How to Deal with Negative Reviews on Your Book (Don't Make THIS Mistake)

About this video

Sean answers a question from his Facebook group about how to deal with negative reviews on a self-published book. He says negative reviews are completely normal, happen even to New York Times best-selling authors, and cannot be avoided because you cannot please everybody — the goal is to please the majority. His central warning is not to rebuild a manuscript around one person’s complaint about the content. He distinguishes that from a repeated pattern: if many readers flag the same typo, spelling, grammar or formatting problem, or the same content issue, that should be fixed. He gives 4.3 stars as the target average to protect, saying at 4.3 Amazon displays five filled stars while 4.2 displays four, which he says dramatically reduces sales. If a negative review complains about shipping or print quality rather than the book, he says to email Amazon with the review link and ask for removal, since those are Amazon’s responsibility. Otherwise, he says there is little to do except improve quality, keep selling so positive reviews outweigh negatives, and prevent problems by checking work and writing quality before publishing.

Key takeaways

• Do not revise a book based on a single negative review about content; only act when multiple readers complain about the same thing.
• Fix clear, repeated errors — typos, spelling, grammar and formatting — as soon as a pattern appears.
• He targets at least a 4.3 average rating, which he says displays as five stars on Amazon, versus four stars at 4.2.
• Reviews blaming shipping or print quality can be sent to Amazon with a removal request because they are not about the book’s content.
• Prevention is the main defence: check the manuscript and ensure high-quality writing before publishing, then out-sell negatives with more positive reviews.

Episode details: published June 14, 2021 · 6:19 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Sean Dollwet’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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