Reviews: Don't take them for granted

For an author, getting reviewed is not something to be taken for granted. Perhaps if you are published by a big-name publisher and have a great agent - but even then, review space is tight. If you write short stories, if you're published by a small press, unless you do the legwork you may not be reviewed at all, one of the reasons I set up The Short Review. So I am always thrilled when someone chooses to review my book, as Matt Bell and Sally Zigmond have done in the past two weeks. I know how much time it takes to read a book, think about it and then formulate your thoughts into something coherent, so the least I can do is give them a shout here.

What is also wonderful about reviews, as I am learning, is that everyone likes something different. For example, Matt Bell says:

"it's in the longer stories that Hershman's very fine gifts as a storyteller are most obvious. There are certainly exceptions to this observation--one of the strongest stories in the collection is the two-page "Exchange Rate," about a woman only a few pounds of flesh away from what she wants most--but too often the shorter pieces felt like they lacked the length to consistently rise about the admitted cleverness of their concepts."

Sally Zigmond, on the other hand, in a blog post entitled "A Series of Blinding Flashes," says:

"As I now read more novels than short stories, I had expected to prefer the longer stories in this collection to the flash fiction (as some reviewers have) but to me the longer ones were either too long or too short--not quite right for this Goldilocks. The flash fiction, on the other hand, I loved for its brevity, its inventiveness and its poetic quality."

Nothing could be greater for a short story writer, in my opinion, than reviewers who disagree. If everyone agreed that they liked some stories and others were, well... not enjoyable... then a writer might start trying to change what they write based on this, which is dangerous. If everyone finds something they respond to, and each responds to something different, this is exactly as it should be.

Of course, I musn't, as I have been cautioned, take reviews with more than a few pinches of salt. And the more there are, the easier that is to do. Also, the more I am immersed in current projects, the easier it is to simply appreciate the fact of being reviewed and be grateful. So thank you, Matt (whose own collection, How The Broken Lead the Blind, has just begun shipping) and Sally, both of whom regularly review books. We greatly appreciate what you do.