How Authors Cope With Negative Reviews

As an author, you're insecure. Fragile even. And it's difficult for you to cope with negative criticism. But in the words of Idina Menzel, let it go...

Congrats! Your book has hit the shelves!

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That thing you slaved over for years, edited a dozen times, and poured your heart and soul into is finally out in the world.

Now, the google alerts start rolling in.

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But that's great, because it means people are talking about your book, right?

So you click on a few to see what people have to say.

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Publisher's Weekly had good things to say, Booklist offered a mixed review...

...and then you read the Kirkus review.

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They call your book cliche and unimaginative, and they call you a hack. You start to question your talent and need validation. But you tell yourself that this is a bitter critic with an axe to grind. This doesn't represent the thoughts of actual readers. So...

You log on to Goodreads.

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Excellent, that giveaway your publisher ran resulted in 400 people adding your book to their shelves. Some have even started reviewing it. You see dozens of 4-star reviews, but those are forgotten as you focus on the single 1-star review where BookCrzy2014 gave it 1 star because she didn't like the cover and the font size was too big. But you have no control over that!

Then, you look at Amazon.

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Here, you have TWO 1-star reviews! One was because the e-book was too expensive and the other because you dropped an F-bomb in chapter three. Sure, you have a dozen or so 4 and 5 star reviews, but that's not what you focus on.

You deal with the criticism in the only way you know how.

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Then you get on twitter.

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You post that you don't understand why anyone feels the need to criticize someone's work, especially if they clearly haven't read the book, and don't they understand that authors are people too and why do they have to be so mean?

Upon seeing your tweets, your agent calls you.

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You play it off like everything is fine and you promise to stay off the interwebs for the rest of the night. You also promise to delete your incoherent tweets before your publishing team sees them.

You consider taking a page out of the Kathleen Hale playbook.

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It couldn't be that hard to find BookCrzy2014 and snarky Kirkus reviewer's home addresses, right? But instead...

You call your critique group and get together for a much needed brainstorm session.

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If anyone understands what it's like to have people criticize your work, it's them. They remind you to focus on the positive reviews, and that even the negative reviews can sometimes boost your sales.

And the next day...

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...you get up and you rally.

You have a job to do.

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You sit down at your computer, shake off the negative reviews and tequila shots, and you get to work. Because you're a writer, despite what Kirkus and the idiots on Amazon may say.

And you vow never to read your reviews again.

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Well, at least until the next book!