author feedback

[timberwolf05]

why is it, i hear, supposedly, author's want feedback, but no one answers their mail?

explain that, will you?

maybe i'll quit writing.

 

[TxRad]

I don't know about the other writers around here but I try to answer my feedback if there is a way to do it.... Anonymous is hard to answer and sometimes I'm at work for a month at a time.. I can recieve e-mail but I can't send... If I remember when I get home I send replies....

 

[Erotic-Kiss]

I always answer my feedback.
But then... maybe the ones not answering are getting TONS of letters?
I just get one or two a week after a story has settled after the first couple weeks.

 

[mack_the_knife]

If there is a return addy, I answer every piece of mail I get, sometimes very verbosely, if you can believe that I could run on for line after line of idle text, discussing the inner workings of my mind as I wrote the story. It's hard to believe how wrapped up in the monologue of my own mind I can get, I mean, really, do they really want to read that much crap for saying "Good story"? I doubt it, but still, there I am, pounding on the keyboard for five to twenty minutes, blathering on about the story and the characters, and possible future directions of the story. Characters are fun and all, but do they need such detailed description on matters that will never come up in the story? I think they don't, myself, but I go ahead and burdon the reader with it if he's audacious enough to send me a message with a return email address. I should probably lay off doing that, maybe people would write more than once, hmm? Now, story, of course, is very important, but I go all out, and tell the people about other parts that have little to do with what they actually read, kinda like the characters. Did he need that? Probably not. Yeesh, I should stop doing that to them. What do you think? Then we move on to possible future directions. Wow fucking open-ended is that? I can babble till my fingers fall off on that subject, it's probably the single most annoying thing I do to response response letters. It can go THIS way or THAT way, or even ANOTHER way, but I probably give away too many of my possible plot twists doing that, and 'sploil' my own story for the reader later <sigh> not the best way to keep their interest level high, in my opinion. Other than that, there's the matter of directions that I point out, then don't follow, which may disappoint the reader who thinks that that direction is a good way to go, and I fail to heed. Leaving that particular individual left out and probably feeling a bit betrayed. All in all, probably best if I shut up.

 

[Guest]

I try to answer mine if there is a return address. It may take me a month or so sometimes, but I usually get to it. The only ones I don't answer are obviously, the anonymous ones and also the ones that ask for pictures or my yahoo id.

 

[Jennifer C]

why is it, i hear, supposedly, author's want feedback, but no one answers their mail?

explain that, will you?

maybe i'll quit writing.

Same here I always reply to all feedback I receive even if it takes me a few days but the thing is we don't always know what other people are doing in their lives, there could be a number of reasons why that person hasn't replied, I wouldn't take it personally

 

[PAUL C]

i do

i reply to all the mail i get, good or bad.

i also leave all comments about my stories up, good or bad.

 

[Guest]

why is it, i hear, supposedly, author's want feedback, but no one answers their mail?

explain that, will you?

maybe i'll quit writing.

I would gladly give you feedback, or even return your comments on my story. But it could be thats why they call them "Ghost" writers, they don't reply to feed back hehehe

 

[Goldeniangel]

I try to answer feedback, esp if the person asks me questions...

but i sometimes I'm just way too busy and there's nothing really in the feedback other than "Loved such and such story" and so even though I appreciate it I just have to pass on writing. Also, I've started being more careful ever since someone sent me a nude picture of themselves that I really wasn't prepared for... it's not really why I write for this site.

Feedback is ALWAYS appreciated though, trust me, it'll make my day to get a good compliment even though I may not be able to respond =D well, constructive negative feedback is appreciated, i'm not so sure about the "you suck" and nothing else feedbacks. lol.

*HUGS*
angel

 

[susurrus]

If I have a return address, I ALWAYS thank them for taking the time to do so, good or bad.

I generally take anonymous feedback as if I never really received it, even if "This was the best I've ever read" sits better than "Your story sucked." I sort of look at it like: If they don't want me to know who they are, what do I care what they think?

But, no matter how vehement a respondent is about how shitty a writer I am and so forth, as long as they leave me a return address, I write them back. If they *are* particularly negative, I try to pump them for what they took exception to, in the attempt to hone my writing more. If you don't know what *didn't* work, you can't be entirely sure what *does*.