Kim Hooper, author of People Who Knew Me, has quickly learned how to deal with negative reviews. It may or may not involve alcohol.
About ‘People Who Knew Me’
Everything was fine fourteen years after she left New York.
Until suddenly, one day, it wasn’t.
Emily Morris got her happily-ever-after earlier than most. Married at a young age to a man she loved passionately, she was building the life she always wanted. But when enormous stress threatened her marriage, Emily made some rash decisions. That’s when she fell in love with someone else. That’s when she got pregnant.
Resolved to tell her husband of the affair and to leave him for the father of her child, Emily’s plans are thwarted when the world is suddenly split open on 9/11. It’s amid terrible tragedy that she finds her freedom, as she leaves New York City to start a new life. It’s not easy, but Emily — now Connie Prynne — forges a new happily-ever-after in California. But when a life-threatening diagnosis upends her life, she is forced to rethink her life for the good of her 13-year-old daughter.
A riveting debut in which a woman must confront her own past in order to secure the future of her daughter, Kim Hooper’s People Who Knew Me asks: “What would you do?”
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Goodreads
Taking reviews with a grain of salt (and maybe a shot of tequila) by Kim Hooper
This is the most depressing book I’ve ever read. I would not recommend it to anyone I care for.
This lovely message of encouragement came to me from someone on Facebook who had read my book and disliked it so much that she felt the need to hunt me down on the World Wide Web and tell me so. I really wanted to respond by saying, “Can you please recommend it to people you don’t care for?” But, in the end, I thanked her for taking the time to share her opinion. I included multiple exclamation marks, not disguising my sarcasm well.
It’s hard as a debut novelist to deal with reviews. Before People Who Knew Me was released, my only readers were my husband and my mom (and a few devoted friends). They were, in a word, biased. Then, suddenly, my book was available for anyone and everyone to read and assess and — gulp — review. Sites like Amazon and Goodreads make it possible for every reader to be a reviewer. There is the shroud of anonymity that allows for often-brutal honesty. This terrified me.
My mom said to me once, “Your radar is always up.” Meaning, I’m very sensitive, hyper aware of everything around me, for better or worse. I suppose this is why I became a writer in the first place. I needed some way to process all that sensory input. I assume most writers have this sensitivity to the surrounding world. And, most of them, like me, are especially attuned to criticism.
Fellow writers advised me not to read reviews, but when you’re a first-timer, you can’t help it. Fortunately, most of my reviews have been great. The Wall Street Journal called my book “refreshingly raw and honest.” Bustle named it one of the best debuts of 2016. On Amazon and Goodreads, it’s hovered between 4 and 5 stars for nearly a year now. But, of course, I gravitate toward the negative, obsessing over the complaints of people I’ve never met. On one occasion, I was so upset by someone’s comments on Goodreads that I attempted to respond. Goodreads intervened with a message that said, basically, “Are you sure you want to do that?” Thank you, Goodreads, for saving me from myself.
What I’ve learned over the past several months is that reviews, especially on Amazon and Goodreads, are so subjective. People like different kinds of books. And people interpret stories and characters based on their own lives and their own belief systems. The writer has zero control over that.
In her book Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert writes about how a reader approached her and said, “Reading about how X happened to you inspired me so much.” But, the thing was, X hadn’t happened to Gilbert and was not in her book. This reader somehow changed the narrative in her head in a way that resonated more with her. This just goes to show that when you write a novel and put it out in the world, it is no longer yours.
As Gilbert says, “Once my book entered her hands, after all, everything about it belonged to her, and never again to me. Recognizing this reality — that the reaction doesn’t belong to you — is the only sane way to create. If people enjoy what you’ve created, terrific. If people ignore what you’ve created, too bad. If people misunderstand what you’ve created, don’t sweat it.”
Publishing a book requires a certain amount of surrender. People Who Knew Me was my baby and, as its mother, I’ve had to trust I raised it well and allow it to find its place in the world. There are people who will call it “dumb” (this was the entirety of one Amazon review), but there are also people who will say, “I couldn’t put it down” and “this is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.” There is no sense to be made of the differences in opinions.
My advice to other debut novelists would be to avoid reviews, but this probably isn’t realistic. Even if you do manage to stay off the major review sites, readers will manage to find you and express their discontent (unless you live in a cave with no Internet connection). So, focus on the positive feedback. Respond to those readers. Don’t waste time (and exclamation marks) on people who are unnecessarily harsh. Laugh at the especially bad reviews. It helps. I came up with an idea to have my loved ones read my bad reviews to me with funny accents. I recommend this.
For readers out there, a piece of advice for you: Be unnecessarily harsh if you must, but remember that the Amazon review you leave for your Black & Decker blender is monitored by apathetic customer service people (if it is monitored at all), but book reviews are usually monitored by one hyper-sensitive person — the author.
About the author
Kim Hooper lives in Southern California with her husband and an absurd number of pets. People Who Knew Me is her debut novel.
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