Authors! Reviews Are Not For You! 

My mom got a response from the author on one of her negative reviews once, it made the author look SUPER unprofessional.

i haven't finished my book yet and don't even know if i wanna publish it, but this was actually so encouraging, because i keep focusing so much on writing the """"perfect"""" clichee free book that no one would be able to find anything bad about, and it's obviously impossible and stresses me out and makes me change a plot that *i'm* happy with just because *others* might judge it. oof sorry for venting. i love your videos :p

I'm sorry, an author tracked down a reviewer? Holy hell. That's nuts.

Read your bad reviews in a funny voice... That is the best advice I've ever heard on handling criticism. Thank you for this!

THANK YOU for this video! New subscriber :) My debut novel is about to be published and this advice will honestly save me so much time/protect me from so much stress haha. The last thing I want is to end up wasting precious writing time in big, pointless debates with reviewers. I don't want to be THAT author. You are a gem and I can't wait to binge watch your videos! x

I’m not published, but literally any time I receive any criticism I’m going to be doing it in a Tommy Wiseau voice. I’m crying

Great video. I have had some weird authors getting in touch after negative reviews and NO. It makes me lose all respect for them. Defending your writing choices when it's completely unsolicited and being passive-aggressive makes you look bad, period.

Great video. As a reader who occasionally writes a review on a book I would like to add that sometimes I find the negative reviews helpful. If I am on the fence about reading a book I will read the good and bad reviews. I usually find it is the bad reviews that lead me to pick the book up. This is not because I want to see if the book is really that bad but because often the negative review will have a more intriguing write up than the gushy 5* reviews. However I recently left a 3* review for an author whose work I usually love and I felt so bad but it just didnt do it for me this time. I am not worried how the author will react I have never seen anything bad from her regarding reviews so I guess she doesn't read them. Plus I have never tagged an author in my reviews ever good or bad. If they want to see it they will find it on their own. Also readers don't go into a book wanting to leave a negative review. If we feel compelled to leave a negative review we were genuinely disappointed by it. Also I don't always write a review but leave a star rating as this is just as telling as a written review.

This is perfect. Both as a writer and reviewer. I especially agree with you about not tagging authors in negative reviews. And I love your attitude.

The advice to read some bad reviews of your favorite books is brilliant. I just did it, and wow, it was eye-opening.

Good video. I'm also tired of authors shaming people publicly for not buying their book, or not reviewing when they do buy. We are supposed to be adults.

Oh my, I love this so much! Art is, and always will be, subjective. As artists, we're sensitive, but I believe that as artists of any kind, you create the work as you see fit and then let it go into the universe for artists and non-artists to enjoy and talk about.

I never tag authors when I talk about their books on instagram. But: I do use a hashtag and it's weird when the author likes my picture with the review under it. I don't want them to feel bad if I say something negative, that's one reason why I don't tag them!

I have not published any books yet, but I've long-since gotten used to receiving mixed feedback on my art and hobby writing. I often find myself thanking people who write negative feedback, either for the helpful feedback so I can improve, or helping others decide whether me work will be up their alley, or because they insulted me in a funny manner. My all-time favorite review on a fanfiction was a negative one ("I have no idea wtf is the plot....this is more f-ked than pulp fiction and the breakfast club..."). I agree if a review does offend me, I should not respond to it. And if a person is nasty or rude, don't respond to them. But I really think that, for me personally at least, interacting with people who give fair negative feedback, even (especially) snarky feedback, can be beneficial in the long run. In fact, when I think about the website I plan to make after I start self-publishing, I would like to post a variety of reviews on my book (*with the reviewers' permissions obviously*), to give people an idea of what to expect and decide if my book is up their alley. (Obviously if someone just writes "I hate this book it's horrible" I won't post that, but if someone gives specific reasons that I feel are fair, and will help illustrate what people should and should not expect from my book, that's the type of negative review I like.) Plus, if people see me as an honest person, then even if they hate or don't want to read my first book, I will still have left a positive impression. And, of course, if the negative reviews are funny, that can provide some entertainment and traffic for my site as well.

Also the aesthetic of this video is A+

really awesome video, you made some great points! I recently heard of a booktuber being harassed by an author who literally sent their fans and family after them to dislike the video and spread hate in the comments... that person for sure should have watched this video first :P

Great video! I actually did a similar video after having a bad experience with an author who responded to a review I gave their novel on goodreads where I essentially said the same things you pointed out in this video. You should never engage with a negative review, it risks isolating not just that one reader, but future potential readers who may be turned off by the fact that you engaged with a negative review!

