Bad Reviews Don't Kill You?

"They're criticizing the book, not you."

"That bad review isn't about your book; it's about them." 

"Don't be so over-sensitive."

 

Sure, okay. I don't get that second one, I disagree with the first, and yep, I've been told the third. 

Maybe I take criticism so hard because I try so hard. I don't take a laissez faire approach to life. If something is important to me, I'm single-minded about doing it not only as best I can, but perfectly. But I'm not a crazy person (I don't think). I don't care a whole lot about a bunch of everyday things, like folding my laundry a certain way or plucking lint off my area rug.

I've read quite a few articles about handling negative reviews. They've yet to convince me. I purposely didn't solicit ARC reviewers for Running From Herself, because I can't handle negativity. I mean, I really can't handle it. Were you ever so excited about something you did, only to have someone shoot you down with one withering comment? Well, I was excited--thrilled--about that novel, and I couldn't bear to have someone wreck that feeling. 

"They're criticizing the book, not you." Absurd. Who wrote the book? Me. The book is me. The tiresome bromide that goes around writer's forums constantly is that you are not your work. That doesn't even make any sense. Of course I'm my work. I heard someone, a super-successful author, say just that the other day, and I thought, "finally!" Stop being so condescending, advice givers! 

"Reviews are for readers, not the author." Uh, yea! That actually makes it worse! I'll never understand how that can be a positive, yet it's often portrayed as such. We want readers, don't we? Yes, a bad review is really going to help us achieve that. 🙄 On second thought, I'm not sure I want readers...

I read a Substack article the other day in which a writer recounted (and laughed about) her negative reviews, except...they weren't even bad. That's what you think is bad, lady? Something like, "It just wasn't for me." Ooh. Scathing. And now she's giving us advice on handling bad reviews?

"Don't read your reviews" is the best and really, the only right answer. Except that's not so easy. My books rarely get reviews at all. The last Amazon review I received came on June 8. So when I see I've gotten a new one, the temptation is hard to resist. I want to know that someone enjoyed my book...except when they don't...but by then it's too late. I've already seen it. I need to try harder not to see them. For one thing, I can steer clear of my Amazon author page. When I pull up my book's product page to copy the link for one reason or another, if I see that I have it has more than ten reviews (the number it has now), I can just click out.

I rarely go to Goodreads, because it's basically evil, but with nothing to do this morning, I clicked on to see if there were any interesting group discussions. Naturally, I found a new review. And naturally, I read it. 

"Running from herself takes you on a journey back and forth as Leah Branch tries to find where she belongs. Overall, it felt like a game of tug of war going back and forth as Leah tries to find herself in the music industry. She's erratic and emotional and I just couldn't connect to her and the characters because she was never in one place long enough to really develop the characters or to fall in love with them. There's no story of why personality shifts happen or what's going on, things just....happen.
If you are looking for a book that takes you all over and back again, and causes you to flip back and forth, then this is the book for you." 

"That bad review isn't about your book; it's about them."  Well, "them" is obviously directionally challenged. But unlike her, I'm not here to judge. Sigh. You know, it is what it is. I'm not seeing the "back and forth". Sure, Leah moves around a lot--she's a singer on tour. But don't ever fight with a reviewer, as if I would. (Hello?) If I was going to  contact her, which I wouldn't, I'd just say, "Thank you for your honest review." That'll make her feel bad. 👿

Another well-worn cliche about reviews is, "Even Stephen King gets bad reviews." Yea, but King gets thousands of reviews--I get ten. One bad review isn't going to plunge his average to minus zero. 

I'm obviously not cut out to expose myself my work to the world. Good thing, then, that I've retired from writing. And I'm not going back to Goodreads anytime soon. I've already pulled the life support from Running From Herself. It's barely even gasping for breath now, and its breathing was pretty shallow to begin with.

Bad (or in this case, average--she still gave the book three stars) reviews can be laughed off once an author has a certified hit on her hands. I'm not laughing.

Just one more reason I'm glad I'm done.