I’ve come across a lot of interviews where authors say variations of, “You need to develop a tough skin to survive this business,” and “If you have to write, write, but if you can… quit.”
Fortunately, the e-publishing (and self-publishing) boom of late has made things a little easier, at least insofar as getting your work out into the marketplace (no more submitting to agents for years and years and handling rejection after rejection.) Unfortunately, as authors, we still have to deal with the unpleasant fact that not everyone will love our work. Inconceivable, I know!
The bad reviews can be tough, especially when you’ve just published your first book. Here are a few suggestions on handling bad reviews, from someone who is (trust me) as sensitive as anyone and has a hard time letting things go. (For the record, I think it’s less about developing a tough skin — callouses, ewww — and more about keeping things in perspective. At the worst, people are rejecting our ideas and our way of sharing them; they’re not rejecting us.)
How to deal with bad reviews
Realize that everybody gets bad reviews
Misery loves company, right? Some of your favorite books probably have oodles of bad reviews. The final book in the insanely popular Hunger Games Trilogy has almost 500 1-star reviews. John Locke, the indie author famous for his How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months! has a 3-star average on his popular Saving Rachel (a Donovan Creed Crime Novel) and almost as many 1-star reviews as 5-star reviews.
You can’t please everybody, but, as these successful authors prove, it’s not required. All you need to do is figure out how to please a small group of people (if you haven’t read Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans post yet, it’s a must).
Don’t let the bad comments outweigh the good ones
We can get 99 good reviews and 1 bad one, and it’s the bad one that sticks with us. For me, the ones that sting most are the ones that I know are right. It’s easy to dismiss the brief, are-you-sure-this-guy-even-read-the-book reviews, but the analytical ones that make a point-by-point list of the story’s flaws are tougher to let go.
I try to remember that just as you’ll never please everyone, you’ll never obtain perfection. With art, perfection is an elusive target anyway. All we can do is try to write good stories.
Instead of focusing on the occasional harsh reviews, take a look at the trend. Are four out of five people enjoying the story? Are the sales good? If you have a few books out in a series, are a lot of people buying the subsequent books after trying the first? (That’s a telling statistic and worth paying attention to.)
If you’re getting more positive reviews than bad, then you’re doing better than most!
Save your fan mail
The other day, I saw someone on the Kindleboards ask, “How do you know if you have fans?” My first (admittedly snarky) thought was that if you have to ask, you probably don’t. But that’s not necessarily true. A lot of people who read and enjoy books never leave a review or say anything to the author.
What you can do is make it easy for readers to contact you (i.e. put your email address or your blog/social media links at the end of the book), and encourage them to do so. When someone takes the time to write and say they enjoyed the book, that’s the all-time greatest compliment. When you start getting emails like that, put them in a special folder and save them (heck, print them out and stick them on the fridge). Then you can read through them again later when you’re feeling a down after being slammed somewhere.
Think of bad reviews as an opportunity to learn and grow
As I mentioned, some reviews are just odd (the ones where it seems like the person didn’t read the book), but the critical reviews that strike a chord can be a learning experience. Maybe your next protagonist should drive the action more, or perhaps you need to trim more words so that the story doesn’t get bogged down in the details. Maybe your witty banter isn’t as witty as you thought and needs to be toned. Or maybe the novel just wasn’t ready to be published.
Don’t do anything drastic based on one review, but if you get more bad reviews than good, and lots of different people are picking on the same things, then it may be a sign that it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
A lot of people talk about how great self-publishing is because there are no gatekeepers; true, but there’s also nobody to tell you when you’re ready.
I’m glad e-publishing hadn’t taken off yet when I first “got serious” about writing. Because of that, I submitted quite a few short stories to magazines and earned a lot of rejections while I continued to learn the craft. I reached the point where I was making some sales before I turned my focus to novels and eventually self-publishing. Ideas are subjective, and you never know if a particular story is going to resonate with people, but if you’ve gotten thumbs-ups from some of the gatekeepers (whether they be magazine editors, contest judges, or agents), you can be reasonably confident that your writing itself has reached a professional level.
