This week Odin1eye, a prolific & well respected podcast fiction reviewer at viewfromvalhalla offers a few words about feedback & creators. Odin has also just started podcasting reviews. MP3 promo’s of his recent story picks at the end of his post:
“…writers value honest feedback. They are interested in trying to craft the best stories they can.”
I’ve been kicking around an idea for a new podcast novel and with it I’m going to incorporate a new model. I’ll record each chapter and place it up on iTunes. I’ll then wait for comments and reviews, and since this might take a bit, I have no idea how I will be able to keep the release schedule consistent. That’s okay, because the next ep will actually be a repackaging of the same ep, but I’ll make all the changes to story and character that have been requested in the comments and reviews. If someone really really doesn’t like the story, I’ll just stop producing it and quietly go away.
Really? Is that what we expect of writers that provide us with free podcast novels? I’ve read many more books over the course of my life than I’ve listened to in any format, and never once have I stopped after a chapter to sit down and dictate a rewrite to the author. Why? In all honesty, perhaps partially because it is a finished work and my likes and dislikes are most definitely moot as far as story evolution goes. Beyond that, however, is the fact that the author never asked for my opinion and probably, quite truthfully, wouldn’t be concerned about it. The book has been sold to the publisher, written in accordance with their guidelines, and published. If I don’t like it, strongly, I might not finish it, but that is where my feedback ends.
Take the same scenario, and yet instead of having purchased the book, I go down to the public library and check it out instead (yes.. library.. google it). In my opinion, this makes any comments I have for the author even LESS valuable, because I didn’t even invest in his (her) time!
Now, if you’re bothering to read this blogpost that John has graciously opened up to me, you probably know that I run a blog that is more or less dedicated to reviewing podcast fiction. View from Valhalla (ding) releases a new review every Monday morning with the hopes that I will be able to help people find something they would like to listen to. Even the stories that I don’t care for, I appreciate the effort it takes to provide something to me FOR FREE, and if I can turn someone on to it that WILL enjoy it, great!
Seriously, if you’ve never read the comments left for writers at Podiobooks, iTunes or even on some of their own blog/forums, take a moment and go do that. You’ll be amazed at the amount of criticism, some quite mean spirited, that quite often appears DURING the release of a novel. I suggest you at least listen through to the end to see if your issues have been resolved.
If you don’t like a character or a plot line, too bad. The author told the story that was in him. He told the story he felt he wanted to be told. He doesn’t need your or my permission. He went where the characters took him.
In my experience, which I feel is getting to be at least enough to have an opinion, writers value honest feedback. They are interested in trying to craft the best stories they can. They can’t, however, change the story to fit every fan, and they shouldn’t. If they tried, they’d become Hollywood, simply rehashing the last project that made money with very few original ideas in between.
Writers. Authors. Podcasters. You don’t owe me nothing. You might not know how sincere this is, but Thank You. Keep doing what you do. I’ll be listening.
Brand Gamblin’s The Hidden Institute
Mike Luoma’s Vatican Assassin
Pip Ballantine’s Digital Magic
About Odin1eye:
Odin is a blogger that stumbled upon reviewing simply as a way to help friends find things to listen to. He is a paranoid privacy freak, so rarely provides his real name or location, other than “South Texas, close to Hel” (google it), pictures of himself or any other information. The things that make him happiest are his wife and his beautiful children.
Find out more at viewfromvalhalla.
Serving Worlds is JOHN MIERAU, science fiction & fantasy author, storyteller.
I have followed Odin’s blog and his twitter. I can honestly say he means what he says, he his dedicated to giving each and every book he reviews an honest and fair look and review from HIS point of view and welcomes differing points of view. You can take him at his word. He is a voice people should listen to if they are interested in finding podcast fiction to listen to. (I have no disclaimer, I know and have met odin, i follow his twitter and blog and have done favors for him. Yes Odin, you will get that book)
The start was a bit rough, but I feel that this blog post finished strong. In the re-write I’d like to see giant robots, explosions, and a touching romantic sequence.
Thank you Odin for your advice to listeners/readers. As a published and podcasted author (The Fox), I have had few comments on the content and characters. I have had some critics of the style of my writing. Sorry, not going to change that, as I wrote it as I heard it. Had a very few critics of my reading style. Well, it is me and I really think they wanted me to pay them to read my work…. I always wonder if those who are critics are also published writers. Usually not, and they do not have any idea how difficult a job it is to get here.
I value your review blog and thank you very much for the time you take to produce it. And now I get to listen to it as well.
And Thank you John Mierau for allowing Odin to vent!
I’ve got to say I’m a fan of both Odin & John. You both provide a service & do so in a welcome fashion.
For anyone who does reviews, look at Odin’s site & see how reviews can be done in a way that 1) serves the reader 2) respects the person and work reviewed 3) gets his own ego out of the way 4) encourages (heck welcomes) dissenting opinions 5) have never gotten bogged down into flame wars & 6) becomes a place that we readers faithfully return to weekly (if not more often).
Oh and if you want to *find* great free audio books to listen to and don’t know where to start, you could do no better than the “View From Valhalla” blog and/or podcast.
Yeah reviews done right by an “amateur” in a way I’d sure like to see out of the “professionals” :)
I would love it if his blog could eventually generate money for Odin, but only if the integrity of his writing remained the same. And don’t worry, I’m sure Odin wouldn’t want that to happen either.
Odin, thank you for addressing this! Its an activity that bugs the hell out of me and sometimes scares me. My mental responses range from “How Rude!” to “I seriously think you need professional help”, but the short of it is that the preface of “IMHO” seems to missing from the amateur story editing that masquerades as opinion.
I am a reader. A fan. I don’t publish or edit fiction for a living and even if I did, unless this author has hired me, I’m still just a reader. An avid and highly opinionated one, but lets get real. In the temporary partnership I form with an author when I pick up their book, that’s all I bring to the party.
One of the side benefits of podcast fiction is easy access to authors. I wonder if the two-way nature of forums, review sites and social media outlets creates an artificially intimate relationship with an author that suggests a physical ‘seat at the table’ to some readers that doesn’t really exist.
I may be tilting at windmills, but I send letters to companies about products I don’t like and I tell them why. As a consumer, I feel like its my right to complain and as a business you might want to know why you lost a customer. But if I don’t like the twiggy bits in Wigit Cereal, my recourse is to have something else for breakfast. I don’t continue to buy boxes expecting it to change as a result of my complaint.
I do sometimes offer feedback and engage in dialog with readers and authors. I like the discussions and deconstruction and my reading experience is often enhanced by the exchanges. I may love or hate who-did-what-to-whom. There may be a scene where I was confused or bored or had my emotions shredded (which from me is a high compliment, not a complaint!). I may feel that some action is out of character or the science is fuzzy, butt the operative word is here *I*.
I believe that readers’ opinions can be valuable to an author. But I would never even consider suggesting (let alone essentially tell) an author that they did it wrong and I’m consistently mystified when others do just that. I’m also amazed at how gracious and patient authors can be in their responses to harsh attacks on their work. I always imagine them later needing a hug or a few extra fingers of scotch in the glass.
When an author does it right, characters take on life. I may care about them, mourn with them or wish them a slow, painful death from a festering wound. If an author does it really well, I may think about those characters and what they’ve been through, long after “The End”.
But my temporary partnership with the author ends when I finish that last page. You’re right. The author owes me nothing.
Thanks,
@JaneAtPlay