What happens when you get a bad review?
image: Siora Photography for Unsplash
We’ve all experienced it—in fact, even the most sacred books of the western canon have had their detractors, so there’s quite a decent precedent. Every book, at one time or another, gets a bad review.
What happens is after slaving for years to make your book perfect, after working with editors, making compromises, rewriting and rethinking and rewriting again, after a great book launch and the excitement of seeing it on bookshelves, after having everyone you know tell you how brilliant it is … you’re going to get a bad review.
It might be fair, and if so—and you’re smart—you’ll take its criticisms to heart and learn from them. This isn’t the time to be defensive, even if the critique cuts to the heart of your protagonist. Use what you learn from readers to become a better author.
And if you really want to get mileage from your bad review—and you can stomach engaging with it—then don’t wait for others to bring it up, talk about it yourself. Write an article or a blog post about what you’ve learned from it, how it helped you see something new, understand something hidden. Show the world you’re a good sport. We live in a culture that rewards whining; don’t succumb to it. It doesn’t age well.
image: Lacie Slezak for Unsplash
So what do you do with a bad review? Here are some ideas:
Make sure to balance it with many, many more good ones. Send the book out to reviewers and ask them to take a look.
Redouble your marketing efforts. If your title is seen in a lot of places, the sheer noise will cover the one voice you’d prefer people didn’t hear.
Have someone write a rebuttal… or you write it. Make it a comedy or satire. Look at it this way: someone just opened the door and gave you the opportunity to create some buzz. Use it.
Write a press release about “Bad Amazon Review HELPS sale of book” or something like that.
Okay, yeah, you can go to your room and cry. But only once, and only for 20 minutes, tops.
Who’s received a bad review? How did you feel about it? More importantly, how did you respond to it? I’d love to hear from you!
image: Stephanie Leblanc for Unsplash