Forum: Author Hangout

How do you long time writers deal with all the negativity and complaints ??

Sometimes I am finding it hard to remain passive and not reply with something from my naturally asshole-ish personality.

Sharing my writing was a whim and a therapeutic exercise for me. I never expected the amount of interest, nor all the good reviews.

I never shared any of my stuff much in the past because I didn't think it would be interesting to anyone.

Truth is, I wrote a LOT of stuff over the years that was posted to interest specific internet BBS, or is still sitting on old hard drives.

I am obviously not a formally trained writer.

My background is in Emergency Services and Transportation.

My AAS degree is in Emergency Medicine, with only the "required" English/Literature related courses.

I was a "solid C" student back in high school, with little interest in English classes, so I'm as surprised as anyone could be.

Problem:

Some comments are showing displeasure in the direction of my stories so far. Even "punishing" me for not meeting their expectations by changing previously high ratings.

Hate to see that, but not something I can do anything about.

Reaction:

Reading the comments, I have been tempted to change my writing style. But doing so just to please 3 or 4 commenters out of the thousands who have downloaded/read doesn't make any sense with the given feedback.

Balancing the readers' desires and my own ideas in all my stories is beginning to seem difficult, especially in the face of criticism.

One is "too violent and graphic".

One is "too improbable" and exceeds "reality".

One is too short and "gimmicky".

And now one hasn't got enough graphic sex and violence.

Oh well.

You can please some of the people, some of the time….

My "Tommy Gunn" is starting out slow and with some pretty deep background story.

I'm setting the foundation for a whole series of "books", and these first chapters are necessary to the future of the series.

I am into "Tommy Gunn" for the long haul.

There are outlines for 3 books already, set in different locations and with different plots.

I already knew Tommy Gunn would disappoint the lovers of graphic "stroke" erotica. But oh my god, some people.

I'm trying to write something you could possibly buy at chinamart, or find in a book store. (Not behind the counter)

PG-13 to NC-17 in the graphic sex department at worst.

It's funny. I told my wife a few days ago that I started out writing an action/adventure type story, and now it looks more like a Harlequin romance novel.

LOL

I do still intend to "feed the need" with my other stories.

Plenty of sex and "high fructose porn syrup" in those works.

LOL

I am thankful to all my readers who are enjoying this personal adventure.

But sometimes I feel like I'm giving a plate of beans and rice to hungry people only to have them complain and demand a steak.

Decision:

I won't be uploading the REVISED & EXPANDED versions of my stories to the free area of SOL any more.

I'll keep banging on the keyboard and providing the version 1.0 of them here, for free, as long as readers are out there.

When finished, and after 30 to 60 days, they go behind the pay wall to help SOL keep the lights on.

Then the final "expanded" and "revised" works will be placed on bookapy (or other sales site) for those who really want them.

Is this too harsh?

Am I over reacting to the modern "something for nothing and be sure you make it exactly what I want" society?

How do you actual writers (with posted works) deal with these issues?

When finished, and after 30 to 60 days, they go behind the pay wall to help SOL keep the lights on.

Then the final "expanded" and "revised" works will be placed on bookapy (or other sales site) for those who really want them.

To answer your question, I write for my pleasure not my readers' pleasure. I share what I write with them and if they complain and depending on my mood, I either ignore them or tell them not to read my stories if they don't like them.

I think you have a few erroneous ideas about SOL.

To start with, as long as you are an active writer, your stories are not moved to behind the pay wall. Rule 16 of the Author Agreement states: If you don't log into Storiesonline for more than 3 years, your stories will get moved into the archives which are accessible to premier members only. We may give interested authors permission to finish any work you left unfinished.

A second thing is books are placed on Bookapy by their authors, not SOL. Lazeez provides a place for authors to sell their books here on SOL. I haven't put any of my stories on Bookapy, so I can't tell you the details.

showing displeasure in the direction of my stories

I guess I'm lucky. I haven't received much negativity and complaints (*knocks on wood*). But I have received feedback that they didn't like the direction of the story or tried to influence me to write it the way they want.

My response is simply: That's the story I wrote.

I had a similar thing a while back.

My trick? Don't reply immediately, complain to a third party, go do something physical, get something to eat, and give it hours if not the night, and then think:

"Is it worth even responding to?"

If it is, then say whatever you want, but when it comes down to it:

If you're gonna wrestle a pig, the pig likes it and you both end up covered in shit.

How do you long time writers deal with all the negativity and complaints ??

Sometimes I am finding it hard to remain passive and not reply with something from my naturally asshole-ish personality.

I will make an attempt to be rational with them. At least for a little while. I happen to like 'discussing' things - take that to say arguing my point. If I believe in my side strongly - and in the case of my stories, I'm the one that wrote them, so that's VERY strongly - I'll beat the horse to death, then keep on beating him until he's turned into glue. Presuming that its' in a PM to me. If it's a public comment about my story - well, then I might just have to hit the delete button on the comment, and if they're really pissed me off, push the 'block reader from story' or 'block reader from author' button.

When finished, and after 30 to 60 days, they go behind the pay wall to help SOL keep the lights on.

Then the final "expanded" and "revised" works will be placed on bookapy (or other sales site) for those who really want them.

I know REP mentioned this as well, but there are only two ways your stories go behind the paywall here. The first is if YOU push the button to put it there. The second is to softly and silently go into the good night. Then, after so many YEARS of no contact, then your stories go behind the paywall. That's it.

The key thing regarding Bookapy is to consider it your tip jar. We're not mainstream authors - we fill a niche. The good part about Bookapy is the percentage. You get 80%, less the PayPal or bank transfer fees. Amazon SAYS you can earn up to 70%, but most of the time you're looking at 30%. That's when you also have to look at the pool.

Here on SOL, we have a small pool of people we can reach. Amazon has a HUGE pool. But Amazon also has a tremendous amount of competition for what's in the pool. So if you get tipped for 500 copies of a work here at $5 a copy, you'll net about $1,900. To make yourself competitive out there, you list it at $2. That means you have to sell 4,000 copies to net the same $1,900 - and there's tens of thousands of authors out there with that same idea.

The question you have to ask yourself is this: Am I a professional writer and author? Based upon your description, I would classify you as a paramedic or something similar. (Apologies if that's not right.) Is it possible to make that leap? Sure. But for every one success story, there's how many thousands who found out the hard way it's not there. (Note I can't say much against it - I've submitted my work to dead tree publishers.) The Patreon thing works for some people - for others it creates a lot of angst and anxiety, because they don't want to follow the rules HERE, where they got their start.

Valid points. I have a dozen stories up now. Mostly a series.

I write a story I figure I would like to read. I do keep in mind sex sells. But I also like action and history and some of the mental games.

First thing I did was turn off comments as some comments were just left field drive by shooting type stuff.

If you have a comment send it to me.

2nd if I have a story being pulbished over time I wait to turn on voiting until a majority of the story is out. This to prevent reading a slow intro chapter and voting it down without reading the majority of the work.

I do listen to feedback about structure and such.

In the end we are here providing content for free I do my best and if I enjoy my story I hope my readers do. Sometimess you can't please everyone. One of my favorite stories in my Sex Date series was least liked but I had fun.

Anyway Ill look up your stuff.

Pete