Negative Reviews are Not the Antichrist

This is part of the Dissecting Reviews series, a component of my Indie Author How-To Index that’s meant to help authors learn from the reviews people leave on their novels. No, the Index is totally free. Have fun.

 

I recently wrote a post about whether or not authors should respond to reviews. The short answer was no. It’s still no. Unless the internet implodes sometime soon and we have to shout reviews to our neighbors, it will likely always be no.

So, what should authors do?

One of the greatest lessons you can learn as an author—indie or otherwise—is that not everyone will like your work. Hell, some may hate it. It’s part of life—we’re all unique. We all have different tastes. That’s a good thing.

Authors, some readers will write reviews and say you have no sense of style, that you need more editing, that you’re a monkey, etc. A review is a reader’s opinion, and you have to respect that. Does it make them right? Eh. That’s so subjective I can’t even begin to answer it. You’re intelligent. You have to decide that for yourself.

Getting a bad review doesn’t mean you should go hide in a hole and never write again. It also doesn’t mean you get to call the reviewer a bully. Here’s the bottom line—and I repeat myself because I can’t stress this enough—a review is the reader’s opinion, and one they are entitled to have.

At times, it can almost seem like a negative review is more powerful than a positive one. What authors have to do is ignore the sting of criticism and focus on what will help them. The best authors are thick-skinned, remember?

The most professional way to deal with bad reviews (no matter how many or few good ones you have) is to not respond at all. Yep. Ignore them. In the beginning especially, you need to focus on building your readership. You need people to feel safe enough to review the book. So when you hand out review copies, people are going to give you their honest opinion. They won’t fluff it because you gave them a free copy. Giving someone a free review copy does not guarantee kindness or a 5-star review. If that’s what you’re going for, we need to have a talk.

Readers’ reviews are supposed to be honest. To expect anything else of a reviewer is dishonest on the author’s part. You don’t have to hit the “like” button on one-star reviews, but you don’t get to throw a hissy fit either.

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The Bottom Line

To authors, reviews can sometimes seem like a necessary evil. You’ll get bad ones. You’ll get glowing ones. You’ll read reviews that piss you off.

Whatever you do, just remember that reviews are opinions. Just as you’re entitled to wear yellow sunglasses with a purple bowtie and die your hair green and pink if you want, readers are free to not like your story. So long as they don’t attack you or your readers’ intelligence, they have done nothing wrong in telling the world it wasn’t for them.

Do bad reviews hurt? Of course. Even thick-skinned authors twitch a little when they read one. But authors have a responsibility to be professional and polite at all times and no matter what. It’s hard to do when you put your lifeblood into something as big as a novel or book series, but you cannot take someone disliking your story as personal. It just wasn’t for them.

In the immortal words of Isaac Asimov:

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The Discussion

Let’s open the floor.

Authors:

What are some cases of authors not handling negative reviews well?
In your opinion, what’s the best way to handle negative reviews?
Do you think of reader reviews as opinions or truth?

Readers & Reviewers:

When do you leave negative reviews? That is, what has to happen for you to leave a one- or two-star rating, and how do you word your review?
How do you want authors to interact with you?
Would you prefer that an author to respond to a review, rather than stay mum?
Have you ever been harassed by an author waiting for a review?
Do you see your review as your opinion?