Why I Don't Read My Reviews
(and you shouldn't read yours either)
I love my readers. I’m so grateful to anyone willing to give my books a try. And so it might seem like refusing to read their reviews is… not taking them seriously or not valuing their feedback. But it is, in fact, the opposite.
There is a constant debate about whether authors belong in readers’ spaces, and the short answer is: they do not. If you want readers to feel comfortable with you and your work as an author, if you want them to feel like they can be honest (and, hey, maybe some authors don’t want honest reviews, but I do!), you cannot be hovering and stalking and—above all else—you cannot be arguing.
Which means, if you do read your reviews (though, again, I advise against it), you should never, ever respond to them. Readers are not there to give you pointers on your writing, and authors should not be using their reviews as feedback. The time for feedback came well before the book was published. By then, your manuscript should have gone through critique passes, editing, and beta readers. Once the book is in the world, it belongs to the readers. If you’re lucky, they’ll read it and enjoy it. Then they’ll leave reviews for other readers to recommend your book… or not.
Many writers are also readers (and see my previous post as to why they should be), and may even be reviewers, so this should make sense to them. But some authors just cannot resist peeking at their reviews. It takes a lot of willpower, for sure, to turn a blind eye. But you should.
On my site, I have this promise to reviewers. I am not closed off to what they have to say; if a reader thinks it’s important for me to hear a piece of feedback, they are welcome to contact me. But I will not go looking for it.
A big part of this personal policy is for my own mental health as well. I’ve learned that nice words about something I’ve written stay with me for a little while, but harsh words stick with me much longer and tank my motivation. As someone who wants to look forward and keep working on the next thing rather than continually be looking back, I can find reading reviews to be counterproductive.
My recommendation is to have someone read your reviews for you. They can offer you pull quotes for future marketing or let you know if there’s an issue coming up repeatedly that you’re not to address in the here and now* but should keep in mind for future work. (I promise, if there is something that needs an immediate response, you will hear directly from readers. And to that, I say: take a beat—several, in fact—before answering.) Ideally, after all the feedback you received before publishing, this is a rare occurrence. Otherwise, I’d tell you to find better critique partners and maybe some more sensitive beta readers.
Keep in mind, too, that not all books are for all readers. Sometimes, your writing or plot or characters or dialogue just won’t work for a subset of readers, and that’s okay. Unless it’s the audience you were targeting, in which case… you clearly didn’t know them as well as you should have. Which is a whole different issue.
Is there ever a time and place to read your reviews?
I read my “professional” reviews. By which I mean, the ones that show up in Publishers Weekly, BookLife, and other such outlets, and sometimes on reading blogs that are dedicated to book reviews. I still never respond to these blog posts, though I do sometimes get direct emails from bloggers that I do answer. Politely and with grace. Always thanking them for taking the time.
At the end of the day, readers who leave reviews are doing unpaid labor. You’re not entitled to a certain number of stars, or readers, or sales. Your readers are entitled to your best possible work. And, ideally, that work only improves the more you write.
*If you’ve self-published an ebook and there are serious issues, you may consider removing it and re-editing before publishing a new edition.