Claude Bouchard Books

Anyone who is a published writer will eventually have to deal with a bad review and the odds are, more than once. Like it or not, it’s impossible that everyone who reads your work will like it. Child, Brown, Grisham, King, Baldacci, Connelly, Konrath and many others have lived through it and so will you. It’s a fact of literary life.

No matter how many months, even years, you have slaved—researching, developing, editing, perfecting—to create your literary masterpiece… Some people out there will go the extra mile to savage it, rip it to shreds, publicly scorning your work of art, ridiculing you and your efforts.

Their intent often seems to be spiteful, their goal only to hurt you. Frequently, these bad reviews demonstrate that the reviewer didn’t even understand what he or she have read. They missed the point. Other times, you’re left wondering if the review actually pertains to your book or if this sad critic got confused with some other work.

Regardless, these reviews will show up on occasion and, in most cases, you are left powerless to do anything about them. They have been posted for the world to see, forever etched on a website somewhere, a stain on your record, a jab to your ego.

However, all is not lost. I’ve developed a simple method which can help alleviate the pain, anxiety and feelings of depression generally caused by bad reviews. I now wish to share this process with all of my fellow writers, in hopes of helping you overcome the one-star blues.

When I come across a less than desirable critique of any of my works, I read it carefully, making sure to capture the essence of any flaws described to support its negative tone. I then fully analyse this information, considering its merits, drawing from it anything which might prove helpful in improving my writing going forward. Once this is done, I take a deep breath, relax and murmur, “Fuck you, asshole.”

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