Dealing With Criticism

I had a long discussion with an author the other day about her slumping mood due to having received a spate of one star reviews on her latest book, which caused her to question the direction her writing had taken, whether she was really cut out to be an author, etc.

Here’s my view on negative criticism:

Everyone’s got an opinion. You can’t make everyone happy. You aren’t trying to please the entire world, just those you target with your work. And sometimes, even those folks are going to hate something you write, for a host of reasons, many of which may not have anything to do with the words on the page.

Let’s assume your book’s well edited and written. You’ll still eventually get negative reviews. It goes with getting any reviews at all. I tend to watch the ratio, not the individual reviews, because I’m looking for trends, not one person’s mood any particular day.

If you peruse the bestsellers lists, you’ll quickly find that virtually every book that shifts some quantity gets a lot of negative reviews right along with the positive. Generally speaking, 15% or so one and two star reviews. Some, like the massive sellers (yes, 50 Shades, I’m looking at you), will average considerably higher negative feedback. Does this mean those books are deficient? Sure. To those who thought they were. To everyone else, they were awesome.

Here are some possible reasons for negative reviews: The reader is having a bad day, or read your book in a bad mood, or had expectations that you failed to meet – expectations that might not have been realistic, or that your book was never intended to meet. Or the reviewer simply didn’t like your story, or the way you told it, or the speed with which it was told. They might have felt it was overly wordy, or too sparse, that the vocabulary was sophomoric, or alternatively, that they felt like they needed a thesaurus to get through it. They might have wished for a different ending, or for the characters to behave differently, or any of a thousand preferences that are distinctive to their worldview.

I’ve seen, on the same book, a review condemning a title for its gratuitous profanity, and then the next review condemning it because the characters didn’t speak in gritty or profane enough fashion to be realistic. I’ve seen reviews that declare a book the best thing ever written, followed by one that says it’s the worst book in existence.

People are strange that way.

As an author, you need to look past it. If there’s valid criticism, use it to improve. If someone simply didn’t like the story or the pacing or the characters…or…or…well, maybe the book’s just not for them.

And finally, there are just folks who enjoy tearing down the work of others, whether it’s good or not. I’ve seen plenty of reviews on incredibly well-written, gripping novels, that amount to, “ew, I mean, hero gets into trouble, hero faces hurdles, hero wins, gets girl – give me a break.”

Some people leave reviews to make a point, or to have a forum in which to spout off or spray venom, or to attack other authors behind a veil of anonymity (you can usually spot these easily – they tend to be more verbose, because the writer is writing partially to show how smart they are and how dumb you are). You can usually quickly spot those, and should ignore them – there will always be those who suck. You can’t make it your life’s mission to stop people from sucking. Most will be able to look past those types of reviews and see that the review says far more about the reviewer than the book.

In summary, reviewers are rather like everyone else, in the sense that everyone’s got an opinion they think is incredibly valid, and they’re entitled voice it. Just as all authors now have the ability to put their work into the world because they think they’ve got a compelling book on their hands. You’re not going to agree with every review you get, just as every reader’s not going to love your work.

That’s life. Move on.

And of course, buy my crap!