Your book is never ever going to please everyone. So negative reviews gonna happen 😀

Thank you for putting this out there! I think it's important on both sides. I know I never tag authors in negative reviews and I always try to also emphasize what was done well when I need to discuss problematic things.

There is one reviewer on goodreads and I swear they only give books 1 or 2 stars and gives very very cruel reviews and hides behind “I read books to critical analyse and take them apart to really know if they’re good or not” and I think it’s very rude and just pathetic. Those are the reviewers I think are unnecessary

Love this video!! Re: "you are not your book" -- the best thing that I ever did to kill my fear of negative reviews was write freelance. I was (am) writing someone else's ideas (on a topic I enjoyed, mind you!) and getting paid very little for the amount of work I put in. The first time a book went up and I read some reviews that weren't great, I thought to myself, "you know, I did my part, there's no way I get paid NEARLY enough to correct all these issues." It was such a wakeup call!

I've always wondered if I'll read reviews on the books I plan to publish, and as much as I would want to read the good ones, I know it'll eventually lead to reading the bad ones. I think you're right in saying that authors shouldn't read their book's reviews. It can be brutal out there in the world of goodreads!

To tell the truth, I have bought books before because I saw a negative review saying something that for me is positive. I always try to see the midground and the negative reviews of stuff I want to buy. I feel it gives me an idea of the worst possible scenario and if I find it ok, then it can only be what I think or better =D

Fantastic video, Alexa! Very important discussion for authors. It's difficult for anyone to learn to accept criticism, but it can be especially difficult when you put your heart and soul into your work and you infuse it with bits of yourself.

Love this video as a reviewer! Thank you for making it!

Stalking a reviewer?! That’s insane!! Wow!!! Thanks for posting!

...Yep. I gave a snarky review to a book on Goodreads. I slammed it because the writing was just terrible and my review amused me. Anyway, the author attempted to 'friend' me on Goodreads. I denied it, but it's still weird to me.

I'm always curious if I'll read my reviews or not if I ever get popular enough for people to review my stuff lol

For me it’s the Moth Diaries. I thought it was a fantastic psychological horror with themes of anxiety and obsession but the book received very mixed reviews. But thanks. You’ve helped me. It took me a while but I used to be really thin skinned but now I’m a lot more passive about constructive criticism. Most people are trying to help and want to see the book be something good and once I understood that I wasn’t so pissed off at harsh criticism.

Bruh Goodreads reviews can be scaaaaathing! Like straight up “This book sucks and here’s a 500 essay on why.” When I get published I sure as hell won’t be reading goodreads reviews.

Thanks, Alexa! I love to watch ALL your videos. Please make tons more!!!! You are a lot of fun!

🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 I'm a reader. I have a BA and an MA in English lit. When I write a review, good or bad, it's always about the book. I know how to talk about books critically and impersonally. I usually have no idea who the author is personally (like, never), so how or why would I make personal remarks? Aaaaand +1 for dropping Tommy Wiseau.

I disagree a bit: there are some negative reviews that can offer legitimately helpful criticism that can help an author grow as a writer. Granted those are often hard to find, but I don't believe any form of creator should just plug their ears and never listen to any negative criticism. On the flip side, they shouldn't surround themselves in bad reviews either, or make a reviewer out to be a bad guy at any point. Bad reviews are just something creators have to learn to take with a grain of salt. But you do have a point in that the basic point of reviews is to communicate your feelings to others about whether or not they should spend time on a book. No work is going to be universally loved and there is always someone out there who's not gonna be a fan of your work, no matter what you do. And that's okay! And I do agree that negative reviews, whether they have something to offer constructively or not, should almost NEVER be responded to. It's just not good for your publicity.

This is solid advice. I read reviews of almost everything I consume be it a book or a buying bed sheets. I avoid professional reviews from critics because I want to hear from people like me. Is the book worth my time and money is what I want to know!

Good video, and also, I love the shirt you're wearing.

As an aspiring author who has been dipping their toe into booktube this really helped ground me, great video!

OMG I've met my share of immature and defensive writers in my time in writers groups -- they seldom last very long. It surprises me that writers can last in the business with such fragile egos.

