Please welcome Laura Heffernan to Writer Unboxed today!
Laura is the author of America’s Next Reality Star, which she claims as proof that watching too much TV can pay off. When not watching total strangers get married, drag racing queens, or cooking competitions, Laura enjoys travel, baking, board games, and seeking new experiences. She lives in the Northeast with her amazing husband and two furry little beasts.
Learn more about Laura on her website, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
Negative Reviews (and Why I don’t Read Them)
The other day, I was out with a writer friend and mentioned that I don’t read negative reviews. She said, “That’s impressive. You have amazing willpower.”
While I appreciate the sentiment, anyone who has read one of my couple thousand tweets about cookie dough or Cadbury mini-eggs knows: I don’t have the best willpower. When I really want something, I’m not awesome at denying myself. But here’s the thing: I have zero interest in reading negative reviews. None. I want to do it less than I want to stand outside naked in January.
Conventional wisdom says not to read negative reviews, but I ignore all kinds of conventional wisdom about things like not eating raw. It’s not that. And I’m not ignoring negative reviews because they’re unpleasant and I don’t like unpleasant things (although that’s also true). It’s that I fail to see any way that reading negative reviews can benefit me.
- The “I Hate This Type of Book” Review
So, you picked up the book, and you read it without looking to see what it’s about? You’re living on the edge, my friend. Or you picked up the book, read the back cover copy, thought, “I’m going to hate this”, and read it anyway? And you did this knowing that you’re the type of person who posts negative reviews about books they don’t like?
…. I can’t help you. Hearing why you hate this type of book will not improve my life, because I’m still going to write them.
- The “This Book Has Mistakes” Review
Congratulations, reviewer! You’re the first perfect person since Jesus Christ himself!
In all seriousness, if there’s a single typo in your review where you slam my book for grammatical errors, I won’t take you seriously. But beyond that – typos happen. They creep in everywhere. They creep in during editing. I’ve accepted Tracked Changes requests and seen typos appear. Technology isn’t perfect. People aren’t perfect, and mistakes happen. I had to learn to accept months ago that my published book might have typos in it. Still, seeing that you found a typo is just going to make me sad, because I swear I read that thing at least two dozen times. And so did many other people.
- The “How This Book Could Be Better” Review
I’m not Proctor and Gamble. I can’t use your feedback to improve the product and send out better versions. The book is done. The publisher isn’t going to change it because you didn’t like the plot twist on page 74. Knowing what people didn’t like about the book isn’t information I can use to improve this book.
Now, if someone wrote a positive/neutral review and included a few suggestions for improvement, that’s different. I might see that, and I will consider the feedback. But there’s a difference between providing constructive feedback and trashing a book because you can. I’ll stick with reading the former.
Sure, there are plenty of types of reviews that don’t fit into these categories. But if someone doesn’t like my writing or was mislead by the blurb or the cover into thinking they were reading something else, I’m also not going to feel better about myself reading that. I need to protect my writing space, and obsessing about negative reviews when I should be writing is only going to send negative energy into my work-in-progress to be edited out later.
I’ve heard a couple of other arguments for reading negative reviews.
What If They Reviewed the Wrong Book?
I don’t have any statistics on this, but I’m going to assume the probability of someone reviewing my book when they meant to review a different book called AMERICA’S NEXT REALITY STAR is pretty much zero. And I don’t believe people are so careless they would accidentally post their scathing review of Ethan Frome on my book by mistake.
If someone actually does review the wrong book, well sooner or later, it’ll be reported to someone who can take action. Maybe someone will notify me. But I’m not going to subject myself to a bunch of vitriol about my book, just in case.
What if the Reviewer is Wrong?
No author has ever responded to a negative review on Amazon or Goodreads and come out looking good. I can’t respond to negative reviews, and as I mentioned above, I don’t have the most amazing willpower.
One of the first reviews I received was overall positive, but they criticized part of the reality show mechanism as unrealistic. The show in the book is inspired by an actual reality show that used the same mechanism. It doesn’t matter. I didn’t correct that reviewer (despite wishing I could), and I’m not going to correct anyone else who makes mistakes in their reviews. Because doing that never, ever, ever, ever, ever goes well for the author. I don’t want to become a What Not To Do article.
