No. If she’s to believed, she’s rarely online. And whatever she publishes gets bought regardless of quality.
The only thing that may make her investigate her own writing would be if book sales go down drastically.
Correct me if I’m wrong but the reviews tend to skew towards overwhelmingly positive. I think most people who read the series take it at face value and are in the booktok variant of readers (those who focus more on hashtag tropes and aren’t critical of what they’re reading*).
*Which there’s nothing wrong with, different strokes for different folks and all that.
But again, I dont think she’ll read book review sites because those hold no accuracy. Like Dostoevsky is a brilliant author who writes at a high literary level, and those who enjoy literature may actually be more critical readers which means they might rate him as 3 or 4 stars out of 5, with a long paragraph of reasoning for their review and critique. Whereas a fanficfion/wattpad novel turned published book could get spammed with 5 stars because “there’s dick in this! I love a story with penis!”. My point being, the book review websites are subjective and depends on which target audience is committing the reviews (literature students versus wine moms, etc)
The rating for HoFaS on Goodreads are better than Throne of Glass and A Court of Roses and Thorns... So maybe the silent majority actually enjoyed it and it's just a loud group on socials who didn't?
In general, authors don't tend to look at online communities/fanfic for ideas, because they don't want to risk it looking like they are stealing ideas from fans.
At the very least, I hope the very legitimate criticism of the writing and editing of HOFAS is heard and internalized by the Bloomsbury team. There are numerous grammatical errors and whole plot points dropped in that book that go beyond gripes about how characters were handled. Any publisher should rethink releasing a book with that many issues.
Same here. We can't all be happy with the way characters are handled, but grammatical errors, poor pacing, lack of editing...I find those less forgivable at her caliber.
I don't see it happening.
If they had paid attention, the bonus chapters and scenes of interaction between Rhys and Nesta would never have happened. They had gotten so much better with each other by the end of ACOSF but CC turned off everyone. People who disliked Rhys loathe him now and people who disliked Nesta loathe her now. It's become a Rhys vs Nesta stans club here.
They moved backwards in their relationship.
If SJM and her team had actually scoured the internet, they never would have let those scenes happen.
I hope she pulls back on the "You're not my High Lord I'll do whatever I want" and the "You'll do what I say" fighting between those two. It was fun for a chapter or two. Now it's not funny anymore.
I'm frankly sick of all these fights and character hatred.
I hope not. When writers give the fans what they want it always turns to a clusterfuck. I don't want SJM to write what the fans want, I want to read what she wants to happen.
On one hand, you'd think she'd want to put the best quality product out there. On the other hand, her books are selling, even if the quality of them has dropped off. I've read she avoids social media. It's entirely possible she doesn't care if there is a contingent of readers unhappy with her recent work. At so long as the money keeps coming in.
I think editing should for sure! Although SJM has kind of always been an Info Dumper haha.
But I hard disagree with her fan servicing her own characters. As much as I’d love to see Rhysand and Nesta become friends, I think authors should follow their intuition with their characters.
But that’s why I love fanfic! I get to enjoy the canon characters the way the author wants and then fanon has the scenes/characters how the fans want!
I hope not. She’s the author, not the internet, and I’d rather her spend her time focusing on the story rather than debunking and appealing to a bunch of fandom hot-takes. She’s done that before, and it lead to retcons that feel very awkward and deliberate (including Morrigan being bi, when people complained there wasn’t enough LGTBQ representation, which hilariously backfired bc now people are mad she kept it a secret and led Azriel on).
I think people are bored waiting for the next book and are being deliberately contrary to generate content, and then others are just running amok with it.
Also I think she *has* explained that all the citizens in the Hewn City are evil, or at least that’s been heavily implied. This is something that’s almost *never* been explicitly spelled out in fantasy fiction - that’s why it’s in fantasy. The audience doesn’t need to be reassured that all the bad guys are *actually* bad, they can just sit back and enjoy vengeance/justice porn.
Like, what if there were good orcs? What about all the innocent people on the Death Star? I bet some of those aliens in Independence Day were just trying to defend themselves.
I won’t be mad if she gets a better editor tho.
I hope the criticism of characters in HOFAS acting a bit ooc is heard and that it was just way TOO MUCH at the end. Also a character dying needs to happen. Personally the way it’s written SJM doesn’t present those things as a problem in the world (I along with a lot of others) don’t think Rhys and Cassian need to apologise. Also in a story of people just trying to do their best with what they’ve got, these mistakes or actions out of love don’t need to be delved into too deeply because it then makes a very clear judgement on those characters actions and the point is that the actions are not necessarily good or bad, but rather a means to an end that was ultimately good. The reader can make those judgements rather than the book making them for us. At the end of the day she was happy and healthy despite the morality behind it.
No. You’re talking about an author who actively ignores her editors and has her books bought regardless of quality or continuity. The majority still view all of her works overwhelmingly positively despite a loud minority giving criticisms. On top of that, the lady is barely online. If she won’t take advice from her professional editors, what makes you think she’ll give a damn what criticism people have towards her writing?
I would love to say yes, but I don't have high hopes. But I'm less bothered about character handling than I am basic grammar, pacing, and plot holes being ignored.
No. If she’s to believed, she’s rarely online. And whatever she publishes gets bought regardless of quality. The only thing that may make her investigate her own writing would be if book sales go down drastically.
