Month: May 2024

If you are a new author and you are active on social media and you have a good footprint online then you might have faced this issue.

The issue we are going to talk about is not only faced by authors but any creative person.

We are talking about negative reviews. Negative reviews can come in all shapes and sizes but the one thing they can do to you is demotivate you.

So, how do you deal with negative reviews? We are going to find out just that in this important blog that will help an author immensely.

We will tell you everything you need to know about negative reviews and all the scenarios in which you might get a negative review.

We are also going to tell you what you should do with negative reviews and how you deal with that situation.

This is because there might be different things you can do about a negative review.

You can go after the person but that would not be wise, you can simply ignore it and that will also not be the best thing to do, you might choose to take it to your heart and that is also not the best approach.

So, what do you do? Let’s find out because not all negative reviews at the same and not all negative reviews should be put into a similar category and treated similarly.

Let us start by understanding the reasons why negative reviews might bother you.

This Is Why Negative Reviews Might Be Bothering You

They Are Not Wrong

One of the reasons why you might be bothered about the situation is simply because the person making the negative review might just be making sense.

This means that the review might have actually good points and the intentions of the reviewer might not be to intentionally be malicious because they might be trying to provide you constructive criticism.

If that is the case then you should actually listen to what the person is saying and it is simply because no author is going to be perfect. You might have flaws too.

That is why it is not a good thing to completely shut down every reviewer you have because you simply cannot grow like that.

This is why you should pay attention to the reviews that actually make sense and if the book is already published and you simply cannot do anything about it then you should just take it as a lesson.

This will help you avoid the same mistakes later.

They Are Just Being Mean

The second reason why you might be bothered about a negative review is simply that most reviews are just there because the person is bitter.

They might be jealous of your work or they might just be trolls looking for some attention and they might not even make sense or have any good constructive criticism for you.

This is actually what happens to content creators most of the time and it might also happen to you that some reviews might be negative just because the person wants some attention and they might not even be a reader.

This is actually very common and this might happen if you try and promote your book because then it will reach a wider audience and most of the audience are not readers.

You should not take these reviews to heart it is very easy to become a keyboard troll and sit behind a screen and be cruel and this is just a reality that you have to accept.

You are not a social reformer who is trying to change society and make it kinder, if you are then you can engage in a kind conversation with that person but we would suggest you to ignore these negative reviews.

They Are Wrong

If the person is not making sense and if they are actually not trolls looking for some attention then it might just be the case that they misunderstood your book.

What do you do in that case?

The person is providing genuine criticism from their standpoint and they are right from their perspective and they are also not trying to be cruel.

In that case, the best thing you can do is to engage with them and provide them with explanations for things they have misunderstood.

This is when a fanbase comes in very handy because if you have fans who admire you and understand what you write then you can request them to explain to the reviewer the correct meaning of something they have just misinterpreted.

If you do not have such a network and you are a one-man army then the best thing to do would be to engage with that reviewer if you have the time for it.

And if you do engage with that person then you need to be as kind as possible to them.

They Made You Doubt Yourself

Sometimes it might just be the case that you are not really sure what to do with the negative review because while they might not be 100% correct, they might be kind of right.

Sometimes they might be completely wrong and they might also make you doubt yourself. Any kind of negative review whether right or wrong might make you doubt yourself.

If you encounter such a scenario then the only thing to do would be to understand that this is literature and you cannot achieve perfection because there is no definition of standardized perfection.

Your book is a reflection of yourself and it is very personal to you. There will always be someone that might feel you are wrong but that does not make your work wrong.

Yes, you should always pay attention to what your readers are saying but you must also understand detachment because once your book is published, it is like your child growing up, you can only do so much now.

That is why if you ever doubt your abilities then you should just remember the fact that you are a published author and that itself should not make you question your abilities because you have a book and the negative reviewer does not.

They Are a Risk to Sales

Being an author is not just about achieving perfection when it comes to your craft as a writer but it is also about understanding marketing and being a businessman.

This is especially the case if you are also the producer of the book in the form of self-publishing and if you have invested either time or money or both in a book then it is quite usual to get afraid of negative reviews.

