Bad reviews? Don't let them get you down.
That dreaded bad review. It's the one thing all of us authors hate to see but it's a part of being an author that you cannot escape.
It can be frustrating, it can be intimidating, and it might even make you take a moment to reflect on your life choices, but in the end you have to remind yourself that not everyone is going to come in with a glowing five star review. Not everyone is going to like what you wrote.
They might not even like how you wrote it.
To each their own.
One thing you can do though is learn from some of those reviews, especially if they state something specific that's wrong. If there's one thing I've learned it's that your always learning in this career. It never stops and if it does, then you're doing something wrong.
Now, I know a lot of authors refuse to read their reviews and to be honest I wish I was strong enough to resist, but I'm not. I end up reading every last one, even the ones that rip me apart inside.
I might have a good cry over them but in the end I read what they have to say and then I analyze everything that's said. I take what I can from those reviews and use it to make my future books better. Sometimes I even use that information to fix the issues wrong with the book in question.
Most times I rope my husband into reading my reviews with me. A second pair of eyes that aren't emotionally invested helps to pick out the good information a little bit better. And a lot of the times he helps me laugh some of the more silly things off. And when I cry he reminds me of why I love to write. (He's awesome like that and I'm lucky to have his support.)
If you're like me and you analyze every review it can get a little bit intimidating especially when you feel as if bad reviews and terrible star ratings are all you seem to get.
In fact, I got a bit overwhelmed recently so I made myself a chart. (I love making charts.) I wrote down every book I have written and then I went over every review and rating that I had accumulated over the sites where my work has been posted for sale, or otherwise.
Long story short, I was able to visually see how many five stars, four stars, and so on, that I had received. To my amazement and joy it helped me realize that my bad ratings and stars were just a pin-prick in the amount of ratings that I had. It turned out that I was doing way better than I had originally thought. (Yes, I did let it get to my head for a few moments.) It also showed me where I needed to work a bit harder too.
Once I realized that the world wasn't out to attack me I relaxed. I ended up having one of my best nights of writing that I had had in a very long time.
It was in those moments that I realized just how stressed out we get ourselves over reviews. We're always told that without reviews and ratings our books will fail. That's hammered into our heads from day one of hitting that publish button. It's just not true though and the sooner I came to realize that the easier things seemed to get.
Now that I'm armed with my lovely new chart I can combat this stress and remind myself of where I'm at and just how far I've come. Hopefully I'll continue to have good writing days again, and I believe I will as long as I keep reminding myself why I love to write.
It's simply really, I'm doing this for me.
"Writing is a journey, a rough one at times, but no journey is worth taking without the bumps and curves. A straight path just isn't the route for me." - Raven K. Asher
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Happy Writing!!
Raven K. Asher