1-STAR REVIEWS UPENDED MY WHOLE CAREER

There’s a new trend going around (I think; I’m often late to these, ha, so it may be winding down now) – authors talking about how important negative reviews are.

How negative reviews help legitimize books, how authors can learn/grow from them, how they help weed out the wrong readers and help the right ones find your work (often resulting in fewer 1-stars over time), etc.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you likely came for The Purification Era.

And if you’ve been around long enough, you may remember my elation when Sowing (my debut, published in 2016) placed as a top 10 finalist in Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO ’18.

Then the devastation that followed when, apart from a small handful of people, every other reviewer thoroughly hated it.

On the list of all SPFBO finalists from 2015 to 2024, Sowing is still the second-lowest ranked book, with an average of 4.55 out of 10. 

(Hey, it’s easy to find on the list! Just scroll allllll the way down to the verrry bottom. 😅)

Until SPFBO, Sowing had been well-received.

Some didn’t love it, but they weren’t my target audience, and their feedback wasn’t awful.

And yes, I did multiple revisions. Had 10+ beta readers who read my genre (some knew me or knew pieces of the story going in and some were brand new to me and my writing). Used a professional editor. Sent out ~70+ ARCs (and most of these people enjoyed and reviewed)...

Overall, the feedback was highly positive.

Receiving a barrage of scathing reviews – for my first 1-stars – in such a public forum, in a very active group where I was often either tagged in the reviews or saw them at random times on Facebook was...painful.

I reacted poorly at first. Tried to laugh it off and simply made myself look stupid and petty.

Eventually, I unfollowed the group and tried not to look at the reviews...but of course I did.

I say all this only for context, not sympathy.

I don’t need or want sympathy. I’m not upset that this happened and haven’t been for a long time. It doesn’t matter whether I felt a bit of a pile-on, “Oh this is the popular book to hate and rip apart this year? Cool!” vibe at times.

(Truly, the part that stings is that, in my hurt pride, I acted dumb. How dare I be dumb.)

I’m thankful for it.

For every bit of it.

I wouldn’t change a thing.

(Except maybe me being dumb, ugh; okay, no, I’d keep that too because it’s also a good lesson of when to keep my mouth shut and not speak out of pain or a desire to defend myself, haha.)

Whatever the human heart behind each review intended, Satan surely intended evil through it.

To destroy me.

Rip me open and leave me broken on the side of the road, where I would not get up again.

Would not write again.

But God?

God intended only good.

Even before I fully surrendered my writing to God (because that only happened a few years ago), I still ultimately wanted to please Him. 

And He was leading. The whole time.

In His gracious love, He led me to that contest, fully knowing what would happen there.

How it would crush me, humble me, make me question everything about my writing. Be a bitter taste in my mouth for years to come.

He knew I’d be blindsided, shocked, confused.

He led me there anyway.

Not to hurt me, but to save me from myself.

Because He also knew how He’d refine, grow, discipline, and strengthen me through it.

Redirect me through it.

Change me.

Heal me.

Free me.

He used brutally negative reviews to upend my career and set it upright. To yank me off the path I was on so He could prune and start to truly grow me into the kind of writer He can use for His glory, His kingdom, His purposes. 

A writer who offers His hope to the hopeless, His freedom to the captives. A writer who points the lost and blind to the only One who can release them from chains and darkness.

A writer He can trust.

And entrust to.

(And what greater honor could there be than to be the kind of person the Living God can trust? The kind of person He knows is faithful?)

My writing is not my own. It never has been.

But back then, when those reviews streamed in, I thought it was mine, and each one cut.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was after my own glory, my own plans, my own dreams.

And the end of that path...is death.

If you put yourself out there at all, if you write books and are brave enough to publish them, negative reviews and feedback will come.

How you handle them is up to you.

In myself, I didn’t handle them well initially.

I still get grumpy over reviews at times. 

But I try to learn what I can and discard the rest. I don’t take them to heart but to mind, where I ask myself and God if there is truth there. If there is, I want to grow and improve in those areas. If there is no truth, then I want nothing to do with it, and it goes in the trash.

My stance on negative reviews is simple:

If you have to leave a negative review, do your best to be kind, but don’t be afraid to leave it – you never know how it could actually help an author grow and radically alter their career.

If you receive a negative review, let yourself feel the sting...and then step back, be objective, and see if there is anything you can learn.

In God’s hands, negative reviews/experiences can be the stepping stone to a different life, a different way of writing. A wholly different – and better – purpose, one that brings hope.

He can take the most painful experiences and turn them into the most beautiful testimonies. I am living proof of that, even now, still in the muddled mess of my recently torpedoed career.

But I can say it with full confidence, because He’s just that amazing at redemption.

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