Jennele Murphy asked Amanda Hocking:

How do you deal with negative reviews?

Amanda Hocking Privately. That's the most important piece of advice I can give any author about dealing with any review - you need to deal with it in private. It can be tempting to comment or argue or rage on your Twitter/Facebook, but that will only succeed in making the author look terrible.

I try not to read too many reviews, because I tend to get them stuck in my head - both positive and negative - and it can make it difficult for me to write when I hear other people's expectations playing on a loop inside my head.

But when I do read a particularly scathing review, it can be difficult sometimes. I try not to focus on it and distract myself with something else. Sometimes I vent to people I'm close to - but only in real life, with my actual words. Never on the internet.

Mostly I just try to remember that not everybody likes every book, and that's okay. Every reviewer brings their own baggage and their perspective to a book, and that colors the way they view things. I've hated lots of books that other people love, and that doesn't make the books or their authors terrible - it's only my opinions after all. The same is true for my books.

I also listen to Fall Out Boy's "I Don't Care" really loud if I'm feeling especially anxious.

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