If you were published, would you read reviews of your content?

[OneHappyChap]

I'm published and I read my reviews, I think it's important not to obsess over them, but having a look every once in a while doesn't hurt.

[MK_Wizard]

I think all feedback is precious and to be honest, I find the reviews of readers more important that the reviews of critics. Sure, critics are professionals, but there is one glaring problem with them: they're biased especially when your idea of art doesn't fit their idea of what is art. It's like dealing with an art teacher who doesn't see comics and cartoons with art. You could be making a great story and they'll still frown upon it because it doesn't fit their cookie cutter. Now, I'm not saying all critics are like this. There are open minded critics and art teachers. I've even been lucky enough to have a great art teacher who changed my life when it came to my art.

Then you have readers who also can be biased, but they are also more honest when they say they do or don't like something. When a large majority of people are pointing out the same flaw, you have reason to believe that this is indeed a problem and it needs to be addressed. Plus, what is the point of sharing your work with the world if you don't take the time to listen to the world's opinion. It doesn't have to change you, but the opinion of your readers is very precious and worth your time.

[nascentechuva]

I've seen a video of exactly that notion, and I strongly disagree with it. ( It was an old video of Alexa Donne, a lovely woman that doesn't deserve hate, but her book isn't without flaws that plenty of reviewers have pointed out.)

My personal take, and what I choose to practice, is this: if a significant amount of individuals are saying the same things about my writing, in whatever rude or biting fashion they may phrase it in, I thank them for the criticism and ignore the hatred.

Reviews help us remain fresh. I'll always be thankful for the funniest flame I received when I wrote a fanfiction. I didn't laugh then, and took everything to heart, but I do now.

Irrelevant note, if anyone stumbles across an old iCarly fanfiction named after Phil Collins' band Genesis -- I'm not saying it's me...but it's me.

[Teowi]

I totally agree with your bolded line; in fact, it was the first thing that came to mind when I clicked on the title. I first heard it from V. E. Schwab, a very successful adult and Y.A. author, and the more I think about it, the more true it sounds. The important thing to remember is that readers are not writers--they are not critics. Their impression of the book, even if it was "x character was written so badly", is subjective. I've read some of V. E. Schwab's own reviews on Goodreads of her trilogy Shades of Magic, and comments on just one character ranged from "she is bland, flat, boring and badly characterized" to "I love her! She's my favorite character, and one of the most fleshed-out personalities in the books." (Not verbatim, just from memory.)

Something else that comes to mind are the Goodreads reviews on I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells. Many people gave it a low rating because of a certain plot twist a hundred pages in, and quoting one reviewer, "the rug is pulled out from under the reader". The top review claims that the book 'jumped the shark' and, quote, "This was a complete FULL STOP, WTF just happened moment for me that left me stunned and bewildered."

The problem is that the plot twist was not supposed to be a surprise. I read the entire book myself knowing that a plot twist was coming, and found the book telling me twice what the plot twist would be before it happened. Dan Wells knew that the twist would be huge, and so he deliberately softened the blow by explicitly stating "but what we didn't know back then was that ____" before the twist came (again, not verbatim). This is why what shocked me was the shock of many reviewers on Goodreads. If their eyes skipped over the line or they brushed it off and forgot about it, it is not the fault of Dan Wells or his book at all. Sad that he received so many negative reviews due to the surprise and confusion.

I don't know if I'll ever be publishing a book, but if I do I'll be taking a page from V. E. Schwab and only read the reviews by actual critics. Reader reviews aren't valueless, but they're worth much less to an author than another reader. Even then, I would take their contents with a grain of salt.

[ratscout]

I love critiques, but only critiques that are not just there to trash the story. Critiques, for example, that only list the things they didn't like about the story are very... Rude? In a way? Even if the criticism is constructive, the fact that the reviewer didn't say one good thing about the story does the author very little good, I think, and makes the author really doubt themselves. This is why I always say a good critique includes at least ONE compliment.

