Bad reviews-Oh My. What’s a Writer to Do?
Ever get a bad book review?
Every author has. What to do? Can you do
anything? Should you do anything? Want my advice? Here it is for what it’s
worth. First, don’t sweat it. Bad reviews happen. It’s a fact of life. Second,
no matter how much you want to do it, never respond in kind. Whatever you do,
don’t attack the reviewer in person, or on the internet, anywhere. In the end, right or wrong, you will lose. You
will be the bad guy. Some writers have actually confronted the reviewer and it
didn’t turn out well for the writer. Besides,
what is one bad review in the scheme of things? If you really need to do
something, yell into a pillow, or at the top of your lungs to no one at all.
Jump up and down, punch a wall, or a punching bag. Write a letter to the
reviewer, but don’t mail it. Rip it up. Write yourself a blog post, but don’t
post it. Do anything to get it off your chest, but don’t publicize it. Then,
take a deep breath and write it off. Brush yourself off and move on. After all,
what is a bad review anyway even if it is made public? On amazon et al.
Face it, not
everyone is going to love your book. It never fails that someone out there is
just going to hate your book for one reason or another. No matter how well written
your book is. No matter how good the story is, someone is going to attack it
and put it down. It may not even be your book they actually hate. Perhaps, they
got up on the wrong side of the bad, or lost a bet. Sometimes, that is all it
takes for someone to write a bad review. Personally, after years of reading and
writing reviews, I’ve come to see a pattern in reviews on line. See if you see
the pattern the next time you’re on-line. Where there are a lot of good to
great reviews for anything, not just books, there will always be one or more
bad reviews for that same item. Usually it’s not much of a review, just a few
words that they didn’t like it. Others are quite detailed and hostile. Don’t
sweat the bad reviews. Any review is better than no review. As most celebrities
and those in the fame game will tell you, there’s no such thing as bad
publicity, except the publicity you never receive. Bad reviews-Oh My. What’s a
Writer to Do? Nothing, just brush
yourself and move on. That’s my humble advice anyway. Keep writing, move onward
and do your best! That is all anyone can do.
Cheers!
S. J. Francis
Advocate for the underdog, and cat, et al.
In Shattered Lies: "It's All About Family." Available for sale now from Black Opal Books, on-line retailers and indie booksellers.
"Some secrets should remain that way...
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