Angry Buffy author.

[Skytteflickan88]

This is a rant by a angry Buffy novel book author, Yvonne Navarro, that I found very interesting. She' s angry about the response she has been getting on amazon about her dark Willow books, the Wicked Willow trilogy. I haven't read the books or the reviews, but I still find this to be an interesting read.

www.yvonnenavarro.com/rant.htm

[ligeia]

Interesting read indeed, thanks for the link.

[sunnydale876]

Wow, she's definitely not someone that takes criticism very well. And yes, Tempted Champions was FULL of typos, which made for a very annoying read.

Thanks for the link, that was an entertaining read.

[ligeia]

Yeah it seems that even an elaborate and detailed criticism would infurate her ! lol

[Emmie]

Sept 7, 2008 19:21:39 GMT -5 ligeia said:

Yeah it seems that even an elaborate and detailed criticism would infurate her ! lol

Actually, I think a detailed and elaborate criticism (without typos or bad grammar, of course, by someone who actually read the entire book) was just what she was looking for.

She seemed more frustrated with presumptuous, superficial criticisms and the criticisms that were directed at her about things outside of her control.

Very interesting hearing how difficult the publishing world has become in the past few years. They're really pushing the product for the money at the sacrifice of quality, aren't they?

[buffyverseforever]

I never blamed her for the typos. I always assumed that was a production problem. I'm such a lousy typist myself,I really can't criticise anybody else


Best wishes,

Scott

[wenxina]

I've read a couple of her books (I actually had quite an extensive collection of Buffy novels which I think my mom just recently cleared, since she's moving), and I always found her work to be somewhat subpar. Can't recall the specifics of each of them anymore, but Paleo was quite mediocre. Tempted Champions was a little better, but then again, I gave her props for referencing Malaysian vampire myths and martial arts. But meh.
I can see where her frustration stems from, but hey, if the gig was that bad, then just brush it off and move on. While the technicalities may not be her fault, the lousiness of the writing is solely her responsibility.

[Emmie]

Ha! Have you written an Amazon review, Xi? Please do so with no typos, misspellings or bad grammar - but critique it with your negative opinion . 'Cause you clearly don't think too much of it. If it really wasn't that great maybe she needs to calm down.

It's amazing how much ego mediocre writers possess. Over-inflated much?

[balesthebloody]

I found that interesting. I really liked the Dark Willow books myself, but hey, maybe that is just me.

It is interesting to see how the book industry works. Make me glad that I am very bad a writing!

[wenxina]

Sept 7, 2008 21:47:14 GMT -5 Emmie said:

Ha! Have you written an Amazon review, Xi? Please do so with no typos, misspellings or bad grammar - but critique it with your negative opinion . 'Cause you clearly don't think too much of it. If it really wasn't that great maybe she needs to calm down.

It's amazing how much ego mediocre writers possess. Over-inflated much?

I don't think I've ever written an Amazon.com review, Em.
And I have no real desire to, especially not to criticize. It understandable that criticism hurts, and that some morons (i.e. those who cannot spell, abbreviate, or even construct a simple sentence without some glaring error) think that their taste is superior must be like rubbing rock salt into a very raw wound. I don't mind praising something, if it's good, but if I just smile and nod my head... then understand that I'm trying to spare your feelings. I can't remember the specifics of the books, other than I wasn't too impressed. In retrospect, very few of the books really impressed me. One that comes to mind right now is Pretty Maids All In a Row. But it's been ages since I've read it, so maybe I'm recalling it with a 15-year old's bias. Could also explain why I liked the Potentials storyline as much as I did in S7.
Ah... egos... what would we be without them. I think I'd be a sloth.

[Emmie]

Very true, Xi. I find myself more likely to spread the good will than the negative. (Except for some noteable critiques on Buffy, which don't count because I love it so much that talking about anything negative is just a further expression of love...really, I swear!)

I've never given a negative review on Amazon myself, but I have wanted to share the love when I really loved a book and posted on Barnes and Noble.com.

Hmmm, without my ego I'd be....a doormat?

[Skytteflickan88]

I understand, without reading the books or reviews, that she's pissed of at the people who give bad reviews before even reading the whole book. That must hurt. She can't even respond to them.

