Critical reviews, What now?

When you publish anything either in ebook,book form or blog you will get reviews. They can be good, bad or downright ugly.

So what can you do to stay sane?

Firstly, writing is a profession, if you are published in any form, then you must act like a professional.
Calm, polite, clear and able to take a step back to see the bigger picture.

Reading reviews can be a very elightening experience, you are seeing how others are interpreting your novel and what areas you need to improve in.
Remember, not everyone is able to convey what they really mean with words. You must read what they say with the thought "Something about my work motivated them to write to me". Which in many ways is a good thing, you need feedback.

Yes, bad reviews and ugly comments will hurt your pride and trigger you wanting to defend your work. DON'T!  Unless they are totally off base about a concret thing that happened in the book.  For example, I hated how Mr Smith killed John in the Alley on 5th street.   Mr Smith was not the killer, John was killed out at sea and 5th street was never mentioned in your novel. Politely, respond explaining they must have your book confused with another as that event did not take place in your fictional work.
 

Fake towns or cities or getting facts wrong, just admit it and move on. Thank them for reading your novel, tell them yes, that place does not exist, that fact is wrong thankyou for bringing to my attention. And leave it alone.

The more you say, the more those who are out there who just want to troll/annoy/harass you will continue. Less is more, polite, professional wins out all the time.

Spelling or grammer comments, as above, admit it and move on. No one is perfect, blaming your editor or proof reader just makes you look like a whiner.

But can you see the trees for the forest in the above two points? Next time you know how to deal with it, know you need to check it or add in a blurb about fake town or city, admit you dont always get everything right (if its a historical novel or even science) and used it because it make the plot flow.

There are very few BAD reviews, rude, nasty yes but I am sure no matter what you wrote those will still come because people are people. But the annoyed, frustrated reader reviews are ones your need to pay attention too.

If you read "character X just seem flat, has no appeal", "plot lost me at second chapter" or "I found the whole pliot affair confusing". Then those are parts of the writing process you need to work on. Does character X come off as flat? Is your plot line hard to follow? Did you give out enough clues to solve the mystery?

Good reviews are nice, they pat our backs, stroke our egos and give warm fuzzy feeling. BUT do they really help us progress, not really.

I'd much rather get a review telling me, "Plot line was strong but when John stabbed Sally, I could not understand who was talking or where everyone was. Who fell first and where did the knife disappear too as it was never mentioned again".  And yes this is a review I got for a short story I wrote.
I could have responded with the frustration I felt at being questioned about my work, or told them the piviotal scene did work just fine.  But I didn't, I sucked up my pride, read what they had reviewed and went back in and reworked the scene. They had a point, it was confusing to anyone not in my head.

If you do not feel you cannot stay calm, be polite when responding to these reviews, then don't.  In my opinion I'd rather be the writer who does not respond, then the nasty writer who told her readers to stuff it up their jumpers.

Defending your work, especially on a public forum, will more then likely have you look like a crazy person, let you star on many "how not to act" blogs and scare away many readers.

Best thing you can ever do is just say , Thankyou for taking the time to let me know what you thought of my work.