Man, you hit this right on the head, I have gone this and man, you're so right.

Yes! As a writer and reviewer I can't agree with this more!

I don't know, I think maybe the biggest danger a new author may encounter is not negative reviews, but indifference. I've seen books I thought were just brilliant, but which got only one or two reviews in some cases. And I've seen books I thought were ridonkulous and got hundreds of reviews. Maybe the ideal thing, though it might cost you, is to have someone read your reviews and filter out all but the interesting parts.

I fear the day that I get a bad review. So, I will take your advice and not read my bad reviews. At least for now... lol

Thanks for this video. I am a goodreads reviewer and have done only a few booktube videos. I feel there has been a lot of drama here lately. Author bashing without the benefit of proof Reviewers being stalked has happened. I can only speak for myself, and I totally agree that the reviews are for readers. Of course authors want good reviews, but even Stephen King has his haters. Reviewers is just a nice way of saying critic. Some people do try and pick apart a piece. Some you tubers are also trying to ruin authors reputations, this all seems petty and vindictive to me. have a good afternoon.

If I ever get a book published I'll probably read my reviews and have no problem with it. I feel like I'm just really good at seeing what's being said just to make the review more entertaining or just for the shock effect, and what is genuine and valid criticism that can be taken constuctively. And of course if you get good constructive criticism you can take that on boad with future projects even though of course you can't change the book that has already been published.

This is great, I love hearing how you elucidate things. I'm an aspiring author and as much as I wish I could read my reviews, I know myself and I'm a sensitive person and I know I shouldn't read negative reviews (even though I totally understand how one book isn't for everyone) because I would get lost in judging myself, haha. Great suggestions, though, I can see myself either having good friends filter my reviews or changing my Goodreads setting. The Bane voice thing, though? I can't. Too perfect.

I agree. Great topic. And they should be grateful we read and reviewed their work. There are tons of awesome books out there but we chose their work and invested time and money readjng it.

I happened to be involved in a fandom where an author crashed and burned due to this very thing. The community had a lot of very valid anger in response to her last book, and it did need to be addressed as it was about misrepresentation of minority community, but.... it did not go well. I wound up talking one-on-one with her after she tracked me down through my posts related to her books, and I can tell you I have never been so astonished to see a 40+ year old woman acting like a child. I was 19 at the time, and I felt like the adult in the conversation. I think that the only time you should ever respond to your negative reviews is when you've overstepped and miswritten minorities you’re not a part of - and it should only ever to be to say "I'm sorry, I've done wrong, I'll try to do better." That's it. That's the only time.

I would say IMHO that there's a potential exception to this, which would be when you, the author, are being dragged through the mud over something that's just plain incorrect. I'm referring, of course, to accusations of problematic topics not being handled properly when it turns out that was the author's Own Voice experience, or accusations of misappropriating a culture when the inspiration was actually something totally different. When the book itself is under fire, absolutely, don't take it personally. That said, if it's your name, your reputation, and your potential future career on the line, responding in a respectful manner may be the only damage control you have.

Thank you for being mature and professional. Hope your peers take a page out of your book.

Your space shirt is amazing! Where di you get that? I'd love to get it too.

I do book reviews and I'm also a writer. I did see reviewers telling authors to kill themselves or jump off a cliff and that is just wrong. I do agree though authors shouldn't read their own reviews. I won't go down that rabbit hole.

I'm 8 months behind on this drama, but I agree wholeheartedly with everything you said. I came to your video from a different BookTuber who had the opposite take, and I about had a coronary trying not to leave a snarky comment on his video. Reviews = telling other readers how you felt about a book so they can make an informed decision for themselves. Simple. If someone didn't like your book, that isn't your target audience. And chances are, the people who run in their circle or follow their reviews also aren't in your target audience. So you probably don't want them reading your book anyway. I write, too, and I know how hard it is to take criticism, but holy cow, I feel like some of these authors should just be showing their books to their mothers instead of publishing, if this is how they're going to react. Well done, you wrote a book, but just because I don't like it doesn't mean your world is ending. Good grief. I paid money for workshopping/feedback on a short story a year ago and I still haven't opened the email because I know how bad that story is and I've since shelved it and I don't think I can handle facing those criticisms yet. Sometimes you just have to let things go, good or bad. Thanks for a great video and for being a reasonable voice amid all this drama.

