Anne Rice's Amazon Rant

[Edge]

Has anyone else seen this? Anne Rice posted on Amazon in response to stupid reader reviews of Blood Canticles (The Vampire Chronicles). I particularly liked this paragraph:

But your stupid arrogant assumptions about me and what I am doing are slander. And you have used this site as if it were a public urinal to publish falsehood and lies. I'll never challenge your democratic freedom to do so, and yes, I'm answering you, but for what it's worth, be assured of the utter contempt I feel for you, especially those of you who post anonymously (and perhaps repeatedly?) and how glad I am that this book is the last one in a series that has invited your hateful and ugly responses.

CLICKY HERE

(you might have to go to previous pages to see it, as new posts are being added at rapid speed)

[dANdeLION]

Interesting. I disagree with her lack of an editor, based on the theaory that no matter how much an athor's words make sense to him/her, and no matter how smart the reader is, the reader is NOT the author and can't be expected to think like he/she does. An editor is a second set of eyes and can be very helpful to those authors whose egos allow the possibility that a better way to say things may exist.

[Roland of Gilead]

Huge mistake on her part. The equivalent of throwing gasoline on a fire.

Makes for some entertaining reading, though.

[duchess of malfi]

Goodness. She seems quite incensed.

...However there is something compelling about Amazon's willingness to publish just about anything, and the sheer outrageous stupidity of many things you've said here that actually touches my proletarian and Democratic soul. Also I use and enjoy Amazon and I do read the reviews of other people's books in many fields. In sum, I believe in what happens here. And so, I speak. First off, let me say that this is addressed only to some of you, who have posted outrageously negative comments here, and not to all. You are interrogating this text from the wrong perspective. Indeed, you aren't even reading it. You are projecting your own limitations on it. And you are giving a whole new meaning to the words "wide readership." And you have strained my Dickensean principles to the max. I'm justifiably proud of being read by intellectual giants and waitresses in trailer parks... And no, I have no intention of allowing any editor ever to distort, cut, or otherwise mutilate sentences that I have edited and re-edited, and organized and polished myself. I fought a great battle to achieve a status where I did not have to put up with editors making demands on me, and I will never relinquish that status. For me, novel writing is a virtuoso performance. It is not a collaborative art...

Perhaps if she had availed herself of the services of a professional editor, she would not have received so many negative reviews of her book?

And who is she (or anyone) to judge that intellectual giants and waitresses in trailor parks are mutually exclusive? At any rate, their money, in purchasing books, is certainly the same color of green.

Her post is actually much longer than this, and I only copied bits of it. And it is all run together, difficult to read, as there are no paragraphs. Perhaps she could have used an editor.

[dANdeLION]

Yeah.....tell me, does it read like her? I have never read Rice, and sometimes someone just pretends to be an angry auther.....

[Edge]

Apparently it's verifiably her, thanks to Amazon's "real name" badge (meaning that your reviewer name and the name on your credit card are identical).

I agree that she needs an editor. The connection she obviously feels with her characters is admirable, but I think she could use an objective point of view.

And I too was a bit shocked that she wrote the whole thing as one big-ass paragraph.

[taraswizard]

FYI, Yvonne Navarro www.yvonnenavarro.com/ the author has written an essay regarding Amazon reviews recently.

[Dragonlily]

Navarro's rant is pretty harsh. And deserved. I once read an Amazon "review" in which the writer went to an SRD reading, then complained because SRD was talking about things he didn't understand. I would say that was the "reviewer's" fault, not SRD's. And why did he think he was qualified to review SRD if he couldn't understand what he was talking about? I would hide my head if I were that stupid, not publish the fact and criticize SRD for it.

[duchess of malfi]

Yes, some Amazon reviews really make me scratch my head sometimes. I always wonder how someone can "review" a book they admit they have not read, for example (as happens very frequently). Also, sometimes the reviewers get their facts about a book or an author quite wrong, and that also makes me immediately discard a review.

But, on the other hand, some glowing reader reviews have led me to some very good books and authors I have never heard of otherwise, the most recent one being Tricia Sullivan and her science fiction novel Lethe.

Anne Rice is not the only author I have heard blast fan reviews on Amazon. I also saw an interview where Robert Jordan had some pretty insulting things to say about some of the reviews of one of his later Wheel of Time books. I have not read the Rice book, so cannot comment on its rating. However, I can understand the complaints about the Jordan book, the primary one being that nothing happened in hundreds of pages to advance the plot of the series. It is a view I share, in fact. In some cases, if hundreds or thousands of people make the same complaint about the same book, perhaps there is merit in that complaint? And perhaps an author should pay attention to that?

As with anything in life, Amazon reviews can be a very useful tool -- but you do have to weed through them, as some are much more thought out than others. Any books dealing with controversial political and/or religious content tend to draw more weirdos than general novels, or so I have observed.

[Myste]

I guess what most surprises me, is that Anne Rice actually cares what the average reader thinks. Whether or not her work needs an editor is immaterial, really. The fact is that she has written--and sold--so many books means she doesn't have to answer to anyone anymore. She is--and I mean this very literally--a prima donna, the first lady of horror fiction, and like all prima donnas, can get away with everything.