This angry post almost makes me want to read the books and reviews. Almost.

[ilovewillow]

Thanks for the link. Poor Navarro. Having people criticising your work, but not bothering to even finish it in order to give it a fair review must stink. I haven't read the Dark Willow triology, but I still want to. I did like her Willow Files though. Haven't read Tempted Champions or Paleo. The publishing world seems v.harsh considering they like to change things at the last minute. So I guess she can't really be to blame.

[Fredikins]

Thanks for posting, that was an interesting read. Poor Navarro, those stupid kids were being so critical about her book when if they didn't like it, they should've just stopped reading it! Instead they had to put down the author like that. *shakes head* Shame.

[siredbyspike]

Thanks for this link, i found it quite interesting. Especially how she dares Buffy fans to try and write their own Buffy book and see how well it is received. I don't know if she really knows how Buffy Geeks roll, but i think most Buffy Geeks could write a really good book and keep to the timelines and canon much better than most of those authors that do this stuff. I read alot of these Buffy books, (i especially love the tales of the slayers ones) to get my Buffy fix since the show ended and in the space between Season 8 comics. One thing i hate though is the little tiny mistakes. Although i like the book for the most part, there will be some little thing in it that drives me nuts. Like Spike's coat he took from Nikki getting completely destroyed (that one sticks out in my mind STILL, but i can't remember which book it was lol) long before it actually did get destroyed on Season 5 of Angel. Granted, i get that she's pissed because most of the reviews she got were from idiots who just seemed to not know anything about the Buffyverse or just wanted their opinions of how the show ended taken out on her. For example, what was up with the one questioning why there was a Native American slayer when the Watcher's Council was in England? HUH?
But anyways, i guess what i'm trying to say is that go ahead and dare the Buffy fandom, because we are a very obsessed lot, and we are very passionate about it, and i think there would be some very good books come from that. Editors and deadlines aside it would probably still be better than some of the books already out there. I'm not saying any of them are Yvonne Navarro's necessarily, cause i haven't read enough of her's to really form an opinion, but there are some authors that write Buffy stuff that i have already learned to steer clear of because they can't stick to things and it ends up pissing me off. If you want to twist things and make Xander and Willow have babies, that should be labelled differently and kept in a seperate catagory in my opinion. To each their own, and i don't mind some veering off the beaten Buffy path for the sake of good storytelling, but it shouldn't be anything too outrageous that can't be fixed by magic and righted by the end of the book.

[taraswizard]

'Vonne is an angry author in general a few years before her tirade about Amazon reviews, she wrote about why she disontinued the links to Amazon from her personal website. The reason being that Amazon had the gall to link to used book sites from their pages, and she said since she gets no money from used book sales they were in some way denying her right to earn money.

[Skytteflickan88]

Nov 25, 2008 11:35:29 GMT -5 taraswizard said:

'Vonne is an angry author in general a few years before her tirade about Amazon reviews, she wrote about why she disontinued the links to Amazon from her personal website. The reason being that Amazon had the gall to link to used book sites from their pages, and she said since she gets no money from used book sales they were in some way denying her right to earn money.

Denying her the right to earn money? What, instead of selling the books after you're done with them you should burn them so the publisher would have to print new ones instead, thus giving her more money?

Weird.

[Sanity Fair]

I haven't read any of her books nor have I read the amazon reviews she's referring to, but I did read her rant. I think it's stupid of her to be upset that people are annoyed by spelling or grammatical errors in her books. It doesn't matter if she didn't make them or they weren't her fault; the customers on Amazon are reviewing the ENTIRE book - the end product - not just her involvement in it. If people are going to spend their money on a book, they don't care how long the author had to write it or about their family issues, they care about the product they receive. If it has errors or is otherwise of poor quality then why shouldn't people post negative reviews? As for the author rah-rahing personal preference, does she not realize that all the reviews, including the positive ones, are based on the personal preferences of the person writing it? That's what a review is . . .

[wenxina]

Apparently she's not the only author that has done something like this on Amazon. According to the Wikipedia article on Anne Rice, she's done something like that too, about her more recent works, I think.