You can create a community of hundreds or even thousands of raving fans who will examine which books you’ve placed on your virtual bookshelf. They’ll discuss, review and recommend your books. They’ll ask you questions about your characters or plot lines, and sometimes hang on your every word.
But with the good, comes the bad.
Prepare for Negative Reviews
Somebody, somewhere, won’t like what you’ve written and respond with a bad review that they believe is completely fair and accurate.
Resist the urge to respond! Here’s why:
- If you do, you’ll most likely invite another comment from the reviewer that’s nastier than the original. You won’t be able to help yourself. Before long, you and the reviewer will be in a drawn-out debate that looks and sounds like sour grapes.
- You’ll come across as too sensitive, unable to accept criticism, and resentful. Do you really want your followers to see you that way?
- You’ll turn off other potential reviewers because they might fear that you’ll come back at them with both guns drawn.
- People don’t all like the same things. Go over to Amazon and look at some of the best-sellers. You’ll see negative reviews mixed in with reviews that gush about the book.
- You might develop a reputation on blogs and discussion boards as an author who can’t stand the heat.
- Those public comments might show up when people, including publishers and journalists, do a Google search for your name or book title.
What to Do Instead
Practice acceptance. Know that you are not alone. And move onto the next project.
If your’e still angry, walk away from the computer. Take a walk. Take a nap. Resist the urge to keep going back to the bad review and reading it again, hunting for any inaccurate morsel.
Don’t appeal to your fan base and ask them to write good reviews to “push down” the bad one. Don’t ask them to stand up for you in the debate.
Instead, read this lively discussion about “reviewer abuse” on Goodreads..
As a publicity expert who teaches reputation management, I know how damaging these public squabbles can be.
Am I wrong?
Joan, Great article! Thanks. And I enjoyed the article and comments on GoodReads also. (I’m posting about it on my writing blog.)
Thanks, Joy. I hope your audience takes the time to comment. I’d love to hear their thoughts.
[…] helpful article by Joan Stewart of Publicity Hound on reacting/responding to reviews of your book: https://publicityhound.com/blog/authors-why-you-shouldnt-respond-to-bad-book-reviews/ Be sure to check out the article and comments on Good Reads also. (She includes a link.) […]
Thank you, this is very interesting and very timely. I wonder if you have any advice for the reviewer who does get a reply from the author to a critical book review? Thanks!
I think it depends on what the author has to say. Any response encourages the conversation to continue. You can certainly continue it, if you wish, and reiterate your comments. But don’t expect to change the authors’s mind. Did this happen to you, Jen?
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[…] article originally appeared on The Publicity Hound’s Blog and has been republished with […]
I think the only time to refute a negative review is if the reviewer accuses you or posts false comments about you or your book. In that case, kindly respond with a “thank you for taking time to write, but per XYZ Source, the fact is ABC.”
Unless the review is ridiculously nasty, I’d always reply with a “thanks for your input.”
You’re right, however, Joan. Getting into a digital spat is never good for an author’s reputation. Whether you’re an author or a public figure, you’re best off when you take the high road.
Correcting the record might make it worse, especially if the reviewer woke up on the wrong side of the bed and is inclined to continue the discussion.
Excellent article. I respond to negative reviews by thanking the person for taking the time of their busy schedule to read and provide constructive feedback. Would you recommend this or just don’t repsond.
This is a nice approach, Vivienne. Thanks for sharing.
I don’t believe that bad reviews exist. Dumb reviews, mean reviews, nasty reviews, confused reviews, sure. Bad reviews? No. Most of the time, any publicity is good publicity and the rest of the time, you’re almost always better off just hunkering down and weathering it (The one exception is if you’re wrong and you need to apologize or make a correction. Then you do that quickly, with a thank you to the person who pointed out your mistake, and move on).
In my experience, what new writers are looking for and what the reader is looking for in a review are not even in the same ballpark. We’re looking for validation (or, if we’re more experienced, more market reach). Jane Smith is looking for something new to read. Bad reviews can actually sell books in two ways.
One is that they’re often more detailed than positive reviews because the reviewer is off on a rant. Few total strangers will go off on a positive rant about your book. But just because the reviewer hates your miniature, polka-dotted unicorns doesn’t mean a reader checking out that review won’t go, “Oooh, those sound like fun” and buy your book.