What if potential readers read the review and decide not to get the book? That is a nightmare every author has.

The most beautiful thing about literature is that it is not like any risky marketing campaign which has an inherent risk of optics and backfiring.

If your book is good and if the quality of your content is good then the positive reviews will always be more than negative reviews.

This is because readers, unlike other consumers, actually express their happiness and their satisfaction if they find something really good. It is not like Amazon reviews on any tech product where only bad reviews are done.

And if you are still worried then this should settle your tension.

In the world of online marketing or rather any kind of marketing, negative publicity is also publicity.

Negative reviews are also engagement quite literally which means even if your book gets negative reviews, it will still be organically promoted by the eCommerce platform just because it is generating engagement.

You just have to make sure not to do anything with negative reviews like trying to contact the reviewer and pursuing them and asking them to delete it because that can make things worse.

They Are Getting Personal and Dangerous

One of the scenarios that should actually make you worried is going to be negative reviews with malicious intent.

While the literature industry as a whole is quite tolerant, it is still an industry and that means your competitors might just be running a malicious negative review campaign behind your back.

It might also be the case that the reviewer is just a sadistic person who is trying to rile up controversy for some kind of gain.

They might be trying to portray you in the wrong light and they might be starting controversies.

In that case, you can take legal help but before you do that it is always a good option to contact them and ask them to delete that negative review if it is actually incriminating under the law or if it can be pursued for defamation.

If they do not listen then the second option for you would be the contact the platform and ask them to take the step of removing that review and banning that person.

If even that does not work then the last step for you would be to take legal action and it can be in the form of a defamation case.

But you must keep in mind that this should only be reserved for negative reviews where the reviewer actually has bad intentions and is speaking about your family and spreading lies about you.

You should never take this step for a genuine negative review even if it is a stupid or plain negative review or even if the negative review is done by a person who misunderstood your work.

Important Tips to Deal with Negative Reviews

Not All Negative Reviews Are the Same

One of the most important things you must keep in mind about negative reviews is that not every negative review is worthless.

Negative reviews can actually teach you a lot of things and if the negative review is constructive criticism, then you should welcome it.

This is because someone has read your book and decided to provide you constructive criticism and while every criticism is negative, that does not mean every negative review is just malicious.

That is why you should welcome a good negative review and we would even ask you to try and contact the person and even collaborate with them to improve your craft.

Expect Negative Reviews

Every creative thing in the world has negative reviews whether it is the most remarkable thing that has changed humanity or whether it is something ordinary like a lemon toffee.

That is why if you are putting your work out there then you should also be ready for negative reviews because even if your work is excellent, chances are that 1 out of 10 people will not like it.

The good thing about literature 65is that people are generally very polite about negative reviews but that is not the case with any other kind of creative endeavours such as movies or art.

If you want to know how to deal with negative reviews then you can find hundreds of interviews with actors, YouTubers, celebrities as well as musicians and every other creative person on how the deal with it.

It will provide you with a good sense of how you should also deal with negative reviews.

Negative Reviews Mean You Are Strong

One of the most important things that authors forget is that a person with no haters is a very balanced and diplomatic person.

But you cannot have art and diplomacy in the same sentence because if you want to create art in the form of books then you need to put forward your viewpoint for the world to see. You need to be bold.

If you are not a diplomatic person and courageous enough to put forward your ideas without thinking about appeasement, you can create a masterpiece.

Every famous book out there in the world has its fair share of critics and that is also the case with your negative reviews because if you start thinking about the haters, your next step would be to please them haters.

This will lead you to the next step, you are going to lose your individuality and your standpoint.

So, keep your head strong and keep writing.

Contextualize Negative Reviews Correctly

Behind every negative review is a purpose and that purpose can be just trolling around and that purpose can be the honest perspective of a person who has read your work.

Every opinion out there has a reason and that reason might be something very important and actually logical or that reason might just be attention-grabbing and stupidity.

That is why instead of looking at negative reviews emotionally, if you try to understand the reason behind the review and if you try to understand the perspective behind the review, your viewpoint will change completely.

This means if you try and understand the context behind why a person has said something negative about your work and if you can come up with a reason, it will not be as depressing as you think.

