No matter what creative industry you’re in, reviews are touted as the things that make or break one’s success in one’s art.
It’s certainly no different in literature. However, it is also important to know that reviews have standards of quality as well. They can be a step towards improving and revising your work. Or, they could have no more weight than the millions of comments people leave on the internet.
So rather than a knee-jerk reaction, authors can adopt several approaches whenever a review shows up for their book. These can apply whether the review is left on Amazon, or when you have more professional critiques coming in the mail.
Approach #1: Target Audience Assessment
This can be most effective if you are just looking at feedback that is from the wider public. You might think that your book could be receiving a lot of negative comments. But sometimes, a closer look would indicate that maybe you are presenting your book to the wrong audience.
This is a problem that is faced by not just authors, but all sorts of content creators (and even people marketing a business). It is like asking for feedback on a self-help book, but you are surrounded by folks more interested in science fiction or fantasy.
The good news is that there are many tools today that can help you get a handle on who is more likely to resonate with your work. Social media has metrics to indicate if your book is somehow getting shown to the wrong people. Other platforms can help you advertise to a more specific demographic for a fee. In any case, make sure that you did your homework on the kind of readers you want your book to have before looking to get reviews. That way, you know the feedback will at least be relevant to your niche.
Approach #2: Acknowledging, Adapting and Aligning
Now, suppose you got some great reviews that are really constructive and have given you so many ideas. However, sometimes there can be one too many great ideas. It is a classic example of having too many cooks that could spoil the broth.
In this situation, it is important to organize the best information you are getting from these reviews. Get a list of what are the most common critiques of your book, and then see just how possible it would be to implement them.
Maybe you got too much exposition going on. Maybe your book might have been better off broken down into a trilogy rather than a big, long read. Maybe rather than revising, you can use these common elements to improve the next work. You don’t have to implement all the feedback all at once. It is simply about organizing the information the reviews give you.
Approach #3: Making Your Case
Lastly, there can be a point where you have to make your stand, and that much of the reviews are asking you to compromise on some very important parts of your book. This is usually what happens when your initial work may not have made it clear what exactly is the story you are trying to tell, or what kind of message you want to send out.
Of course, perhaps it wasn’t until you got your reviews that this wasn’t also clear to yourself! But now that you have gotten feedback, taken time to reflect on it, and realized what’s important in your writing, then it is natural to make a stronger case for your book.
Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean you need to reply to reviewers themselves or even make a bold statement pinned on a wall somewhere. Rather, use this as a springboard to really solidify the values, themes, and ideas you want your work to represent.
Take note that none of these approaches are also mutually exclusive! You are certainly free to apply more than one or even a combination. After all, the idea of reviews is really intimidating, so you certainly need to do your best in handling them.
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