There is a scene in Friends, where Monica, a chef, receives a review that says “The Chef’s Mahi Mahi was Awful Awful” and she has a minor meltdown over the bad press, even going so far as to attend a cooking class despite being a head chef at a very well-known restaurant.
In some fields, bad press can certainly be devastating. The truth is, it really depends on why you are getting bad reviews. In fields where you are selling a product that engages people’s minds more than their senses, bad press is not always a bad thing. It mostly depends on the content of the review, the number of negative reviews, and how subjective the criticism is.
If someone leaves a review on your book calling it foul-mouthed, disgusting, disturbing, offensive to God or religion, or unnecessarily sinful in any sense, even though it may sting a little bit, it is not actually a bad thing. Reviews like that drive people’s curiosity. They make people who enjoy sin in all its glory want to read it. They attract people who find books with more cussing more engaging. They actually help attract your target audience more than you ever could on your own. In this case, bad press can be an incredibly good thing.
If someone leaves a review on your book that points out some major issues with your story, such as being sexist, homophobic, racist, or poorly written, but the other reviews are positive, you can just brush it off as someone maybe having an unrealistic view of your book or your writing, misunderstanding satire, missing the theme altogether, and things of that nature. It does not necessarily mean your book is at fault if the smallest portion of reviews are negative in nature.
If you are getting a flood of reviews that are critiquing your writing in particular, you may need to work on some aspects of your craft before releasing your next book. It does not mean you should give up. You can always improve. Own it and move forward, that does not mean your story is not good.
However, if you are getting a slew of angry reviews because your content is in some way offensive, marginalizing groups, giving in to stereotypes or clichés, sexist, or harmful in any sense, that is devastating bad press. If it was meant as satire, you clearly failed. If it was not, you need to reevaluate your world views and your writing at the same time, because there are few things worse than increasing the suffering of others with a craft that is supposed to be used to enlighten, uplift, or take people on a journey they will ultimately enjoy.
I know sometimes my writing can be extremely disturbing, so I am sure I will get bad press even though I fully intend to warn people as much as possible before they buy the book that it is not for the soft-hearted. I am also sure that I am not the best writer on the planet, and as my first book will be – you know – my first book, I am not expecting glowing reviews. But I anticipate that every bad review I get will probably push someone else to buy it if for no reason other than curiosity. I am not afraid of being disliked because it gets me closer to my intended audience.
The key to determining whether or not the press (or review, in this case) is truly hurting you is honesty with yourself. If the criticism you receive for your content is valid and you realize there are problematic things in your writing, you can always take the book down if you self-published and work on it some more, or you can just acknowledge that it has some issues that will be addressed moving forward in your coming books. Denial will not serve you, and neither will doubling down on whatever it is that you have done. People appreciate growth and can be quite forgiving if you are making an effort. They will not tolerate authors publishing toxic material – just look at what has happened to J.K. Rowling despite having written one of the most widely-read series in the world earlier in her career.
Bad press can certainly do wonders to help your book sell, or even be used as a promotional or marketing tool to attract your target audience, but only if the concerns in the reviews are not ones that would be widely shared. Being honest about the content of your book, including content warnings, leaving something in your author’s note about potentially triggering or disturbing in a certain section of your book, can all help ensure you ensnare your intended audience and help you avoid negative reviews. In the end, though, you cannot please everyone, and you cannot stop people from reading it that may not enjoy it, so negative reviews can come with the territory, especially in genres like horror that tend to be deeply disturbing in some parts. As long as you can evaluate whether the problem is the reader or the you, the writer, there is no need to take negative reviews to heart and re-enroll in a creative writing course. Just keep on keeping on!
