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Roll with it.
Cringe cringe cringe! If you haven't already seen it, a review site posted a mostly-negative review of a book, and the author flipped out in the comments section. I could only scroll through about half the comments before I had to close out of the window. I find people humiliating themselves a difficult thing to watch/read/hear about.
When I talk about professionalism being the secret handshake of publishing, this is... well, this is an extreme example of the kind of thing to which I'm referring. Very extreme. But, as you can see, it's something that happens!
Any professional writer or editor will tell you that you have to learn to roll with it when you get negative reviews -- whether that review is on your published book, or if it's a critique of your draft from your writing partner, agent, editor... No book is perfect. There's always more work to do.
It sucks when people say negative things about your writing, but if you can't roll with it -- and if you can't identify what in those negative reviews is a helpful critique you can incorporate into your writing for next time -- then you're going to have a really hard time finding a place in the publishing community.
When I talk about professionalism being the secret handshake of publishing, this is... well, this is an extreme example of the kind of thing to which I'm referring. Very extreme. But, as you can see, it's something that happens!
Any professional writer or editor will tell you that you have to learn to roll with it when you get negative reviews -- whether that review is on your published book, or if it's a critique of your draft from your writing partner, agent, editor... No book is perfect. There's always more work to do.
It sucks when people say negative things about your writing, but if you can't roll with it -- and if you can't identify what in those negative reviews is a helpful critique you can incorporate into your writing for next time -- then you're going to have a really hard time finding a place in the publishing community.