How To Deal With Negative Blog Comments (Professionally!)

We’ve all been told that writing an author blog can help boost our book sales, widen our audience and build our fan base. Indeed, done well an author blog can both help to sell more books and an author to create a name for themselves.

However, just like when you submit your story for review, or put your book on Amazon, or put and of your work ‘out there’ in any capacity, you are exposing yourself to negative comments -and these can be tough to take.

While many authors perhaps don’t view their blogs as necessary as their books or other forms of creative writing, they still take time and effort to create and keep relevant and fresh and worthwhile. Therefore it can be very demoralising, not to mention infuriating if a blog post is received negatively.

Negative comments, just like bad reviews, are bound to happen if you keep publishing and marketing your blogs. When this happens, it can be tempting to react badly, to respond angrily to the person who posted the comment, to start a war of words, or just let it get to you so much that you want to give up writing your blog in the first place.

Learning how to deal with negative blog comments in a professional manner, as well as understanding how not to let them affect you is important. Here are some useful tips for how to do just that:

Read what they are saying

It’s easy just to flare up when you read a negative blog comment without really taking into account what the person has said. It might be that they’ve found spelling or grammatical errors - if that’s the case, they perhaps have a valid point. It may be they are just stating their personal opinion, in which case let them have it. Perhaps they are just being unfair and negative for the sake of it, in which case you don’t need to take it to heart because they will end up looking foolish, not you. Whatever they've said take the time to actually read it before you dismiss it or get upset - there might be some truth or wisdom there which can help make your blog better.

Look for the positives.

Hey if someone’s commenting on it, it means they are reading it, and that’s got to be a silver lining at least! See if the comment has any use. It might be that you do need to re-read a certain paragraph in your blog, or that you haven’t explored the topic enough. Sometimes negative blog comments can inspire you to do better next time.

Don’t read them when you are already in a negative mood.

Don’t torture yourself! If you are already feeling a bit vulnerable or down on yourself then just wait until you are feeling more robust! When you have a clear head and can receive comments and feedback constructively you'll be much better at dealing with them.

Remember that you can’t please everyone.

If you are trying to make your blog unique and interesting (as you should be) it’s likely that sometimes your opinion will rub people up the wrong way. Sometimes people will just disagree with you. It’s as simple as that. Just accept it and stick to your guns if you are writing about what you believe in and are passionate about.

Always react professionally (if at all)

You don’t necessarily have to respond to a negative blog comment, but if you do, try to react with professionalism. Even if someone is trying to antagonise you, don’t rise to it. Thank them for their comment, ask them to explain themselves further if what they have said seems unjust, or simply thank them if their comment has some truth to it. You could always try being humorous if the situation warrants it - showing you are unaffected and that you can be witty will make you look so much better, and if you are upset by the comment, remember you can always delete it!

How do you deal with negative blog comments? Let us know here!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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