This was going to be a post about the tricks pulled on you by low self-confidence, the grungy feeling you (generic you!) might get when you’re looking imposter syndrome in the face, the general downer you get when you begin to believe that nothing you ever write or do has any worth at all. But it’s morphed instead into a ‘how to deal with reviews’ post. Because, well, whenever I’m feeling a little less than chirpy, it’s usually because I read a review to trigger it. I wrote about reviews earlier this year but in a more general way. Today, though, I’m a little more focused on how to deal with reviews when your confidence, for whatever reason, isn’t stellar and everything feels like a punch to the gut.

If ever a writer says they don’t read their reviews, just nod and say ‘uh-huh’. Because that’s just not human and more than likely not true. We put our books out there, our little children made of sugar and spice and a million words, and we want readers to find them, buy them, and love them. Otherwise, why publish at all?

But not everyone will like your book, dear writer. You can’t please everyone. Not every reader will like your style or your plot and they may end up hating the characters you feel you love more than is reasonable. And what’s more, they don’t have to like you and your book. They’ve paid their money for your work and they have every right to tell the world what they think of it. Even if that isn’t very much. And you, as the writer, have to take it on the chin and just keep on going.

Some days, like today, that’s hard. When your non-writerly life is determined to kick you in the teeth, that can be very hard. When the world’s decided that you’re today’s flavour of scapegoat, then it can be downright impossible to put your chin out to take a bad review. So, here’s a tip or two to get me you through it.

• Stop pretending you can ignore reviews, because that way lies madness, and then you’ll crack and you’ll be haunting Goodreads like Marley’s Ghost, clanking your chains and wailing. But get your essential survival kit before you go and look. You only need two items: good chocolate and a nice cold Chablis. Bring lots of both.
• Cherish the good reviews. They’re there, and they show intelligent insight into your books, the reader got what you’re trying to do and those reviews are all round Good Things. Smirk. Have chocolate and a glass of wine because you are a star and you deserve it.
• Do absolutely nothing about the bad reviews and meet them with dignified public silence. There are too many object lessons out there of authors behaving badly. Don’t be one of them. No matter how hostile the review, no matter how undeserved, say absolutely nothing online. Not on Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr. Not on your blog. Nix. Nothing. Behave as if you have been struck dumb. Tell yourself that every single writer gets bad reviews. J K Rowling? Tolkien? Dickens? They all got some stinkers. Have chocolate and a glass of wine because, again, you deserve it.
• Remember it isn’t personal and as we’ve already noted, the very greatest writers have stood in your shoes. Of course, you can take a moment to be sorry it’s happened to you, but remember the value of good chocolate and wine as universal comforters, pick yourself and keep going.
• Chocolate. Wine. Just because.
• Keep writing the stories that are in you.

That last thought is the most important. Even when your confidence is at a low ebb, don’t stop writing. Write things that make you laugh or smile. Write things that tug at the heartstrings. Write poetry, or novels, or laundry lists. Write blog posts or Tweet or FB posts about your dogs. Write brilliance. Write dross. Write mediocrity… even write reviews. Who cares? Just write.

Just keep writing. That’s what I’m telling myself, and that’s today’s tip for writers.

Eat chocolate. Drink wine.

Never give up. Never give in.

About Anna

Anna was a communications specialist for many years, working in various UK government departments on everything from marketing employment schemes to organizing conferences for 10,000 civil servants to running an internal TV service. These days, though, she is writing full time. She lives with her husband in a quiet village tucked deep in the Nottinghamshire countryside. She’s supported there by the Deputy Editor, aka Molly the cockerpoo, who is assisted by the lovely Mavis, a Yorkie-Bichon cross with a bark several sizes larger than she is but no opinion whatsoever on the placement of semi-colons.

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