Kathleen Kerridge's Blog - Posts Tagged "bad-reviews"
On Criticism & Growing That Thick Skin You Always Meant To Have.
So, you want to write a book? You have the implements to do so. You have the plot figured out. You have your cast lined up, ready to take to the stage in your head and, thankfully, you have your settings and scenes planned down to the length of the blades of grass in the gardens.
Yet you will never write the story in your head. Or if you do, you will never publish it.
Why?
Because there are some mean critics out there. Seriously, these dudes scent blood and swarm to eat you alive. Like sharks, but with sharper teeth and less concern for your feelings.
Critics don't care about hurting you. Remember that. They will read your book and they will give their opinion. This is important for you to understand, right at the very moment you write your first word. There is no quantitative way to say whether your book is good or not. One man's beautiful flowing prose is another man's toilet paper. Get used to it. Some people will love what you write, others will detest it.
But there is NO bad review, believe it or not. Even if you get a one star review that drags your book backwards through the dirt, tearing it apart and tossing it onto a slag heap. You have made someone feel strongly about what you do. About what you have written.
NOTE!
If your book has no punctuation, terrible grammar, so many misspellings that the reader is learning another language as they plough on through the never ending pages of bad clichés and stunted metaphors...then there may not be such a thing as a bad review, but there is honest truth about a 'bad' book. Read those one star reviews, take EVERYTHING on board, use it to learn your craft and, when you've started over, try again.
END NOTE!
One star reviews hurt. There is no 'if' or 'maybe' about that. They cut deep into your soul as a writer and make you want to hide under your covers for at least a week. When I got my first one, I was devastated. I wondered if I knew this man, personally, and had insulted him at the pub. I wondered if he had kids and I'd had to fire one, while I was in office management. Had I killed his hamster? You get the idea.
This is a review for my first novel, Into the Woods:
"I was hoping that with all these 5 star reviews this book would show some promise but it did not. It reads like a draft, most of the time. The plot choices were annoying, character dialogue was ridiculous, and the book ended up being crude and boring. Hardly worth the effort of reading." - Mr Michael Bryan, Amazon, UK.
Nice, huh? It's worth remembering, though, what I told myself (once I'd calmed down, screamed into the pillow...all the normal tantrum things).
This is the opinion of one man. Out of 16 reviews, in the UK, his is the only one star. So there may be no quantitative way of saying whether a book is good or not, but you can look at the statistics and see things rationally. Out of 180 reviews, I have 6 one star & 3 two star reviews. I average a 4.60 average across 180 reviews and ratings (112 are five star reviews/ratings).
To get these ratings, I had to learn to listen . Even to Mr Bryan (seriously, there was a nicer way to put that, right?)
I know there were a few grammar issues. It was my first book and I was learning (I still am). It is currently being edited properly and a few bits here and there are being extended/re-worked. The dialogue will be more cohesive and steady in its style. The sentence structures will be improved.
I may have hated that man (still do, I won't lie) and cursed him to the lowest reaches of Hades, but he did me a favour. I stepped back from loving my work like a baby and looked at it objectively. I saw flaws and I saw mistakes. I saw holes and plot fails. They were there, of course, the whole time, but I was blind to them: I was too close to my work, emotionally.
Now I look at the one star reviews and I try to take things on board, if they are valid points. There are trolls, of course, and I ignore them. You don't get to tell me my entire book is god-awful shite, if you never got past the prologue.
The more bad reviews you get, the more you learn. You have to bear in mind that it is not a personal attack against you. It is an opinion on your work and your work might not be everyone's cup of tea. So don't let the fear of criticism hold you back. Embrace it and learn to use it to your advantage. Over time, you'll have a hide like bull-leather and it'll get easier to handle. You have to learn to handle it, though; that's crucial. It's those critics who will tell you that you can't spell. Get a dictionary and use spell check. If homophones are your Achilles Heel, then look up the definition of the word you have typed and see if it's the right one for the context you're using it in. Those critics will point out your grammar errors. Read back through your book, carefully, and find those errors and correct them. You'll learn soon enough how to avoid the same mistakes.
Each review will teach you something, whether it's what you have done right, or where you have gone wrong. They are an invaluable learning tool and I disagree with the camp of "ignore the bad reviews". Ignore them at your peril, or you shall always be a two star author, pushing towards three. Listen to the bad stuff, wearing your newly grown thick skin, and you'll learn how to improve your craft. You'll know your stuff and you'll enjoy writing more than ever.
