Review Replies - a rant

[aearwen2]

The Tolkien fandom has an aspect that is, frankly, both puzzling and frustrating to me: the insistence on a writer being obligated to respond to reader reviews. As you can tell, I'm not terribly fond of the whole idea.



Some of you know first-hand the work that goes into producing a story or novel: the hours of actually writing the thing, on top of whatever time was needed to do research; the time spent sending each story or chapter to a beta or posting it to a workshop for concrit and comment from fellow writers; and, finally, the time needed to format the chapter/story for posting (often multiple formats because one place uses the HTML "<>" tags and another uses [tag] and a third one will just plain pick up any formatting from the document file itself.)

Then, once a writer has done all that, and has started to receive reader reviews, SOME folks believe that the writer is obligated to spend even more time replying to each and every review written - and doing so immediately, if not sooner.

I'm sorry, but I think that's just bunk.

I would frankly much rather be spending my time working on a WIP than puzzling over just how to say "Thanks, I'm glad you liked that" a zillion different ways. I'd like to think that, when Real Life™ overwhelms me, as it has in the past couple of weeks (self-inflicted, but still overwhelming) I need not feel guilty about not replying to reviews.

But, today, I read a review from LOTRFF that chastized me for not responding to reviews - telling me that my replies are "important." Well, the consequence of this review will be that, after I finish posting "Second Chances", I will no longer be posting to LOTRFF. I will not post where the readers - who are getting free reading material, where I receive no pay for all that work whatsoever other than their very occasional kind words - feel they have the right to harass writers who don't answer the reviews in what the readers think is sufficient time.

Pardon my language, but who the frell do those people think they are? Do they honestly believe that their breaking down and writing between ten and fifty words expressing a little gratitude for the effort that went into crafting the story is such a HUGE benevolence that I as writer OWE them a response??? OWE them anything???

Who did all the work here? Certainly not the reviewers! If there is a comparative debt in the fanfic writer/fanfic reader equation, it sits on the readers' side because so few who read actually review.

But, you know, I'm OK with that. I personally have a policy that I review a story only when I feel it is either spectacularly good, or spectacularly awful. I try to respond to the reviews that ask me questions or which go out of their way to speak to elements of the story. Effort I will acknowledge. Personality I will respond to - and sometimes it wins me a new friend, which I deeply appreciate. But each and every "I like this"? No frelling way! I do not allow myself to be held hostage to the fandom otherwise; I certainly am not going to kowtow on this point either!!

I'm sorry, but there's a point where replying to reviews because it's expected stops being a case of politeness and it starts being a case of being forced into pandering. Do I answer reviews because I want to enter into a written relationship with all these folks, or because I that answering will garner me more reviews later on down the line? While I appreciate the reviews, and there are those folks whom I come to see as people I'd like to get to know better, I really do not want to expand the number of my online acquaintances exponentially, as I don't want to spend the greater part of every day answering emails. (No wonder professional writers end up having others answer fan mail!!) And I may disappoint some here, but I'm not all that attached to the number of reviews anymore anyway.

You see, when I was MMB, writing for The Pretender fandom, I walked away with my very successful novel from FFN and the hundreds of reviews there because of the vagarities of working with FFN at the time. I kept writing and posting to a personal archive - and in the process, got very used to getting few if any reviews. I wasn't writing for the reviews; I was writing because I had a tale to tell.

In the Tolkien fandom, that's still my motivating factor. I have a tale or two (or more) to tell. If someone reads it and feels like they want to comment or concrit, that's great; but I don't require it of them, nor do I feel obligated to respond to absolutely each and every one who reviews. My understanding of a review is that it is the one way a reader can "pay" the writer. If writing fanfic were a real job, would I as writer be expected to say "thank you" to my supervisor/boss everytime I get a payroll check for work I was expected to do? No!! If writing fanfic were a real job, I'd be getting few payroll checks to begin with, and they'd be far between at that - and expecting me to say "thank you" would be work done off the clock to boot.

So I will continue with my practice. I will review only the extraordinarily good or awful stuff I read, as well as the stuff written by folks I know, and I will respond to reviews as my Muse moves me - and when I have a free moment not involved in writing another story or actually living my Real Life™. I absolutely will not be bullied or humiliated into meeting anybody else's expectations of me in regards to replies.

And if folks stop reading me because I'm not at their beck and call through review replies, so be it. I post stories because I have stories to tell, NOT to get reviews.



Sorry. I just had to get that out. Hope I didn't offend anybody.

