It's Insecure Writer's Support Group day! Yay! But it's not a normal, writing is really hard and everything sucks, IWSG day. Today we are trying to share advice and encouragement for the IWSG anthology. Before we continue, big, big thank yous to Alex J. Cavanaugh and his awesome cohosts My awesome co-hosts today are Kristin Smith, Elsie, Suzanne Furness, and Fundy Blue!
I thought about this and seriously wondered whether or not I would have anything of value to add. I know there have already been a lot of posts about writing, and I'm sure they're better than anything I could have come up with.
So I'm going to do something else. I don't know that it will fit into the anthology, but I'm doing it anyway. I'm going to talk about the after part. The baby blues. The fears, doubts, and holy-crap-I-sucks that come after you've already gotten through the writing, the revising, the querying, the accepting, more revising, and finally seeing your baby out there in the world.
People are going to love your book. Honestly. People have already loved it, that's why you've gotten this far. Even if you're self pubbing you know people have loved it to get this far. And more people will love it. Because it's good. (Don't forget that part, it's important.)
People will not like your book. I'm sorry, but it's just a sad fact of life. Not everyone will love your book. Just as you don't love every book out there in the world. And not just the ones that aren't your genre, your thing. We've all started books we thought we'd love, books our friends loved, and not liked them. That is a good thing to remember when you see those not loving reviews.
The best thing, of course, is to not see them. Stay away from all reviews as if they are the plague. But lets face it. That won't happen. Because then you might miss a good review. And we love the good reviews. So we peek, even though we know we shouldn't.
So when the bad reviews happen here is a to do list to help you get through them.
1. Yell at your screen. Explain to that reader why they are dumb. And wrong. And have no taste. Because clearly they have no taste. Remember, this step is to be done verbally or in your head. It is not, I repeat NOT to be typed up in a place where the reviewer or any reader can see it.
2. Eat something yummy. Chocolate is great, but if you aren't a chocolate person then go to your go-to food. Chips, French fries, banana cream pie. Whatever. Eat something yummy and feel free to pout.
3. Go to Goodreads. (yes really, you didn't read that wrong) go to one of your favorite books. One you love and you can't imagine anyone in their right mind not loving. Now go to its one star reviews. (Because it will have them.) Read them and feel free to go back to step one. See, even your beloved book, this amazing book, has people who don't love it. (Dumb people.)
4. Read some of your good reviews. Remind yourself that there are people who love your book. (Because it's awesome, and you are a wonderful writer.)
5. Remind yourself that YOU love your book. And you are the only person who really matters.
6. Keep writing. Because you love it and you're good at it.
Great advice. Better to focus on the good than the bad, and remember that not everyone is going to like every book. You just have to hope your book finds the people who will like it.
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome advice. Yeah, all books end up with a one star review. Or many. And if the great ones get them, then it's all right if we get them.
ReplyDeleteI think this fits great. Thanks for contributing to the book!
Perfect advice. Those bad reviews hurt but you have to move on.
ReplyDeleteLOVE this advice. And absolutely this is something I'm starting to have rattle around in my brain, so thank you for a great way to handle this new step and the fears that come with it.
ReplyDeleteThis is all great advice and encouragement. I've read some reviews that were really mean; I think that they were written by people who probably wanted to provoke an angry response from other people. And reviews aren't always right anyway; I've loved books that didn't get good reviews, and I've hated books that got several four-star or five-star reviews.
ReplyDeleteI think that's a great point that we sometimes don't like books in the genre we read in that even our friends have enjoyed and that goes to those who don't like our books. It's a subjective thing reading. A great reminder. A great post. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder. It's so easy to get upset over a bad review, but after I've done all of the above, ranted and raved, I remind myself that's one person's opinion, and they're entitled to it. Then I ignore it. :)
ReplyDeleteGood advice. Not everyone will love what you write. That's just a fact of life.
ReplyDeleteChocolate is a good way to deal with critics. Music and video games help too.
ReplyDeleteThese are such excellent tips. I've done every one of them!
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