How to Muscle Through a Bad Review
First: Scream into a pillow. Second: Look away.
There was quite a dust-up on the World Wide Interwebs the other day when a writer bashed a reviewer for a cranky review of the writer’s forthcoming book. Actually, to be accurate, it was a four-out-of-five star review, which most writers would consider enthusiastic. Much of the angry response was not directed toward the reviewer but toward the writer, who came off like a spoiled brat, a diva. Most of all, the writer violated the unspoken pact between creators and reviewers. Creators get to have a big, wide public distribution of their products, and reviewers get to say what they think of these products without fear of retribution. Getting reviewed, in other words, is the cost of doing business in the public sphere.
That said, getting reviewed is terrifying. It feels personal even when it’s entirely professional. It’s a one-way conversation in which anyone can say anything about something you have lovingly crafted, and unless they allege a specific failing to which you can respond (such as suggesting you have plagiarized another work or misstated facts), you can’t fight back. Reviews are opinions; opinions are by definition neither right nor wrong. There’s no argument against them except to say you have a different opinion.
