Max, congratulations on the book; that's unfortunate about the review.
I can just imagine how it must sting to read something bad about
something you've dedicated a lot of effort & thought to. there's just
one bonus I can see in a bad review, as opposed to, say, a magazine
rejection: among the gnashing teeth there is bound to be some idea of
a trend to which the reviewer attributes the book's quality --
something tangible that you as the author can then look at & decide
whether it's something that should be given attention.
hang in there eh; & well done again on creating a real thing!
KS
On 11/10/2007, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Alert of you, Doug (and thanks for comment on my snap).
>
> Smile, guys, about my false modesty...I held back mention of my book at the
> time of its launch, Feb 06, because I was so confident it would garner some
> newsworthy mention which I could then broadcast on PoetryEtc.
>
> As I have confessed, however, it failed to even make a shortlist for the
> award I had such fond hopes of.
>
> The title is Catch of the Day.
>
> Some of my PoetryEtc snaps appear in the book, but longer pieces go back
> several years.
>
> (After my first book (1983), called Under Mount Egmont because it figured in
> my NZ boyhood and I hoped the book would be noticed in NZ as well as
> Australia, there was a long drought. Beginning to teach poetry-writing
> helped get me going again.)
>
> The one review it has had placed it third in a trio of duds, according to
> the EngLit academic in WaggaWagga, whose reviewing style reminded me of the
> unkind reviews I once wrote myself.
>
> One benefit may be that a recent book helps one get a little work running
> writing groups.
>
> Best from Max in Melbourne
>
>
> On 11/10/07 12:34 AM, "Douglas Barbour" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Now that often happens with small presses, here too, Max. But I don't
> > recall you even mentioning this event to us. So tell us about it, eh?
> > Hey, always a new book deserves congratulations, even so late.
> >
> > Doug
> > On 9-Oct-07, at 3:35 PM, Max Richards wrote:
> >
> >> My own second book came out last year from Ginninderra Press, Canberra,
> >> neatly done and managed, except for lack of distribution.
> > Douglas Barbour
>
>
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