Did you know that the writing life can be painful sometimes? Especially when someone doesn’t like your book. Or the main character. And has no problem reviewing your book in order to tell you just how little they enjoyed it. The other day this happened to me. I received an email informing me the judging for a self-publishing contest I entered An Audience with the King in was finished. And the judge’s reviews were in. With excitement and trepidation I opened the email contents.
Losing a contest hurts. Reading the review was worse. It was as though I was falling down a black hole. A black hole of imposter syndrome. The thought to a take the book off sale bombarded me. The need to apologize to the world for having brought the book into existence, seduced me.
My book isn’t as good as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It isn’t The Bell Jar. It probably won’t will a prize. But it also isn’t that bad, some people have really liked it and some even reviewed it well. And getting it out there is better than it living inside my head. I had to really convince myself that one review should not change my entire perspective about the book. Once I could breathe a little and pull myself away from the black hole of despair, I sat down to journal.
Here are some things I learned about losing the contest.
1. You can choose to laugh or choose to cry. The best is to choose both.
I was upset, I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t. I grabbed my journal and wrote out my thoughts, even put some quotes in for future use. Then I let it sit for awhile. After a day I was able to laugh about it with the group. Not that I shrugged it off, but I was able to see that it was one person’s thoughts, that I’m still happy I wrote it and that I know I will keep doing better.
2. Don’t take any action
The first thing we can feel is that we ned to take action. Take the book off sale or throw it in the fire. As writers, we can get a bit dramatic on the inside. BUT DON’T react right away. If it’s a review about typos or something else minor, definitely go in and fix them. But don’t go in and fix them while mad or upset because you might then make another mistake in the process. Give yourself a little bit of time to process. And for goodness sakes, don’t answer the review if you’re going to be nasty! Things are forever on the internet, ya’ll!
3. Re-read the review with an eye for what you can learn/take away
Go back to the review once you’re calm and re-read it with an eye to catch the things you can take away with you. Unless it’s a flat out hateful review, there is probably something that you can learn or take with you to apply in becoming a better writer. I’ve talked to several writers who attribute a poor review to them becoming better at something. That is only possible if you go back and read the review with a calm mind.
4. Decide what is true and throw away the rest
Decide what is true about the review. I decided that my blurb probably isn’t the best that it can be. I also ended up agreeing that the categories were probably wrong. Easy enough fixes.
I decided not to change anything about the actual book. In the end, it’s one person’s opinion and while they might be a great editor and their opinion worth many pounds in gold, the book is what it is and it isn’t worse than many books out there. So I’m not going to toss it out.
5. Remember your book isn’t for everyone
I should have though a bit harder before sending my book in to a contest. Contests are looking for specific things in books and stories, not just books that are good. Contests are looking for something they can shout from the rooftops about. If you get a review from someone, after you’ve taken into consideration what they’ve said, remember that perhaps the book wasn’t written for them. We can’t please everyone. There are plenty of books out there that I don’t like and you don’t like. And it’s okay. It’s also okay that someone reads your book and doesn’t like it. So goes life.
But the BEST thing I learned is that there really is a reason to NOT WRITE ALONE!
I came to a sprint with my writing fam at the Creative Writing Community and was able to talk things out, get some encouragement AND we decided to have a blurb workshop in January to fix my blurb (and theirs as well)! That still doesn’t bring my book to C.S. Lewis status, but for that all I can say is that I’m gonna keep trying!
Putting our books into the world take courage and since we live in a day and age where everyone gets to make known their opinion and the internet will be sure to have you read it, you will probably get a poor review every now and again. But take heart, remember that every artist does get poor reviews, that your book isn’t for everyone, that you can still learn and grow from a poor review and that in the end, your story is still worth telling and you’re the brave one putting a book into the world, not them putting a review into the world!