Self-googling Part 2: The Joy of Feedback

So yesterday I was talking about the terrible form of self-abuse that writers indulge in – googling themselves and their books. I worked out the other day that it’s all about feedback. If you do almost any other job, then you get feedback all the time. My boyfriend works in the construction industry and every night when he gets home, he'll tell me all about the latest crisis over scaffolding or curtain walling (eh? I still don’t know what this is but it is VERY serious). They have lots of meetings where people thump tables and get cross. And then they all make it up over a beer. Very alpha male. Every day has its triumphs and disasters. He is never in any doubt about how he’s doing.

Contrast that with me. I haven’t been a full-time writer for all that long but what I have realised is that there are many, many benefits of this dream come true. The ability to work in tracky bottoms. The freedom to choose your own working hours. The lack of a commute. The fact that you are doing something you love.

The downside: no feedback. I have NO idea how I am performing from one day to the next. This is disconcerting: as humans we need feedback. We have it from birth – would we ever have gravitated from nappies if someone hadn’t been cheering us on and rewarding us for using the potty? Would you show up for work on time if you didn’t have a boss breathing down your neck and threatening a terrible appraisal if you’re always late?

Well, authors (and in fact, most people who work from home, especially mothers of young children) don’t get that feedback. I write my 1000 words a day (this seems to be the industry standard among authors) and I am so close to it that I have no idea whether it’s good or rubbish. Most of the time it feels rubbish, to be honest.

Of course, you do get feedback on the book when you send it to your agent or publisher – but that’s after six-nine months work without any sense of whether it’s a turkey or a triumph. Yes, you also get phone calls and emails when there’s good news on sales or whatever. And I do understand why publishers aren’t in touch all the time – they have important things to do like have meetings (where they DEFINITELY don’t thump tables) and discuss literature and choose covers and read other authors’ manuscripts and a million other things. But now I think of it, maybe publishers are missing a trick by not employing people as ego-strokers for authors. At a push you could give this role to the work experience person. If there was a rota to ensure that every author received a weekly email or quick phone call saying ‘you’re so talented’ or ‘how do you do it?’ or even an occasional ‘step on it, girl, that book won’t write itself’ then our productivity would increase dramatically.

But until this happens, we are looking to cyberspace as a boss-substitute. Thumbs up or thumbs down? That’s why I go on lovereading. Or on amazon. Or on Waterstones, because the store organised for some advance copies of the book so readers could review the book early.

*OUTRAGEOUS PLUG ALERT WARNING* I was so thrilled when I saw that people liked it: in fact, when the first review appeared late last year I was convinced it was someone I knew posting a fake review for a laugh, because I hadn’t realised that advance copies had gone out. *OUTRAGEOUS PLUG ALERT ALL CLEAR*

But on the downside, still no-one has bought a copy on amazon (you can tell because if they had, there’d be a ‘rating’ showing how you compare with the other squillions titles available via the site). Which makes me very nervous.

Have you ever emailed an author? Or posted a review? I hadn’t, before I became a writer myself. I do it all the time now – and I am always thrilled to receive a reply, or alternatively cheesed off if I don’t hear back. Go on, if you love someone’s book, drop them a line. We all need the feedback…
Tomorrow: the Science of Love Part One.
Lots of Love,
Amy