Three of the hardest things a writer has to deal with are rejected manuscripts, harsh critiques, and negative reviews. I've had plenty of the former, because it takes a while to learn your craft, and we all think our work is amazing until someone else says it really isn't. I've dealt with my share of biting commentary on my writing as well. Not everybody gets what you are trying to do or enjoys it, and people are plenty willing to point out the flaws in grand detail. Ouch! At least that usually comes before it's finalized in print. But the hardest for me is to have something already in print and well accepted by the publisher and editing staff, and then see it get trashed by a reader. Man does that sting!
And that just happened to me recently. But before I get into the bad review, I want to talk about the first two potential bubble-busters.
Rejections are something every new writer has to learn to deal with. You send your polished and primped baby out there to what you hope is a receptive publisher with an audience of readers dying to be entertained by your sharp-witted prose. Publishing is a busy world, so you know you're going to have to wait some amount of time to get a response. You're praying all along, "Please let this be the one that launches my career so I know I'm not wasting my time." With smaller publishers, feedback is often rather quick, and more personal. They will let you know why they didn't accept it, but you may not understand the answer. Even if you do, it still hurts, though there is a lesson in there. If you're lucky, you might get a second chance with a rewrite. With the big houses, it takes months, and all you might get is a brief form letter with an electronic signature and a vanilla statement about how 'this doesn't fit our needs at this time'. And you're crushed! Now and then, someone might pencil in some comments on a page or two, but it's the same thing. They didn't like it as written. It somehow wasn't good enough. And most times, you don't have a clue why not. You want to curl into a fetal ball and hibernate until the worthless feelings go away.
Well, don't. It doesn't help. Rejections are just part of the business. Don't take it personally (like I used to) and quit writing. Or stop stop sending things out. It's all part of the process. You're paying your dues to get your industry chops. You've already done something most people might contemplate and talk about, but never get around to. You've written a manuscript from start to finish and did your best to make it readable and interesting. You put it in a format you believe looks professional. Then you screwed up your courage and sent it out into the world. That takes time, effort, perseverance, and guts. Don't give up now, the journey just began. Learn from the experience, see what you can do to improve your writing or presentation, and send it somewhere else. All of us go through this. Repeatedly. Rejections don't just magically end one day after your first, or fifth, or even your fiftieth publication. You still get them. I'm sure even the big names get them—or at least they're asked for rewrites. See if you can figure out what went wrong. Was it riddled with typos and grammar errors you didn't fix? Did the storyline meander too much? Were the characters cardboard cutouts or did they overshadow the plot? If you can't figure it out, and there's no guiding commentary, have someone else who loves to read go over it. Or just send it out to another publisher. But never give up. You definitely won't be published if you stop writing and sending things out.
So, you've joined a writer's group, where you meet regularly with other writers and read excerpts of your stuff to each other. Or you've handed off a manuscript to a trusted friend or associate who will read through it and give you their thoughts. You want them to be honest and you might even say, be brutal. But then when they are merciless, you're caught off guard by all that negativity. My gosh, they picked your baby down to the bare bones and found very little to praise it for, but it certainly seems to have numerous flaws. You were blindsided and totally devastated. What do you do now?
Take a deep breath, step away until you can look at things rationally. Face-to-face criticism is the hardest to take, because it can feel like an attack on your character as well as your work. You can hear the inflection in the words as they are spoken, see the expressions, and feel the contempt. It's hard to listen to, but listen you must—and possibly take notes. Because in that cruel assessment, there might be some gems of information you can use to actually improve your writing. But if it's repeatedly nothing but negativity, then you're working with the wrong folks. They just don't like or understand the kind of writing you do, and it's more about that than it is about you and what you wrote. While I use beta readers on occasion and I do belong to a writer's group online, I have learned how to choose my clan carefully. Most of the people who get to read or hear what I'm writing are authors with published works. They write a variety of fiction as do I, but with the emphasis on action/adventure in many genres. So they understand what I write and can offer contructive criticism put politely, because we all know what it feels like to be blindsided by a harsh assessment. I try and be as supportive, helpful, and honest as I can be and point out not just the problems, but the things that I find really good as well. And there always are some real gems in there. Nobody is that bad! With a beta reader I always choose people I trust who I know have read and understood my writing, and I do listen carefully to what that person says. If something stands out as problematic to my beta reader, it certainly will to a reader who paid for the book and doesn't know me at all. That trusted person doesn't necessarily have to be a writer, but should be a reader of the type of material you produce. You have to understand and enjoy that category of writing in order to be helpful.
Reviews! The gold standard of feedback. Oh how we covet readers who write reviews. Besides the obvious ego-boost (Somebody actually reads my stuff!), we're hoping to have something tangible to show others that says yes, I do know how to write! Reviews help readers find material worth paying for, and they boost your ranking on whatever site they appear on. All win/win for us authors, at least until you get the dreaded bad review. Then it sits there on the page like a glaring neon sign on a tawdry bar in a rundown neighborhood. Somebody came sauntering in on your happy hour, and with a sucker punch knocked you down a few stars. How do you handle that?
You don't. Unless the review is totally unfair, uses inflammatory language, or becomes a promotion for someone else's writing that is better than yours, you read it, and go on with your life. It really sucks when it's the only review on the page, but hey, that's the breaks. Keep in mind this is one person's opinion, and that there may have been others who read your offering and enjoyed it but just said nothing. Or maybe they read it and didn't enjoy it, and said nothing. You'll never know. The person who wrote the review at least took the time to express an opinion. It's not what you wanted to hear, but there you go...
That actually just happened to me recently. I found a somewhat in-depth and negative two star review on Amazon that mentioned me by name (see it here) and basically trashed the novella that I wrote for an Airship 27 Sinbad book. It also somewhat pooh-poohed the short story that finished the book, so I wasn't the only victim of the negative critique, tthough mine was much more strongly worded. It was from a Kindle customer from the UK. Well, you can't please everyone!
So what did I do? Not much. I read it a couple times, took a few deep breaths, lamented the fact that it was the only full-fledged review, and went on with my life. Someone else's 5 star rating (no review) did even things out and I'm grateful for that. So somebody enjoyed it and somebody thought it was pathetic. In the end it's just one person's opinion either way. Sometimes people don't like what you write. It didn't ruin my day or stop me from writing any more, because I'm past that point. In fact, I was working on the next Sinbad adventure when I read it, having logged over to Amazon looking for the release dateof the last one. I said a few naughty words and went right back to work. Because writing is what I do.
So please, don't get discouraged if you get negative feedback. Learn what you can from it, do whatever you need to in order to live with it, and go on with your writing. Unless you're getting enough rejections and hate mail to paper the walls, you're probably doing okay. And even if you are, it's part of the learning process that goes with the business. And this is a business, even if you're only writing part time and have a day job that pays the bills. No publisher stays solvent long if they take books and stories that don't sell because no one bothers to read them. They have to be choosy to survive. You'll get better as you go along, though occasionally something like this will crop up. One negative comment doesn't make your book or short story a stinker. Just like one rosy review doesn't make it a best seller. Keep those fingers tapping the keys and the ideas flowing, and it all evens out over time.
When you do get to that point where you can accept things as they come, remember these days and give another newbie a confidence boost. Pay it forward. You might just save someone's career aspirations as well as their sanity.
Writing onward always,
~NANCY
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