quick curious q

[rm]

Pro authors are all over LJ, often in very participatory fashion. Does this effect how or to what degree you critique their books?

I'm being relentless on the subject of Melusine and was just sort of taken up short by "Monette is on my friends list" in another comment on it. Of course, it doesn't really change my tonal quality, which is what it is, but it interested me.

Conversely, for those of you published or working on publishing, how do you want that sort of thing handled and how do you intend to handle it on your end.

Personally, I think I'd have to do a lot of constant reminding my myself not to engage, because I can explain my work all day long, but ultimately a book must speak for itself, no matter how engaging I seem to think I am on the subject.

Comments

[karnythia.livejournal.com]

I think that you have to be willing to be critiqued as an author. I know that after I finish the book I shall want a few folks to read it, just so I can get a fair appraisal before I try to submit it to a publisher. Me, I'd want to be told someone thinks my work is too slow or my characters two dimensional because that's constructive. Now, I wouldn't want to hear "Why must you write about black people?" but I think that's fairly self-explanatory.