Those dreaded 1-star reviews

Lilac Mills

Sep 27

3 min read

All authors get bad reviews; it’s par for the course. We have to accept that our beloved book babies aren’t for everyone, and that’s okay. I mean, the world would be a boring place if we all liked the same things. And that means reviews are subjective, and whether a reader loves your book or loathes it depends on so many factors. My advice to authors is don’t read them.

Customer reviews summary: 4.6/5 stars, bar chart shows 72% 5-star, 20% 4-star, and 1-star circled in red.

But I don’t always take my own advice, especially when I’ve got a book on NetGalley whose sole purpose on that site is to garner reviews. Even then, I try to skim over the-less-than flattering ones, and just read those with 4 and 5 stars – and I only do that because I’m trawling for quotes to use on social media. After the book is published, I’ll look at its star rating on Amazon in the hope that the majority of readers don’t hate it, but that’s as far as it goes when it comes to checking my reviews.

However… ahead of the publication of my latest novel, my publisher ran a giveaway on Goodreads. This is a website I try to avoid (as I believe it’s a space for readers, not authors who have skin in the game) but in this particular instance I had created a link to the giveaway and wanted to check it worked.

It did. But instead of leaving it there and going about my business, I just had to look at the reviews, didn’t I?

To quote Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, “Big mistake. Big. HUGE.” Because I read a scathing 1-star review. Although it was only the only 1-star review at the time and made up just 1% of all the reviews that had been left for the book, the review stayed with me, lingering in my mind like a bad smell in a lift (an elevator, in case any of my US blog post readers are unsure). I couldn’t shake it, even after a frantic bout of knitting, so I decided to try to put it to good use instead.

Black-and-white image of Lilac Mills making a sad pout in a room with art and a bookshelf.

The book in question is Christmas at Honeycombe Bay, and features an FMC who dislikes Christmas. One of the themes (or tropes) in this book is grumpy x sunshine, with the main female character being the grumpy one for a change, as it’s more usually the male character.

On a side note, why is it that readers are far more accepting of what is sometimes a downright obnoxious male character, yet when a woman has the temerity to be grumpy she's called unlikable? Besides, characters change. They should be allowed to grow and develop and alter their world view throughout the course of the book. Anyway, I digress...

In an attempt (not wholly successfully, I admit), to turn the negative into something more positive, I made several social media posts which leant into one of the aspects the reviewer disliked about the book, and wrote a series of social media posts.

If grumpy FMCs aren’t your jam, don’t read this!
Love a grumpy x sunshine romance? You mightn’t when you realise that SHE’s the grumpy one.
Not everyone loves Christmas. Eloise doesn’t. Will THIS Christmas make her change her mind?
Warning! This FMC thinks Christmas is overpriced, overhyped, and overrated.

You may already have seen some of them, and some probably won’t be posted if I have second thoughts. Which I probably will! But just writing them (and this blog post) made me feel a little better.

That 1-star review will continue to live in my head. They always do, unfortunately, despite all the lovely 5-star ones the book has received, but at least it’s reminded me to NEVER READ THE REVIEWS. Instead, when I want to find some positive review quotes, I'll get my bestie to dig them out for me.

And just to make sure I heed my own advice, I'll say it again... Lilac, please, future me is begging you, DO NOT read your reviews.