I Was Just Told, “No One Will Ever Read Your Book,” Should I Quit?
How devastating. You go to a writers group for years. You get really comfortable with these people. You finally feel okay letting someone else read your writing.
You get mostly good feedback. But one dude, who just started coming 3 weeks ago, very staunchly says, “I would never read this. In fact, I don’t think anyone would like this.”
You hold back one thousand words that could have fallen upon him without any effort.
Instead, you say, “thank you for your thoughts.”
And that’s all that’s said about it during the session.
If you were in that same situation, what would you do? What should you do?
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Positive feedback is safe and nice, but at some point, you’re going to want someone to say things like, “this part doesn’t work. Maybe consider doing this instead.”
We like to hear the niceties, but we also need someone that’s willing to help us make our writing better.
If a person gives you negative feedback on your writing, try not to be offended. Instead interview them.
What don’t you like about it?
What’s wrong with it?
How would you change it?
We need someone in our corner willing to tell us the hard truths about our writing to ultimately help us get better, even if it’s the new guy in the writing club.
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The type of feedback is important.
Dig into negative feedback objectively and try to find facts and details that’ll make your story better.
“I didn’t find this character’s reaction believable.”
Oh really? Why is that?
“I got lost in this part.”
You got lost? Hmmm okay. What didn’t you understand?
Detailed feedback can be very helpful.
Important: if they just say, “I just don’t like it.” You can actually write off this type of feedback. Completely useless and unhelpful. Do your best to not give it a second thought unless they are actually going to take the time to give helpful detailed feedback.
Most friends and family will have a hard time telling you the truth.
Those who care about you don’t want to hurt your feelings.
They might never tell you they think that your work could be better.
It’s important to find someone that’s talented, knows what they’re talking about, and most importantly is an avid reader in the genre you’re writing to give feedback on your project.
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You will always receive negative feedback.
I don’t care how good your writing and your story is, someone somewhere won’t like it.
They’ll find your work and they will be VERY LOUD about not liking what you’re doing.
Don’t sweat it. It’ll come. You just have to be ready to keep moving forward when it does and not fixate on it.
I think Stephen King in writing advice said you have to have thick skin to be a successful writer because lots of people will say all kinds of nasty things about you.
So just be prepared, if you dare to put what you created out there, people are going to say negative things about you and your work. “Haters gonna hate.”
(Most times these kinds of people don’t do much in life other than create a bunch of hate mail and comments on social media, so don’t worry too much about it 🤙)
It’s not about the bad feedback. It’s about how you handle it and mostly how you move past it.
It can be easy to get 100 nice comments and then overly fixate on one bad comment.
I don’t know why this is, but it’s a problem.
So I for one will not say it’s easy, but I will say we all have to work on how we handle these situations and how we move past them.
Sometimes the easiest thing to do is nothing.
I think that if you’re in a situation where it makes sense see if you can get detailed information about the feedback. If they can’t give you details then don’t worry about it.
Then after you have decided what you will do about it, put your focus back on moving forward and leaving the negativity in the past.
It may have been a painful scarring moment for you, so that may be difficult, but the more we are able to forgive and forget about it, the better.
Bitterness is a dangerous thing.
It’s been said, “bitterness is like drinking poison and wishing someone else were dead.”
Don’t fall into that trap. Try to forgive and forget and move forward. Keep writing. Keep practicing. Keep getting better.
What’s better? Telling someone off with a few words you might regret? Or selling a few thousand copies of your book and then sending them a free one in the mail autographed by you? (If only 😂)
But seriously, try to use the negative feedback as fuel to keep moving forward and getting better.
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Be careful.
Just because someone can give you detailed feedback on why they didn’t like something doesn’t always mean you should do anything about it.
Do your best to know your target market.
If your target reader is stay-at-home moms then of course career women are going to find your work uninteresting.
Don’t write to women in their 60s and expect a high school student to like it.
Know your market and write to them. Don’t be swayed by every opinion, just make the one BIG opinion you’re trying to reach count.
I Was Just Told, “No One Will Ever Read Your Book,” Should I Quit?
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That’s all for now.
Hope this helps!
Happy writing!
Resources:
How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020
How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book
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I Was Just Told, “No One Will Ever Read Your Book,” Should I Quit?
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I Was Just Told, “No One Will Ever Read Your Book,” Should I Quit?
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