You’ve spent hours upon hours writing, revising, and designing your book. Now that it’s finally printed and on the market you couldn’t be happier. Then much to your dismay, someone leaves a negative and hurtful review. While your first thought is to respond back and tell them how wrong they are, it is probably not the best thing to do. Just look at what happened to author Jacqueline Howett when she responded emotionally to a bad review.
To help you handle these negative reviews we have compiled a list of the 5 things you should do when handling bad reviews.
#1 Drink Hot Chocolate
Don’t do anything when you first read a bad review. In the moment you will be upset, frustrated or angry. The trick is to give yourself time to calm down and relax. Responding with emotion is rarely helpful and often will do more damage than good. So sit back, grab a cup of hot cocoa and write something new. This will help you feel better and think more rationally about the review.
#2 Look Over Your Good Reviews
Yes you may get some bad reviews, but the important thing is to remember the good reviews. Even if you get one bad review in every 20 good reviews, that still means that 95 percent of people like your book and only 5 percent don’t. It’s important to remember that you can’t please every reader. They all have their own tastes when it comes to literature. Look and cherish the good reviews that you have, instead of dwelling on the bad.
#3 Appreciate the Publicity
While we hope to never recieve a bad review, we can still be happy with the publicity. The fact that someone took time to review your book is a good thing. J.R. Tolkien’s books are some of the most reviewed and read books. However, not all of those reviews are good. In fact, on Goodreads, his series, Lord of the Rings, has over 4500 negative reviews. But that’s okay! People are still going to read his books, and the awareness will increase. The same thing will happen for you too!
#4 Don’t React
This one is very important! We have seen so many authors react negatively to the reviewers and as such receive even more bad reviews. Just take a look at these 14 authors who chose to react to the comments made about their books. If you must respond to a review, remember to always be polite and professional. Perhaps say something along the lines of, “Thank you for taking to time to read it” or “I’m sorry that you did not enjoy it.” You can also ask for advice in how you could make the reading experience better for that person. Under no circumstance should you get defensive. Instead think of it as a way to learn how to better write for a wider audience.
#5 Remember Why You Write
Sam Taylor-Wood once wrote, “I wanted to become an artist because it meant endless possibilities. Art was a way of reinventing myself.” Why do you write? You write because you have the ability to craft amazing pieces of art. Don’t let a couple of bad reviews make you forget why you fell in love with writing in the first place. Sometimes the process will be hard, but remember, you can do hard things. Suffering through bad reviews is part of being a writer. Look at some of your favorite authors and see the kinds of bad reviews that they get. Then once you are feeling better, get out there and write.
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