Friends, I cannot emphasize enough to you that the ability to accept criticism without flying off the handle is *critical* to your ability to be a published author.
[plain text: Friends, I cannot emphasize enough to you that the ability to accept criticism without flying off the handle is *critical* to your ability to be a published author. End plain text.]
If you cannot accept constructive criticism on your drafts, you are not ready to be published.
If you cannot accept negative reviews, you are not ready to be published.
If you cannot accept negative reviews without claiming that anyone who critiques your book is doing the equivalent of actively trying to suicide-bait you...
You are not ready to be published.
[Plain text: you are not ready to be published. End plain text]
If you cannot handle constructive criticism or negative reviews, and you still want to go ahead with publishing, you need to, at minimum:
* Use a penname completely unattatched to your person
* blacklist every. single. variation, acronym, character name, world setting name, author penname etc assosciated with your work on every single browser extension possible so you cannot come across critique of your work unless it is the most vaugely-worded post in the world.
* Completely get rid of / stay off of all social media for at least a few months after you publish your work
* do not look at reviews or discussions about your work
* if you want to get feedback but can't handle it directly, get a trusted friend, or hire someone to aggregate common compliments or complaints about the work that they can present to you in a calm, friendly setting, while you have something on hand to help you regulate your emotions.
* Legitimately: seek therapy to help you regulate your emotions, especially if you have (or suspect you have) autism, ADHD, BPD, NPD, etc that can make it harder to regulate your emotions, as our nervous systems tends to overreact *drastically* to negative feedback, and can make it feel like the whole world is crashing and burning down around your ears simply because someone left a review that *doesn't* view your work as some variation of god's gift to mankind perfection.
* If your first instinct to seeing critique of your published work is to immediately and publicly proclaim that anyone who thinks poorly of your work is
"Just [racist, queerphobic, ableist, xenophobic, etc] Because I, the author, am [insert minority here], and I included [ insert minority here] characters in my work!!!!! And also they want me to *dieeeeeee!* "
... you are not ready to be published.
TL;DR: if you are incapable of receiving constructive or negative criticism of your written works, you are not ready to be published. If you go ahead with publishing despite knowing you cannot handle criticism, it is your responsibility to blacklist all relevant terms regarding your work, and not seek out or interact with reviews of *any kind* until you can regulate your emotions in a responsible, professional manner.
