I brought that review on myself.

I posted the cover of my second book on social media and asked for opinions. Opinions were divided — in hindsight that was predictable, but not in the moment. They filled my basket to the brim. There was "What a mess!" and "All it's missing is fireworks" (meaning: too bright and gaudy), and "Even if my favorite author put out a new book with a cover like that, I wouldn't buy it for anything!"

Then volunteers turned up who went through my text as well. I'd made the link to the book public, and a couple of the sharpest-tongued readers happily screenshotted my text, highlighting whatever they considered unacceptable for a writer (for instance, having the words "wooden" and "village" in the same paragraph), and posted them in the comments.

I was devastated. In situations like that, my brain refuses to think rationally and just takes every jab at face value. In a daze, I kept reading, sinking further and further into a depressive state.

And then, right in the middle of all that madness, I got a message from a woman offering to read my manuscript and write an honest review. Like grabbing a life preserver, I jumped into her messages and we agreed on where to send it. In our conversation she said something important: "If I'd listened to all those trolls, I wouldn't have written 15 books, published them, or be living now the way I once dreamed of."

I looked at what had happened from another angle. Some random women on the internet had read a few lines from the free sample of my book. A cover can appeal to some and not to others. Everyone has their own opinion. And I realized this whole episode had been given to me like a vaccine. I got my dose, and I learned to treat that kind of "review" the right way.

But if a genuinely bad review lands on your book, there can be several reasons for it. Maybe the genre just wasn't for that reader. Maybe they were in a bad mood. Or maybe — there's actually something worth listening to in it? Did you do everything you could to make the book as good as it could be? Did you have beta readers, professional editing, proofreading? That's one more reason to make your book even better.

I don't like giving advice, but you're all adults — you can take it or leave it.

The first piece is this: don't listen to anyone. Everyone who tries to tell you your book is bad — send them off in the usual direction.

The second is this: everything's already been figured out before us. After you happily type "The End," remember — that's not actually the end. That's only the beginning. Because after that comes a different kind of work: proofreading, editing, copyediting. Promotion is a whole separate topic. If you want something closer to actual advice — as soon as your manuscript is finished, look for beta readers. They're specially trained people who'll read your work and point out where the plot sags, where characters or dialogue aren't fully developed, and other imperfections a reader would notice.

Those two pieces of advice should be plenty to start with. If you wrote a book, it means somebody out there needs it.

P.S. The woman turned out to be an editor. She read my book and wrote a full page of feedback. She liked it. But in her recommendations she noted that the book needed another round of editing. And she was completely right — the manuscript needed it. But I'd gotten the main thing: an honest opinion, and she'd liked the book.

P.P.S. I changed the cover I'd posted in that thread a year later. Not because someone online didn't like it, but because I decided to myself. I'd grown into it. And the new one turned out to be an absolute gem!

Everything looks different a year later — even a cover.