Thursday, April 25, 2013

Myth #2: One Bad Review Will End Your Writing Career



During my life, I heard somewhere that one bad review can sink your writing career. So I decided to do an experiment and put this to a test.

Three specific numbers came to mind.



Here they are:

1. 2,158*
2. 5,343*
3. 1,336*

*These numbers are subject to change each day.


These are the number of 1 star reviews on amazon for three kindle authors. 



Wanna know who they are?



1. Stephen King
2. James Patterson
3. Dean Koontz



Writers need to have tough skin.

People are going to hate you, poke you, prod you. They may even despise you. They may give you a bad review because your book was too long, short, wordy, descriptive, not descriptive enough, couldn't fit well in their thick hands. They may gripe about the font, size of the text, the format, the spelling, the plotting, the characters, the beginning  the middle, the end. They may trash you because they don't like your personality, your politics, your work ethic, your nationality, your religion. They may flame you because they never received a book, they hardly read the first page or it could just be that your book landed on their foot and now they have outrageous medical bills thanks to you. They may go after you because your book made them physically ill, nauseous, dizzy, gave them slight headaches, anal leakage, a slight case of pregnancy  They may chide you for being too dumb, too smart or not smart enough. They may not even consider you as a tried and true writer. They may even choose your book at random to troll. It doesn't really matter. The possibilities are endless. 

Out of a handful of reviews, I received two or three bad reviews. Yeah, they hurt for a sec. Like when you take a blood test and need to be pricked. And what's life, but enduring a prick or two every once and a while?

As long as you keep on writing, nothing can stop you.

Are you tough enough to keep on going?



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