If I unintentionally posted something harmful in one of my books, I like to think someone would reach out personally and tell me (preferably via a private message or the email form on my website). That’s the one time negative feedback could be very useful to me, and I would absolutely appreciate hearing about it. However, I do my best to ensure that there’s no harmful content, so reading negative reviews just in case isn’t likely to be a productive use of my time.
There are so many things I’d rather be doing.
What about you? Fellow authors, do you read your negative reviews? Why or why not? What do you get out of them?
I don’t read any reviews – good or bad or neutral. None. I stopped after my first book came out in 2009 and I was reading all the reviews–my editor at my publisher’s (who is an author of some best-sellers) said, “I’ll give you the best advice I’ll ever give: don’t read reviews. Just stop now and don’t look back.”
I took her advice and never looked back and I’ve been happier for it. I know that my books have a good star rating, at least the ones I’ve seen when I go grab the link, but it doesn’t entice me to go read what the reviews are.
To me, reviews are for other readers and not for me. It’s just worked out better for me this way.
I will sometimes skim the positive reviews, but you’re right. They’re for the reader, not for me.
I’m afraid once I step in there, I’ll start being my obsessive compulsive weirdo self who will want to torture the heck out of my psyche by reading all of them – even the 1 star – and everything on most sites have 1 stars – even the most popular books of all – lawd! lawd! :D
OThanks for this great perspective on reviews Laura! “This book has mistakes” is the one that irks me the most, typo in the review or not, because 9 times out of 10 (99 times out of 100?), it’s a vague statement. Not to mention presumptuous! Book doctoring is a similar kind of approach that drives me nuts. Thanks to your great post, I’m gonna think of these as “Arm and Hammer reviews” next time I see them. I personally love to read reviews, as they give me a broad sense of what people are saying and how they are reacting. It’s useful data. But like any data, there are outliers.
“Arm and hammer reviews”. I love it. :-)
This post couldn’t be more timely for me. I’ve just self-published my first novel on Amazon and recently completed a soft launch. I’ve received three reviews from people whom I didn’t contact regarding my free days (they found my book on their own), and yesterday the third review was posted. It was not kind and it didn’t offer any reasons as to why the reader didn’t like the book or suggestions for improvement. It stung at first, but I told myself that if I pleased two out of three readers, I’m doing a decent job for my debut novel. I didn’t write a novel that would appeal to everyone and I respect that some will dislike my writing, and nobody could possibly be a worse critic than my own self, so I’m learning to let the negativity from others roll off my shoulders and into the gutter where it belongs. When I complete my hard launch and begin marketing, I know more negative reviews are coming my way, and it’s nice to hear how other writers deal with them.
Good luck! May the reviews be primarily positive. :-)
Great article! As Kat said in a comment above, reviews are not for authors – they are for readers. I’m an author, but my book reviews are part of a reader discussion. If the author needs to know something, I’ll send them a private message. In all cases, that’s been a fan letter :-)
I love when readers send me private messages!
(Although I’d prefer they not copy/paste their negative reviews and send them to me – which has happened.)
Sometimes negative reviews can be helpful in pointing out problems with a manuscript, especially for first time Indie Authors, but there are trolls out there who will not even read a book and post a negative review. I always read them and use what’s helpful, then disregard the rest.
Let me preface my comment by saying I’m a professional novelist with five books in print by traditional publishers, I have taught writing for many years, and I’ve watched the business for over forty years.
Emotional reactions to reviews is the only valid reason for authors not to read them, and, even then, an author who can’t develop a thick skin is in the wrong business because in real life and on line outside of reviews you will face petty criticism and sheer meaness. All the time. Writers have a bullseye on their forehead for the jerks of the universe.
One advantage to reading reviews, for those who are self-published and are able to change books already out there, is that minor errors pointed out can be changed immediately, and books can be changed as craft is learned. Nothing is sadder than an author who has limited craft who either doesn’t learn and leaves a legacy of bad books or makes that first really bad book an introduction to an improving series that few will read beyond that first bad book.
