I caught myself lying

[Guest]

I told myself: as long as my book makes one person happy, brightens their day just a little bit, I'll be happy. Turns out that actually, even the mildest negative criticism sends me into a spiral of despair, rage and self-doubt.

[Justin]

I’m still struggling with this! The way I’m fighting it is reframing my original sentence with “as long as my book makes one person happy, I’ll be happy. My book makes ME happy!” though it takes a lot of reminders to myself ^_^; I always have to take it off the shelf and look at the note I wrote in the front cover of “hey be proud of yourself because you’re holding your book”

[Tony]

Don't read reviews. Period.

If you really need to know what they said, have someone else read them for you and give you the feedback in a healthy way.

[Brian]

You need to get think skinned - this is part of being an author. I wrote a book that sold 3,000 copies yet had only 7 reviews ( one of them a one star ) and do you know how much sleep I lost over that?

Not one minute.

I had a couple of people on social media say that they would have done a better job on my book than me. And you know how much sleep I lost over that?

Not one minute .

You can get 99 great reviews but if you concentrate on the ONE bad one you’re going to go nowhere. Accept the good with the bad and get on with things.

[Matt]

This is very relatable. Keep writing and be proud of yourself for your accomplishments! I’m a believer that you should write what you want and you’ll find your readers.

Best wishes to you!

[Kim]

The last negative review I had I read with fascination and laughter. Thinking "they didn't like it but they still read the whole book! They got really angry over these characters! It's like the characters were real to them!" Not everyone is going to like what you write. But if you like it, that's what matters.

[Jassy]

Listen carefully.

Nobody can write a book that everyone likes, you write what you like and let people like what they like. You have no control over what others think. You do you!

[Elizabeth]

Need to cheer yourself up? Who's your favorite author? Favorite book? Find that book or author on Goodreads or Amazon. Sort by one star reviews and read them. Read all the negative things some people had to say about those books or authors who you and probably many, many others love. No one is everyone's cup of tea. Everyone is entitled to an opinion about your work, but their opinion shouldn't define you as an author. Because opinions are, well, we all know the phrase.

[Derek]

Try to write the book that makes you happy.
Once your make your art for someone else its not your art anymore.

[Phoenix]

If you can’t change this attitude then you’re not going to make it in the industry, if indeed this is something you desire.

Putting anything at all in the public domain invites criticism and it’s something artists need to get used to.

Don’t write with a motivation to ‘help’ others, write so that you may understand what is inside yourself.

[Alexandra]

98% of criticism comes from people who have no clue what they’re talking about. 1% comes from trolls whose goal

is to cause drama. And 1% comes from people who actually may or may not have a relevant opinion. But even those are just that: opinions.

Take the time to really pick apart some of the whack comments and think about where they come from. After a bit, they really start to lose their impact.

[Levy]

If someone stops by your roadside strawberry lemonade stand and says they don't like strawberry lemonade, it's their taste, not your product, that isn't working.

Start a water stand? Someone wishes you had lemonade.

Start a coffee stand? Someone wishes you had tea.

Do your thing. If you like it, odds are someone else will. You cannot ever satisfy everyone with anything.

[Elisabeth]

Everyone who writes will receive criticism. It is a fact. The first time it happened to me I stopped writing for a year. Afterward, I was looking online one day for my favorite book to purchase as a gift for a friend. When I read the reviews I was SHOCKED to see people leaving bad reviews. (The book is excellent.) That day I realized there are some people in the world who aren’t going to recognize excellence when they see it.

The same is true for any art form. Readers feel a connection to something they have read because it connects them to a life emotion or experience. Not everyone has had the same experiences so we will all be moved by different art forms.

I hope you continue to write. A writer writes because they have to. Try not to despair over the one critic, there could be a thousand who need to hear it.