Two is that readers tend to be suspicious of only-good book reviews. They’re not dumb. They know that some authors ballot-stuff by commissioning good reviews. But every single truly popular book has the whole range–good, bad, ugly, and downright hostile–because everyone has checked it out. And again, bad reviews may not deter a reader because many people want to read what everyone else is reading.
Paula, I wonder who readers trust more: professional book reviewers or common folk who review books. Thanks for stopping my and making some very salient points.
Hello Joan, Thanks for this – the best advice, of course.
I recently received a 2 star review on Amazon from someone who’d read the free sample until he came across the “F” word on page 13 and left the warning for others about the vulgarity. (Total number of vulgar words: 115 out of 95,000)
I was happy to leave it alone, but then someone I “know” from the internet left an abusive reply, including calling the person an “a-hole.”
I prevailed upon the “friend” to delete the comment and asked him to keep his nose out of my business.
Life’s too short, and everyone’s entitled to an opinion.
Here’s my advice. I’m not sure if this is a book or an ebook, but to avoid problems like this in the future, it might we worth it to remove all vulgar words, particularly from the free sample. I stay away from vulgarities altogether but sometimes get beaten up by a few readers who send me to the dog house for using the word “crap.”
Which raises another issue. Resist the temptation to respond to nasty reviews of works by friends, however unfair or scurrilous they may be. If it’s something truly slanderous “this author must have been been smoking crack”) , report it to the site admin. But if you respond, the reviewer will accuse your friend of instigating a pile-on, call in all his or her friends to the defense, and the dreaded cry of “author behaving badly” goes up, thus doing your friend more harm than good. In the worst case scenario, the site admins delete the slanderous comments, leaving only your angry response, and people think YOU”RE the ass.
I speak from experience.
Great point, JD. People often think poorly of pile-in campaigns.
Thanks for sharing.
What makes a “bad” review the most difficult to accept is when you know it is done as an act of spite and for the sole purpose to defame and undermine by going into personal attacks.
You’re right. Which is why people with thin really skin should think twice before writing a book. The Internet is a nasty place.
@Joan
I think it depends. In my experience from reviewing for a small horror zine, readers get attached to specific reviewers. On the other hand, if you say something they don’t like about something they do like, they’ll just dismiss you as a “fan,” anyway. Others don’t trust anyone they consider professional because they think we’re pretentious. So, the line between “professional” and “common folk” can be subjective.
@Shawn Lamb
I don’t think that’s a good reason to respond. Spiteful reviewers are angry or jealous and want to get a rise out of you. If you respond, they get what they want. If you don’t, not only do you thwart them, but you do it with no extra effort on your part.
Very good post, Joan, and I agree. I like reading the bad reviews as well as good ones because sometimes their attacks tell me this is a book I am going to love. 🙂
I have only responded to one bad review. The reviewer completely mischaracterized a piece of parenting advice in our book to the point that I felt the danger of drawing further attention to the review was outweighed by the importance of going on record to say we said no such thing. It was a hard call. Thankfully, the reviewer did not respond.
In general, a few negative reviews in a whole pile of great ones is a good thing, even if it hurts our author egos!
I should have mentioned in my post that authors can, indeed, correct the record, as you did. But any comments beyond that are just asking for trouble. Thanks for the helpful reminder, Melanie.
Thanks for re-enforcing the need to take the high road. Hopefully I will remember it at the right time.
The temptation is hard to resist. I know. Been there, done that.
[…] Don’t Reply to Bad Reviews – Joan Stewart, publicity expert, explains why. […]
Joan, I think you are situationally correct. If reviews are subjective – “there’s no accounting for tastes.” you really have no basis to counter and any response could be damaging. On the other hand, if a reviewer is objective – basing criticisms on incorrect information and that information is quantifiable and factually referenced information – an even toned response correcting the misinformation and referencing your source is required to maintain the author’s credibility.
I would correct the record, but absolutely no more than that. Thanks, Durwood, for your views.
I would correct the record, but absolutely no more than that. Thanks, Durwood, for your views.
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