Random thoughts...

[Martin]

I do have an ARC and it's signed. And I wasn't over the moon about it, but I did like it quite a bit. I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone other than our friend Ron Clinton. I planned on buying it in hardcover anyway. So this spares me that added expense. But there might be something else to screech about. Maybe not. I have a low threshold for screeching as witnessed in my Shining and Little Books unboxings.

Well as I do not have the inside information that you do I will just be intrigued until my boxes arrive.

[Martin]

True dat.

By the way, did you hear about the recent blowup on GoodReads wherein Malerman’s wife chastised — apparently rather vociferously and rudely — a reviewer who was not particularly fond of UNBURY CAROL? I caught wind of it on Twitter...doesn’t sound like he won many fans with that one, though he did ultimately apologize for her. Apparently her comments have since been deleted.

Had not heard of that. I always puzzles me when someone takes offense to another's opinion.

[RonClinton]

Here is Malerman’s apology for his wife’s bad form. I don’t at all care for or get into social media brouhaha’s, but since the book was brought up and this just happened, thought it was an interesting, if only marginally relevant, development. From what I gather, this new title is getting a decent number of negative reviews, and I guess this was just one bad review too many for her.

[jeffingoff]

Here is Malerman’s apology for his wife’s bad form. I don’t at all care for or get into social media brouhaha’s, but since the book was brought up and this just happened, thought it was an interesting, if only marginally relevant, development. From what I gather, this new title is getting a decent number of negative reviews, and I guess this was just one bad review too many for her.

I'm not seeing an image or a link.

But that is really unfortunate. I will say that bad reviews are a side effect of hype. And Malerman gets a lot of hype. When the expectations are high, so is the risk of failing. I felt like Unbury Carol was a great, unfinished ride.

[jeffingoff]

Here is Malerman’s apology for his wife’s bad form. I don’t at all care for or get into social media brouhaha’s, but since the book was brought up and this just happened, thought it was an interesting, if only marginally relevant, development. From what I gather, this new title is getting a decent number of negative reviews, and I guess this was just one bad review too many for her.

Her comments were deleted, but I did see the fallout on Goodreads. Man, that's awful. I guess they're young and new to this game and hopefully they'll learn that berating a reviewer is far worse than a negative review. Josh seems like a really nice guy. He actually thanked me for one of my YouTube videos and I thought that was cool.

Bummer.

[RonClinton]

Weird, I see the image (text block) fine on my end...

[Dan Hocker]

I also see it. Though that said being an Admin that doesn't really mean anything.

Edit: Although you did an external image, so everyone should be able to see it. I usually only run into this issue with attachments.

[jeffingoff]

I also see it. Though that said being an Admin that doesn't really mean anything.

Edit: Although you did an external image, so everyone should be able to see it. I usually only run into this issue with attachments.

I'm on a Mac, if that matters. I see an icon that represents an image that won't load. Annoying. I'm sure I need to update something somewhere.

[Martin]

Here is Malerman’s apology for his wife’s bad form. I don’t at all care for or get into social media brouhaha’s, but since the book was brought up and this just happened, thought it was an interesting, if only marginally relevant, development. From what I gather, this new title is getting a decent number of negative reviews, and I guess this was just one bad review too many for her.

I was thinking that I was seeing primarily good reviews so I checked. I looked specifically at Goodreads because I have found the Amazon reviews to often lean toward personal opinions on people and subject matter rather than an opinion of the book in question.

Good Reads has 115 reviews. I view 3, 4 and 5 stars as positive and 1 and 2 stars as negative:

5 Stars 27% or 32 reviews
4 Stars 42% or 50 reviews
3 Stars 13% or 16 reviews
2 Stars 12% or 15 reviews
1 Star 4% or 5 reviews
Positive reviews 83% or 98 reviews
Negative reviews 17% or 20 reviews

So in general I think the book is being well received. Not everyone will like a certain piece of work. I did not see the review in question but the author should expect negative feedback without reacting. Also, reacting to your spouse is very different than responding online. The spouse then responding online is a mistake. Reviewers views are just opinions and they very, there is no right or wrong. In reading the authors response I accept it and do not feel it will happen again. For an online miss this one is rather small. When compared to Terry Goodkind's recent online issue this one does not even register.

