How to move past negative book reviews

Yeah.  This sucks.  I’m not going to lie.  When you see that lonely little one star rating followed by some pretty hurtful words, it’s enough to bring any author to tears.  But I’m going to tell you something that if you’re published you already know and if you’re not you might as well find out now.

Everyone gets bad reviews.

Everyone.

Even the Harry Potter books have a few one star reviews scattered between the millions of five star ones.  I mean, seriously, how is that even possible?

What I’m trying to say is that when you get bad reviews (and you will!) don’t take it too hard.  This post is for those of you who have gotten some bad reviews and are in need of some serious emotional support, or those of you who are worried about getting those bad reviews when your book hits the shelves.

I recently gotten some pretty scathing reviews on my latest book that came out.  And by scathing I mean something along the lines of, “this book is awful and should never have been written.”  Now, that’s nothing any author ever wants to hear about something they’ve written.  But this type of thing is inevitable so here are some tips on surviving when those awful, nasty reviews start tumbling in.

Don’t take it too seriously

Now, I understand this is one of the most clichéd pieces of advice ever given, and it’s definitely easier said than done, but it’s true.  Remember, the reviewing isn’t taking a stab at you personally.  They’re not going, “this author is terrible, they suck, I hate them.”  No, they’re talking about your book.  And yes, you’re book is your baby, but remember that (most of the time) they are just being honest and not trying to hurt your feelings.

Ever read any books you hated?

I know you have.  We all have.  I’ve read books that everyone around me loved and yet I just didn’t see it.  Would you falsely give a book you didn’t like a better rating?  Or would you rather be honest and constructive in your feedback?  Remember, this is just the opinion of one person and we’re all entitled to our own opinions.

Since you’ve been on the receiving end of negative reviews, you have a chance to be a really constructive and helpful negative-review-writer when you come up against some books you just don’t click with.

Remember why you write. 

Take a step back and ask yourself one simple question: why do you write?  If the answer is just for glorification then you probably shouldn’t be doing it.  Writers write because they love to do it, not because they want loads of money and attention.  Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not the real driving force behind the tears, sweat, love, and frustration that goes into creating a novel.  Just remember that you write because you love it.  You love writing, you love your books, and you love putting them out there, even if there are some people who don’t appreciate it.

Revisit those good reviews

So you got some bad reviews. But you got some good ones stashed away in there too, right?  I remember getting my first one star review for my newest novel.  The one I mentioned up at the beginning, remember?  I’m going to be honest, this review nearly made me cry.  I shouldn’t have been so hurt, but I was.  And I spent at least a few days mulling over that review in my mind, wondering why on earth this person didn’t like my book and what I could do about it.  And finally I came to the conclusion that there really is absolutely nothing I could do about it.  So why worry?  Instead, I looked back on the really nice five star reviews that I’d gotten, some of them really touching and praiseworthy.  Those were the reviews that mattered to me because those were the people I’d been writing my book for.  They were the ones who mattered.

Stop reading negative reviews.

Remember how I mentioned I obsessed about that one star review for a few days?  Well, by obsessed, I mean that I read it more than once.  A few times, actually.

Don’t do that!

Now, I definitely encourage reading negative reviews that provide constructive criticism.  If they mention a character was flat or a story arc needed improvement, you can find ways to better your writing in the future.  But if the review is basically just a rant on how terrible your book is, don’t read it.  You can usually tell within the first sentence or two which type of negative review this is going to be, and if it’s the latter, stay clear.

Your worth is not summed up in that pesky one star review.

Your novel is a huge, wonderful accomplishment.  You labored over the writing, the editing, and not only did you write a novel, you published one.  There will be good days and bad days, so don’t let those negative reviews get you down.  Keep writing and keep publishing!

And remember – since there’s been a lot of hate going around, especially on Goodreads, between authors and reviewers and whatnot – we all love books and we all love to write them, read them, review them, and talk about them.  We’re not here to point fingers at authors or reviewers.  We’re here to share our love of books. We all have different opinions and it’s a wonderful, lovely thing.

Thanks for reading and have an absolutely marvelous day!

Being a Teen Writer – Looking for Agents and Publishers

Alright, this is going to be a quick post – I’m basically just going to be covering the main question I had when I first started querying agents and publishers as a teenager – does my age matter?

When I started querying for my first novel I was thirteen.  So that makes it roughly four years total that I’ve been doing this.  And I’ve made basically every mistake possible.  Like, all of them, aside from the horror stories you hear of writers stalking agents and sending hate mail.  That would just be rude.

 

Don’t mention your age – it doesn’t matter.