Always Be Kind in Answering Them

We generally never encourage authors to engage with negative reviews, especially reviews that seem malicious.

But if you really want to interact and engage with negative reviews then the best way to do it is to just be as kind as possible to them.

This is because a kind reaction might just change the mind of the person who has left a review and the other important reason is that everyone can see negative reviews.

And if your readers see that you are always kind then it will definitely leave a positive impression in their mind and you might even find people coming to your defence.

We hope this blog will help you deal with negative reviews. It is actually quite a time-consuming process if you are a bestselling author because you are going to get a lot of negative reviews along with even more positive reviews.

Sometimes it is just good to ignore them and not overthink.

And if you are ready to deal with negative reviews and you want to finally publish your book then we are here for you because we are Orange Publishers.

We are the fastest-growing as well as most popular book publisher in India and we publish in nearly every genre of literature.

We do everything from fiction and nonfiction to educational books and everything else and all our operations are in-house which helps us ensure the finest quality of print.

We welcome you to visit our website and check out everything we do.

Negative Reviews FAQs

Should authors respond to reviews?

When it comes to reviews, you can generally respond to them and just express your gratitude about the fact that they have read your book.

However, when it comes to negative reviews, we generally suggest our authors to never respond to them because it has a chance of creating unnecessary controversy and your response might not be the best.

But if you decide to respond to negative reviews, you need to be as kind as humanly possible and shower them with kindness and also tell them that you understand what they have to say.

What not to say in a book review?

You can basically say anything you want in a book review as long as your intention is not malicious because if you want to provide constructive criticism then you are free to say anything you want.

But if your intention is just to tarnish the reputation of the author then we would suggest you not to do that because it is not a good thing to do.

And if you do decide to still do it with malicious intentions then you must also understand that you stand that chance of getting a notice for defamation.

Such things are rare in the world of literature and we believe in decency and we all should make sure to uphold this beautiful industry and its ethics.

Do authors read their book reviews?

Of course, authors read their book reviews and it is just like how celebrities often read the comments from their social media posts.

The reason why people think that authors do not read reviews is that most of the time the author does not choose to reply to a review or send out an answer to the review.

But you can be assured of the fact that authors are really eager to listen to what their readers have to say about something.

How do I get better at book reviews?

The only way in which you can get better at book reviews is simply to get better at your craft because if you want a good review then the only way to get it is to create good content.

You actually do not even have to pay attention to book reviews if you do not want to and that is exactly what we suggest to our authors.

We tell our authors to concentrate on their work and to simply improve their craft in their own time and not get influenced by reviews and what people have to say.

That is why you do not have to try and get good reviews because the moment you start trying to get good reviews is the moment you are bending your perspective and losing individualism.

Today we have a very interesting blog for you and we would like to start this by asking you to imagine yourself as a writer.

You are a first-time writer and on your way to becoming a published author. Your manuscript is complete and all you need to do is to self-publish that manuscript.

And since you are self-publishing, you need to do everything by yourself, things like creating the book cover, getting the books printed and also thinking about copyright filing

You can do everything on your own but there is a small problem and that is definitely the book cover.  You are probably not an artist but you want your book cover to look professional and you have a certain vision for the book cover.

You can spend some and get yourself a professional book cover designer who is experienced in graphic design as well as drawing illustrations and much more.

But you want to do everything yourself and so the only other option for you is to either try and draw the book cover yourself or do something else.

That something else is going to be utilising AI to generate the book cover for yourself.

It will not infringe on anyone’s copyright because it will be an image you created and you can create it any way you want.

That is exactly what we are going to talk about in this blog because we will talk about whether you can design a book cover with AI image generators and whether it is practical and even doable or even legal.

What Are AI Image Generators?

AI image generators basically work on the simple function of text to image which means you need to write a prompt and the AI engine is going to interpret that prompt into an image.

You can then add additional prompts to alter that image according to your needs.

There are a few ways in which AI engines do it. These are the most common AI image generator types.

· Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)

· StyleGAN and StyleGAN2

· Variational Autoencoders (VAEs)

· Transformers

While we do not want to get too technical in this blog meant for authors but they basically work on the principle of generating an image and discriminating that image to see if that image is comprehensible or realistic.

