A post in another forum turned me on to the story. It's interesting, especially as a primer on backhanded compliments. Check it out if you haven't.
The Article
The Article
Locke and Hocking in Entertainment Weekly
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I feel bad for Hocking, she's achieved such amazing financial success, but critical praise eludes her. Hopefully her naysayers wont stunt her growth as a writer.
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So critics don't like the writing. BFD, as we used to say. There's only one group that's important, and that's her fans. They're going to buy her work, regardless of what critic says it stinks or whatever magazine gives it a weak grade.
If it does, she has no business being a writer. People are going to say worse things about her writing than what I saw in that article.
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ColoradoMom
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If I were Amanda, I'd be laughing all the way to the bank. She's got an editor, a publisher, and an agent - meanwhile Rob Brunner writes book reviews for Entertainment Weekly. Still, he DOES give her book a B-.
What does that tell you? I'll tell you what it tells me, that Rob knows how to get page views and that's all he gives a crap about. Sadly, his lackluster review didn't seem to generate the interest he was probably hoping for and I doubt his revenue share hit the roof, what with only one comment.
As far as JL goes, I haven't read him but I did purchase his non-fiction book on marketing and he's the first to tell you that trying to please everyone is a waste of time and effort. He's got an audience in mind and if you're not into his book, he's not interested in you.
Wasting time is wasting money and sometimes it is better to be polarizing so there is no mistake as to where you and your book fit in.
Nathan Bransford is figuring this out with his new book Jacob Wonderbar. Recently Nathan asked his blog readers to consider making a purchase, you know - in a jest, half serious funny type of way.
From the way he tells it, they turned on him. Nathan is wasting his time with these lookie-loos who can't even spare $12.00 to support a guy who gives much of his time to helping them with their dream.
In my opinion, it's better to know WHO your audience is than trying to please everyone only to figure out years later that they reason they like you is because you give them valuable information for free.
Amanda Hocking's Trylle Trilogy isn't great literature, but it's got enough to keep you reading and coming back for more. And in the end, that's more than I can say for many "legitimately published" authors.
What does that tell you? I'll tell you what it tells me, that Rob knows how to get page views and that's all he gives a crap about. Sadly, his lackluster review didn't seem to generate the interest he was probably hoping for and I doubt his revenue share hit the roof, what with only one comment.
As far as JL goes, I haven't read him but I did purchase his non-fiction book on marketing and he's the first to tell you that trying to please everyone is a waste of time and effort. He's got an audience in mind and if you're not into his book, he's not interested in you.
Wasting time is wasting money and sometimes it is better to be polarizing so there is no mistake as to where you and your book fit in.
Nathan Bransford is figuring this out with his new book Jacob Wonderbar. Recently Nathan asked his blog readers to consider making a purchase, you know - in a jest, half serious funny type of way.
From the way he tells it, they turned on him. Nathan is wasting his time with these lookie-loos who can't even spare $12.00 to support a guy who gives much of his time to helping them with their dream.
In my opinion, it's better to know WHO your audience is than trying to please everyone only to figure out years later that they reason they like you is because you give them valuable information for free.
Amanda Hocking's Trylle Trilogy isn't great literature, but it's got enough to keep you reading and coming back for more. And in the end, that's more than I can say for many "legitimately published" authors.
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Interesting swipe, seeing as my favorite authors are "legitimately published"...
ColoradoMom
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It wasn't a swipe, it's a fact. And I'm not sure what is so interesting about it, perhaps you'd care to elaborate?
BTW - my favorite authors are also "legitimately published". So what?
1...I don't pay attention to what 99% of book reviewers say. Especially reviewers for publications such as Entertainment Weekly.
2...I applaud AH, but what I find interesting is that for every AH we hear about, there are 10,000+ self published authors we do not hear about. For once, I wish someone would do a national story about those 10,000...
2...I applaud AH, but what I find interesting is that for every AH we hear about, there are 10,000+ self published authors we do not hear about. For once, I wish someone would do a national story about those 10,000...
I follow the reviews on EW and I liked reading this piece, too, even though I viewed the whole thing as a thinly veiled slam on self-published books.