[jeffingoff]

I was thinking that I was seeing primarily good reviews so I checked. I looked specifically at Goodreads because I have found the Amazon reviews to often lean toward personal opinions on people and subject matter rather than an opinion of the book in question.

Good Reads has 115 reviews. I view 3, 4 and 5 stars as positive and 1 and 2 stars as negative:

5 Stars 27% or 32 reviews
4 Stars 42% or 50 reviews
3 Stars 13% or 16 reviews
2 Stars 12% or 15 reviews
1 Star 4% or 5 reviews
Positive reviews 83% or 98 reviews
Negative reviews 17% or 20 reviews

So in general I think the book is being well received. Not everyone will like a certain piece of work. I did not see the review in question but the author should expect negative feedback without reacting. Also, reacting to your spouse is very different than responding online. The spouse then responding online is a mistake. Reviewers views are just opinions and they very, there is no right or wrong. In reading the authors response I accept it and do not feel it will happen again. For an online miss this one is rather small. When compared to Terry Goodkind's recent online issue this one does not even register.

Good analysis. I read the review that caused the dust up. It was a two star review and very playful. The reviewer even said her love for Malerman would cause her to buy all of his books and look forward to the next publication. So there was no love lost. Definitely not anything that needed to be addressed.

Now I need to look up Terry Goodkind's recent online issue!

[jeffingoff]

When compared to Terry Goodkind's recent online issue this one does not even register.

Found the GOODKIND incident. It was neither good nor kind. What, you don't like dad jokes?

REALLY really in poor taste. He better hope that the artist for his next cover is the forgiving kind.

[Martin]

Found the GOODKIND incident. It was neither good nor kind. What, you don't like dad jokes?

REALLY really in poor taste. He better hope that the artist for his next cover is the forgiving kind.

I gained respect for the artist regarding his response to the authors behavior.

[Dan Hocker]

Found the GOODKIND incident. It was neither good nor kind. What, you don't like dad jokes?

REALLY really in poor taste. He better hope that the artist for his next cover is the forgiving kind.

I'm not sure if calling the art bad was in poor taste or if it was just the way he did it. As art is subjective, so maybe he thought it was bad, and that's a totally valid opinion to have. Honestly I can't really blame him on it though, if he didn't like it, then he didn't like it, and it's on his book, so he has even more reason to be upset by it. The artist getting publicly upset by it is a bit like Malerman getting upset by the the bad review.

Either way it sounds like Goodkind needs to rework his contract with Tor to get a little bit more say into the covers of his books. He's a pretty big / popular author I'm kinda surprised he doesn't already have that kind of input.

[jeffingoff]

I gained respect for the artist regarding his response to the authors behavior.

For sure.

[jeffingoff]

I'm not sure if calling the art bad was in poor taste or if it was just the way he did it. As art is subjective, so maybe he thought it was bad, and that's a totally valid opinion to have. Honestly I can't really blame him on it though, if he didn't like it, then he didn't like it, and it's on his book, so he has even more reason to be upset by it. The artist getting publicly upset by it is a bit like Malerman getting upset by the the bad review.

Either way it sounds like Goodkind needs to rework his contract with Tor to get a little bit more say into the covers of his books. He's a pretty big / popular author I'm kinda surprised he doesn't already have that kind of input.

I'd agree somewhat. Goodkind has every right to hate the art and feel passionately about how his work is being represented. It sucks when the business gets in the way of the art and Goodkind should have a vote (if not the veto power) in the works that accompany his work. But the time for all the venom spewing and bashing should have ended once the decision was made and it should never have been aimed at the artist. The artist was simply fulfilling his contract according to whatever creative brief he was given. Goodkind should consider his words when they could very well harm the livelihood of another creative professional.