Wednesday, December 4, 2013

A bad book review (short story) by Leanne Dyck


    After self-publishing my first book--an audiobook collection of short stories, I worried about what the world would think about my baby. Would anyone read it? What would the reviewers write? 
    To my relief, most of the reviewers were very kind--most but not all. One reviewer's words stung. She wrote, 'Some of the stories are too short.'
    Well, I ranted and raved to myself and to my husband. “Too short? Too short! It is a short story collection.”
    “Don’t worry about it,” my husband said, “You can’t please everyone.”
    I knew he was right, but I couldn’t stop thinking about that bad review Too short, rang in my ears. 
    I'll show her, I thought, and picked up my pen and wrote longer and longer stories. 
    Would I have made that leap without her bad review? Maybe, probably, hopefully. But that bad review helped me to make the leap sooner.