Click on the "21 Days of Christmas" image or the below link to enter my Christmas giveaway (a $25 Amazon Gift Card & an ecopy of Mistletoe and Murder in Las Vegas).
Contest is hosted by Hello Chick Lit, and closes December 23, 2016 (winner to be announced the week after Christmas). Happy holidays!
Today is National Author's Day, a good time to celebrate writers writing...and a good time to go over how to handle this particular nasty thorn of the writing life: bad reviews. Just like taxes and death, bad reviews are inevitable. Not that a book is necessarily bad, in fact it might be quite good, but judging a book is always a subjective experience. One reader might love stories with multiple points of view, while another gets crazy with all that "head hopping." Or a reader glosses over key points in the story, feels confused, and blames the author. Or maybe a reader has a personal agenda—he/she wrote a book that was rejected, so they become hyper-critical of other authors' success.
I recently got a not-so-nice review on a book that had consistently received good to excellent reviews, and had placed in the top five for its category in a national writing contest. The reader snarked about my letting a character (federal agent) go "MIA" (missing in action) for weeks. Missing in action? Obviously the reader had forgotten, or maybe skipped over, an earlier scene in the book where the character is preparing to leave for his 2-week paid vacation at Christmas time, and asks his supervisor if he can take an extra two days unpaid leave, which the supervisor approves.
I've belonged to a writers' group for 20 years. When I told them about this mean-spirited review, they reminded me that it's not worth it to read reviews...not if I wanted to be a happy writer. LOL! A lesson I learned after a Bad Review Experience many years ago...
I got it at a very bad time: Right before I left to attend a national writers conference. My fiction novel, my baby, got a dastardly 1-star review. Worse, from a reviewer for a magazine. I ate an entire bag of M&Ms. Not the small size bag, the drown-your-sorrows-and-flirt-with-hypoglycemia size.
What, a 1-star review? (Image is licensed; please do not copy)
Then I called my editor. This was the editor who'd purchased my first novel in 1996, and had purchased and edited the next three novels as well. My first novel got splendid reviews, as did my second and third. The fourth got the 1-star review.
She listened as I told her in a shaky voice that I had received a bad review. One star. Then she laughed. A kind laugh, I'll add, because she herself is also a multi-published author, as well as being an editor, so she well understood the writers' life.
She said, "Your readers love your books and they're buying them. That's all that matters."
This editor, by the way, now heads up a division at that publishing company. She's smart and savvy about the book biz.
Didn't mean I wasn't still angsting about that bad review.
I don't recommend this to anyone. Really, it's not my style to stand up in a crowded room and tell several hundred people, most of them strangers, how devastating it is to get a bad review.
I hadn't planned on doing this. In fact, I had kept a low profile the entire conference, that is until I attended a workshop where a nationally known writer, one of those New York Times bestselling types, was talking about—guess what?—surviving bad reviews.
At one point in her talk, she asked if anyone in the audience had ever had a bad review and what did they do about it?
Some unseen force drew me to my feet. I stood there, my voice quaking, and told an entire auditorium full of people, many writers, how a bad review had gutted me. How it was in a magazine, so hundreds, maybe thousands, of people had or would read it. How I'd consumed so many M&Ms, I had been shaking for days.
I am Spartacus! (Film poster, 1960) is in the public domain)
What happened next was like that scene in the movie Spartacus. Not the recent series, the 1960 movie starring Kirk Douglas as Spartacus. Remember the scene where the Romans ask a throng of slaves, hundreds of them, which one is Spartacus, and Kirk Douglas stands. "I am Spartacus," he announces loudly. Then another slave stands, "No, I am Spartacus." Another stands and says the same thing, then another...until the entire crowd of slaves are all standing, each proclaiming loudly to be Spartacus.
It was kinda like that in the auditorium. After I poured my guts out, a writer in the front row stood up and said the same thing had happened to her. She's now a New York Times best-selling author, and a friend, and she recently told me that since her books have hit the NYT and other bestseller lists, even more negative reviews crop up on Amazon for her books! She's a professional, keeps a cool head, never responds to negative reviews.
Another well-known author stood. She announced loudly to the auditorium that she, too, had received her share of bad reviews, including several 1-star reviews, and by the way, would I please tell the auditorium the title of my book so people could buy it? That's right. She invited me to tell everyone the book title. I did. She then told everyone she was going out to buy it right after the workshop was over.
Other writers did the same thing. I got to see, first hand, that bad reviews happen, even to successful NYT best-selling authors. It's part of the package of being a writer and putting your work out there.
1. Buy the small bag of M&Ms.
2. Commiserate with other writers, friends, family. You're allowed to wallow in it for 48 hours. After that, put on your big-boy or big-girl pants and get back to writing.
3. Don't respond to the bad review.
Let's chat a bit about not responding to negative comments and other less-than-complimentary write-ups. I wrote an article about that ("Four Tips for Minimizing Bad Reviews on Google"). In it, I explain how replying to bad reviews on the Internet, or even clicking them to re-read (or forwarding the link to others to click on and read), sends signals to Google and other Internet browsers to bump up that review's ranking...which means it's easier to find on the Internet. You don't want that.
As Tony Soprano might say, it's best to fuggitaboutit.
Now get back to writing!
A ghoulish delight at the Haunted Happy Hour.
