances", I will no longer be posting to LOTRFF. I will not post where the readers - who are getting free reading material, where I receive no pay for all that work whatsoever other than their very occasional kind words - feel they have the right to harass writers who don't answer the reviews in what the readers think is sufficient time.
Pardon my language, but who the frell do those people think they are? Do they honestly believe that their breaking down and writing between ten and fifty words expressing a little gratitude for the effort that went into crafting the story is such a HUGE benevolence that I as writer OWE them a response??? OWE them anything???
Who did all the work here? Certainly not the reviewers! If there is a comparative debt in the fanfic writer/fanfic reader equation, it sits on the readers' side because so few who read actually review.
But, you know, I'm OK with that. I personally have a policy that I review a story only when I feel it is either spectacularly good, or spectacularly awful. I try to respond to the reviews that ask me questions or which go out of their way to speak to elements of the story. Effort I will acknowledge. Personality I will respond to - and sometimes it wins me a new friend, which I deeply appreciate. But each and every "I like this"? No frelling way! I do not allow myself to be held hostage to the fandom otherwise; I certainly am not going to kowtow on this point either!!
I'm sorry, but there's a point where replying to reviews because it's expected stops being a case of politeness and it starts being a case of being forced into pandering. Do I answer reviews because I want to enter into a written relationship with all these folks, or because I that answering will garner me more reviews later on down the line? While I appreciate the reviews, and there are those folks whom I come to see as people I'd like to get to know better, I really do not want to expand the number of my online acquaintances exponentially, as I don't want to spend the greater part of every day answering emails. (No wonder professional writers end up having others answer fan mail!!) And I may disappoint some here, but I'm not all that attached to the number of reviews anymore anyway.
You see, when I was MMB, writing for The Pretender fandom, I walked away with my very successful novel from FFN and the hundreds of reviews there because of the vagarities of working with FFN at the time. I kept writing and posting to a personal archive - and in the process, got very used to getting few if any reviews. I wasn't writing for the reviews; I was writing because I had a tale to tell.
In the Tolkien fandom, that's still my motivating factor. I have a tale or two (or more) to tell. If someone reads it and feels like they want to comment or concrit, that's great; but I don't require it of them, nor do I feel obligated to respond to absolutely each and every one who reviews. My understanding of a review is that it is the one way a reader can "pay" the writer. If writing fanfic were a real job, would I as writer be expected to say "thank you" to my supervisor/boss everytime I get a payroll check for work I was expected to do? No!! If writing fanfic were a real job, I'd be getting few payroll checks to begin with, and they'd be far between at that - and expecting me to say "thank you" would be work done off the clock to boot.
So I will continue with my practice. I will review only the extraordinarily good or awful stuff I read, as well as the stuff written by folks I know, and I will respond to reviews as my Muse moves me - and when I have a free moment not involved in writing another story or actually living my Real Life™. I absolutely will not be bullied or humiliated into meeting anybody else's expectations of me in regards to replies.
And if folks stop reading me because I'm not at their beck and call through review replies, so be it. I post stories because I have stories to tell, NOT to get reviews.
Sorry. I just had to get that out. Hope I didn't offend anybody.
