Do you read your own reviews?

[Jude Hardin]

It's hard not to, right? I saw J.K. Rowling the other night on Charlie Rose, and she says she has even made changes to her work based on criticism in reviews.

How do you guys feel about that? Some people say it's best not to read your own reviews at all, but I wonder how many authors actually follow that rule. And if you do read the reviews, from professionals and from customers, have they ever caused you to make changes in subsequent stories?

[I. J. Parker]

I read all print reviews and sample Amazon reviews from time to time. No, I've never made changes, but sometimes misunderstandings (the reader not really knowing the history) suggest additions to historical notes.

[Eric Christopherson]

Yes, I always read them, and I can think of one time I made a couple minor revisions based on a comment in a review.

[John McFetridge]

Sure, I read the reviews of my books. I don't make changes based on what negative reviews say because I'm afriad that would affect what the positive reviews like about the books... ;)

[Dana King]

I swore I wouldn't, but I do. I've never made a change, and doubt I would, unless I got something factually wrong that mattered, but I do keep things in mind for future work. Not that I'll do anything about it, but i do think about what gets mentioned, both good and bad.

[Pepper Smith]

Yes. I haven't made changes based on reviews. Not everyone's going to like the way you take a story.

[Jack Getze]

Can't believe anyone who says they don't. :-)

It's been a while, but I read them like any critique. If there are good suggestions in the comments, I take them. (reducing the number of four-letter words was one suggestion I took) I think writers can always get better.

[M.E. Purfield]

I do and I dont make changes based on them. That's what crit groups are for. But I dont think I have ever gotten any change requests but to say that there is too much potty mouth. Why the f would I change that?

[Tom Vater]

Always read all my reviews. I think most writers who say they don't are not telling the whole truth. It is just too tempting. Also, unlike musicians, writers do not get direct feedback for their work (unless they do book tours) and reviews, whether on amazon or in magazines and newspapers do tell writers something about the relationship between their work and their readers. I've never changed anything because of a review, good or bad, though.

[William G. Davis]

Over the years the 5-Star reviews my novel received were the only thing that kept me going through some health and economic challenges.  Then, when I initially released my first novel on Kindle, I got a 1-Star drubbing from a reviewer due to my technical ignorance and failure to properly format the Kindle version.  That certainly motivated me to get the formatting fixed! So yes, I certainly changed something due to a review.  I can only imagine how many readers downloaded the book only to be turned off by the bad formatting--a good example of taking one step forward and two steps back.   

[Jemir Johnson]

I tend to read every review I find or am made aware of for the first month or so then kind of trail off (not wanting to "jinx" things if the over all reviews are positive or "torture myself" if the majority aren't. One of those silly writer superstition things that you know have no merit but go with anyway). I can also say, with certainty, I have never consciously changed story telling approaches or techniques based on reviews. I have, however, been guided by in person comments, e-mailed critiques and other forms of one on one suggestion. Glad to hear that some of the positive reviews you recieved helped you in the ways that they did, William.  Have a great week and continued success, all.