Marketing "Sin" #6: Mishandling negative feedback
What do you do with a negative review?
A few weeks ago, I got an email from a friend in publishing. Mike has authored books and worked as an acquisition editor. Today, he’s a literary agent.
In my reply, I (not-so-casually) mentioned that “I just finished the first draft of a novel I’ve been working on for almost two years.”
Would you believe Mike wrote back and offered to give my manuscript a look!?
I breathlessly sent it Monday evening…then drifted off to sleep dreaming about reps from the Big Four publishing houses parading in front of my house, throwing eight-figure book deals at me like Mardi Gras beads.
When I woke early Tuesday I had a response! It began, “I like the concept a lot and…your characters.”
From there the review went off a cliff. “I worry that the text itself doesn’t reach the same standard of excellence that your nonfiction writing achieves.”
Gulp. Mike gave some examples, attached a kind of “checklist” PDF, suggested some basic books on fiction writing, and urged me to start over.
What are you supposed to do with discouraging feedback?
For at least 15 minutes, I wallowed in self-pity. I felt humiliated—especially when voices in my head started taunting me: “What were you thinking? What the heck do YOU know about writing a novel? Do you realize you just WASTED 20 months of your life?”
I got defensive. I'm ashamed to say I began mentally disparaging one of Mike’s novels I read a few years back!
I was heading into a serious funk—when I decided to stop and write my morning pages. That helped me clear my head.
Then I took a deep breath and revisited Mike’s email, asking Which of these criticisms are valid?
The more I pondered, the more I realized that in writing my first draft I had NOT paid close attention to the granular details of my writing.
Mainly because I was SO focused on getting the grand sweep of my story and making my characters interesting.
In short, Mike was right. I have lots of work to do.
Some negative feedback is valid.
But not all of it. Not always
In Subpar Parks, Ashley Share has curated actual negative comments by visitors at some of America’s most iconic national parks. Here's a sample:
Arches: “Nothing like the license plate”
Crater Lake: “Just something to look at and leave”
Bryce Canyon: “Too orange…too spiky”
Yellowstone: “Save yourself some money. Boil some water at home.”
Some bad reviews say more about the reviewer than anything else.
Are you reeling from a bad review of your business?
Evaluate it. Is it legit? If so, be humble. Accept the criticism gratefully and do your best to fix the problem.
But if it’s off-base, blow it off, and keep going.
(For the record, I doubt the rangers at Great Sand Dunes lost much sleep last night because a silly tourist once dismissed their park as “just a big mountain of sand.”)
Here's to using bad reviews for good!