Since this is the case, what does she care what Amazon reviewers think? Her books still sell, and a billion people think she's great, and she makes a gazillion dollars a year. She is free to write what she wants how she wants--she knows herself to be capable of one virtuoso performance after another. So why have some snarky comments on a commercial website bothered her so much?

[All that said, let me add that while I've enjoyed some of her books, I wouldn't really consider myself a fan. Just doesn't do it for me personally. The quality of her work aside, however, her status as a horror writer is unquestionable.]

If I could write anything I wanted and be confident that not only would it be published, but that 5 million people would buy it and use it as another excuse to worship me, I think I really wouldn't give a flying fig what some guy on Amazon thought. I think I'd save my energy for worrying about what Kirkus was going to say about my latest self-edited novel.

[Variol Farseer]

If I could write anything I wanted and be confident that not only would it be published, but that 5 million people would buy it and use it as another excuse to worship me, I think I really wouldn't give a flying fig what some guy on Amazon thought. I think I'd save my energy for worrying about what Kirkus was going to say about my latest self-edited novel.

And that would be the Kiss of Death, and after that all your books would be self-indulgent tripe. The guy on Amazon is a paying customer, at least; Kirkus is a handful of thoroughly biased critics who are read by a minuscule percentage of the book-buying public. If you have no editor, ignore your readers, and only pay attention to the hangers-on and armchair generals of the publishing industry, you'll soon find yourself living and writing in an echo chamber bounded by the bones of your own skull. I've seen this happen to good writers before, and it isn't pretty.

A while back, I did an analysis of the working procedure of the most successful fiction authors, and came up with a six-step process, which should be repeated with each new book for best results. Anne Rice's current method cuts out at least three of those steps. But that's a technical issue and definitely here.

[Myste]

And that would be the Kiss of Death, and after that all your books would be self-indulgent tripe. The guy on Amazon is a paying customer, at least; Kirkus is a handful of thoroughly biased critics who are read by a minuscule percentage of the book-buying public. If you have no editor, ignore your readers, and only pay attention to the hangers-on and armchair generals of the publishing industry, you'll soon find yourself living and writing in an echo chamber bounded by the bones of your own skull.

I agree with you completely. I was imagining myself in Anne Rice's place--she obviously prefers writing self-indulgent tripe in a critical vacuum. That's why I don't understand why she cares about her Amazon reviews.

I'd be really interested in hearing more about the six-step process of successful fiction authors! I'm curious how you'd define "successful"--critically? monetarily? prolifically? And are there different sets of steps for different kinds of success...Maybe you should start a new thread?

[Avatar]

I'd be really interested in hearing more about the six-step process of successful fiction authors! I'm curious how you'd define "successful"--critically? monetarily? prolifically? And are there different sets of steps for different kinds of success...Maybe you should start a new thread?

Me too and hear hear!

--A

[Dragonlily]

bump

[taraswizard]

bump

According to yahoo news over the weekend, Anne Rice has a new book, due to be released in Nov. 2005 from Random House, her topic will be Jesus In his own words. AFAIK, Ms. Rice is a lapsed RC.

[dANdeLION]

AFAIK, Ms. Rice is a lapsed RC.

For the acronymically-challenged heathens on the list, I believe RC stands for Roman Catholic.

[Vector]

I agree that she needs an editor. The connection she obviously feels with her characters is admirable, but I think she could use an objective point of view.

I didn't realize she stopped using editors. That explains how her writing has managed to go as far downhill as it has done. While I definitely enjoyed and even recommend The first three of the Vampire Chronicles as well as her "Witching Hour" novel, I find myself being amazed by the shallowness of her current writing - it really does seem to be self-indulgent tripe.

[Edge]

I've just started reading Blood Canticle, and after just one page, I'm forced to agree with you.

"Lestat:" I know damned well how to be a full-fledged, post-Renaissance, post-nineteenth century, post-modern, post-popular writer. I don't deconstruct nothin'...

I'm going to take care of you. So rest easy and read on. You won't be sorry. You think I don't want new readers? My name is thirst, baby. I must have you!

[spectre700]

"I don't deconstruct nothin'" ?

Doesn't sound like the Lestat I know.

That's a sad development. The first 3 novels of the Vampire chronicles are among my favorite books. The others I read just because it's part of the chronicles.

Truth is, I didn't like Tale of the Body Thief and Memnoch the Devil because Lestat was getting too whiny for my taste. So, when Rice started writing about Armand and the other vampires, my interest returned a bit.

Unfortunately for me, Rice had the incredible idea of bringing the Mayfair witches into the Vampire world. Fans of both series may have been delighted. Problem is, I don't care much about the witches. I stopped reading after Merrick came out... it just accelerated the Law of diminishing marginal utility for me.

I still respected her though, I just didn't like what she was writing about anymore.

However, if Rice keeps coming up with lines like those quoted above, that respect might start eroding ... albeit slowly.
----

So I've been reading the posts on Amazon ... looks like there's a war between reviewers there ... some are just posting to defend Anne Rice now that's a bloodfest. Just realized I'm not the only one who thinks of the word "whiny" when reading Lestat in the later novels.