Comments

Review Replies

[(Anonymous)]

Aearwen,

I know of the person(s) you speak of on LOTRFF, matter of fact, I've seen one in particular, do that to more than one author of stories I enjoyed. I would read the reviews to see if anyone got a different viewpoint of the story, and get an even deeper understanding of the story that I may have missed, and thus, I would read the story again. You may be surprised to know, that when the reviewer would insist on the author answering replies, it would turn me off. I would no longer read the reviews, and so not get that other viewpoint - which is a shame, as the world is so much larger than we ourselves are, and we really ought to be expanding ourselves (to some extent), rather than being so insular. But that's just my opinion.

I certainly can't blame you for taking your stuff off of LOTRFF. (And I hope that I haven't done anything bad to you either. :D )

AND you have every right to get it off your chest. AND if you ever want me to beta (unless I already am doing that? NOT really sure what a beta does come to think of it) your works, you know how to find me! ;-) LOL

Hugs and Love,
Vanime

[galantha-nivala.livejournal.com]

Um...I know you're really upset, but at the risk of making you even more upset, is it worth leaving an archive entirely because of one horse's rear end? (Is it just one? Because if a passel of them came calling, I'd agree it was time to go elsewhere.)

[randy-o.livejournal.com]

Er, that was rather pushy of said reviewer. She acted as if you're some teenager in need of being taught manners. No wonder you're annoyed.

Replying to reviewers is nice, but it's hardly required, any more than a review is required when you read an author's story.

[nelyo-russandol.livejournal.com]

OMG, that is just sooo unbelievable.

I am one of those readers who sometimes feel too lazy to write a review, because I would just not like to say "I really liked it" but write a lot more, and then I begin, but I end up giving up because I am too tired and/or lazy to write something meaningful. For that I am very sorry. I have begun to reform myself now that I have posted a few things and I enjoy getting a review. Unfortunately, I am not truly succeeding lately, with holidays, etc.

I am with you completely. You are the one who shares wonderful stuff with people. To be lectured in the way you describe by someone who just feels you are no better than one of her kids seems outrageous.

I would not worry about LOTRFF, those who know and love your stories will follow you to the other places where you post to. Looking on the bright side, it is one less archive to update! ;o)

Rant

[(Anonymous)]

Yikes! Why did my comment get entered somehow twice???? How does one fix this??

Oh dear....

Hugs and Love,
Vanime

[spacellama.livejournal.com]

You're supposed to respond to every review? Really? Eek. I've been doin it wrong for more'n a decade now. Bad me.

As a reviewer -- and at one time I was a great reviewer, in terms of volume -- having writers thank me for my thank you sometimes got tedious, and sometimes it was just embarrassing.

On the other hand, the balance of debt between writer and reader is a more complicated thing than all that, I think. I believe that readers are the generous ones, both in fandom and in the world in general. Writers are going to write their stories -- in most cases, we just have to in order to exist as ourselves -- but nothing compels strangers to read our work, or to pay for it with reviews and/or money. That people do so is humbling and awesome to me as a writer, and if I could write long letters to the handful of folks who've bought my fiction, I probably would. They have no idea what kindness they've given.

[tracey-claybon.livejournal.com]

I ended up having to state that I was on 'hiatus' quite some time ago along with some disclaimers about not posting new fics recently on both ff.net and Twisting the Hellmouth, which has some of my crossover fic posted - I had a couple of "reviewers" make snide comments about long periods between new postings, and tore some new orifices after explaining WHY I'd taken the hiatus (especially when I was caretaking my grandmother... {raises eyebrow})

You could hear the virtual crickets chirping in the silence after that. RL has to take precedence, especially since real jobs pay for net access, and you can't sustain real world relationships or do real life responsibilities if you spend 100% of your time on line.

The only ones I know that have the "time" to do that are independently wealthy people, children/teens living in Mom and Dad's house, or college students. No one else I know has the time OR the money. I definitely don't juggling two jobs and full time college... I spend too much time on the computer in "recreation" as it is (FB is evil - especially in the Games area)

Your critic needs to come back to reality - or grow up - or some combination thereof.

A review on revieing.

[(Anonymous)]

That was interesting. I am looking for those snipits you told me about, and now I'm confused as to whether you want reviews or not. But you view is a good one, reviewing just to tell the author 'I like this' isn't exactly productive. But then there's all those people who put notes up about not getting enough reviews... All very confusing. I still post to LOTRFF, and read there a lot, but I find it slightly harder to use. And it really bugs me when people suddenly stop posting there in the middle of a story. I wasn't reading yours at the time you stopped posting there, but I get your problem about owing the reader. That doesn't make sense. Going to look for my original quest now...
Calil Gadien