But if you’ve never dealt with rejection before, these early reviews may be all you have to go on. If the book wasn’t ready to publish, the readers will let you know. And it’s okay if it wasn’t. In every industry, 99.9% of the successful people out there failed a lot before hitting it big. It’s how we learn.
Don’t look at the reviews
Some people can’t help themselves. They have Google Alerts set up to email them whenever their name or their book titles are mentioned on the web. They want to read everything that’s said about them. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you know you’re a sensitive sort (especially if you’re someone who will over-analyze things and find cause for disgruntlement even in a four-star review), it might be better to simply stay away from the review sites.
In the end, reviews are largely meant to help other readers anyway. Yes, it’s sometimes possible to learn from them, but there’s a point of diminishing returns (i.e. you’ll probably learn everything you need to know after reading the first ten or fifteen reviews). Time spent zipping around the web, skimming every blog post or review that mentions you is time that could be spent working on the next book.
What do you think? Do you have any tips of your own for dealing with bad reviews?
Improve the Story:
For one less-than-generous review I had a sense the reader had a bone to pick, and I didn’t let myself think about it. In other cases, it’s clear the reader liked the story but was distracted by certain elements of the story. Twice, I ended up contacting these reviewers, and they were kind enough to help me identify the areas that could be changed to improve the story. I made a few edits then uploaded the new edition. In one case, the reviewer increased her rating to five stars.
Indie authors have this advantage of flexibility, and I suggest we use it. Granted, the above scenario involved contained issues. I ended up cutting or modifying five to six pages. I am certainly glad I did because in the end it has to be not about ego but story.
I am very, very torn on this, and brought it up on Kris Rusch’s blog the other day.
It’s easy to say that you should *never* do this, because you end up just re-writing the same book over and over again because of reviewer comments, rather than working on new material. Kris and Dean have an extremely good point here, especially in view of Kris’s last post which talks again about how the best way to sell books is to write more books.
However, I have a feeling that a big part of the reason people like Kris say “never” is because up until now it has never been possible. It is simply too expensive to bother with for dead tree books, and because of publishing schedules, by the time the book is on the shelves, you’ve been working on different projects for two years.
I do think that you should *only* do this if the book isn’t selling, and you think it’s cost effective to try to fix problems, rather than just writing the book off. I’m thinking the kind of effort it takes to replace a cover or re-write a blurb, not major rewrites. And you should *never* (there, I’m going to use it, this time) change story elements to please your readers. Tighten up the prose, fix overused passive voice, clean up grammar/punctuation mistakes, kill the scene that adds nothing that you decided to leave in because it’s cute but you now realize is dragging things down. As you say, it’s flexibility; it’s an extra tool we indies get to clip to our Batman utility belts that the dead tree publishers do not have and cannot match.
But don’t ever change elements of the story itself just because some anonymous internet bully on Amazon gave you a 1 star.
Making changes to a story is always an option and one worth considering, but also dangerous. In many cases it is far better to take the criticism and move forward rather than going backwards and working on something again. It really depends on if the criticism is correct and how easy it is to fix. Too many authors, and artists in general, spend all their time trying to make one thing perfect rather than creating something new.
Chocolate…but I do like the idea of trying not to read them. After being in large critique workshops, I know I don’t handle trolls and haters well, so it’s just better to avoid them. Although, if the negative reviewer is right, and others agree, you’re correct–it’s time to rethink your work.
I’ve been blessed with only positive reviews so far, but I dread the day that someone abhors my work. I’m far more sensitive to criticism than most, and so writing — or at least letting others read my work! — is a dangerous profession for me. These are good tips. I’ve already taken the “Don’t look at the reviews” tip to heart. It’s one of the many reasons I haven’t begged people to review my stuff. I’m too scared of the truth! 🙂
“Don’t do anything drastic based on one review, but if you get more bad reviews than good, and lots of different people are picking on the same things, then it may be a sign that it’s time to go back to the drawing board.”
I think this is the heart of it. One bad review is subjective. Heck, even several can be. However, several people saying it’s bad for the same reason should be paid attention to.
