Things in the Writing World that Get on My Last Nerve

Stepping to the stage is: Stacy-Deanne

Quantity vs. Quality
One thing I am tired of is the stupid “quantity over quality” thing. Some people believe it’s best to throw out as many books as possible despite the lack of quality. Really? I am so sick of this and I wish authors would stop bowing down to nonsense. You should never put quantity over quality! Why rush your writing? You owe it to yourself to put out the best work you can. These days we have too many people giving this bad advice and all it has produced is a bunch of crappy books.

And who gets burned? The readers and hardworking authors because throwing crap into the world makes us all look bad. Authors need to spend time honing their craft and stop trying to rush everything. Putting out a string of crap is not gonna get you on a fast track to sales. All it’s gonna do is ruin your rep because you’ll be seen as a bad writer with a bunch of crappy books. A clock should not be in the equation when it comes to writing.

Writers Whining About Reviews
Come on. Every single day writers are complaining about reviews. First off, reviews are not for you, but for the readers. I love it when someone goes, “You know I am not one to talk about a negative review but I got this review today…” Well, newsflash, you are talking about it! Shut the heck up. No one cares but you. Not even readers care. You really think readers buy or don’t buy based off of reviews? No. The average reader buys based on recommendations from trusted sources, people they know. You’re wasting time sweating over reviews anyway. The point is if you sign up to put your work in the public eye, you can’t expect everyone to love it. You’re gonna get good reviews, negative reviews and yes, even unfair and downright ridiculous reviews. Just move on. You don’t need to gripe about it, and you certainly don’t need to approach a reviewer who’s given you a bad review. It makes you look bad as an author. Frankly, I would rather a reviewer think I am too busy with my fantastic life to gripe over a review, instead of hovering over every single review I get like some vulture. There are things writers need to concentrate on that are within their control. Reviews are not one of them.

Writers Who Do Not Research
Here we go again. I don’t see how in 2013 writers can still get scammed or taken in by anybody. Come on. When I started in the business, the net wasn’t full of all these resources for writers. I had to go out and research or buy books. Now writers have everything at their fingertips. All they have to do is Google and it would save some heartache. I used to feel sorry for some people but when you are pulled into something that could’ve easily been avoided if only you’d taken one moment to research, you deserve what you get. It’s one thing to research something and be pulled in, but to not do any research when you know jack about the publishing world, then sign with the first person who sends you a contract, it makes no sense. You need to treat signing with a publisher (or anyone in the industry) like you would any important decision. Why would you sign with a publisher without researching them, reading their books, or speaking with their authors? Why would you sign with an agent who charges you a fee, when the biggest red flag is that agents don’t charge fees! Why would you send money to someone to attend an event or festival yet you didn’t even bother to check out the event or festival in the first place? Why would you sign with a “publicist” or “editor” yet you have no knowledge whatsoever of their history, and haven’t checked any references? The point is, you shouldn’t. Laziness and failure to research is not an excuse! If you don’t do all you can to be careful then you should not be surprised when bad things happen.

Some people need to utilize a little more sense. Really.

*Stacy throwing the mic down and walking away*

Stacy-Deanne is an award-winning author of crime/mysteries and suspense novels. She was born and raised and resides in Houston, Texas. Her favorite influences include Alfred Hitchcock, Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde. Her titles include: Divas of the New Millennium (Amber Communications Group, Inc. 2005), Everlasting (Simon and Schuster 2007), Melody (Simon and Schuster 2008), Giving up the Ghost (Peace in the Storm Publishing 2011) and The Season of Sin (Peace in the Storm Publishing 2012).