How do you handle literary criticism?
One thing we as authors have to stop doing is harping on reviews. As soon as we drop a book, we're counting reviews and reading what the readers have to say about our work. This practice is not only self-destructive toward our own self-esteem, but it can be a devastating blow to our creative process and our career as writers as a whole.
Firstly, just like there are trolls on social media and scammers calling and emailing with false claims, there are trolls in the literary world as well. There are people who literally sit up and leave negative review after negative review on new releases. There are disgruntled authors out there just like there are disgruntled co-workers. Struggling with the lack of success of their own work, they patrol the reader and writer groups on social media for new releases and then leave negative reviews for those works. This is intentional. They are completely aware of what this does to a work's rating on platforms such as Amazon, Kindle, and Goodreads, and this negative effect is precisely what they seek. Even still, there are people who are paid to leave negative reviews. For this reason alone, I encourage all authors to refrain from allowing reviews to hold a significant amount of weight over how they feel about their own writing.
Another very important point to keep in mind is that you cannot please everybody. Let me say that again: You cannot please everybody. You as an individual will not be everybody's cup of tea. Everybody is not going to like you, and if everybody does like you, that means you're being fake at some point. Just like your personality, your writing isn't going to be for everyone either. Some people will find it too fast-paced. Others will find it to be too slow of a burn. Some people won't like the plot, and still others will be livid about the conclusion. (This is quite common, especially if you don't write HEA endings.) You will have critics. There will be people who don't like your work. It's inevitable. There are people who are reading in the wrong genre and won't like anything you produce because they haven't come to the understanding with themselves that they don't like that genre of fiction. Then there are people who have read so much low-quality work that they don't fully appreciate high-quality work. Whatever the case may be, you have to come to terms with and accept the fact that everyone isn't going to like your work. That's the bottom line.
Now, in the spirit of transparency, yes, I too read the reviews left for my work. However, I've learned not to allow a negative review to dampen my mood or cause me to question my own abilities. Let's be honest here: most readers are not writers. They have no idea how much time, research, effort, creativity, and how much of ourselves writing a book requires... and neither are they trying to find out. But if your work isn't just like this person's whose work they really like or that person's whose work is highly popular, they won't like your work under any circumstances, no matter how learned you are or how much skill you have, how shocking your plot twists or how poetic your diction. There's always going to be someone who doesn't like your work, and until you develop the thick skin that's necessary to keep you from taking the negative criticism to heart, it's best you avoid reading it at all.
When you do start allowing yourself to read the reviews, it's important that you learn how to separate useless ranting from the constructive criticism. All negative criticism isn't actually negative. Some "negative" criticism can actually be taken at face value and used to help improve your writing. However, always remember to remain true to yourself and your own voice as a writer. Never lose focus of what you want to accomplish with your writing and who you are as a writer. Remember that you can't please everyone, so while trying to incorporate suggestions for improvement, be sure to maintain your voice and be protective of that voice.
On the same token, it's perfectly fine and actually encouraged to celebrate your 5-star reviews and ratings. I have an entire page on this website dedicated to displaying some of my best reviews. Never let the negative overshadow the positive. And ultimately, celebrate all reviews because a review equals (most times) a reader. Whether they liked it or not, they bought it, they downloaded it, they read it. They gave your work a chance, and that's what matters. Remember what Eazy E said about the crowd of people who were stomping on N.W.A. records in the street: "See, the truth is, they can do whatever they want with 'em. They bought them mother****ers."