Look for the context. On Goodreads especially, you can see what other books the reviewer has rated. Chances are (or at least so it has always been for me so far), the books that they love are nothing like yours and not something you love. One of my one-stars is from someone who loves Johanna Lindsey’s books. I don’t know how she stumbled across mine — I hope it was a free day, for her sake — but it makes total sense to me that someone who hearts such traditional romance, with its alpha heroes and fluttery heroines, is going to feel puzzled and annoyed by my video-game playing hero and physicist heroine. So do I mind that she hated it? Not at all — different people like different things, that’s the nature of taste.
I’ve got another where the reviewer exaggerates, misquotes, and clearly didn’t really read the book (because she asks questions that are answered), but wrote a lengthy review. In that case, she has apparently only reviewed one other book, also with one-star. I look at that and think, really? Out of all the books in the world, this much time and venom for only two? Or is it more likely that it’s a sock-puppet account for negative reviews from a jealous or frustrated writer unwilling to risk putting her own name on her words? Context there (for me, at least) is that I don’t need to feel bad about someone else’s negative karma, that’s her problem. Of course, it really annoys me that people mark that review helpful — I want to tell them how wrong she is, but have to ignore it, and that’s much harder than ignoring the actual review!
A physicist heroine? I’m going to have to check that out! And those are also good tips to add to Lindsay’s. I look forward to putting them to good use someday. 😉
My big tip for dealing with reviews (both good and bad) is not to reply to them. Don’t say thank you to the goods ones, don’t argue with the bad ones. It can be difficult to do this, but one looks more professional when leaving them alone. A thank you by email to sites that post reviews, however, is different.
That’s the only tip I can think of, and I apologize if it was mentioned already. Somehow I missed it if it was. Everything else you covered was spot on and usual. Nicely done.
Hi William,
That’s good advice. That’s pretty much what I do. I’m at the point where I don’t think the reviews are worth anything. I’ve got one review that said “Your sentences are too short. I don’t like short sentences so I only read ten percent of your novel”. Even the good reviews are just the opinions of one person. There’s a vast majority of people who don’t say anything. Conversely, they’re the ones we have to listen to!
Darrell.
I think the first step is to ask whether the review is subjective or objective. Then try to find an objective cause behind the subjective complaints (ex. a misleading book cover that creates dissatisfaction with the story).
Anything objective can probably be fixed. Anything else is opinion, which only matters when it’s widespread.
But it’s always important to love your own work, even with its flaws. Write from your love of writing.
As a blogger, I find it difficult to write bad reviews. I don’t stray away from them. But it’s hard to find a good mix of good and bad things to say about a book that aren’t going to just throw the author down. I know that all of the authors I’ve talked to have told me that what they want is an honest review, even if I think it’s the worst thing I’ve ever read but I have to wonder if I honestly did write a bad review for those same people how they would handle the critism.
I fully realize that authors put their blood, sweat and tears into these works of art and I want to do all I can to give my honest opinion that hopefully in the future they’ll continue to do what they do that’s awesome and improve on the things that could be worked on. I know I would want the same for me if I were them.
But it’s so much easier giving a 3-5 star review than a 1. Although to be honest, I’ve only come across one 1 star review and… there were some other shady things going on with that author anyway.
I guess I just wish that someone would write a “Tips for Writing Reviews Where the Books Weren’t Totally Awesome” blog post. Or something like that. Haha.
I’m not much of a book reviewer, but I suppose it could be illuminating and fair to say “I got about 30% (or whatever %) of the way in and decided it wasn’t my cup of tea, mainly because _____” and maybe say the main issue.
Even the more sensitive authors should be able to take one point of criticism. 🙂 But it is your blog!
I’ve done a lot of freebie promo days through Amazon, so my books have gone out to a huge number of people and gotten a wide variety of feedback. It really reminded me of how very, very different people all can be. I’ve been lucky to find some readers who’ve connected with my work, and a few kind comments here and there really do help ease the pain of the tough reviews. 🙂
I’m sure it’s tough being a book blogger. Authors don’t really want anything other than glowing reviews (and free promotion) when they send you their books, but your readers want honest reactions.
If I were going to do it, I’d probably pick books I wanted to read anyway rather than accepting submissions. Then, at least, you avoid a situation where authors have given you a free copy with Expectations attached. Another option would be to have a policy that you accept submissions but only review the books that really grab you.
