How to respond to a negative review: just don't

This is a post that's been on my mind for a year or so but for one reason (laziness) or another (laziness) I haven't gotten around to writing until now. Although the actual incident/s have passed without my noticing, rumblings in the Twitterverse suggest that in the last couple of weeks there have been more reader-reviewer/author run-ins online, and I can only assume it's becausean author has taken offense at a negative review and responded by leaving a (probably vitriolic) comment of their own. Whatever happened, it's had the effect ofmaking a number of people whose blogs or Goodreads reviews I follow say thatthey are considering giving up reviewing, which makes me Very Sad Indeed.

As a reader who suffers constantly fromtoo-many-books-not-enough-time and has a book-buying budget of one book permonth,* following reviews from people whose taste is close to mine has helped meto find books and authors I absolutely adore that I probably wouldn't have comeacross on my own. I also search Goodreads for books I've heard mixed reviews for, to helpme make up my mind whether to track down a copy and decide for myself. Ifsomeone has given the book a rave or a panning I'll often look at the rest oftheir blog/Goodreads shelves to see what they've enjoyed in the past and decidefrom that whether our taste is likely to be similar. It's not a failsafetechnique but so far I've had more hits than misses. (This is also an excellentprocrastination technique – I can attest that the hours positively fly by whenyou're stickybeaking comparing bookshelves.)

All books have their share of fans and detractors, this is auniversal truth. For every person who loves Pride and Prejudice there issomeone whose loathing for it cannot be expressed vehemently enough (i.e. me).Likewise, I have had to accept that not everyone loves My Family and OtherAnimals as passionately as I do (but they should, dammit!). The beauty of a communitylike Goodreads is that these views can sit side by side; we can all have oursay and everyone's opinion is equal. The beauty of having a book blog is thatit's your own space to express yourself. But some authors seem to think that this is precisely thedownside to online reviews and are unable to resist arguing withless-than-glowing reader responses, a reaction that, frankly, befuddles me.

Asa writer one of the things you have to get used to is accepting criticism (constructiveor otherwise) and choosing whether to take it on board or let it go. For mostof us it's obvious whose opinions we should pay attention to (our critiquegroups/beta readers/agents/editors/others with the goal of helping us toproduce the highest quality book we are capable of writing) and whose to acceptas their right to an opinion but not take to heart. If you can't differentiate between the two, you shouldn't evenmake your writing available for public consumption, let alone hang around Goodreads(or Amazon or any other consumer review site) or Google your reviews.

(And ifyou choose to take things personally, for pity's sake don't vent your hurtfeelings online! Seriously, have we learnt nothing??)

Got hurt feelings? Tell a friend, not the interwebs.
ETA: Just as I was about to hit the Publish button I read Veronica Roth's post on the author/reviewer relationship on YA Highway - a very balanced and sensible discussion of the issues, with some insightful comments from bloggers.