Now that you've read that, let's discuss.
Not dealing with making the NYT most treasured list: Most authors never make a list at all. You're a best selling author. Shut up.
Books on the list with reviews that were nowhere near as good as mine: Waldman's reviews really aren't that noteworthy. I mean, they're okay. I didn't read them all, but here is the tally on Amazon.
- 60 - 5 star
- 60 - 4 star
- 43 - 3 star
- 15 - 2 star
- 14 - 1 star
Now, her editorial reviews seem to be glowing, but as authors, we know how to take the good bits even out of the worst review. *grain of salt* cough* So the shorter ones, may be, well, not at "noteworthy" as they may seem.
We also know that reviews are an opinion. One person's opinion. Guess what, so is this list, only it's a few editor's opinions. Get the fuck over it.
What do they mean by "Notable?": Well, these are the dictionary definitions. I hope this helps.
1. worthy of note or notice; noteworthy: a notable success; a notable theory.
2. prominent, important, or distinguished: many notable artists.
A book with a mediocre review counts as "notable" and one with a good one (hers I presume) didn't: Group of editors chose. Group discussions. Difference of opinions. It makes for different answers to the same question.
Sometimes being a writer sucks she thinks she should go back to being an attorney: Yes, being a writer sucks, especially when you're on the B list and are not a bestselling author AND don't make lists. And I'm sorry you have a career that makes a lot of money to fall back on if this doesn't work out for you. Man you have it hard.
It's demoralizing. You pour your heart into your work, you get awesome reviews, and someone decides it's not "notable.": Yes, it is. It's especially demoralizing when you pour your heart out into your work, get awesome reviews and you get no attention at all because your publisher didn't back you, or your book didn't fall into the right hands, or for some other reason. And you never see a royalty check. And even though you've got a ton of great reviews you're not a bestseller or been on a list or won any awards. THIS is the experience of most the writers on the face of the planet. Shut up.
Why do I bother? I could write a fucking journal: Yeah, that's a good idea. Follow your dreams and go write a fucking journal. b'bye. SMH. You do it because you love it and you are obviously good at it since everyone thinks you're great. Jesus. Enough already.
I'm being such a (Expletive I don't like, yes there are some). There are real problems in the world. I'm just going to suck it up...: I think we are beyond sucking it up at this point. Don't you?
And then she asks the world to order her paperback so that too can become a best
And then she'll donate a dollar of each sale to scholarmatch.com because fuck the fucking NYT for not putting her on the list.
However the Washington Post liked her book enough to put it in their Top 50 Fiction Books for 2014. She could have used all that energy writing 5 million Tweets about the NYT NOT putting her on a list to write 5 million Tweets about the WP putting her ON a list. Of course, we wouldn't have like that any better because then she'd be gloating. But she barely acknowledged it.
By the way, thank you WASHINGTON POST, with a link. Uh, I think I'd at least have thrown in a squee or an exclamation point or something. Of course I'd have been excited because I'm not a bestseller, never won any awards or been on a list before.Meanwhile, Waldman continues to tell people to fuck off on Twitter as they chastise
her for her childish tantrum.
When did the writing world fill up with a bunch of cry baby bed wetters? I mean, seriously? We're supposed to have thick skins. After all we get blasted with bad reviews all the time. But now we're stalking and assaulting people and going on all out ranty tantrums because we're not making lists? Jesus H, people. Get your balls out from wherever they're hiding and start using them again.
We're writers. This is what we do. We take the good with the bad. True writers don't write for the glory: not the money, the awards, or the lists. They write for the pure joy of writing itself. If you lose sight of that, I'm pretty sure your writing will suffer.
Next time you get pissed off at a bad review, or because you lost an award, or god forbid you didn't make a list, put the vodka bottle down, step away from the computer and take a deep breath. Do anything else, just don't go there. Go for a walk, go watch TV, go to bed. Don't make yourself and the writing community as a whole look like an ass because you got your feelings hurt. Take it like a writer. Thick skinned, strong willed, and wholehearted.
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