Our new segment for 2022 is for new authors/writers and written by published authors, titled – Writing Tips. These posts will be shared with you every Wednesday. Our latest post is from author G. Lawrence on the subject ‘Mourn, Learn, Move On: Dealing with Rejection and Bad Reviews’. This post contains affiliate links.

Mourn, Learn, Move On: Dealing with Rejection and Bad Reviews

A rejection or bad review can be crushing. It’s hard not to take criticism personally. After all, you tore out your soul, displayed it on a page and someone is condemning it. People tell you to grow a thick skin, but I believe most writers have thin skins, which is why they’re good at getting into characters’ heads, or transforming to see different sides of a story. People tell you not to care, but this is your creation. You’re likely to care about it.

Being rejected strikes into a basic fear. During certain points of human history being rejected from a group would mean you might not survive, so fear of rejection is rooted in a deeply primitive place, and there’s another fear too; not being enough. These fears are troubling, and if you’re going to be an author you need to survive them. Here are my tips.

1. Don’t give up

Don’t surrender because of one, or a few bad opinions. If we all gave up, nothing would get done. There would be no art. Ours would be a sad, small world. You are contributing to the wonder and beauty the human race is capable of, and the world needs more of that, not less.

2. Mourn

If you are upset, take time to mourn. Often the worst thing to do is to ignore how you feel, so go ahead and be down for a while, but don’t wallow. It will stop you doing the next step, which is to move on.

3. Learn

Learn what you can. You may disagree with your critic, but try to take what you can from this experience. If they condemned spelling/editing/ anything technical, then get a proof-reader, practise your craft. If they didn’t like particular aspects of the book, take that on board. This is hard, make no mistake, but it will help you.

4. You can’t please everyone

You can’t write a book that everyone is going to love. It’s impossible. To understand this, select a book you love and read its 1* reviews. Books I think are beautiful, others think are garbage. Understand you’re never going to please everyone. Write to please yourself, write what you think is entertaining or interesting. There are people out there who will agree with you.

5. They’re entitled to their opinion, but it doesn’t mean your book is bad

Your book might be reviewed badly because someone didn’t like your style, was having a bad day, or was irritated by a character. Your book could be rejected because the agent/publisher doesn’t believe it has mass-market appeal (and remember, agents and publishers do have to make money), but that is their opinion. Opinions are not truths. Plenty of authors were rejected multiple times only to be accepted eventually and become bestsellers. Many authors decided to self-publish, and went on to be hits. Someone rejecting your book does not necessarily mean it is written badly or has no worth.

6. Move on

When you’ve learnt all you can, it’s time to move on, because unless you’ve decided to give up, (which would be an actual failure), then you’re going to try again. We get knocked down, we pick ourselves up and we move on, trying to get better with every attempt. We learn from failure because it hurts. Life is full of challenges, and often the most painful, chaotic times can be the most inspiring. So mourn, learn and move on, and when you do this, be proud. You had the courage to write, and to keep writing. There are people out there who will love your work. They will be glad you never gave up, because otherwise their favourite book would never have existed.

I am an indie author and proud to be so. Living in Wales, I love where I live as much as I love to write. The age of the Tudors, and history in general, has always been an obsession of mine. In particular I find the stories of women of history fascinating, and seek to tell their tales in my books. Beside my bed, I always have a huge, wobbling tower of books waiting to be read, but that never stops me buying more books! I am an erratic gardener, an enthused archer and I love walking, but my first love will always be books.

Winter 1531, London.

It is a time of great upheaval; a time when love, faith and loyalty will be tested. In his quest to marry Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII has named himself Head of the Church in England, but many of his subjects remain loyal to Rome, and wish Queen Katherine to remain upon the throne.

Serving at the side of Anne Boleyn, her sister and mistress, Jane Rochford struggles in her own personal crisis of faith, love and loyalty, her soul torn between duty to her family and her own personal beliefs. Through storms of Church and state, reform and revenge, personality and politics Jane must struggle, catching glimpses of the future and the past, and often seeing and speaking the truth, yet going unheard as her voice becomes lost in the tumult of the Tudor court.

Seer of Apollo is Book Three of The Armillary Sphere, Story of Lady Jane Rochford by G. Lawrence.