It always disappoints me when I hear stories like this… and believe it or not, you’re not the only one who has to deal with things like that. When I was younger, any time I worked on an art project, I’d literally have people come over to my desk in class, take one look at it, and say “You traced that.”

When I finally got sick of it, I confronted one of those people and said, “What makes you think that I traced it?”

“Because you couldn’t possibly be that good.”

Note that other people in the class did similar work, but never got such accusations. So it was pretty obvious what they meant.

I also get many people telling me similar stories from people they’ve had to deal with in the comments section of my blogs.

So here’s the deal. I often post about how you shouldn’t let your friends and family be your editors because… well often they won’t be the most critical (unbiased) eye out there. However, that doesn’t absolve them of their responsibility to be encouraging and supportive.

I usually don’t take such a hard stand on my responses, and some of my readers will no doubt disagree with me… but anyone saying things like that is no friend to you. Anyone who automatically assumes you can’t do something, just because, based on their own narrow view of you, you’re incapable of accomplishing anything on a grand scale that they would be unable to, is someone who needs to be put in their place.

Let’s be fair, they may not even know they’re doing it. In some cases, it could be a well-meaning family member that doesn’t want to see you get hurt and thus attempts to coddle you. Even in that scenario, the person obviously doesn’t have a very high opinion of your talents or your ability to manage your own affairs should you fail.

These are what I call venomous relationships. They’re of no benefit to you. The first thing I would do is confront those friends who are saying such awful things. Stand up for yourself and challenge them. Ask them how they could possibly say something like that without even reading your work. Tell them how their lack of confidence in you is hurting you. Be prepared though, because in all likelihood, these people will either dismiss your feelings or try to make you look like the bad guy for overreacting when they’re only trying to help you.

At this point, it would probably be best to cut ties with these people. With family members, it’s not that easy, I know. So in those cases, you’re likely best to just take them as seriously as they take you. Dismiss their opinion as easily as they dismiss yours. Who knows, it might make them see the error of their ways (unlikely, but you never know).

Jeanine, I want you to look through my blog. Here, you’ll find everything you’ll need to know about editing and publishing your work. Find objective people to look it over, do some editing work, be ready to make serious changes where needed, and then decide how you want to go about publishing it.

If you wind up having problems finding resources to publish your work… reach out to me again. I’ll edit it for you and give you my honest opinion.

Readers, I know a lot of you have had this issue (your comments have indicated as such). How do you deal with this kind of criticism? Let me know below!

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim