Summary

The article argues that receiving one-star reviews is a sign that a writer is creating impactful and polarizing work that resonates deeply with their target audience.

Abstract

The article emphasizes the importance of creating work that divides opinion, asserting that the presence of one-star reviews alongside five-star ones indicates a piece of writing is reaching and affecting its intended audience. It suggests that artists and writers should not aim for universal appeal but instead focus on a niche market. The piece acknowledges the emotional toll negative reviews can take but encourages creators to view them as a necessary part of the creative process and a source of valuable feedback. It advises not to engage with negative reviews directly but to learn from them and use the criticism to improve future work. The article concludes by motivating creators to embrace the fear of divisive reactions as a sign of innovative work and to maintain humility, allowing the audience to be the ultimate judge of their creations.

Opinions

One-star reviews are an inevitable and positive indicator of creating art that challenges and divides the market.
The best and most successful works across various art forms often receive a mix of highly positive and negative reviews.
Artists should not take negative reviews personally but rather see them as a sign that their work is reaching beyond its intended audience.
Engaging with one-star reviews is generally discouraged, but they can provide constructive feedback when filtered through an objective third party.
Products with only five-star reviews may indicate a lack of innovation or risk-taking.
Creators should strive to work at the edges of their niche, pushing boundaries and taking creative risks to produce meaningful work.
The audience that appreciates a creator's work will passionately support and advocate for it, despite the presence of negative reviews.
Embracing the possibility of one-star reviews is part of shipping art that has depth and the potential to stand the test of time.
Overconfidence in one's work can lead to complacency and a lack of innovation, while humility allows for growth and genuine connection with the audience.

Writers: One-Star Reviews Mean You’re Doing Something Right

Why polarizing work is a MUST in today’s writing market

The best art divides the market. This means you can’t write books for everyone. We can’t even write for most people. What we can do is write for a very small group of people. We do it for them.

We say “hey, I made this. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

If you look at the most-successful books, movies, paintings, products — ANYTHING, you’ll see a handful of one-star reviews. Even Hemingway and Scorsese get pummeled with scathing reviews. Want to feel better about your feelings of impostor's syndrome, read some Hemingway one-stars.

So what makes you think you can (or should) avoid negative reviews?

I get it. As a creator, we put our hearts, souls, blood, and sweat into our products. Our work is personal. There’s a piece of us shipped in every box. When someone shits on our idea it HURTS. I mean, it really hurts. Like it hurts so bad sometimes we want to shut the doors and stop doing this work we love so much.

The one-star is a gift.

It won’t feel like it at the time. A one-star may NEVER feel like it, but they are a sign you’re work is moving the right direction. As long as you have five-star reviews from people who love your work, I wouldn’t change a thing.

The one-stars come from people outside your market. Your product was not for them, but THEY made a mistake and tried it. You never intended to have your product in their hands, but somehow it landed there. Maybe they thought they were someone they aren’t. It’s not your fault and there’s nothing wrong with your work. The reviewer made a poor choice is all.

What do you do about one-star reviews?

You leave them alone. Don’t engage. Don’t dwell. You don’t respond. They can’t be removed unless the review is malicious (but that’s outside the scope of this story).
You ask someone else to read all your reviews and be your filter. The objective party shares only relevant information with you to help you improve your work. Sometimes your work will be bad and you need to fix it before you prance around thinking you’re amazing when you’re not.
You read them all. You take a deep breath. And you ignore the trolling from people who aren’t your customers, learning from the people who are.
You lose your mind. This isn’t the ideal choice. You get defensive and respond with hostility, telling the other person they’re a moron. You take it personally. You stop doing your work and run away to do something else.
You learn from them and get better. Not all one-stars are un-warranted. Maybe you could’ve done a better job. Maybe you shipped too early. Maybe your characters we’re believable, or the plot was phony. One-stars can be the best teachers as well.

The few products with only five-star reviews are those that don’t rock the canoe. These products are so specialized they serve but a tiny group of people. Feathers remain un-ruffled and splashes stay un-splashed.

I wrote a piece about creating work with meaning (see below). This is about your duty — working at the edges of your niche to make something innovative.

Your audience wants meaning.

These people don’t want more of what they already have. They want novelty and challenge. These are your people. To serve them you must make a lot of mistakes. Not every idea you create will be a winner. If you operate at the fringes many of your ideas will fail.

The fringe can be the most-satisfying creatively.

You push the envelope. You take a piece of this and combine it with that. It’s a combination that’s never been done in the history of your niche. You’ll anger the purists. You’ll get one-star reviews.

Your audience will love it.

The people who deserve your work will trip over themselves to tell others how much they love it. The people who deserve your work will FEEL your passion behind everything you put in the box, on the page, or on the canvas. The fringe-work can’t help but excite those who consume it.

If you want to create work with meaning — work that stands over time — you’ve got to earn some one-stars. If you brace yourself and do your best to ship art every time you lick the proverbial stamp, those one-stars will be a gift.

With haters come fans. And fans bring abundance.

How will you know if you’re about to ship something that will divide the market? You’ll know because it scares you. If you aren’t shipping work that scares you a little every time you hit send, you aren’t trying hard enough.

Show me an over-confident creator and I’ll show you someone who creates work with all the excitement of vanilla pudding. If you pay attention you’ll find these people. They showboat around, promoting their idea as the best thing on earth. Next year they won’t exist.

The pure creator stays humble in her expectations. Yes, you have to market your work and tell the world it’s available, but you can’t tell them how great it is. The only person who gets to judge your work is your audience. They’ll vote with their time and their wallets. Everything else is noise.

Now get out there and earn some one-star reviews!