The problem with only hearing negative things about your story is that you know what you did wrong, but if the reviewer doesn't tell you the things you did right, you feel like you should just burn the story because there's nothing good in it. I've gotten some really silly critiques before that I felt were so bad I could just ignore them, and then I've gotten critiques that had a fair point which I listened to and were very helpful.

So, I agree that reader reviews can be helpful and important, but you as an author have to learn to pick apart which reviews are useful to you and which ones are useless to you. It's a tricky business. XD

[Lyrienn]

First I didn't even understand the question you asked, it was so natural to think for me that if I had review on my work, I'd be definitely interested in it. Of course I don't like fanaticly harsh critics, who could be called haters. It's not even a review in my view. I know nobody have to be polite on the internet, but still should in my opinion.

Moreover if someone doesn't like something in your work general, it's up to you if you want to make change upon that or not. People are different and like different things.

[Raven_C]

Yeah, it’s also natural for me to read reviews if i had published my work. It’s just that some people try to avoid it and many authors don’t like reading thrm. There are interviews of authors where they say they never read reviews of their work (i’m solely talking about writers, not comic artists). That’s why i asked if others here felt the same because to me reviews are pretty important! But I like what someone suggested above: Read reviews of your work after a year, when you have a new project to focus on, and the dust has settled on your old one.

[SilverLugia456]

As a writer I was taught in my classes that feedback and reviews are always good especially when you want to improve in your craft of writing. However, there were also cautions that were given when it comes to reading those reviews as well. For me I'm always trying to improve as a writer and so if I have work published I would look at reviews no matter how bad they were but only take them into consideration if it gave me constructive feedback. If there are reviews that basically just say that they didn't like my book for personal reasons okay then I understand my book wasn't for that specific audience member. I don't have anything published on the internet per say but I do have my first published work as a novel on Tapas and even now ask for reviews and feedback comments for it.

As long as the feedback I read gives me ways I can improve my writing or mistakes that I can fix I look at it as a positive experience for reading those reviews. I think feedback and reviews are very important because its a part of what can help a writer improve (but that is my own personal opinion). But I've also been told that if you do read a bad review and such not to take it to heart because there is also someone out there who may not like your work. You can't please everyone in the audience. However, when you read the positive feedbacks and reviews it can create some positive inspiration in your writing as well.

[LT1986]

If I was published and had people reviewing my comic book I would read the reviews of my content. Getting negative feedback would motivate me to get better. For me when a problem is put in my path it motivates me to get better, even more than positive things. Sometimes positive things make me feel content and I lose passion. I've seen famous people mention how someone telling them that they suck at something or can't do something actually pushed them to greatness.

[Jenny-Toons]

Not all the time. Maybe I would get curious sometimes, but other than that -- I take it with a grain of salt.

I already know my work won't be something everyone likes, and I publish despite that. So any bad reviews I could get would often enough be personal taste and nothing more. It's not something I can change nor should I try to change because everyone has different tastes.

Now, in the sense of getting feedback via reviews, I need "why" and "how". Why didn't it work for that reader and how do they think I could improve? When someone actually takes the time to give feedback like that, that's when I consider it. Not all feedback is good, and I've learned that growing up. So I'm not going to do some deep-sea searching on what someone meant when they said "it sucks" or "this look botchy. try again".

So I just take it all with a grain of salt. But if someone has actually taken the time to review my work and I see that, I will acknowledge and think on it.

[Raven_C]

Now, in the sense of getting feedback via reviews, I need "why" and "how". Why didn't it work for that reader and how do they think I could improve?

This is an important point!

[lil-sea-salt]

I don't read my reviews. I have a whole group of people who edit and react to my work before publishing - - now at least - - so I don't need that extra review.

It's just a reaction to a work honestly. Not everybody is going to be into everything you make, everyone has different tastes and preferences. you can't please everybody when it comes to art.

A grammatically poor story can wow somebody but turn some reviewers off. i can't control that so i don't bother. I just keep on going to the next book or series . . . I just want to create.

that's why i do this.