Reviews can also have an educational value, even for those with regular publishers, for the NEXT book.
I write short reviews for fun for a number of reader listservs, and I got an email yesterday from one lady who thanked me because my comments told her what to avoid as a new writer so reviews, even other people’s, can be a learning experience. (And, no, I won’t read your book to review. I read and write for fun, these days, and requested reviews aren’t fun.)
This post is long enough so I won’t go into specifics for each of your reasons.
Anyway, I’ve posted links to articles I’ve written on the subject of understanding and dealing with bad reviews and mean people.
http://mbyerly.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20reviews
http://mbyerly.blogspot.com/search/label/real%20books
I will have to say, I do write negative reviews when I feel a book deserves it. (Please do not cringe too much!) And when purchasing, I read both. I find them helpful in my purchases. I think I can weed out the “haters” vs the ones who are truly assessing the book from their own perspectives. I think both are helpful. You are right, not everyone will like your writing, story, character, etc. And once we understand that concept, it should be “easier” to take the negative with the positive. (In theory, anyway!) But being in the publishing industry, if a book is poorly written, lacks in story development, falls flat, or is just not what it purported to be, I will say so. Is this kind to the writer? You do make a great point above, and it will make me think twice now when I review a book. But, reviews are there for a reason. To assess the merits of a work. I would want to know what is wrong/good with my writing if I am not appealing to the marketplace. This is a business, not an ego boost. I want to make sure my product is marketable and I am hitting my target market. If I am not…then shame on me! But I think the key is deciphering between the “haters” and the truly helpful assessments. I think this goes for beta readers and critique groups as well. Whether we want to know or not, our work is put out there and therefore is up for review- good and bad. I have gotten reviews that I have disagreed with immensely, but I cannot say that those comments and disagreements did not help me move forward to be a better, or be a more thorough writer. I either stood firm in my convictions of what I wrote, or was more diligent in making my writing better.
I do tend to read negative reviews of books I’m thinking about reading, because I want to know if there are things in the book I’d prefer to avoid. And I’ve left negative reviews when I found something harmful in a book. I’d never say people shouldn’t write them.
But I don’t see any reason to read negative reviews of my own books.
Negative or critical reviews are part of this business. That’s just the facts here. Every author gets bad reviews, even Pulitzer Prize winning authors like Donna Tart’s The Gold Finch who has 20% 1- and 2-star reviews. There is a culture out there that takes joy in attacking. We all know this exists in our society at every level. But for authors, as long as Amazon and other online venues allow for reviewers to hide behind “screen names” instead of requiring real names on customer reviews, we’ll always have these cowardly trolls trying to cause damage and be abusive.
I’m hearing that on Amazon a book with say over 50 reviews and a handful of 1- or 2-stars can get higher visibility than a book with 20 reviews all 4 and 5-stars. And a mix of reviews gives your book more credibility to have some negative comments. No book is perfect and loved by every reader.
I don’t read negative reviews for fear all it will do is make me doubt myself and my ability. I am also a book reviewer. I’ve written maybe two negative reviews in all the years I’ve been reviewing books. Even with them, I was able to positively comment on something in the writing. My issue with both of them was that the information they were sending out to attract reviewers was false. Both represented their book as something it was not and after reading the type of book I read and review told me it fell within my guidelines. The back cover was the same thing. I don’t accept just any book, so most all of my reviews are positive.
You feel exactly as I do when a reader wants to ‘fix’ my grammar for me. And it is very difficult not to respond to incorrect attacks. I’ve definitely slowed down on reading reviews – it doesn’t help much, really.
I’ve not published anything yet, but as a reader I absolutely hate #1. It’s like me picking up a western, knowing that I hate them, and then reviewing it for being a western. Ugh.
I do.
Why?
Although I agree, it is too late to help that book–it isn’t too late to help my next.
I remember the first negative review I received–on my short story collection. The reviewer felt that some of the stories could have been longer. This review got under my skin.
“They are short stories.” Was my justification.
