Don’t be dispirited by
a bad review – use it to help you write a better book
When Sarah, a
writing colleague of mine, received a bad review of her newly published book,
she was deeply upset. The reviewer said some unpleasant stuff in the first part
of the review, but ended by saying the book was quite well written. Sarah could
not see past the nasty stuff and was convinced her book had been killed stone
dead. She felt she couldn’t tell anyone about it because they would look the
book up on Goodreads and Amazon and see the horrible review. She asked her
writing friends what she should do about it, because it seemed so unfair.
Guess what the
friends said? They said, every one, that bad reviews come with the territory;
that something similar had happened to them; and that the review in question
was not as bad as some they had seen. To summarize they said, ‘Forget it and
move on.’ Good advice, but is there something more to be gained from a review,
whether it is good, bad, or just indifferent?
Every writer
wants their next book to be better than the last one. We want our writing style
to be more accurate, our dialogue to be more natural, our plots to be more
gripping, and our characters to be more loveable (or hateable). But getting
better is not simply a matter of experience. Yes, a craft skill gets better
with repeated practice, but it is also possible to repeat the same mistakes
over and over again, especially if we’re not even aware of the mistake we are
making.
We are writing
in the modern age; the age of Amazon, ebooks, customer feedback, and ratings
for everything. There’s no hiding place from the sales rankings. It’s an
unforgiving world, where poor customer service on one occasion can be broadcasted across the globe, and where a reviewer can stick a knife into a fellow writer’s
cherished book with a few lines of faint praise or a hostile misrepresentation.
We can’t change this state of affairs so how can we use it our advantage?
STEP ONE. Leave
it a week or so, but look again at the contents of the bad review; it may
contain valuable insights. The fact is that ‘good reviews’, especially those
provided by kind people wanting to support our work, are not much help towards writing
a better next book. I admit this is not easy. When someone criticizes something
we’ve produced, we tend to explain it away. We think the reviewer must be an
embittered writer who is angry that someone else’s work has been published. But
we do not usually know their motives, and it does not matter anyway why they
wrote the review.
STEP TWO. Unpick
the message. Here are five questions to tease out valuable feedback:
1. Did
the reviewer understand what I was trying to communicate in the book?
2. What
aspect of my book did the reviewer pick out for particular criticism?
3. Was
the reviewer bored because the story was predictable or angry because it did
not conform to the expectations of the genre?
4. Did
the characters come across the way I intended?
5. Did
the reviewer follow the plot, or does their review show that they missed a key
passage or incident that was essential to a character’s motivation?
Try to look
beyond the bare words of the reviewer and divine their emotional reaction.
Which aspects of the book produced a strong reaction? Positive or negative,
these clues can point the direction towards writing compelling fiction, the
books that everyone MUST READ.
STEP THREE. Buy
a book in a similar genre to your own, read it for enjoyment, then go through
it again with a view to finding four or five things you would want to say to a
prospective reader. Write your review, and then consider what you will do with
it. The fact is, even very good books have faults and bad books have some good
things which can be said about them. If the book is just not your cup of tea,
then why upset the author? But if you want to help them get better, start with
the good points and let them know honestly what worked or didn’t work for you. Analyzing
other people’s books is the key to becoming a better writer.
Guest Blogger Bio
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfYLnhkeWns9Elkq4mswUnm7GdFEMeys0T_QEJD7cpjjBC2peas6-P3saei3qPkKQApTPBKGu5R8Q41V9Zi1HgcXkoixCklZOeQfK3KvE8ytFISkCOc4fI6vQG4KrnSeNy_hXdgLOHjDRr/s1600/Robert+Fanshaw+-Man_wearing_hat+(2).jpg)
I am still married, despite everything, to my beautiful wife Caroline. Writing is more than a hobby; it’s what keeps me sane because my job is not as glamorous as people think. Commercial law is like being in the army; there are long periods where nothing happens then suddenly all hell is let loose. Rather like my marriage.
I had a book about the law published
years ago, but my first novel, Shameless
Ambition, was much more fun to write. I can’t really claim credit for the
concept. Life provided me with Caroline, my wife. The banking crisis provided
the plot. All I had to do was use my imagination for the parts where Caroline
refused to go into details. The first two books in the Shameless series push
the boundaries of memoir and I suspect that fiction will eventually take over
completely. I’m working on the third novel now. Caroline gets the bug for
gambling and infiltrates a match-fixing betting syndicate. It will be ready in
time for the football World Cup. The title? Shameless
Corruption.
Robert Fanshaw’s blog: http://fanshawrobert.blogspot.co.uk/
Website:
www.mywifecaroline.com
Twitter:
@RobertFanshaw
Books:
Hi, Robert,
ReplyDeleteMy last try to leave a comment didn't take, but I will try again. I believe you've offered excellent advice, helpful to all of us who write. Congrats on your new novel.
Thanks, Jacqueline. The internet has changed reviews as well as books, and we are all getting used to a new world.
ReplyDeleteGreat advice Robert. Well done.
ReplyDeleteA wise person said on one of the Forums, re bad reviews - "Think of your favourite book of all time and then look it up on the net. It WILL have at least one bad review!" I did that - Wind in the Willows is, in my opinion, the greatest classic of all time - and yes, it had bad reviews! That helped me put my - blesssedly few - bad reviews into perspective :) Thank you for your advice in this blog. It's a good reminder for all authors, including myself :)
ReplyDeleteThat is a great suggestion, Diana.
DeleteIt is always a pleasure to have Robert on the blog! :)
ReplyDelete