We would love to write a separate blog on the different kinds of AI image generators if you want us to.

There are a lot of options these days that will allow you to generate images based on text prompts as well as image inputs. Let us look at some of them now.

Popular AI Image Generators

DALL-E 3

The first one we are going to talk about is OpenAI’s DALL-E 3. If you know Chat GPT then they are the same people to have created this AI image generator.

It produces excellent results but the only thing with this is that if you want to use it then you need to upgrade your Chat GPT 3.5 account and upgrade to Chat GPT 4 with a Plus subscription. It is $20/month.

If you only need to generate a single image or maybe try out the generator for a single instance of creating a single book cover then $20 might seem expensive.

You cannot have access to OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 with the regular free plan.

Midjourney

The concept behind Midjourney is quite different because they operate with Discord which means you need to sign up with them and also create a free Discord account.

Then you need to join their server and you will get to generate 25 free images and after that, they are going to charge a subscription fee.

Midjourney produces good results and people have even won AI artwork competitions with the help of Midjourney because it is so good at producing results in the form of artworks. It is excellent at replicating human artists and illustrators.

Adobe Firefly

Now we come to a unique AI generator because if you know how to write prompts then you can expect excellent results from this AI generator by Adobe.

All you need to do is search for it on Google and you might be asked to get an Adobe Photoshop subscription but if you look a little bit more then you can find an option to try out Adobe Firefly for free.

This generator has a lot of control options and even has very detailed controls including colour and tone as well as lighting effects and you can even set the camera angle before you generate the image.

You should definitely try it out because it is a very good free option and while we do not know how long it is going to stay free but you should try it as long as it does.

Stable Diffusion

The last option that we are going to talk about is going to be Stable Diffusion because while it comes with a steep learning curve but it is completely free because it is an open-source generator.

However, Stable Diffusion comes as an API in its open-source version which means you might need some bit of technical knowledge to utilise it.

Some programs might let you use it like the other generators but there might be a paywall or it may not be as fast or astable as the original API.

If you want to choose one among them, then it is a very tough decision to make because all of them are quite new and this is just the early stages of development for what we know as AI generators.

DALL-E 3 and Midjourney are excellent especially DALL-E 3 because it is based on OpenAI and we would suggest you to use it because of its ease of use.

So, what if you want to use DALL-E 3? There is another option to use it completely free.

The Option to Use DALL-E 3 For Free

The only option to use DALL-E 3 for free as many times as you want is to use a device that supports the Microsoft Bing browser.

This means you can use your PC that runs on Windows or you can even use your smartphone where you can install the Bing browser.

All you need to do is to open the browser and sign up with a Microsoft account. That is the only complicated part of it because you need a Microsoft account.

All you have to do then is to search for Copilot. It is the Microsoft smart assistant. Copilot will let you create as many images as you want.

This is only possible because Microsoft is a shareholder in OpenAI which means you get to use their premium products for free.

The only catch is that you might not get the best resolution photos and you might need to upscale it and know a little bit of Photoshop work to utilise that image in your book cover.

Now that you know how to use AI image generators, let us talk about the ethics of it and understand if you should actually do it and if there are any legal implications behind it.

Should You Use AI Image Generators for Your Book Cover Design

The Argument for It

If you are a first-time author trying to do everything on a budget then there is actually no harm to using AI image generators because that is your only option.

It is not like that is the primary body of your creative endeavour because the actual body of that creative endeavour is going to be the manuscript or the body of the novel which is completely original.

The book cover is just the covering of your work and you definitely need one so why not create it in the best way possible?

The most important thing to understand here is that you are utilising your own vision and your own prompts to create that book cover with any AI image generator.

You can definitely argue that it is your own creation and you would have created something like that if you had illustration skills.

As a first-time author trying to publish your book with your own funds, you have the right to do anything in your power to create a good book, provided you do not use AI for the actual body of the text.

The Argument Against It

The argument against it is just that it is not real. It is not created by a human and it is created by a model trained with multiple images and that is why your book cover will not be original but simply inspired by millions of images.

