In the last few days I’ve gotten some reviews in, and I’m quite happy… two came in for my Bones. Death. Cenote three-story collection in the last 3 days, a 5-star and a 4-star review. You can read them yourself… I’ll wait… here.

For my zombie novella Dying Days I got a new review, a 4-star review. Read it here. It’s a solid review, and the reviewer points out what they liked and didn’t like about the story, and I can’t complain about that. I have five 5-star reviews already, so I’m quite happy with all 6 reviews so far.

I also just posted the review links on Facebook maybe twenty minutes ago but already had several ‘congrats!’ comments from other authors, friends and fans, which is neat.

Then I had some e-mails, and most were also good… except for one. I’ve already told the person I would be sharing their views in a post and asked if they cared. They encouraged it, thinking they had the right point. I won’t judge it here, I’ll let you, and I’d love some feedback from authors and readers alike… I ommited their name because I thought it would help… either way…

(Author) Saw that review of Dying Days. What an asshole.

(Me) Really? No way. I thought it was a great review. They pointed out the good and bad of the story in their opinion, and I think potential readers will make an educated guess based on that.

(Author) Is that guy a writer? He seems like he’s trying to point out the bad things like spelling and grammar but even says he couldn’t find many. whats the point of that?

(Me) Again, I don’t see a problem with the review. I’ve purchased more books off of in-depth 1-star reviews than 34 5-star reviews for a book that only say ‘this was great’.

(Author) Just seems like you don’t do that to a fellow writer. if they are any good themselves they know how hard tis is and will give slack to a fellow author. and he talks about cliches in zombie books!!! so what! aren’t all zombie books cliche?

(Me) I don’t think so. That’s like calling all vampire books cliche and dismissing them. Or all horror books, or all romance books. And actually he said that the cliches in my book are handled well enough that they don’t ruin it, and I’ll accept that. He liked it, he gave his opinion, and now that will lead to others reading the review and making their own decision on buying or passing on it. Simple as that. And your point of a fellow author not giving slack? Don’t buy that argument. I read and review as a reader, not a fellow author. If I like it I like it, if not you’ll know. Honest reviews. I’d never want someone to sugarcoat a review for me because they are a fellow author. Rather not have the review that a fluff piece as my friend.

(Author) Iguess we still have some differing opinions on how this business works.

(Me) I guess so. But isn’t that the fun of being in this at this point in time, anyway? Anything can happen, the rules are changing every few weeks or months, and we’re all on the learning curve.

(Author) Still think it’s wrong to do, like publishing your own work. yep bringing up that arugment again.

(Me) You can have your opinion. I don’t agree with it, and not sure why you’re bringing it up again.

[side note: we've recently 'argued' because another writer made a comment on their facebook page that they would NEVER publish one of their stories in an anthology they publish with their company, even though that author had published their first work that way... and called any company that does a vanity press. I guess Rymfire Books is a vanity press, because I publish all my Dying Days books myself and use the imprint instead of my own name, not that it's any difference. My opinion: if the story goes through the same rigorous hoops as the other stories, and isn't just added, i have no problem with it. I've bumped several stories I wrote with an anthology in mind but the accepted ones were just better.

And someone pointed this out to me this morning: "Michael Korda was editor-in-Chief of Simon & Shuster, the company that published his novels and auto-biography. Not quite a vanity press. So as long as all the quality is the same I see no problem with publisher/editor being published by their own company."

But that argument is for another day... just want to illustrate that this isn't the first time we bumped heads on things, although to me it is great dialogue, letting the other know our honest opinion]

(Author) To show you you’re wrong again.

(Me) Wrong about what? beacause I don’t agree with your thought process?

(Author) yes. i’d be mad at that review. if I ever got one lower than a 5-star I’d be mad because there are no errors in my books, the plots are great and my writing has been compared to King and Layman.

(Me) Then you should probably stop worrying about my reviews and bask in the glory of yours. Have a good day. Any objections to me posting this e-mail on my blog? You’ve given me a great idea for a post.

(Author) Not at all. I’m sure most people will agree with me.

(Me) We’ll see. Either way I’d like to stop wasting my time going back and forth with you everytime I post something, if that’s OK. I think we’re both losing writing time. Would you agree?

(Author) no.

(Me) LOL… off course not. We’ll butt heads tomorrow over that. For now, I’m going to sign off and go post.

Well, what do you think?