Ask An Author

Dear Author,

My sister says my book is rubbish, should I bother carrying on?

Answered by Hermia

Ouch, I can feel that hurt all the way from the other side of your screen.

I’m assuming that her criticism has left you feeling terribly demoralized and feeling like it might not be worth it to try to continue with writing and/or self publishing. Your self worth may have taken a beating too.

There’s a lot to unpack from that, including the nature of your relationship with your sister, and your sister’s expertise in your genre.

For the most part, family members are not good sounding boards for writing. First, their comments and feedback are going to be influenced by their relationship with you. An overly enthusiastic mother who is just so proud that you have written a book can be just as unhelpful in giving you feedback on your book as a jealous sibling. Second, even if a family member is able to give you comments and feedback without letting pride or jealousy interfere with their assessment, it is doubtful that they are going to be a good sounding board for your genre, because they are not likely to be experts in your genre. Also, it it’s important to note that many genres have subgenres, so even if your sister loves romance books, she might favor a very different romance subgenre or different romance tropes. Someone who loves small town second chance romance might really hate your “enemies to lovers” dark hitman romance, even if your dark hitman romance is very well written.

So, if you can’t trust family members for helpful feedback, how do you know if you are on the right track with your book? That’s where Dirty Discourse can be really helpful- with such a large and friendly group, chances are we have at least a few people who read and write in your genre. With the option of posting anonymously in our critique section, you can get extremely valuable, honest feedback on excerpts of your writing.

Hermia writes historical and contemporary romance and erotica.

Ask the author is your chance to ask all those writing questions you’ve got stored up inside and our wonderful Dirty Discoursers will answer them for you! Got any burning questions? Drop them in the comments box below.