What To Do About Bad Book Reviews

Review This

March 22, 2021-Happy Monday, Friends! It’s my most favourite day of the week.  I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the theme of this month which is answering your most asked questions. If you’d like to send in a question, please email pandapublishing8@gmail.com. Let’s dig in:

Q: “I’ve recently published a book and have gotten a few reviews. A couple were positive, but a few were negative, how do I deal with the negative comments and not let them get under my skin?”

A: This happens to all of us. Writing is an art, and art is subjective. People are entitled to their opinions and unfortunately, they aren’t always nice. Reviews are very important because they not only give us valuable feedback (when looked at constructively), but they help readers find out more about your book. Think of the last time you were purchasing something, did you read the reviews? Probably. And why did you read them? Because you wanted to know what people thought, what their experiences were, and if whatever you were thinking of purchasing was worth the cost. Negative reviews are not something that we should take to heart, but we should learn from them. In this business, you must have a thick skin. That said, are you being objective when you’re reading the negative reviews about your work? Are you stepping back and asking if there could be some truth to what the reviewer is saying? Let’s say that the reviewer gave your book 2 stars because they felt the pace was slow and the characters were underdeveloped, would you be willing to ask yourself if this is something that’s correct and that you could improve upon? Every single negative review I’ve ever had, has always been spot on. But guess what? That helps to improve my writing! I take the negativity and learn from it, I don’t let it get inside of my head, and I understand that everyone is entitled to their opinion. It’s a great opportunity to have someone tell you what they think of your work, and to use that, to produce better work! The thing that drives me crazy is when authors get bad reviews and they say, “That person doesn’t know what they’re talking about, my book is a masterpiece and perfect as is.” This level of arrogance serves no one. I’d much rather have a negative review (which means people are reading my books!) than no reviews at all because that means that my reader cares enough to tell me where I went wrong. It’s when people stop caring that we start to have a problem. Take everything in stride, keep writing, and keep improving!

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