S.G. Browne

It’s no secret that authors enjoy receiving positive reviews of their novels. We like four and five star assessments complete with gushing, flattery, and an abundance of comments that make us sound a lot smarter than we are.

We also enjoy receiving e-mails from readers who have read one of our novels and had it affect them exactly the way we’d intended. Or who, after reading said novel, were compelled to write a novel themselves. Or who looked at their world in a different manner than they did before reading your novel.

Sometimes, however, we don’t connect with a reader. It’s part of the job description. Writing, like any art, is subjective and not everyone is going to enjoy your perspective or point of view or sense of humor. So we have to understand that and let the bad or negative reviews slide off us like the proverbial water off a duck.

After several novels, I’ve more or less managed to do this and I don’t give any energy to a review from someone who didn’t connect in a positive way with one of my novels. But every now and then, I come across a less-than-flattering review that I find just as enjoyable as a five-star ego massage.

Case in point: the following two-star review for my novel Fated:

“It’s sick and twisted and quite frankly, if I had known it contained these types of scenes and concepts against Christianity, I would never have read it. If you’re a Christian, you will probably be offended by this book.”

While I don’t agree with the blanket statement about how all Christians will react to Fated, this person obviously found the material objectionable. This makes me happy. As an author of social satire, if I’m not offending someone, then as far as I’m concerned, I’m not doing my job.

And if anyone was offended by the irreverent tone and content of Fated, wait until they get a load of the sequel.