 

And one mistake I made, was telling them my age.  “Hi, I’m Pauline and I’m 13 and I wrote a book – here, look at it.”  It wasn’t pretty.  I cringe at the sight of my past query letters.  And telling them my age didn’t really help.  I’d get responses that were somewhat patronizing, telling me to keep going, but that they were passing.  Or, I’d get requests for partials, but knew deep down they were only doing it because I was 13 and they wanted to give me a chance.  It took me awhile to realize that whether I got published or not, I wanted it to be about my book and not about how old I was.  And then I stopped putting my age in the query letters.  I simply told them I was an aspiring writer having written X amount of books etc.  I saved my age for later – after they’d offered publication, or if they asked beforehand.

Sometimes, I’d get a response asking a few questions, such as my occupation.  Then, I’d tell them I was a teenager and basically just a student.  I used to worry that if I waited until after they’d offered publication to tell them my age, that I was being dishonest in some way, but that’s really not the case.  The publisher doesn’t care how old you are.  They care about how good your book is.  And that’s it.  Thankfully.

So if you’re a teen writer who’s querying agents or publishers, don’t sweat it.  The worst that can happen is you make a few mistakes and by the time you’re an adult, you know everything to avoid and how to snag an agent/publisher.  That’s basically what happened to me.

By the way, don’t ever send a multiple book query letter.  Or address your letter, ‘To Whom it May Concern’.  Or query multiple agents in the same house.  The list goes on, but those are some of my biggest fails.

Anyway, hope this helps and have a great day!

 

~ Pauline

 

 

The Daunting Task of Querying

Are you a writer who has ever dreamed of publication but don’t know where to start?  The task of trying to get published may seem daunting, and although a very limited amount of people gain success, the effort is actually very easy.

Querying is the first and most important step to trying to get a publisher and there are several phases involved with this step.  First, you need to learn a little bit about how the querying process works.  Second, you need to compose a query letter, explaining who you are, what your book is about and why you think it will sell.  And third, you must find your target audience; agents who represent the genre you are selling.

First off, how does the querying process work?  The querying process is actually very simple, composed of the two steps I will be explaining in the next two paragraphs.  In a nutshell, publishers usually don’t accept unsolicited submissions from authors, so you must go through a literary agent, a person who acts as a liaison between you and a publisher.  You will submit to agents and once you find one who will represent you, they will submit your work to publishers and find one who will publish your book.

Secondly, you must write a query letter.  So, what exactly is a query letter?  A query letter is basically a one page introduction about your work.  Your query letter should start off with a hook; a sentence about your book that grabs the reader’s attention and pulls them into your letter.  You want this sentence to tell the reader what your book is about in an as brief and interesting way as possible.  For example:

Mechanical is a young adult, dystopian novel about an android girl named Drew who suddenly finds herself caught between two worlds; humanity and perfection.  This basically sums up the novel and tells you just enough about it to pique your interest.    

Sometimes the hook is a question.

Are you strong enough to live forever, or are you brave enough to die? 

What’s more important; the chance to be perfect or the chance to be human?  This kind of hook requires the reader to put themselves in the character’s place.  What would I do if I had to choose between perfection and humanity?  What will the character of this book choose?  And most importantly, is this an interesting enough topic to sell?

Once you’ve written the hook, you will need to include a short synopsis of your novel.  Who is your character, what is the main conflict and what happens in the book?  This will read like synopsizes usually found on the back of a book or inside cover flap.  Remember, you want to make your book sound as enticing as possible.  But be careful, many authors make the mistake of either being too confident about their writing, or being under confident.  Don’t be arrogant, comparing your book to Harry Potter, but at the same time, don’t beg the agent to help you get published.  You want to be confident in your writing, but at the same time, appropriately modest.

Then, you’ll want to write a short paragraph about yourself including any previous publishing or writing experience.  Don’t include irrelevant facts about yourself; keep it professional and writing related.  Finally, you’ll want to conclude your query in a brief and polite way.  If your book is intended to be the first in a series, tell them.  And then sum up by thanking them for their time; they can get hundreds of queries a day and thanking them for taking the time to read yours is the least you can do.

Now that you’ve written your query letter, you will need to find agents who will be interested in your work.  Take the time to do some homework.  Sending your children’s book query letter to an agent who only represents adult crime fiction is a waste of both your and the agent’s time.  There are many ways to find appropriate agents to represent your work.  Do an online search for agents in your book genre, for example: agents who represent children’s fiction.  You will come up with tons of results.  There are also many books that specialize in publishing and simply list hundreds of agents in all genres of writing.  Jeff Herman’s Guide to Publishing is one of those books.  Also, many writers will include their agents in their acknowledgements page.  Look at books in your genre and see who the author’s agent is.

So, that was querying in a nutshell.  Good luck, and thanks for reading!

 

~ Pauline