Now...where did I leave my spell book? There has to be a way to cast reviewers to Hades.
Yet you will never write the story in your head. Or if you do, you will never publish it.
Why?
Because there are some mean critics out there. Seriously, these dudes scent blood and swarm to eat you alive. Like sharks, but with sharper teeth and less concern for your feelings.
Critics don't care about hurting you. Remember that. They will read your book and they will give their opinion. This is important for you to understand, right at the very moment you write your first word. There is no quantitative way to say whether your book is good or not. One man's beautiful flowing prose is another man's toilet paper. Get used to it. Some people will love what you write, others will detest it.
But there is NO bad review, believe it or not. Even if you get a one star review that drags your book backwards through the dirt, tearing it apart and tossing it onto a slag heap. You have made someone feel strongly about what you do. About what you have written.
NOTE!
If your book has no punctuation, terrible grammar, so many misspellings that the reader is learning another language as they plough on through the never ending pages of bad clichés and stunted metaphors...then there may not be such a thing as a bad review, but there is honest truth about a 'bad' book. Read those one star reviews, take EVERYTHING on board, use it to learn your craft and, when you've started over, try again.
END NOTE!
One star reviews hurt. There is no 'if' or 'maybe' about that. They cut deep into your soul as a writer and make you want to hide under your covers for at least a week. When I got my first one, I was devastated. I wondered if I knew this man, personally, and had insulted him at the pub. I wondered if he had kids and I'd had to fire one, while I was in office management. Had I killed his hamster? You get the idea.
This is a review for my first novel, Into the Woods:
"I was hoping that with all these 5 star reviews this book would show some promise but it did not. It reads like a draft, most of the time. The plot choices were annoying, character dialogue was ridiculous, and the book ended up being crude and boring. Hardly worth the effort of reading." - Mr Michael Bryan, Amazon, UK.
Nice, huh? It's worth remembering, though, what I told myself (once I'd calmed down, screamed into the pillow...all the normal tantrum things).
This is the opinion of one man. Out of 16 reviews, in the UK, his is the only one star. So there may be no quantitative way of saying whether a book is good or not, but you can look at the statistics and see things rationally. Out of 180 reviews, I have 6 one star & 3 two star reviews. I average a 4.60 average across 180 reviews and ratings (112 are five star reviews/ratings).
To get these ratings, I had to learn to listen . Even to Mr Bryan (seriously, there was a nicer way to put that, right?)
I know there were a few grammar issues. It was my first book and I was learning (I still am). It is currently being edited properly and a few bits here and there are being extended/re-worked. The dialogue will be more cohesive and steady in its style. The sentence structures will be improved.
I may have hated that man (still do, I won't lie) and cursed him to the lowest reaches of Hades, but he did me a favour. I stepped back from loving my work like a baby and looked at it objectively. I saw flaws and I saw mistakes. I saw holes and plot fails. They were there, of course, the whole time, but I was blind to them: I was too close to my work, emotionally.
Now I look at the one star reviews and I try to take things on board, if they are valid points. There are trolls, of course, and I ignore them. You don't get to tell me my entire book is god-awful shite, if you never got past the prologue.
The more bad reviews you get, the more you learn. You have to bear in mind that it is not a personal attack against you. It is an opinion on your work and your work might not be everyone's cup of tea. So don't let the fear of criticism hold you back. Embrace it and learn to use it to your advantage. Over time, you'll have a hide like bull-leather and it'll get easier to handle. You have to learn to handle it, though; that's crucial. It's those critics who will tell you that you can't spell. Get a dictionary and use spell check. If homophones are your Achilles Heel, then look up the definition of the word you have typed and see if it's the right one for the context you're using it in. Those critics will point out your grammar errors. Read back through your book, carefully, and find those errors and correct them. You'll learn soon enough how to avoid the same mistakes.
Each review will teach you something, whether it's what you have done right, or where you have gone wrong. They are an invaluable learning tool and I disagree with the camp of "ignore the bad reviews". Ignore them at your peril, or you shall always be a two star author, pushing towards three. Listen to the bad stuff, wearing your newly grown thick skin, and you'll learn how to improve your craft. You'll know your stuff and you'll enjoy writing more than ever.
Now...where did I leave my spell book? There has to be a way to cast reviewers to Hades.