Good luck!
I agree! As a person who is sensitive to criticism herself, I find it so hard to say negative things about a book, even if I hated it. Another thing that made me be very cautious of what I write in reviews was that on one of my very first book reviews, the author herself posted a comment – that really surprised me and brought home the fact that this isn’t a book floating along out there, it has a real life, flesh and blood person who poured themself into it.
The three things I try to do when reviewing a book I don’t like are to be constructive (instead of “I didn’t like this” I say “I didn’t like this because of x, and would have enjoyed it more if they did y” and to remember that my opinion (though, of course, perfect in every way) is MINE. So I might say something like “I didn’t like x and y about the book, but that could be because of z about myself.” Things that bother me, may not bother you. The last thing is that I always try to say something positive.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said “reviews are largely meant to help other readers”. They’re not meant for the author.
I’d also second William’s advice about not responding to it at all. I used to think that saying “Thank You” to a bad review was a way of being bigger about it but it’s not.
Whatever you do, don’t respond to it. No matter how witty or cutting your response, it will always come off as poor sportsmanship.
“If you get more bad reviews than good, and lots of different people are picking on the same things, then it may be a sign that it’s time to go back to the drawing board.”
Maybe, maybe not. It really depends on what you’ve decided to write, and whether you’ve made the unpopular decisions consciously. For one thing, I have noticed that many reviewers read the previous reviews first, and they treat the ratings like a forum for agreeing or disagreeing with others’ opinions instead of offering their own independently. They can give the appearance of group consensus by using the same vocabulary and citing a few others with similar viewpoints, e.g. “Like the other reviewers have said, the hero was really lame,” when only a handful wrote something similar.
There are also some stories that are just doomed to be disliked. Sometimes that’s the entire reason they were written in the first place–to highlight issues people don’t like to think about. Imagine if Dickens had the benefit of 500 one-star reviews telling him Oliver Twist was too damn depressing, so he decided to only write upbeat rom-coms after that. Or if Tolstoy went back the drawing board on Anna Karenina because people wanted a happy ending.
If the purpose of your book was to entertain and your readers were aggravated, then you’ve failed and should consider modifying your approach. But if your purpose was to make people uncomfortable, you just have to weather the backlash.
This is exactly how I feel. I can see making changes if the bad reviews are pointing things out like formatting and typos, but otherwise, let it be. I read a blog post a couple months back where the author talked about how she changed the ending of her novel because a couple readers didn’t like it. I think one of the biggest parts of being a writer is being able to let your story stand on its own “legs.”
Dickens altered the end of Great Expectations because a friend of his told him he could not have Estella marry some random doctor who’d barely been mentioned before. So he was open to suggestions from a beta reader.
I’d just be careful of having an “Oh, they just don’t get it” attitude. There are stories out there that show humanity at its worst, but they’re well written and people give them five stars. If anything, those tend to be darlings in the eyes of the critics, and they become classics that we have to read in school. 😉
I got a really negative review right after I released Trang, and it was really valuable to me. For starters, there were some formatting issues and things that stemmed from my not being familiar with e-books. (You need a Table of Contents for a NOVEL?) So it was good to take care of those.
But the main thing was that this was someone who was never, ever going to like the book, and they picked it up because the cover and description were misleading. So I massively tweaked those, and that was very helpful–now this kind of reader would just never pick up the book; instead, people who like it do.
I agree with T.K. Marnell about reviewers responding to other reviews, though. I’ve definitely noticed what in economics is called “anchoring”–people basically see how many stars there are already and leave about that many. The reviewer who hated the book left 1 & 2 star reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, and those were the very first reviews of the book. If you look at those places, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the average number of stars is fully one star lower than at sites like LibraryThing and Smashwords.
Wonderful points Lindsay . . . I was THIS close to taking my manuscript, whipping up a bonfire, and throwing it in whilst howling at the moon in order to appease the gods . . . just kidding! I’ve worked far too long and hard on my stories to do such a horrid thing ;). Focusing on the positive stuff is definitely something to do and, um, *trying* to stay away from everything else works as well (if you can manage it :)).
