On a similar topic, what advice would you give to creators and artists for dealing with negativity, especially online or for the first time? So far my experience with Tumblr, FanFiction, and AO3 has been 99% positive, complimentary, and supportive, but I'

My best advice is to remember the 99%.

I mean, that’s a helluva ratio. You’re doing good. And it is impossible to please everyone 100% of the time with 100% of what you write.

When you’re battling imposter syndrome (as most creatives do), the tendency is to not feel secure in your own process or confident about your writing when you get that first negative review.

And it’s worse when people are just downright nasty.

I was lucky enough to get noticed by Publisher’s Weekly, a publication trade magazine. I was told by industry peeps that most authors scramble to get reviewed by them. And PW absolutely pilloried Receiver of Many. Like, whoever was on review duty for that day hated it.

But later that same month, I got a review for Receiver of Many from Buzzfeed that vaulted my book sales into the top 1% of the bestsellers lists of Amazon and iBooks for a few days and led to optioning databases contacting me for information should my books ever got shopped for adaptation. Which they then were, which I never imagined in my wildest dreams.

So by that token I feel like I‘m still doing something right.

And despite that bad review from PW, Destroyer of Light is the highest rated novel about Hades and Persephone on Amazon, and Receiver of Many sit at about 8th or 9th on that list. And both books have been reviewed far beyond the scope of my initial readers on AO3, Literotica, and Fanfiction.

So the way to look at a bad review is to first look at all the good comments surrounding it. That’s what I do, then move forward on any constructive criticism that’s genuinely offered.

As for nasty comments, I either clapback or ignore it. Because at the end of the day, fuck ‘em.