It also means that you are not pursuing absolute originality when it comes to your work but then again you can if you create the book cover by yourself, you are probably inspired by millions of images you have seen.

So, from that standpoint, is any image actually original whether it is created by a human or AI?

While we have to consider the fact that this might steal the employment of an artist or an illustrator whom you might have hired for creating the book cover design, that is out of the question here because you are not planning on doing so in a small tight budget.

So, even in the argument against using AI image generators, we can’t really think of anything to support this argument.

Of course, that does not mean you should create an entire watercolour portrait similar to any classical painting and attribute it to yourself, but if you just use it for inspiration in the design then there is no harm in it.

If you want to be absolutely clear in your conscience when it comes to the ethics of it, you can even put in a little attribution on the inner side of the book cover jacket telling readers that it is AI-generated.

You can even put the prompt for absolute transparency. That would actually be amazing and unique.

The Legal Side of Things

If we consider it from the legal side of things then it is completely legal because you are creating that image yourself and we cannot find any attribution or CC common laws regarding AI image generators.

There are even marketplaces where people sell AI-generated art and there are even auctions for that kind of art in digital galleries.

Several brands are already utilising AI-generated art for entire marketing campaigns and brands use AI art to even create logos and so much more.

So, if corporations and big-name brands can utilise AI-generated images for entire marketing campaigns with full immunity, so can you without the fear of any legal consequences.

The only thing you need to worry about is your audience because if they are okay with it then you do not need to care about anything else with AI image generators.

And you must also make sure the prompt is original and custom.

The only problem with generating AI images is that there is a lot of trial and error if you want to create something complex and something truly unique. Writing the perfect prompt is an art in itself.

However, even after creating that, you might feel bad for your audience because you probably want them to have the best and the most authentic experience. An AI book cover would seem like a compromise with that quality.

That is why if you are publishing on a budget, you do not need to worry about creating your own book cover image with AI and compromising on originality because we are here for you.

We are Orange Publishers and we take care of everything for our authors including book cover design because we have professional illustrators that can do the work for you.

We are the fastest-growing book publishing company in India and all our operations are in-house which means we can assure you the best kind of quality when it comes to printing, publishing as well as promotion.

We even take care of the copyright which means our authors simply have one job and that is to present us with their manuscript and relax.

We welcome you to visit our website and check out everything we do.

Common AI Book Cover FAQs

Can AI make book cover design?

AI can absolutely make your book cover design because all you need to do is select the best AI image generator for yourself and learn how to write prompts.

Once you master the art of writing prompts, you can create any image in the world and you can keep altering that image until you are satisfied with the final result.

This is opening up endless opportunities for new authors within a shoestring budget looking to have the best kind of illustrations for their book covers.

Is it legal to use AI art for a book cover?

It is completely legal to use AI art for book cover design and let us help you understand this.

The reason why AI art generated by you will always remain legal to use is only true if you also write the prompt yourself and not just copy it from somewhere else.

This is because if you copy someone else’s prompt then there might be a chance that the AI will generate a similar kind of image and that image might be already claimed and copyrighted by someone else

So, if you write your own prompt and generate an image and also reverse image search it on Google to find out that it is truly unique, then it is completely legal to use that image.

Entire brands are utilising AI for creating marketing material for their marketing campaigns and you can find celebrities and popular personalities endorsing AI art for their projects.

Does AI art break copyright?

AI art does not break copyright laws usually but it is always a good practice to reverse image search the image you have generated to make sure it is unique.

You must always keep in mind to use your own custom prompts and even if you are getting inspiration from someone else’s prompt, you should customise it and make it unique.

The reason for this is that if you are going to blatantly copy and paste someone’s prompt then there is a small window of chance that the AI will generate the same image.

That is why if you use your own prompts and also reverse image search the generated image and find out it is unique, then it will never break copyright laws.

Who has copyright to AI art?

The AI company behind the AI generator does not have copyright claims to the art because it is something that you have created with your own prompts and text. Just as Microsoft Word will not have copyright over a novel you have typed in it.

That means if you generate that art, claim the copyright of it and file a copyright of that art then you are the owner of that copyright art.

It is as simple as that.