I hear absinthe dulls the pain too. 😉
Thanks for adding your suggestions, everyone!
I totally suck at having thick skin! Most days I don’t read anything bad, but some days, I accidentally peek, and then I just can’t stop!
The only thing that helps, really, is reading articles like this, over and over again. Nodding while I read. Yup, you can’t please everyone. Yup, it seems like you’re being picked on sometimes, but it could be worse. It’s just words, not sticks and stones. Yup, it sucks that the one bad one drowns out the ten good ones. Yup, all true. And then you feel about 10% better. An hour later, 30% better. Eat a cookie. All good to go again.
Thanks for an insightful post. Good to keep these things in mind.
I haven’t gotten a negative review on my novella yet, but I know it’s a matter of time. When it happens, I hope I just have the ability to not freak out, but I’m pretty sensitive about it; I’m fairly new at all of this self-publishing stuff and rejection stings. Still, like someone said in an earlier comment, it’s nice to have flexibility. If a reviewer has a point, I can always go change it if it really, really bugs me or is that heinous of an issue, you know? That’s a nice perk.
This is great advice. I’ll add one more thing: Wait. That yucky discouraged feeling will pass in a day or two. In the long run, a few bad reviews really don’t matter much at all.
I’ve only received a couple of bad reviews so far. One of them felt a little more spiteful than anything else, and the other actually helped me a lot after I stepped back and reapproached it with a good night of sleep. I like the idea of ignoring all reviews, but I’m way too curious and know I’d never be able to stay away completely.
Some authors like to take readers’ reviews as feedback and use it to update their stories. I read a post a couple of months ago by an author touting the practice, but it just screamed “bad idea” to me. I think reviews are just opinions, and if you bend to each and every reader’s opinion, you’re going to end up with a completely different product.
I do, however, think it’s a good idea to take the key elements of reviews and use them to become a better writer in your next work. For example, if you have a good chunk of reviews that say the story dragged in the first one-hundred pages, make sure your next novel starts off with a faster pace that carries it through to the end. Bad book reviews don’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.
Great post, Lindsay! Your wisdom is certainly a boon to us newbie writers. I haven’t received a bad review yet, but am bracing myself because I know it will come. I almost WANT it to come, just so I can get past it. I’ve been wondering how one can even get fan mail, as indie-published authors don’t have a publishing house for fans to send mail too. Never even thought of adding an email address to my published works. But who doesn’t want to get some positive mail now and then? Thanks again for your terrific insight!
I kind of like the negative reviews… so far they have only helped me with follow-up books. Also, I’m pretty sure I would tear myself a new one if I could take off these rose colored glasses when reading my stuff…
Personally, I end up with more rage over those positive reviews where the reviewer refers to me by name… because I know that, as a reader, I would automatically discount that review as a sock puppet or a shill and ignore it. I realize that they mean well, and I get that they’re just trying to encourage me, but it still feels like getting kicked by a puppy.
I’ve been begging relatives not to review my book for that reason.
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It bears repeating (again) that you don’t have to make everyone happy, and can’t. Emphasizing what makes your stories great pleases your fans; fixing problems widens your fan base. I think for the beginning of a career it’s more valuable to have rabid fans (complete with mouth foam).
Hi Lindsay,
I think there are a lot of haters living in their basements. Their elderly mothers cook their meals and they haven’t seen the light of day for months. Actually, they still think it’s 2006. They have strange fungi living under their nails and an odd cheesy smell emanates from folds in their skin.
After they’ve eaten their left over cabbage soup for breakfast, they cruise the net looking for places to express their bitterness.
Ah, they say, here’s an up and coming writer! Someone who has dared to work hard and walk the streets during daylight hours! I’d better knock them done a few notches with some caustic comments!
Yes, indeed, there are some sad puppies out there.
Well done on your site btw. Love it.
Darrell.
Bad reviews are par for the course for any writer. You can’t please everybody all the time – one person’s gem is another’s rubbish, and vice versa. One of the problems in New Zealand (and, I am sure elsewhere), though, is the delberately malicious review – endemic in places where the territory is tiny, where competing authors get to review each other’s books, and where particular subjects are, it seems, viewed as exclusive personal property. You can imagine what follows, and you’d be right. Sigh.
