Criticism is part and parcel of life as an author and is a really valuable source of input that can help you improve your writing. That doesn’t, though, mean it is always a pleasant experience and in this piece, I am going to talk about an author’s options when it comes to negative reviews and how I’ve dealt with some of the unhappy feedback I’ve had in reviews.

Any author probably has two choices when it comes to deciding how to respond to a poor review. You can ignore it, pretend it never appeared on the screen in front of your unbelieving eyes, or you can learn to live with such things and, should you feel so inclined, even go a step further and look for the positives to be taken from the experience.

One thing that an author would be wise to avoid doing is hitting back at the source of the poor review. There is likely to be but one outcome to such an exchange and it won’t be a happy one.

When you are mulling over how you feel about a poor review, then bear in mind that few people are going to go to the trouble of writing it in the first place just for the heck of it. Also, take in to account that old adage about not being able to please all of the people all of the time.

Any author will know that just getting your hands on a review is a serious challenge, so my view is that any feedback, whether it is good, bad or indifferent is most welcome.

In my David Good books, I include a fair amount of slang knowing full well this might cause a bit of an issue for some readers. I have had criticism that the slang is too impenetrable and for me, this sort of thing is really welcome because its helps me to gauge where to draw the line and ensure I don’t make life too hard for my readers.

Sometimes we will find ourselves on the receiving end of praise and other times the feedback will be poor. If it is, then consider whether or not there is anything there for you to take away and help make you a better writer. If there isn’t, then do not let it get you down, just move on, tapping away at that keyboard doing the thing you’ve always longed to do, writing.

So, what do you think about this article? How about leaving me a little honest feedback?


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Crime fiction with attitude and humour from 1980s London.