A Bad Review...a strike to an Author's heart? Or maybe not.

OMG. I got a 1-star review. Panic...panic...panic. Everyone will see this. Other authors will judge me. No one will buy my book.  STOP.

A bad review hurts an author’s soul. It’s a direct hit to the heart. Someone didn’t get me. Someone hates me. Why do we as authors focus on the bad reviews instead of the hundreds of good ones? Psychologists say we are hard-wired to focus on the rejection. We pay more attention to the emotionally negative responses than the good ones. As authors we’re a bit more sensitive about emotions, which means we will dwell on it, allow it to fester, and never forget. It hurts. We have to take it easier on ourselves. We can control how we react to the bad review.

Just remember: Every single writer gets bad reviews on books, even the most widely renown or bestselling. Look up your favorite book of all time in your genre and I’ll bet there are more than a few low review ratings. Bad reviews aren’t a death sentence for your book. In some cases a bad review can sell more books.

A bad review isn’t personal, most of the time.  The reader didn’t like the book. Do you love everything you read?

This reviewer doesn’t know you as in who you are. They don’t know what went into getting that book to that retailer, that it took you months, maybe years, to write the book, months to get it accepted by a publisher, months of painful rounds of editing, months to arrange marketing (which never really ends).  In fact, you and the reviewer might become besties in reality, but the book turned out to not be their thing. Assuming the book was well edited with a strong voice, a bad review is often borne out of misunderstanding of the intent of a story or the reader simply couldn’t connect to a plot way out of her personal experience or maybe the reader expected a different heat level. Maybe a reader expected a specific story type, which wasn’t this one. 

Sometimes, a bad review isn’t all that bad.

Here’s my favorite 1-star review of one of my books several years ago: “There was too much sex.” The review had about three more lines that said the same thing in different ways to convey disgust. In defense of the book, on a relative scale of romance novels, this wasn’t erotica. The review at first made be cringe but then I realized there are some romance readers who’d read that review and say, hell yeah, give me that book. Others might see that and say a big fat nope. That’s okay. I want the people who want some heat in their books to find this one.

Here’s my latest 1-star: “I didn’t like the characters. It was all really weird.” 

OUCH!  But I’ve got a good sense of humor that’s a lot stronger than my ego. It wasn’t this reader’s jam. There are a lot of other people who did like this book with its non-cookie cutter hero and kickass heroine.

If you are feeling panic alarms shrieking in your brain over a horrible review, and envisioning your publishing career going up in flames, this is a moment when you reach out to your author friends (those who have sold a million copies and those who maybe only just got published). Then go read all the hundreds of other good reviews of your books.

The most important is remain professional. Maybe there are constructive comments in the review that are useful. Maybe there aren’t. Never engage a reviewer in a negative campaign. You have to keep a good relationship with the people who want to read your books.

What’s the worst thing someone said about one of your books?