People are really ignorant about how much bravery and creative effort it takes to put yourself out there by publishing your words online. I was really impressed by your happiness presentation. People who don't take those kinds of creative risks really have no place to judge, especially considering these things are highly subjective. What resonates with one person may not resonate as fully with another. But people love to rate things - movies, books, etc. It's just that - one person's opinion. Someone might give a movie a 9/10 rating and someone else gives it a 6/10. But these numbers mean nothing without a consideration of several factors - the difficulty of the subject, the author's own background, the challenges presented to the reader's/viewer's prejudices, and so on. For instance nobody who is a racist is going to give a good review to a movie about racism.


My grandfather (who I never met) apparently used to say "Comparisons are odious." I agree. He was trained as a visual artist although sadly gave up painting after being a soldier in WW1, apparently due to the horrors he witnessed.

Don't let the turkeys get you down. Even the most praised people in our society get that kind of crap. I've stopped giving most people (including family) the links to my published short stories because unless they normally read short fiction they really don't understand or appreciate it. But should someone's uninformed opinion bother me, once my story has been bought by a professional editor who got 1,000 other submissions that month?


Not at all. And that's how much credence you should give her. None at all.