Last night we attended a "Haunted Happy Hour" at the 124-year-old Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, Colorado. The evening kicked off with a buffet (with such ghoulish items as Bat Wings and Grim Reapers Rib), presentation by two paranormal investigators, and ended with a ghost tour.
The photo gallery below begins with a picture of the former men's club room (now a meeting room) on the 4th floor of the Brown Palace where customers and employees have witnessed ghostly goings-on for decades, such as a well-dressed man (style from the 1920s) shaking a martini, then fading into the wall. The first picture shows the two paranormal investigators, who discussed their ghost-hunting equipment and told stories of their investigations at the Brown Palace, including the hauntings of the ladies restroom on the 4th floor. According to these guys, ladies restrooms in old hotels are haunted more often than the men's restrooms. Huh. I'm still pondering that one.
Photos in sequential order, starting with:
Click on an image to go to the next picture.
Mistletoe & Murder in Las Vegas is free on Sunday, October 23! Click on book cover to go to Amazon page.
All 31-year-old, Las Vegas criminal lawyer Joanne Galvin wants for Christmas is a client—or three—so she can make ends meet. Instead she’s roped into defending the notorious Timepiece Arsonist; tracked by a hunky special agent and his arson dog; and chased by a serial killer. Just when her life is starting to feel like the Nightmare Before Christmas, she receives an unexpected gift that offers hope that this holiday season could be the most wonderful time of the year...
“Mistletoe and Murder in Las Vegas” is Colleen Collins at her best. It’s got the charm and humor of the best romantic comedies combined with a genuinely good mystery—an unbeatable combination. I couldn’t put the book down once I started it. ”
“A fun mystery that incorporates a little suspense, romance, and the magical meaning of Christmas. ”
“The twists and turns are full of interesting story lines. The unique characters make this an interesting read. Really enjoyed this book!”
“A long time murder mystery book lover, this book exceeds all my expectations. Colleen Collins knows the legal milieu well, and shows us the legal pitfalls and potential successful conclusions we can learn from. Kudos to this writer!”
All of my Harlequin ebook romantic-mysteries and other romance novels are on sale for $1.99 starting today, October 18, and ending October 25!
If you like romantic-mysteries with private eye characters, check out this series set in Las Vegas. (Click on the book covers to go to their Amazon pages.)
Book #1 The Next Right Thing
(sensual content)
Book #2 Sleepless in Las Vegas: Virginia Romance Writers Holt Medallion Finalist
(some sensual content)
Book #3 Hearts in Vegas
(PG-rated)
The following article is an excerpt from my recent nonfiction release How Do Private Eyes Do That?
All rights reserved by Colleen Collins
Not all cookies are bad, be they edible or data dropped into your browser (Image copyrighted by Colleen Collins)
Cookies are small amounts of data that websites drop into your browser so they can monitor your internet browsing activity. As they are text, they cannot install anything on your computer. And they are not necessarily evil little creatures as some clue in your browser about preferences you have established for certain sites (such as reading newest comments first or ensuring secure logins).
And then there are the cookies that surreptitiously monitor your internet comings and goings, then feed that data to advertisers and others. If you don’t want your personal internet browsing to be stored in their databases, below are three tips for taking a byte out of those cookies.
Many websites have a symbol, icon or notice that by your visiting the site, you agree to its cookie-gathering policy. Such notices say something like “We use cookies to improve your experience. By your continued use, you accept such use. To change your settings, please see our policy.”
If you don’t want to agree to a site’s cookie-gathering, simply leave the site.
Do Not Track options block approximately 70% of web-tracking sites (image is in public domain)
Fortunately, browsers offer Do Not Track options so users can opt-out of advertising services and other analytics on websites. Unfortunately, the Do Not Track option is similar to the Do Not Call registry—selecting the option doesn’t necessary mean that the website is going to respect your request.
Nevertheless, based on a recent report from the Information Commissioner’s Office, Do Not Track options block approximately 70% of third-party web tracking, so view it as a basic protective step. Here is a list of advertisers who claim to honor Do Not Track requests: Do Not Track: Implementations
Below are the steps for how to do this for Chrome & Safari (the Do Not Track option is on by default for Mozilla):
Chrome: Preferences/Settings->Advanced Settings–>(Select appropriate boxes)
Safari: Preferences–>Privacy–>(Select appropriate boxes)
For other browsers, check what security or privacy options are available under Preferences.
A second line of defense are add-ons and extensions that you download to your browser. These are not 100% remedies, but another, tougher layer of cookie-protection on top of Do Not Track settings.
The below services are free, with most offering more additional, comprehensive services for a monthly fee:
Please do not copy/distribute any articles without written permission from Colleen Collins. Do not copy/distribute or otherwise use any mages noted as copyrighted or licensed.
Click on book cover to go to Amazon page.
"A must-have for any writer serious about crafting authentic private eyes. Collins knows her stuff."
~Lori Wilde, New York Times bestselling author
"If you're looking for the lowdown on private investigations, this is it."
~Bill Crider, author of the Truman Smith mystery series
Curious how real-life PIs dig for dirt, chase cheaters, roll on surveillance? Here's your chance to learn that and more!
I'm giving away 15 copies of HOW DO PRIVATE EYES DO THAT? To enter for a chance to win, click on the below link. Contest ends August 23, 2016. Good luck!
“A must-have for any writer serious about crafting authentic private eyes. Collins knows her stuff.”
