The Wednesday Writer’s Corner: Responding to Reviews
Now some of you
are already published, and many of you who keep on trying will eventually be
published. So, this week’s advice
applies to your situation after you’ve been published. For published writers, this may be one
of the most essential pieces of survival advice you’ll ever receive.
Are you
ready? Here goes:
Negative Reviews
Never . . . never
ever . . . ever ever, publicly respond to a negative reader review. Never ever email someone who’s given
you a negative reader review. For
God’s sake don’t read a negative review on Amazon and then click on “comment”
and tell the reviewer (in public) what a complete idiot he/she must be to give
your book a bad review.
Although to many
you, my above advice may seem obvious, you’d be
amazed how many “professional” writers have either flamed or publicly called
attention to a negative review—and therefore the reviewer.
This problem has
become so prevalent on Good Reads that the folks who run the site have actually
installed a “think twice” notification if the writer attempts to comment on a
review. Although the notification
is polite, the basic gist is, “Do you really want to make an ass out yourself
by responding here to a review?”
I have a few
friends who I consider professional writers (because they are) who link
negative reviews on their blogs and then make non-inflammatory but sort of
generic comments such, “Clearly, the person didn’t like my book."
Again . . . yikes! Whether this is intentional or not, a
writer who does this is both “calling out” and attempting to publicly
embarrass the reviewer. This is
the equivalent of saying to the reviewer, “Hey, I’m the writer, and I not only saw
that you hated my book, but I’m showing everyone here what you said about my
work.”
This is unprofessional. Don’t do it.
Once a review
has been sent out to the ether of the Internet, leave it alone. Trust me. I’ve had books praised to the skies, and I’ve had books
slammed to an astonishing degree.
Those reviews express the reviewer’s honest opinions, and that’s that.
Whatever you do,
don’t start doing searches for the reviewer’s email address so you can send the
person an enraged email about their obvious stupidity either. Your email may end up published in
twelve different places on the Internet.
Writers from Anne Rice to Alice Hoffman have gotten themselves in
trouble by throwing a tantrum over a bad review and attacking the reviewers
personally. Don’t do it.
Positive Non-Professional Reviews
Okay, this is a
little trickier. Should you respond
to a positive review?
No.
Same problem
here with making the reviewer feel stalked. The person may have liked your current novel/story, but this
reviewer does not want to be made to feel influenced in any way—that you are
reading his/her reviews and responding.
The reviewer should be allowed to feel completely objective about the
work in question.
The only
exception to the “No” above is when the reviewer is a personal (and I do mean
personal) friend of yours. I have
two close friends who occasionally review my books, and in private, I have
thanked them. I’ve reviewed a book
or two written by a close friend, and they’ve thanked me in private. As long as you know the person very
well and the exchange is private, I think you’re okay.
But DO NOT ever
respond in any fashion to any review on the open Internet or send an email that
may wind up on the Internet.
Positive Professional Reviews
Okay, these are
different—in some ways. If Kirkus
or Publisher’s Weekly or Booklist or Romantic Times (or even a well-known blogger), etc, gives your new book a
glowing review, it’s fine to mention this and list the link on your website or
blog. This is part of marketing a
book. JC and I do list
professional reviews on our websites. Again, I wouldn’t respond to the reviewer personally, but
it’s fine to list the link to a positive professional review--and this can help with marketing.
