Look, I want everyone to like my book. Hell, I want people to love it.
Obviously.
But I also understand that not everyone is going to like it.
Some people won't love it. They won't like it. They may feel indifferent to it, or even actually hate it.\
I've already heard some negative reviews.
And that's hard.
But...
Yes, there's a "but".
Bad reviews, I remind myself, can actually be good.
According to Forbes.com, a negative review, provided that it's polite, generally makes that product or company appear "more honest, down-to-earth, cheerful, and wholesome [...] compared to no complaint at all."
Essentially, negative reviews highlight the most positive reviews. They also make me, and my writing, appear more honest, largely because they make me more honest.
You better believe I am - and will continue to be - reviewing every review. If I hear over and over again that a certain something needs to be worked on, that is valuable feedback for my next book.
Or it might be feedback for something else, some aspect.
The important thing is to take the reviews with a grain of salt, to use the tired cliche.
So, in the interest of honesty, I'm going to supply some of the strongest critiques I've heard so far. The only things I've changed is fixing some spelling and other mechanics, and removing some personal information and transitions between points. This is only a sampling, keep in mind.
I think you have a great baseline but I don't buy these two people being together forever. Why does she come back? You need to skip your childhood sections for Danielle.
I need more to happen. There isn't action. I want the relationship to be obvious. I don't get why they are together. I don't get her and him.
There is more; believe me, there is more.
But I want to talk about how I respond.
The first negative review I received was actually from one of my beta readers. She's an old friend, and a voracious reader, who generally reads fantasy, YA literature, etc.
This is the important thing I learned: I needed to describe my book better.
My only criticism of The Night Circus (click on the title to be taken to my review) was that the description set the reader up for a different type of book.
I know The Girl with the Empty Suitcase is not full of action. It isn't supposed to be. I also know it isn't obvious or dramatic. It isn't supposed to be.
So I changed my description a bit. I don't want to mislead readers. I began using words like "subtle" and "nuanced". Because that is what I was going for.
Another thing I learned: know thy reader.
Know your audience.
If someone who loved other episodal pieces of subtle women's fiction said it didn't fit, I would be very concerned. But a quick look at my friend's Goodreads lists shows that we rarely read the same book, and when we do, we often don't have the same opinions.
Therefore, she isn't going to be my target audience.
That does not negate her feedback, though. It gives me more to think about.
Another negative portion of her review said:
I felt like it was all a bit rushed and stilted.
Now, this is an example of when I was able to take in the feedback to actually change the story.
I felt something was missing at the end when I wrote it, and again when I revised it. But I couldn't quite put my finger on what. Then, this piece of feedback came in, and I knew my concerns were validated. Then, I got more feedback from a different beta reader, who made a suggestion about the end as well.
The result? A whole new chapter, the second-to-last one in the book.
I hear of people who delete bad reviews. Granted, there are trolls out there in online land. I roll my eyes every time I read a ridiculous review. Someone complaining about violence in a harsh war book, for example, or "old-fashioned language" in a classic.
And don't get me wrong - I don't want bad reviews.
But I will accept them. I will read them and try not to let them get to me. I will use them to improve my writing and storytelling skills, and to look at my works a different way.
And I will use them to remind myself that we are all different, with different tastes in everything. Including books.
And don't hesitate to contact me, either below or through my contact page.