Your opinion comes first. There are all sorts of people with all sorts of opinions, especially when it comes to your work, but the reality is your opinion is ultimately the only one that matters. As long as you’re not writing instruction manuals on how to get away with murder or something similar, or glorifying terrible scenarios and making them seem desirable, everything is fine. Your book may not be the most popular, but it will have its share of fans. Those opinions are the only ones aside from your own that matter.
The reality is that you can’t please everyone. Not everyone will like your book and you have to come to terms with that if you want to keep publishing. There will be negative reviews because that is part of publishing. Your work will not be to everyone’s tastes.
When it comes to writing, my favorite piece of advice is to write the stories you most want to read, because those are the stories you’ll be most passionate about. Because writing is hard. It’s sitting at a desk for hours, plunking out words one letter at a time until you reach the end. And even then, it’s not done. You have revisions and edits and a whole host of other steps in order to get your book into publishing shape. If you write a story you’re passionate about, it will be much easier to slog through the dead bits. Plus your passion for the story will show through in your writing. This is why your opinion is the one that matters most. Everyone else will have an opinion, too, but yours is the one that will get the book finished and out there for its ideal readers to find.
Opinions can be hard to stomach when they’re negative. That’s why it’s also important to let those roll off you. Remind yourself that your work isn’t for everyone and that’s okay. My favorite books others absolutely cannot stand, after all. And even if everyone liked it, that would be boring. Part of being human is dissenting opinions, after all. And debating the finer points of a favorite or not-so-favorite book, when handled well, can be a great bonding experience for people. It’s one of the myriad ways we learn about other perspectives because chances are they saw something we didn’t. Even if you fundamentally disagree it’s possible to see something from another’s point of view, which is an invaluable skill.
As writers, we love it when people love our books. There’s no mistaking that feeling of euphoria. But we also have to accept that not everyone will like our works either. That’s okay. It’s completely natural. Take the time to be hurt, of course. Acknowledge the sting. And then move on.
This isn’t meant to give people blanket permission to be awful about their opinions. Unless the book is harmful in some way, we should try to act with grace when we don’t like something someone else does. If a book is harmful in some fashion, that’s different. But as long as someone isn’t being outright hateful it’s possible to agree to disagree.
An adjacent problem is review bombing, which is a tactic some groups use to silence marginalized voices to keep them from writing. This is different from, “this book is not to my tastes,” because it’s an active effort to shut down voices some people find controversial. For the record, there is no marginalized voice that is deserving of this. People who write abusive content, who write manuals on how to get away with heinous crimes, that’s different. But the unfortunate reality is that racists will try to silence BIPOC voices. Transphobes will try to silence trans people’s voices. Homophobes will try to silence gay voices. And unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do aside from trying to let it go. Because they’re trying to get under your skin. They’re trying to drive you away from your writing career. There just isn’t much you can do about it. The only thing I can really advise right now is not to let them get to you. It’s hardly ideal, I know. It’s also easier said than done, I also know. But by responding, you’re giving them what they want in a way.
There are also people who hate-read things for no other reason than to justify a one-star review. I’ve seen it a lot, where people will purposefully rate books they found terrible because they feel like the author needs to be taken down a notch. You see this sometimes with popular authors. And it sucks too. In an ideal world, people would read what they’re interested in and not pick up things specifically to be spiteful, but we don’t live in an ideal world. So try to not take it to heart. Much like bigots reading works by marginalized authors to one-star them in an attempt to silence them, the best thing you can do is let it go. I know it hurts. I know it sucks. The problem is, if you respond, it doesn’t make you look better. A lot of people will judge authors who do this, so the best course of action is to let it go. I wish I had better advice. But right now, that’s all you really can do.
And negative reviews happen to everyone. Not all of my work is popular. Not all of my work is well received. I’ve certainly received my share of negative reviews. But those weren’t meant to be taken personally. While yes, some people do read books they hate to justify hating the author or to justify leaving one star reviews, a lot of people aren’t like that. Most people aren’t rating books at one star because of a personal vendetta. Most people picked it up, assuming they’d like it, and wound up not enjoying the read. And that’s valid. I’ve read my share of books I thought sounded good, just to find out I wasn’t the target demographic. And that’s honestly the best thing you can say in those situations. “They weren’t my target audience,” can go a long way to helping you feel better. Obviously, sometimes there are critical flaws in a manuscript that need adjusting, which can skew things, but if you’re self-published at least, you can deal with that. You wouldn’t be the first person to delist a book to fix it, should you desire to. Critical errors slip by people all the time, even with a robust team helping you. Shortly before I listed Savior of the Damned for preorder I found one, in fact. Twelve rounds of edits, multiple eyes reading it and giving me feedback, it slipped by all of us until that very last read-through. I know my beta readers and I joked that if it slipped by all of us it would slip by almost everyone else, but I knew I could do better. So I fixed it.
Everyone’s tastes are different, too. Some people will prefer epics. Some people will prefer a different genre than what you write. Some will only read best sellers or well-known books. There are a million reasons why someone might not like your book and most of them are valid. We all have different tastes in books, after all. I hardly ever read romance myself, but the most popular genre is romance. That doesn’t mean romance books are bad. It means that I’m not the target demographic. Marketing a romance book to someone who reads horror, for example, isn’t going to go over well. And marketing plays a role in who picks up your book too, but this essay isn’t on marketing and promotion. Just know that the most effective writers know their audience and know how to target them.
This, however, is why your opinion is the most important one. As long as it’s a story you put your best into, that you are excited to have told, that’s all that really matters. Not everyone will like it. Some people might seek it out to review bomb you. But if you’re proud of your work, if it’s a story you were itching to tell, that’s the part that matters the most. The people who are meant to enjoy your books will find you, and they matter second. But you come first.