Into the Fire

Some opinions are based on facts. Truth is at the base of the formation of said opinions. However, just as many opinions are based on lies, feelings, notions, or deductions which came from incorrect data or misinformation or more opinions.

Rights to express opinions vary from country to country, workplace to workplace, school to school, church to church. In this country we used to have free speech. Now if you want to discuss Christianity in federally run schools, you can face persecution for your choice of words. If you speak out for pro-life issues, against homosexual marriage, or express your doubts and criticisms of the absurd fiscal policies of Obama, you are termed a far-right, homophobic, bigot, racist conservative.

The reactions to the contrasts of opinions and rights vary from mild to extreme. Due to the possible reactions, there is often a curtailing of reasonable discussion before there is an outbreak of radical denouncements.

These are typical scenarios in the everyday life of political thoughts and expressions.

Let’s switch over to the writing world. The publishing business exists on opinions. Everybody has one, of course. And it’s not so much what your particular opinion might be concerning a book but rather how you express that opinion which ultimately matters in the world of Christian publishing.

Rights to express opinions are a given in the publishing realm. If you choose to review novels, for example, you are encouraged to give your honest opinion of the book. If you hate a book, there’s really no sense in being cruel in your truthful assessments. There’s no sense in not telling the truth either. I think it’s very important to state whether or not you’re the target audience for a particular novel so another reader can gauge the validity of your opinion.

Reactions to reviews will differ according to whether or not the target audience objects to a “poor” review. However, it does seem like there is a fairly even split in the reactions of those reviews which cite “differences” with a book. Some insist that something positive can be said for all books, and that, in fact, something positive should be the focus of the commentary. Others in the industry think it’s important to give valid criticisms where they’re due, but most would regard sarcasm or demeaning content as unnecessary and inflammatory.

Publishers invest a lot of marketing dollars to send out ARCs to readers for the express purpose of getting reviews posted on the web. This technically accomplishes a twofold purpose. Number one, blog and selling site reviews (Amazon or CBD) make the content and opinion of the novel apparent to a fair-sized (but inexact) audience, and two, it serves as the reliable “word of mouth” on steroids. Pumps it up and makes it work twice as fast. Even a negative review causes a reaction. Occasionally a few curious readers will even seek out a book that obtained a bad review just to verify if they agree or not.

The world of writing fiction is not composed of fact-finding and reporting when you’re talking directly about stories. It leaves you to voice your opinions with equal rights to any reader of any novel, providing you have both read it from cover to cover. Reactions to the novels and to the reviews of those novels will certainly vary, and they’re just as unpredictable as the people who read the books.

Father, the only thing that matters to me is doing as you ask. I have failed my assignments too many times, and my heart wants to know when to speak and when to be silent. Give me the words you want me to write and say, and help me to be quiet when that is your desire for me. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.