[vfinnigan]

I only pay attention to reviews that are useful. A great review makes a good blurb for promotional purposes. A less positive review that points out where there's room for improvement might not make the book better, but may be worth at least a moment's consideration for future reference. I usually thank those reviewers, even if I disagree with them. Sometimes that leads to good discussions, and even people who give honest bad reviews may enjoy interacting with an author who takes such reviews in good stride.

However, I never recommend arguing with someone who posts a bad review. Sadly, there are some bad reviews that are completely unwarranted. Too often, an author will post something on social media. Perhaps it's something as trivial as saying they liked The Last Jedi. Perhaps it's something correct, like stating the earth is round. Regardless, someone isn't just going to disagree, but find your different taste or your better knowledge of astrophysics infuriating to the point of requiring vengeance. So they'll hunt down your book on Amazon or Goodreads, lie about having read your book, lie about the book being utter trash, and lie about you. While some authors delight their true fans in proving such "reviewers" haven't even read their books, actually arguing with them never accomplishes anything good. However, if you as a reader see any author receiving such BS reviews, you can help them out by reporting such reviews as abusive.

[seru]

I avoid goodreads...my works somehow wound up there without my knowledge.

Critics need to be productive and constructive. I had a friend once who I confided with my earlier works. Instead of looking at the positives, she was so negative and brutal about it. That pretty much hurt me mentally and psychologically. I think that's the reason why I avoid reviews.

I know the things I need to work on and improve. That's just part of the creator's life, unfortunately. Ultimately, we need to continue what we're doing if we want to be good at what we do.

[hjfsdh2222]

I very much agree!! It’s important to realize your mistakes in writing. Overwize ower sentenses wold be this.

[zoonland]

If the reviews are constructive, why not? I know that my work is not perfect and never will be, and even if I try to see/read it in "third-person" mode (to be as less subjective as I can), there will always be mistakes that I can't see.
So yes, I will read reviews of my work. The constructive ones only. Probably I would read the others too, but I wouldn't pay the same attention I pay to the constructive ones.

[jpnakashima]

I would. Don't know if all the time, but I feel I would.

Personally, I love reviews. Even when I don't agree with a critic, if the point is well made I find it to be sometimes as entertaining as the piece in question.
I believe I also tend to listen to what people say about my stuff, but I have no problem disagreeing with it too, if that's the case.

The best reviewers/critics understand that a review is not a judgement (at least not solely), it's a discussion. There's this Image Comics writer, Ales Kot, that I see sometimes comenting on reviews of his own work to discuss with the people about it. I find this to be really cool (if a little pretentious) and I can actually see myself doing stuff like this.

[CallMeMattheww]

I would tell everyone that i'm not reading the comments but i would secretly read them and knowing myself i'd probably feel really bad about the mean comments but hopefully i wouldn't let it get to me

But then again knowing myself it would probably get to me sooner or later and i'd delete all traces of my work or at the very least hire someone to filter out all the mean comments....like in that episode of South Park LMAO

[Zhengo]

I'd think it's all about keeping a balance between being open to what your readers think and trusting yourself to make the right decisions for the story. I find reviews useful because they give another perspective to consider for your story, but you also have to be careful on deciding if what they say will actually help the story, or it's just something they want to happen in the story without reason. That's why usually when it comes to critiques I tend to read through all of them and pick up the points that I find most helpful and leave the rest.

[vfinnigan]

That's so true. Everyone's mileage will vary, and we all need to choose our battles.

This is why it's important for readers to not take all reviews to heart, even if they are constructive. If we got too bogged down in writing to satisfy every critic, we may end up sacrificing our own vision. A lot of people have gotten discouraged and stopped writing because they get too many reviews from well meaning critics with conflicting opinions on how to improve.

This is why, while I will always thank someone for an honest and constructive critique, if I get it before the book's final edit, there may be only a 50% chance I'll implement any suggestions. If I get it after the book is out, there's only a 50% chance I will keep suggestions in mind for future books, and a pretty big possibility that I might ignore said suggestions altogether.

Receiving critiques and having a tough enough hide to only take to heart what you and your story need is all part of professional or professional-quality writing. But it's not necessary to even read reviews. While my practice on thanking people for reviews is fairly normal, I won't even read reviews if I'm having a bad day.