After I got over myself, I used the reviewer’s comments to help me write longer. Thanks to her words I wrote novellas and novels.
You ask, “What about you? Fellow authors, do you read your negative reviews? Why or why not? What do you get out of them?”
Yeah, I get sucked in. I don’t get much out of reading the negative reviews except wanting to pulverize the reviewer about why the reviewer doesn’t know what he/she is talking about.
For example this was a recent 1-star Amazon review of my book “The Joy of Not Working”:
“Trivial and poorly written. Absolutely nothing new. If 200,000 copies were sold as is says, there are 195,000 disappointed people. Don’t spend your money or time on this. There’s a lot of other good stuff out there.”
I wanted to reply by saying: “First, the book has now actually sold over 300,000 copies. Second, you must have some seriously bad critical thinking skills given that 91 percent of Amazon reviewers have given it a 3-star or higher rating. Yet you say, ‘there are 195,000 disappointed people’ which should mean that 97.5 percent of people would rate the book at 2-stars or 1-star and yet only 7 percent do so.”
Of course, my response to a neurotic person like this reviewer wouldn’t make a difference. People like this are so hung up in their own B.S. that any common sense or critical thinking is way beyond their grasp. I have to be reminded by people such as Seth Godin about how futile replying to negative reviewers would be.
“It certainly makes no sense to try to convert your biggest critics, because they’ve got a lot at stake in their role of
being your critic.”
— Seth Godin
“Criticism is difficult to do well. Recently, we’ve made it super easy for unpaid, untrained, amateur critics to speak up loudly and often. Just because you can hear them doesn’t mean that they know what they’re talking about. Criticism is easy to do, but rarely worth listening to, mostly because it’s so easy to do.”
— Seth Godin
In short, it pays to be reminded by these inspirational words:
“My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”
— Jane Austin
I read every review, and I check frequently for new reviews. The first few negative ones can sting, but ultimately they help you develop a thicker skin, which is a handy thing for any artist.
I don’t want to write in a vacuum. I want to know how readers react to my work. So I find reviews extremely helpful – they help me find out what I’m doing right, they sometimes provide surprising insights, and they also help me identify who my audience is – and who it isn’t.
That latter part is important, because negative reviews can often be a matter of your book simply not being right for that particular reader. After a while, reviews like that become pretty obvious, so they don’t bother me at all. For example, I’ve learned that my writing will likely not appeal to extremely conservative Christians, due to my use of profanity and “taking the lord’s name in vain.” And I’m totally fine with that. But it did surprise me when I first saw multiple negative reviews complaining about the same thing, and it has changed how I market my books. I never would have learned if I didn’t read all my negative reviews.
Great article. Thanks for sharing!
I do read reviews, but only if they are less than four stars. I definitely want to know why a 3-star (which, thank goodness, has only happened once or twice) has landed in my review list.
But here is a good one, 3 stars left for my women’s fiction novel GAGA. The reviewer said (paraphrased) that she did not like the book cover, nor did she like the title. Ahem. Well. If I do not like a book cover, or a title, I won’t even bother to read what the book is about. And if I do not know what the book is about, then I won’t read the book. Since title and cover are the first things you see…well…I am not sure why this person chose to read the book in the first place.
People are more silly than mean, I think. And I can deal with silly. Luckily, MOST people are kind, and tend to write reviews that come from a well-meaning place. I may wear rose-colored glasses, but I believe those meanies are exceptions to the rule.
And BTW, as a private English tutor, I find typos in nearly every classic my students are required to read. From To Kill a Mockingbird to 1984. Typos are like hairs in a freshly painted wall. Unless the entire wall is furry, who cares?
; )
I’ve had enough negativity from disgruntled publishers, editors, and agents, and I survived. I passed the test—I don’t need to pass it again.
I stopped reading reviews after one was so off base I couldn’t get it out of my head. It was positive but it was like reading about a different book than the one I wrote. If anyone sends me an email or FB post/message I willingly engage with them- at least to thank them for taking the time to read and get in touch. Otherwise- I’m in the dark if people have read and loved/hated any of my books.