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eddie_ga_7a

Any Feedback From Readers?

eddie_ga_7a
20 years ago

Funny how we write and write but don't get much feedback, at least I don't and what little I do get I cherish. I presume the readers don't think it is important or they think we are unapproachable. Anyone care to contribute their views on this phenomenon?

Comments (5)

  • John_D
    20 years ago

    I always get lots of feedback from readers -- usually in the form of postcards or letters; sometimes as phone calls or emails. I really appreciate it, because many readers give me tips about something I missed or did not know about (you can't know everything). A few are angry with me for neglecting a place they or a friend own or for not talking about a special fruit or vegetable they raise.
    Back when Asian pears were just coming onto the market, I wrote a column panning them, because I did not care for their taste or texture. A grower educated me by sending me a box of perfect, tree-ripened ones, telling me that Asian pears, unlike European pear varieties are not at their best ripened off the tree. I agreed, wrote a rebuttal, and have praised them ever since. I am also growing three different varieties, to make sure I have a reliable supply, in season.
    Other readers have directed me to regional gardens I might have missed, have told me about new plants/varieties, and have argued with me about planting, composting, maintenance, et al.
    Reader loyalty was the reason my last web site was so popular (and why I have to get a new one going as soon as I have some time.)

  • lazy_gardens
    20 years ago

    I get occasional feedback from various websites I write for or manage, usually positive.

    I'm used to writing into a void: of all the technical books I've written, I have ONE comment and one mention in a review ... if I were an attention junkie I'd have died from lack of it.

  • trudi_d
    20 years ago

    I get letters and presents frequently, some of the letters are simply heartbreaking and I hold them in a memento box in my nightstand.

  • John_D
    20 years ago

    I forgot to mention reviews. I've got quite a collection of positive ones (plus a few not-so-positive ones -- which actually helped sales!)

  • bostongardens
    20 years ago

    On our dining room table right now there is a beautiful holiday-greens arrangement that was sent to me the day before Christmas by a reader. It was delivered to the office of one of the newspapers for which I write, and it's a miracle I got it at all, since I do all my writing from home. (They usually open all my mail and copies of review books mysteriously "disappear" or "never arrive." However, I don't like to give out my home address to strangers, and newspaper business cards list office only.... Another subject for another time?)

    Honestly, though, I usually only hear when they are angry or disagree with me. The funniest was the note from a woman who was furious that I had published a photo of her husband standing next to another woman (in a group shot) at a fundraiser. Wifey was also at the event and she wrote that I should have gone looking for her before I took photo of hubby. (I had asked the group for permission to publish.)

    The nastiest correspondence arrived last year from a "gentleman" after I admitted in a column that the look of forsythias in bloom in early spring (fountains of bloom vs. pruned lollypops, of course) made me happy and I loved them. Wow! He was not a happy camper. (Of course, I contacted a few colleagues for their opinions on the subject for my Spring 2004 version of the same column.)

    Really, though, I don't mind it when someone disagrees with or corrects me if its done in a constructive way. At least I know someone "out there" is reading.

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