Should be interacting with people in the beta reading stage where you can actually take criticism and fix things(if needed). Once a book is out and the reviews are out, you can't do much about anything anyway. It is out there and done.

When I first started writing reviews, I made kind of a mistake and tagged an author on Twitter when I Tweeted the link to my review of her book. It was a four-star review, but I did point out quite a few problematic elements with the book as well. Then I kind of got upset when she didn't reply or react in any way. (Truthfully, I wasn't understanding the real reason for reviewing books--I was hoping that if I tagged her, her followers would see it and maybe follow me, too. I was writing the review not for the purpose of discussing the book itself, but I was just trying to garner more attention on social media.) Luckily, I haven't done that since, and I've now realized my mistake. Though it is worth saying that sometimes reviews can contain constructive criticism that the author should use in their future books, because this was the author's debut novel, and when she published her next book and I continued to notice the same problems with that one, (and it's also worth saying that a lot of other reviewers had similar problems with her books) I thought that maybe she should read some of her negative reviews and see what her audience is actually saying about her books.

4:56 OOOOOH THE GOODREADS STALKER!! I see what you're talking about but I guess you can't give names since if you name someone you risk getting blacklisted, so I wont name the person here either.

There's something funky going on with your brightness. The video is realllly bright/white. Or maybe it's just my phone?

Yes! I totally agree! (btw, where did you get your shirt?? It's gorg!)

Great advice

What if you get a review regarding grammar should you make changes?

but Alexa...what if the reader is INTERROGATING THE TEXT FROM THE WRONG PERSPECTIVE???!?!?!?!?!?!?11!???

Take the good with the bad hunny It’s life. Without readers you wouldn’t have sells. Enjoy the reviews good, bad or indifferent

There are always the blind love and blind hate reviewers, but a lot of authors could learn a lot if they read the 3 or 4 star reviews on goodreads. This is usually where you find the reviews of people who like the book, but see it's faults and care enough to want it to be better. As a reader, I rarely pay attention to the 1 and 5 star reviewers; they usually have nothing sensible to say. I wish Karen Marie Moning would take some of her readers' reviews to heart. Her books might improve if she did. She didn't deal well with criticism from her fans, but got angry and said they read the books wrong. Not as extreme as you mention, but very petty. I'm addicted to the Fever series, but I watched it fall apart more with each book and I wish the books were better. A lot of the fans have really helpful things to say and it would be worth listening to them.

Have you heard about the author who smashed a wine bottle over the head of a person who gave his book a 1 star. The reviewer was a woman at her place of employment and the author just went nuts.

I want to add I guess. Well, before I buy a Kindle self-published book, I will confess, I read the 1 and 2 star reviews first. If anyone talks about bad grammar, bad punctuation or just really poor writing and esp TONS OF TYPOS! and say the author should have had an editor, I'm done. I will not even read the better reviews or give the book a chance. So, if you have a self-published ebook on Amazon and you are not selling, you might want to see why. If people are talking about typos, you are not giving your writing chops a chance. Fix the typos, grammatical errors and reupload. Maybe even thank the reviewer although Alexa doesn't say anything about learning from bad reviews (construct criticism.) I can't read a book with typos. Period. If you self publish, get an editor. If you learn from constructive criticism irl, you may do well reading negative first reviews if you can fix it or learn for the next one. Thanks A. As always.

So almost none of this applies to a memoir right?

The problem is that there are too many people who are quick to call themselves ‘authors’, but that haven’t earned the right to. Any idiot can write a book. That doesn’t mean it’s any good. If people say it sucks, so fucking what. Deal with it. Learn from it. Don’t cry like a fucking toddler. That is the difference between professionals and tweeny ‘writers’. Oh-and if any of your characters has purple eyes- start over. That shit sucks.

I noticed a stack of Brightly Burnings. What is your next book? Concentrate on that. You can't change the book you have written, but you can sure as hell do a better second book

I don't think you should ignore them. Look at this a objective feedback. Look at the average review and take some constructive criticism to maybe improve your story.

I disagree. Reviews are for anyone who has a desire to read them. Your book is your product. If you want to know how your product is being received and what your audience is complaining about, you need to know what they are saying. RU-vidrs do this too, they read the comments and improve based on what is being said. Also many times readers review with the author reading it in mind. However, I agree that you should never reply to reviews.

How many times do you need to say that you are an author? Like 6 times in the first 3 minutes...

wow authors are sissies...