Dealing with Negative Book Reviews

Dealing with negative book reviews can be difficult, especially if it's your first one. You have invested a lot of time in your book, sometimes even years. You have edited your book and finally published your manuscript. Then come the reviews. As much as you love your book, it will not appeal to everyone. People will leave negative feedback. Some will be a fair appraisal of your book, while others may just be mean spirited. Learning how to handle these unfavorable reviews is important; you don't want a negative comment to stop you from writing.

This episode was inspired by a negative comment that I received about a quote from Episode 06 "Why Your Book Won't be a Success and What You can do." The person who made the comment disagreed with my quote but clearly didn't listen to the episode. It stung a little but I had to push past it somehow. I did so in the same manner as dealing with negative book reviews.

Negative comments will happen to you. But you are not alone. Even the well-known authors like Stephen King and J.R.R. Tolkein have received their fair share of not so positive comments from readers.

Highlights

04:29 Not everybody will like your book
08:43 Don't spend a lot of time focusing on the negative
09:20 Can you learn from the review?
09:42 Don't Argue with a reviewer
13:56 Understand Amazon's Guidelines for reviews and report abuse

Resources Mentioned

Amazon Community Guidelines

Amazon contact email to report abuse: [email protected]

Criticism is something that nobody likes, and it can be hard to deal with. Take some time. Deal with it. Don't focus on that negative review. Consider if there's anything that you can learn. Avoid starting an argument and know your rights. Know what the guidelines for Amazon are so that you can report anything that is actually abused.