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Just Curious: How many of you who commented above ^^ have actually read any of Amanda Hocking's books (in their entirety? be honest)
Can someone who didn't post above respond? I read her trylle trilogy. At first I didn't think I would like it, I was being very critical of it b/c of the SP stigma and it took awhile for me to read the first chapter because I kept putting it down... but then it got good. I recall a couple of glaring typos in the first book, but if there were more after that I didn't notice because I was too wrapped up in the story. As soon as I finished the first book I immediately downloaded the second, and as soon as I finished the second, I downloaded the third. I haven't read any of her other work, but I enjoyed the trylle trilogy just as much as I've enjoyed any trad published book out of NY. (and for the record: I don't normally read fantasy, YA or anything like that.)
As for the EW article, critics are critics and authors have to have a thick skin - and perhaps that particular critic wishes he had self-published something and made a million dollars and is now quite bitter - who knows? Who really cares? For both movies and books I learned long ago that what critics hate I love and what critics love I find to be a pile of *ahem* - and that is if I've even bothered to read a review in the first place. Normally, I don't bother. I really don't use the opinion of self-appointed *experts* to determine my reading. Never have, never will.
I have.
I'll admit, they could have done with some editing, but in all they were alright, certainly just as good as many 'legitimately' published novels out there.
Are people not allowed to dislike Hocking's books then? Is it always jealousy when they claim not to be a fan?
Taste is subjective, and I know that I get slightly murderous when people throw the 'you don't like it because you're just jealous' - several twilight fans found out that is very much the wrong thing to say to me.
I hate it when people assume that when you don't like something it's because you are jealous. I have no problem admitting when I am jealous. For instance, I'm completely jealous of JK Rowling. But I don't hate HP, I love it.
In this case I think it's perfectly fine for people to dislike anything and say so, after all, we all do it, and we are all entitled to voice our opinion. That said, I think the guy who wrote the article took it too far. It wasn't an intelligent and considered response, it was someone being a jerk and the snide comments and tone were pretty uncalled for IMO.
She's doing fine and she'll continue to do fine.
and apparently they are like assholes. Everybody has one.
No.
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I do feel he is complimenting her here. The slights he points out are things that would be corrected in mainstream editing...and something I'm sure she would improve upon along the way. Remember, he's talking about her self-pubbed work at this point of the critique:
ColoradoMom
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LOL...yeah, let's all hear about the people who can't make it work...great idea. Why don't you go write that up and see what comes of it.
People want to hear about SUCCESS, not failure...unless of course it ends in success.
And I read the Trylle trilogy, but by the third book I lost interest.
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I beg to differ; a self-publisher starving slowly and killing a prostitute in order to finance the next book he/she hopes will change everything, and then dying demented and hungry sounds like the perfect Euro-lit ala Hamsun, Dostoevsky or even Simenon, haha
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I don't care about reviewers, but I do value the opinions of certain people. In Hocking's case, she writes in the genre my girlfriend likes, so I asked the GF to take a look at her books for me.
My girlfriend found them unreadable; too many typos and continuity problems. I've heard from many quarters that the characterization in Hocking's books is a nugget of gold, but the GF didn't see that.
Hocking's a multi-millionaire at the age of 28, so I don't feel remotely sorry for her, but I am rooting for her. I want to see her beat the rest of the industry at their own game. Sadly, it doesn't look like that's going to happen. On the other hand, her experiences suggest that it isn't that difficult to succeed in indie publishing. It just takes a lot of hard work and skill at self-promotion. So that's encouraging.
My girlfriend found them unreadable; too many typos and continuity problems. I've heard from many quarters that the characterization in Hocking's books is a nugget of gold, but the GF didn't see that.
Hocking's a multi-millionaire at the age of 28, so I don't feel remotely sorry for her, but I am rooting for her. I want to see her beat the rest of the industry at their own game. Sadly, it doesn't look like that's going to happen. On the other hand, her experiences suggest that it isn't that difficult to succeed in indie publishing. It just takes a lot of hard work and skill at self-promotion. So that's encouraging.
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But a lot of people did. And I think that's the main issue here. I read a couple of them and found them to be alright. Not spectacular, but reasonably good. I agree with the typos issue, but Hocking herself has said that she had a lot of trouble getting good editing, so I can't really hold that against her when I've seen similar typos in books published by major houses.
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I have read the sample of the first Trylle book and I think I have them in full somewhere on my hard drive ... but even the sample told me that she is badly in need of an editor.
I can understand that despite the sometimes poor prose there is something that makes people turn the page and buy more of her stuff. I just hope for her sake that "something" doesn't get lost when professional editors are going over her stuff.
I can understand that despite the sometimes poor prose there is something that makes people turn the page and buy more of her stuff. I just hope for her sake that "something" doesn't get lost when professional editors are going over her stuff.
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