Dealing with negative reviews


Today I’m over at The View Outside talking to Vikki and her followers about dealing with negative reviews.  I would really appreciate it if you would pop over, say hi, and sit for a while.

If you have time, I’d love it if you would leave a comment here about how you deal with negative reviews/critiques.  Have you had a bad review of anything you had published?  Maybe that you sang, or drew, or sculpted?  How did you handle it?  Are you someone who craves approval from others or are you confident in yourself?  I would love to hear from you.

Quote of the day:

“Dreams are the touchstones of our character.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

 

12 thoughts on “Dealing with negative reviews”

  1. Wonderful quote! 🙂

    I had many critical comments about my early work, but they were mostly to help me improve my writing. It didn’t stop me from writing, though, and I’m glad I kept at it. Fortunately, I’ve never had any really bad public reviews of my published work. If I did, I’m not sure how I would feel. I think it would depend on if I felt they were right or not. 🙂

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  2. I was a leader for a huge group project in college. For some reason one of the students often told me I was doing a bad job. That I didn’t know what I was going. The thing is the rest of the group thought I was really great. I took the majority rule route. I kept with what I was doing and we got an A. Some people are just not going to love you no matter what. And that’s okay.

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    1. It is okay to not be liked by everyone. If we were, then we wouldn’t stand out. We’d be mediocre, and I don’t want to be mediocre. I’m so glad you stuck with what you loved. By the way, thanks for the in depth review of Make Believe. It was very honest and greatly appreciated. Couldn’t ask for a better review than that! 🙂 Have a wonderful day.

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  3. I crave approval…but need to get over that. A negative review can depress me for days. But I read on another blog that at least 10% of people will always hate us no matter what we do, so rejection is a certainty for everyone. I’ve read FB posts from top selling authors who get a 1 star review on Amazon (not deserved at all…but everyone gets them, so as an author we have to toughen up for that eventual knock down and then get up, smile, dust ourselves off, and still believe in ourselves).

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    1. Yep, I’ve read some of those reviews. Some of them I think I would have cried until my eyes poured out of their sockets. This business is not for the faint-hearted. Gotta brush it off and move on, and by doing so, you portray your real character, and your fans will love you even more.

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  4. In the long run, reviews don’t really mean much. That goes for good and bad reviews/critiques/other comments. Yesterday I got a great critique from someone in my group who totally understood what I was getting at. Does that mean I’m sure to sell the story? Not at all.

    Every review is just one person’s opinion. If it’s a harsh, negative review, then it’s the opinion of just one jerk. Do you know this person? No? Then why do you care what they think?

    What’s more important is building your own skill and judgment as an artist. So approach criticism like panning for gold: look for the nuggets of useful information, and throw out the rest.

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    1. Very wise advice and something very difficult to master when you’re an approval-seeking hog like me. 🙂 So far, none of the reviews for my short story have been ‘evil’, more like it wasn’t their cup of tea, but when and if the evil reviews do come, I’ll be ready.

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