Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that feedback is about the person giving it.
Speaker 1: It can be helpful or unhelpful, but it is important
Speaker 1: to keep it in perspective. I recently reread Tara Moore's
Speaker 1: book Playing Big, which has lots of helpful tips about
Speaker 1: finding your voice and becoming more influential. More reminds readers
Speaker 1: that feedback from your target audience is incredibly helpful, but
Speaker 1: with feedback in general, you have to keep in mind
Speaker 1: that it is simply telling you about the person who
Speaker 1: is giving it, nothing more. Here is one quick exercise
Speaker 1: More suggests as a way to realize this. Think about
Speaker 1: a book you read recently that you enjoyed. Now go
Speaker 1: to Amazon and read the reviews. Read a five star
Speaker 1: review and read a one star or two star review,
Speaker 1: because for almost every major book there are going to
Speaker 1: be some of both. Sometimes these polar opposite reviews can
Speaker 1: even be talking about the same thing. Someone thinks the
Speaker 1: characters are wildly inventive. Someone else thinks they're unbelievable. All
Speaker 1: that feedback really tells you is that the first person
Speaker 1: likes characters who require a little more imagination that get
Speaker 1: you into a different world. The second likes characters that
Speaker 1: you feel you already know. Now, neither is particularly right.
Speaker 1: It might matter which reader is in the target market,
Speaker 1: but you don't really get to stand there in a
Speaker 1: bookstore or library and dictate who picks it up. Now,
Speaker 1: if you'd like to get your book published by a
Speaker 1: particular publisher and the editor who acquires your kind of
Speaker 1: fiction likes characters in a certain style, well that feedback
Speaker 1: will matter if you want that particular outcome. But with
Speaker 1: a lot of feedback to eat your own. Now, if
Speaker 1: you get a lot of a particular kind of feedback
Speaker 1: and it resonates with you, incorporate it. If you get
Speaker 1: a lot of feedback that doesn't resonate with you, but
Speaker 1: those people aren't in your target market and aren't decision makers,
Speaker 1: and whether your project sees the light of day, well
Speaker 1: feel free to thank people for their feedback and move on.
Speaker 1: I think this is so important because I have seen
Speaker 1: people try to adjust their entire style based on say,
Speaker 1: one review left on a podcast. I have seen people
Speaker 1: wither based on one critical comment on their outfit or
Speaker 1: something like that once upon a time, people could only
Speaker 1: give such feedback in person, which tempered the comments a bit.
Speaker 1: Once you are over the age of eight or so,
Speaker 1: very few people will flat out insult someone to their face,
Speaker 1: but online people can become playground tyrants. Again. Now again,
Speaker 1: this isn't to say some feedback isn't helpful. I have
Speaker 1: had incredibly helpful editors in my life. I've also had
Speaker 1: not so helpful editors. I've had readers give suggestions which
Speaker 1: changed my whole insight on something. It is truly a
Speaker 1: beautiful thing. I've also had readers give what sounds like
Speaker 1: really horrible suggestions. So you just have to realize that
Speaker 1: feedback only tells you about the person giving it. It
Speaker 1: tells you if they liked your work or they didn't,
Speaker 1: or something they thought worked or didn't. It doesn't fundamentally
Speaker 1: say whether your work is good or not. When you
Speaker 1: realize that, you feel free to incorporate what is helpful,
Speaker 1: but keep your sense of self and control over your
Speaker 1: work when it isn't helpful. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: critics in the world, so best to keep that mindset.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks for listening and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.