I recently had a fellow writer ask me to do an entry about negative reviews and how I handle them. At the time I was like, “Ehhh, I don’t want to talk about that this week, but I’ll put it on the list.” I can’t remember exactly why I didn’t want to talk about it, but I had probably just received a negative review. This week I feel ready! So let’s dive in!

As with most critical things, there is a mental and emotional component to reviews. There is no way around this. No matter how mentally prepared you are for that first negative review, it’s going to hit you in the emotional feels. In this respect, it’s good to know how you react to criticism. Are you someone who gets defensive and hurt right away, but then cools off just as quickly? Or will you ruminate on it for days? Are you someone who’s able to look at it objectively and then put it aside? Consider these things as we go through, because they apply to most forms of critique, even if you’re not someone getting book reviews.

First, some fuel for your logic box:

Realize that you cannot be all things to all people. It would be great if everyone on Earth loved your work. It’s just not going to happen. There are going to be people who grabbed your book on NetGalley or Book Sirens because it was free at the time and then it just wasn’t their thing and they have to tell the world about it. It wasn’t their thing. Try not to take it personally. Even if they were mean and yelled in all caps for paragraphs.
Some people really enjoy one-starring things. This is a true phenomenon! There are people who take pride in throwing a one-star on something and just blasting it. They think they sound smart, they think they’re edgy or different, they think it’s cool to hate on things, or they just think they’ll get more attention. This is rarely a reflection on you. You were just in their sights.
They thought they were getting something else. This will happen more often if you’re a genre blending author, but it can happen to anyone. They thought they were getting a horror story and your book is more of a thriller, thus they’re disappointed and leave a negative review. Or your book wasn’t the RIGHT horror for them. It happens and there’s nothing you can do about it.
They would have done it differently. There may be people that write a critical review that seems legit. These are sometimes the worst because they have you questioning things you did that you cannot change because the book is published. For instance, I had one that felt everything wrapped up too quickly and they wanted “more” at the end. Well, originally there was more and the epilogue was twice as long, but it was objectively too long and we had to cut it. It was the right decision, but (for me) these are the reviews that hit hardest because you want to write back (never write back) and explain to the person why it is the way it is. Just realize that nobody would have written the exact book that you did and there are many people who would have taken your concept and done it differently. And that’s okay.

All of that is well and good. You can realize those things in your brain and know them as facts and you’ll still get hit in the feels a bit when you get that negative review. Here are some things I’ve done when I just can’t handle any gut punches, or have just taken one, and am having trouble shaking it off.

Go look at the one-star reviews of highly successful authors. They all have one-star reviews. I guarantee. Even better, go look at the one-star reviews of an author YOU think is amazing. The one that makes you say, “Man, if only I could write like that.” I don’t know why this works but it always makes me feel better. If they can get a one-star, then there’s nothing so wrong with me.
Filter your book for five star reviews and only look at those for a while. There are filters on both Amazon and Goodreads that let you search by star rating. I sometimes just go to the four and five stars and check those out to see if there’s anything new. Sometimes I look at all of them, but only when I’m feeling pretty secure.
Have a friend check your reviews for a while and just stay away. I did this early on before my book launched and NetGalley reviews were coming in. At first it was great! Everyone loved it. Then I got a really mean one-star immediately followed by a couple of two-stars. I asked my friend to check it out occasionally and let me know if anything good came in because I needed some time off. I knew I would continually wonder if something new was there, so this saved me from peeking “just to check.”
If one really gets you, talk to an author friend. Sometimes you just need someone else who’s been there to hash it out with. If they’re really awesome, they’ll go read the review and make fun of it for you. :-)

Overall, if reviews get in your head, don’t read them. Remember, you wrote the thing, you’ve already thought every terrible thing about it and probably every good thing. The book is done, it’s out there, it doesn’t matter what the reviews say. (Now, if they’re accusing you of writing something sexist, racist, homophobic, etc, and you haven’t had a sensitivity read, and you’re getting multiple reviews stating this, you may want to look at some things, but that’s a whole different blog.)

A few things to remember:

Even the bad reviews jog the algorithm, which puts your book in front of more readers.
They presumably had to read the book to leave the review, so unless they’re an ARC reader, they bought it or checked it out from the library. Either of which is good for you.
You wrote a goddamn book. They didn’t.

How to deal with negative reviews.