On the plus side, for every one of those, there’s also usually a fair and good review – and more importantly, a whole crowd of happy readers. That’s true for any author, irrespective of whether they’ve fielded a few bad reviews or not.
If its constructive, then maybe pay attention. Some folks are just not our audience. So we shouldn’t try to please them.
I usually whine at my husband. lol For days … OK, maybe longer.
Frequently, I believe, it stems from the reader’s opinion/ state of mind, and while they do not like something, another may enjoy it. For instance, in Emperors Edge, I got 20% or so through the book and couldn’t stand the idea of reading another page. As multiple twists had developed, I didn’t think the rest of book would hold anything of interest. When I returned to it in a less agitated mind state (many months and negative comments on it, mind you) I realized I had been hasty in the assumption.
I’ve been pretty lucky with my reviews so far. The ‘worst’ review I got for my novel was a 3-star one on goodreads. But The reader left such a detailed and explicit response about the pros and cons, that I asked him to be a beta reader for the next novel. I figure if he spent enough time and attention to target the points that could be improved, I’ll let him tear apart the next novel – before it gets published.
I sometimes wonder if the flip side to the ease of self-publishing is that it makes us soft. We don’t have to suffer the rejections up front that traditionally published authors do – from agents, editors, publishers and the likes. We get to decide ourselves when our books are ready for release. We then send to kindly book bloggers who are mindful of being perceived as being nice so tend to mark up a review before marking down. The likelihood of our books being savaged by professional book critics at the major newspapers are slim to virtually non-existent. Then we get upset when someone finally works up the courage to be honest and point out flaws.
I have started reviewing books on my website and have been sent dozens of books to read. Some are brilliant and some are just awful.
I’ve been wracking my brains trying to write a review for books that I had to force myself to finish. Had I purchased the book from a store, it would be easier to be honest. But there are expectations attached when authors send out their books.
Nobody wants to hear negative reviews but I’d take one negative review with constructive criticism on how to perfect the art of writing than 100 fluff reviews scratching my ego but saying virtually nothing of any consequence. The nasty reviews written by trolls should be ignored but, as indie authors, we can certainly learn something from our readers. At the end of the day, they almost take the place of the agent and publishers of old. If people consistently dislike the same thing in your book, maybe you need to work on that area.
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Great topic and great comments!
I write odd fantasy that can’t be readily compared to NYT bestsellers, so I knew starting out that I’d get some bad reviews. There have been more mixed-bag 3-star reviews than outright slams, thankfully. But I think the most important thing for an indie author to remember is that reviewers aren’t always objective. Not everyone knows how to separate their gut reactions from the objective traits of the writing — which is great when they say, “This book is absolutely wonderful”, but not so great when they read 2 chapters and start angrily calling the author names. Unfortunately, some readers assume that if they don’t like a book’s style, it means the author has lazily slopped out a pile of garbage. Reading a review like that is a very different experience from reading an accurate critique.
When I get any review, good or bad, I just try to take the high road and be as objective as I can. Analyze why the reviewer said what they did; determine whether their commentary/motivation can be used to improve my method; accept that I can’t win ’em all and move on. Remember that there are people in this world who dislike chocolate and kittens, and that’s okay. And if the review indicates that the reader enjoyed my book at all, I make sure to value that highly. Sometimes discussing a work’s flaws is part of the enjoyment.
Just found your article. It is interesting to read other authors perspective on reviews. I am relatively new to the world of self publishing and only published my fourth book last week.
My first two books until just the other day had 5 star review, and have now been whittled down to 4 and 3 stars. My first venture into novel writing has recieved mixed reviews.
But the one thing I find scary is the review that defies logic, one that doesn’t make sense and it is as if the reviewer doesn’t care what they write.
My first novel, when it got its first review it was just 2 stars and the reviewer expressed that maybe she didn’t give the book a fair chance. Basically she had only read the first chapter and wrote a review on that. The next reviews for the book were a mix of 5 and 2 stars. Very conflicting.
