Chapter Four | Feedback

Updated June 2026

You have to be thick-skinned to be an author. I’m not, naturally, but I’ve learnt to be more so when it comes to my writing.

As with all aspects of life, constructive feedback is invaluable. It can be more acceptable if it is politely and nicely given, but because writing is often in the public domain, it puts authors into potentially vulnerable positions where some readers think they can say what they like, how they like. Anonymity can protect the online critic, but, regardless, creative work - books, art, films, plays, performances of any kind - lends itself to comment. Most of us will have seen that film or TV show and said afterwards it was ‘great!’ or ‘rubbish’ or something in between. As writers, we have to be prepared for honest opinions, even if they don’t say what we want them to say. I’ve had a few one and two star reviews - ouch, they hurt! But, should they? Most of them have come with no supportive comments, so have been difficult to take on board. The ones that did say something, I can still learn from them and look to improve next time.

The most valuable feedback that can be gained is during the edit. Get your work read before you publish. Listen to the feedback and act on it… or don’t. Either way, your book will be published knowing that you’ve thought about it and got it into as good a state as you possibly can.

Not everyone is going to enjoy my books. And that’s fine. But could I do better? Yes, definitely. Always learning.