Only two weeks until The California Dashwoods is out, and I’ve reached that stage that I think all writers do—sheer impatience. I mean, I wrote this book ages ago—I’ve gone through it so many times it almost feels like I can recite it now—and I can’t wait to see how it’s received! Which brings me to—insert suspenseful music here—the dreaded reviews.

The prevailing wisdom for writers is this: Don’t read reviews.
But of course we all read the reviews, don’t we, fellow authors? I mean, we’re proud of our work. We want to hopefully find out that people loved our book as much as we did. Crucially though, not everyone will. And if you’re going to read the reviews, you have to keep that in mind. And you need to understand that a review space is a reader space. It’s not for the author, it’s for other readers. Going into a review space, as an author, is like eavesdropping—be prepared to hear some things you might not like! And for the love of all that is holy, don’t ever respond to a negative review.
It’s also important for writers to realize that one star reviews are as inevitable as the dawn. But don’t worry, because it turns out that even bad reviews are good.
If you want to be an author, you’re going to get reviews. You’re going to get reviews that range from I WANT TO MARRY THIS BOOK to KILL IT WITH FIRE. (And yes, I have had both of these reviews–on the same book.) And as an author, you don’t respond–especially to the negative reviews. Just don’t, because nothing good can come of it.
Did you know that as an author on Goodreads you get a message telling you not to respond to reviews? And do you know why?
Because authors can be fucking crazy. Because authors have stalked reviewers, and doxxed reviewers, and even assaulted reviewers. So don’t be that author who responds to a negative review, even if it’s with the best intentions in the world, because yes, the knee jerk reaction of reviewers is to push back. For all of the reasons I’ve mentioned above, let alone the most basic reason of all: that everyone is entitled to an opinion.
Review spaces are for reviewers, not for authors, and there is no worse look than an author who responds defensively to a review. Because that immediately gets reviewers to circle the wagons, and it tanks your book ratings much, much faster than any single bad review can do.
Reviews are for readers, not authors. The second someone pays for your book, they can like it, hate it, or they can desperately want to KILL IT WITH FIRE. It’s their right. And it’s also their right to tell all their friends what they think. That is the whole point of reviews.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep on saying it: A reviewer doesn’t need to justify why they liked or hated a book. Either it worked for them or it didn’t. As an author, you shrug and move on. And you know what? It doesn’t even matter. Because for every person who thinks what you wrote was a steaming pile of crap, there will be another one who loved it and wants to have its babies. That’s the nature of any creative business.

There are, of course, ways to talk about your book without breaking into reader spaces. You can blog about it and respond to comments. You can post about it on Facebook. On Goodreads, you can use your own review space of your book to invite a discussion. But one thing you can’t do–or you can, but you absolutely shouldn’t–is go into a reader’s review space uninvited. Leave your door open for readers; don’t crash through theirs.
So when The California Dashwoods comes out, and whatever book comes out after that, and after that, I’ll be over here completely failing to heed the accepted wisdom of avoiding reviews. But however you feel about the book—love it or hate it—you can rest assured that your opinion is fine by me. And, in the end, all I can hope is that you’ll enjoy spending time with the characters the way that I did.