One book reviewer took three of my books, and said things that really vexed me, because they didn’t help me and seemed more a dig at my writing. There was no constructive criticism. Giving my books 3, 2, and 1 star reviews. She had initially favourited me as an author at one point and then proceeded to dismiss my writing and eventually removed me from her favourites list. I thought it all to be strange. It was as though she couldn’t care less about what she said.
For me, I do not mind poor reviews as long as the reviewer can provide some indication of where or what might be wrong with the book. Being constructive is better then destructive.
I am not good with handling bad reviews. I have a tendancy to feel like throwing the towel in but I have plans to write more that will see me into 2015.
Thanks again Lindsay for this fantastic article, which I am sure I will be revisiting for some much needed courage if a bad review occurs again.
I’m not that far ahead myself, but I was looking for advice to share with a friend of mine who’s received negatives reviews, so thank you, I’ll pass on your advice. Best of luck.
I recently received my lowest rating/review ever with some very deep criticism. I say deep to mean “thorough”. I winced at nearly every other sentence–not because I didn’t disagree with the reviewer, but because I immediately felt, “They’re right!” Whether or not they’re actually right remains to be seen, but I’m a classic “internalizer” and “over-analyzer”. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t deflate me and that it didn’t take the wind out of my sails. It absolutely did. It’s hard working day and night on your passion and only seeing gradual growth and then to receive such harsh criticism. Still, you’re absolutely right, Lindsay, in that we need to remember the GOOD reviews, too. We need to remember the nice things and the critical reviews tha point out the GOOD things we did in a book. This is an excellent article! Thank you for your tips and encouragement as always!
It’s tough, LM! I’ve come across a lot of authors who don’t read reviews. Here’s hoping the next one is more favorable. 🙂
Thanks so much for the encouragement! (and all your wonderful posts) 😉
I had an experience like this. I released the first version of my book Sora’s Quest and received a mixture of 2-5 star reviews. There were far more 3-star reviews than I wanted, and they all complained about the same things. So I went back to the drawing board and spent a year rewriting the book.
Publishing is my dream and I’ve been working on the story since high school. Being an older manuscript, there were definitely some issues I had overlooked, or that I had taken for granted. “I know I’m a strong writer,” I thought. “If Twilight is famous, then what’s a few plot holes?” Basically, I was taking a full book (about 200,000 words) and splitting it into a trilogy, so there were “series techniques” that the book was lacking. For instance, the plot of the first book did not follow a natural story arch. It ended at a weird place and there wasn’t enough motivation in the beginning.
After enough people pointed this out, I rewrote it. The new version (after 2 months) has gotten all 4-5 star reviews and I am very relieved that my work paid off.
However, those negative reviews from the old version still haunt Amazon and Goodreads. I hate reading them. I want to remove them or delete them, but I can’t. I just have to ignore them and hope that with time, the number of positive reviews will widely outweigh the negative ones that I started out with. I just have to keep moving forward. I know I’m a good writer. I graduated top of my class from a 4-year Creative Writing program. I’ve won awards and been published in magazines, presented at conferences, etc. I just need to stay focused on my success and accept the fact that I had published my old manuscripts too soon.
One of the biggest things that helps me with a negative review is pulling up a popular book, like Harry Potter or anything by Neil Gaiman/Robin Hobb, and reading a few 1-star reviews. It reminds me that even the “greats” have their haters. Like you said, Lindsay, everyone is entitled to their opinion and it’s just something we have to tolerate and overcome. From this moment on, I’m going to save my fan mail and just keep writing, and accept those negative reviews as a product of being seen. At least I have a career. At least I can do what I love. And at least I have the skills now to rectify the problem!
Too true, at least as far as _fiction_ writing goes.
When writing fact more is at stake. A bad review reflects on the author’s expertise, and not just the book, which they may rely on for other work.
So what does an author do when confronted with not just an unfavourable review of their non-fiction book, but an unfavourable review that contains erroneous statements (falsehoods) about ones work.
I recently had such a review of one of my books. It was in a professional related publication too and so my core market in my home country saw it. Alas, after thinking about it for a while, I decided all I could do is point out the reviewers falsehoods, and this is what I did…
http://www.science-com.concatenation.org/reviews/antoinette_mannion_reading.html