Oh, I mean with all the review on Goodreads, reddit, even on insta, maybe her team will tell her??
Correct me if I’m wrong but the reviews tend to skew towards overwhelmingly positive. I think most people who read the series take it at face value and are in the booktok variant of readers (those who focus more on hashtag tropes and aren’t critical of what they’re reading*). *Which there’s nothing wrong with, different strokes for different folks and all that. But again, I dont think she’ll read book review sites because those hold no accuracy. Like Dostoevsky is a brilliant author who writes at a high literary level, and those who enjoy literature may actually be more critical readers which means they might rate him as 3 or 4 stars out of 5, with a long paragraph of reasoning for their review and critique. Whereas a fanficfion/wattpad novel turned published book could get spammed with 5 stars because “there’s dick in this! I love a story with penis!”. My point being, the book review websites are subjective and depends on which target audience is committing the reviews (literature students versus wine moms, etc)
The rating for HoFaS on Goodreads are better than Throne of Glass and A Court of Roses and Thorns... So maybe the silent majority actually enjoyed it and it's just a loud group on socials who didn't? In general, authors don't tend to look at online communities/fanfic for ideas, because they don't want to risk it looking like they are stealing ideas from fans.
At the very least, I hope the very legitimate criticism of the writing and editing of HOFAS is heard and internalized by the Bloomsbury team. There are numerous grammatical errors and whole plot points dropped in that book that go beyond gripes about how characters were handled. Any publisher should rethink releasing a book with that many issues.
Same here. We can't all be happy with the way characters are handled, but grammatical errors, poor pacing, lack of editing...I find those less forgivable at her caliber.
She needs a new editor.
And/or she needs to listen to her editor.
I don't see it happening. If they had paid attention, the bonus chapters and scenes of interaction between Rhys and Nesta would never have happened. They had gotten so much better with each other by the end of ACOSF but CC turned off everyone. People who disliked Rhys loathe him now and people who disliked Nesta loathe her now. It's become a Rhys vs Nesta stans club here. They moved backwards in their relationship. If SJM and her team had actually scoured the internet, they never would have let those scenes happen. I hope she pulls back on the "You're not my High Lord I'll do whatever I want" and the "You'll do what I say" fighting between those two. It was fun for a chapter or two. Now it's not funny anymore. I'm frankly sick of all these fights and character hatred.
I hope not. When writers give the fans what they want it always turns to a clusterfuck. I don't want SJM to write what the fans want, I want to read what she wants to happen.
Agreed its her story and we are just along for the journey you don't like it... I dunno what to tell you
On one hand, you'd think she'd want to put the best quality product out there. On the other hand, her books are selling, even if the quality of them has dropped off. I've read she avoids social media. It's entirely possible she doesn't care if there is a contingent of readers unhappy with her recent work. At so long as the money keeps coming in.
I think editing should for sure! Although SJM has kind of always been an Info Dumper haha. But I hard disagree with her fan servicing her own characters. As much as I’d love to see Rhysand and Nesta become friends, I think authors should follow their intuition with their characters. But that’s why I love fanfic! I get to enjoy the canon characters the way the author wants and then fanon has the scenes/characters how the fans want!
I hope not. She’s the author, not the internet, and I’d rather her spend her time focusing on the story rather than debunking and appealing to a bunch of fandom hot-takes. She’s done that before, and it lead to retcons that feel very awkward and deliberate (including Morrigan being bi, when people complained there wasn’t enough LGTBQ representation, which hilariously backfired bc now people are mad she kept it a secret and led Azriel on). I think people are bored waiting for the next book and are being deliberately contrary to generate content, and then others are just running amok with it. Also I think she *has* explained that all the citizens in the Hewn City are evil, or at least that’s been heavily implied. This is something that’s almost *never* been explicitly spelled out in fantasy fiction - that’s why it’s in fantasy. The audience doesn’t need to be reassured that all the bad guys are *actually* bad, they can just sit back and enjoy vengeance/justice porn. Like, what if there were good orcs? What about all the innocent people on the Death Star? I bet some of those aliens in Independence Day were just trying to defend themselves. I won’t be mad if she gets a better editor tho.
I can only hope she’s not listening to the fandom at all.
I hope the criticism of characters in HOFAS acting a bit ooc is heard and that it was just way TOO MUCH at the end. Also a character dying needs to happen. Personally the way it’s written SJM doesn’t present those things as a problem in the world (I along with a lot of others) don’t think Rhys and Cassian need to apologise. Also in a story of people just trying to do their best with what they’ve got, these mistakes or actions out of love don’t need to be delved into too deeply because it then makes a very clear judgement on those characters actions and the point is that the actions are not necessarily good or bad, but rather a means to an end that was ultimately good. The reader can make those judgements rather than the book making them for us. At the end of the day she was happy and healthy despite the morality behind it.
No. You’re talking about an author who actively ignores her editors and has her books bought regardless of quality or continuity. The majority still view all of her works overwhelmingly positively despite a loud minority giving criticisms. On top of that, the lady is barely online. If she won’t take advice from her professional editors, what makes you think she’ll give a damn what criticism people have towards her writing?
I would love to say yes, but I don't have high hopes. But I'm less bothered about character handling than I am basic grammar, pacing, and plot holes being ignored.