One topic that comes up a lot when I speak with authors (just came up yesterday in fact) is the need to open up to all kinds of feedback. And from a value-add perspective, negative feedback is much more valuable than positive feedback. But it hurts, no doubt about that.

Negative feedback tells us whats wrong with our piece. Maybe the title doesn’t grab our potential readers. Maybe the story starts out too slow. If we’re writing a business or how-to book, maybe the tone is too dry and boring. All of this feedback can be considered negative, but its also incredibly valuable if the author opens up to it.

Some negative feedback is useless. If someone simply says he or she didn’t like book or makes some other general comment like the author must be crazy, well, this kind of feedback stings a little, but essentially it is useless as the feedback doesn’t give insight into what might be wrong with the piece.

Positive feedback can also be valuable if the author learns something from it. If a reader tells you they loved such and such a character, for example, that feedback is good as it tells you those kinds of characters resonate with your readers. But just hearing the piece is good or having someone tell you they loved reading your book is just as useless and someone telling you they hated the book.

On NPR radio the other day, All Things Considered ran a story on Erica Jong’s recent book review. Here’s a little blurb and if you want to read the whole article simply click on the link below and you can hear the interview.

All Things Considered, April 26, 2006 · Seducing the Demon, the latest book by novelist Erica Jong, received a bad review in The New York Times this past Sunday.

In the past, Jong says she would have curled up in bed and thought about changing careers. But now she says that perhaps she could learn something from a critic’s harsh words.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5364767