The first rule of writing should be, never respond to a bad review. Recently, an author friend of mine received a bad review and was pretty upset about it. I gave my friend the same advice that I will give to you, don’t respond and most definitely don’t take it to heart and this is why.After all the writing and editing, you finally get up the courage to put your book out into the world. At first, sales are centered on your family and friends and their family and friends. It’s small potatoes, but eventually, your book will make its way to people who don’t know you and could care less if they hurt your feelings. This is when the sh** gets real.

Being a blogger, (I recommend that every author has a blog if only to practice writing) I’ve grown a pretty thick skin. People say all kinds of nasty things to you, and some of my friends have even received death threats. Blogging helped me grow an armor so that most of the things people say about my writing just bounces off. That said, you should listen to criticism. Your friends and family are not going to tell you your work sucks (unless they’re my family) or that your plot has holes in it but avid readers will. If you start to see many people complaining about the same issue, maybe it’s time to take a look at the work. I’ve had to do it. As a writer, you should never stop honing your skills.

How do I respond to a bad review?

It depends on what the review is saying. Looking back at The Most Important Thing, I’ve gotten some great reviews from people I don’t even know and some really bad ones. Like this one:

When I saw this one, my heart sank, even though overall he gave me 4 stars.  The review taught me something, hire a real editor, not a friend of a friend who does it as a hobby. I also learned to double check things yourself and never be so naïve that people will do what they say. You can best believe that the sequel will be well edited by a professional editor. I figured that after reading that review, my book wouldn’t sell another copy, who would want to buy a book where someone said it wasn’t edited well? I was wrong, and I can admit when I’m wrong. After that review, I went on to sell another 1,100 copies. To date, I’ve had 1,200 eBook downloads for The Most Important Thing.

Then there was my Kirkus Review, after that review on Amazon, I had my doubts about it. I dreaded it would be more to the point. Like actual sleepless nights kind of dread but then May came and there it was sitting in my inbox. At first, I have, to be honest, I cried. I thought there goes my writing career. Then I read their reviews of some well-established authors that were crucified worse than I. Then I went back a month later and reread it and decided it wasn’t that bad after all and I was in Kirkus for crying out loud. KIRKUS! Perspective.

The bottom line is this; reading is subjective. In the end, the biggest thing that helped me was something that Stephen King said in On Writing which I’m paraphrasing, but the gist of it was that writers should write the stories that they want to read and if the masses like it too well then that’s just the icing on the cake.

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