What if No One Likes My Book?

By R.M. Archer

We all have a voice of doubt in the back of our minds that whispers lies like “No one will like your writing” or “This isn’t what anyone wants to read these days” or “You’ll never be good enough.” 

Your Voice of Doubt might sound slightly different than mine, but I’d reckon you’ve wondered at least once whether or not anyone will like your writing.

It’s time to silence that doubt.

There Are Readers for Everything

You would not believe (nor want to believe) some of the things I’ve seen crop up on Goodreads. There are some questionable, or just downright weird, books out there… and they find plenty of readers who love them.

There are just as many kinds of readers as there are writers. Chances are, whatever you write, there will be a reader looking for it.

Space pirates? There’s definitely a market.

Slow-paced fantasy about time-altering ink? Managed to find plenty of readers excited for that, too.

Retelling of a folklore ballad? Yes, please!

Whatever you’re interested in, I promise there are readers interested in it, too. It’s just a matter of finding them.

So keep writing what you’re passionate about. You might just write exactly the book a reader was looking for!

If Your Readers Don’t Like Your Work, They’re Not Your Readers

You write for the readers who will enjoy your work, right?

If people aren’t enjoying your work, you probably have the wrong readers.

This isn’t always the case. It is possible to write poorly for your target audience. But it’s also possible to simply be writing for the wrong target audience.

If you’re passionate about portraying strong, feminine mother characters and your YA readers are bored… it might be time to try shifting to the adult category and marketing to young moms instead.

If you love writing fantasy but prefer slow pacing and deep character relationships to high-conflict wars, you might end up with readers with a preference for modern fantasy disliking your book but readers of classic fantasy-loving it.

This is true in every stage of the process, even before you’re marketing a published book. 

Your beta-readers will give you much more helpful feedback if you find beta-readers who truly love the story you’re trying to tell. You don’t want beta-readers who love high action trying to speed up a book you intentionally wrote to be slow, or beta-readers who are looking for epic quests being bored by your story of political intrigue.

You might want one or two beta-readers who can give an outside perspective on your story and help you to balance things out, but you primarily want to look for readers who will understand your intentions for the book you’re writing and readers who are fully on board with those intentions.

Don’t push your book toward people who won’t enjoy it.

Shift your energy toward getting your book to readers who will love it.

Who Are You Writing For?

To gauge how important it is for readers like our work, we have to know why we’re writing and who we’re writing for.

Many of us write because we want to be read, either because we want our thoughts to be shared or because we believe there’s a gap in existing literature that needs to be filled.

But what is our primary purpose for writing?

If it is to be read, are we satisfied with our book reaching only a few readers, if they’re the right readers? Or are we seeking after a certain number of readers? Or do we simply hope for readers to keep reading our work forever (in which case we’re likely to be disappointed)?

Or maybe we write for ourselves, to express our thoughts and feelings, in which case it might mean less and yet hurt more if readers dislike what we share. We weren’t writing to please them, and yet our work is personal, and knowing that it wasn’t appreciated can sting because it feels personal.

But if our primary purpose is to glorify God with our work, to point toward His majesty and beauty and truth, then we have nothing to worry about.

If pleasing God is the standard, then we can focus on pleasing Him regardless of what readers think.

If pleasing God is the standard, then we can trust that He will use the work for His glory, whether that means reaching thousands of readers or just one.

If pleasing God is the standard, then we can trust that He will get the work to exactly the right readers in exactly the right timing, and all the negative feedback in the meantime can be filtered into background noise or used to make your writing stronger.

“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”

- Colossians 3:23-24 (NKJV)

This is not to say that writing with readers in mind is bad. But our desire to encourage and edify readers through our work ought to stem from a desire to glorify God with our writing, and therefore ought to be a secondary purpose.

Writing for God might mean seeking to make your book as approachable as possible.

Writing for God might mean working to get your book to the right audience.

Writing for God might mean polishing it over and over to ensure that it is as reflective of the truth as possible.

Writing for God might mean sharing your book only with certain friends and family.

Writing for God might mean reaching thousands of readers and becoming a best-seller.

But with God as our focus, we should always be far more concerned with what He thinks of our work than what other people think of our work.

Don’t compromise the story God has given you just to please readers. 

Do consider the thoughts of your readers. Don’t let pride sneak in and say “This is the way I like it, so it must be the way God wants it.”

But don’t be afraid to stand firm and brush it off when someone doesn’t like something central to what your book is. That reader will find some other book to love, and you will find other readers to love your book.

Growth Makes a Difference

Even if very few people like your work now, that doesn’t mean readers will never like your work. As you learn and grow in your craft, your writing will become more and more engaging to readers. You’ll learn what does and doesn’t work, both in general and when it comes to reaching your particular audience.

All of us, as beginning writers, have written stories that no one really liked. When we first start writing—and sometimes even for a few years afterward—the quality of our work isn’t very high and our stories fall short.

The solution is not to give up trying.

The solution is to pick the pen back up and write another story. Because with each story you write, you’ll learn more elements of the craft and you’ll write better and better stories with each successive “failure.”

Why do I put “failure” in quotes? Because those stories that readers don’t like aren’t truly failures. They’re stepping stones to higher-quality stories that readers do like. Those “failures” are a critical part of the learning process.

As Albert Einstein said, “You never fail until you stop trying.”

So don’t be discouraged if no one likes your work yet. Keep pressing on. Keep learning. Keep studying the craft. Keep practicing. You will get better, and readers will notice.

Conclusion:

As you grow in your writing craft, the right readers for your book will be there; don’t be afraid to seek them out, even if they’re not the readers you expected.

But always keep in mind who you write for first and foremost, and don’t let the opinion of readers supersede your efforts to glorify God with your creativity.

Comment down below with one of the reasons you don’t think readers will like your book. Go through the previous comments and respond to any reasons that sound like they belong to a book you’d love, or otherwise encourage the other authors in the thread! 

You might be surprised how many readers would love your book for the very reason you worry it would be unpopular.

If you’d like, you can also comment with a topic or concept you’d love to read about that falls outside of the mainstream. (A book with a homeschooled main character, a book exploring the ideas of AI and personhood from a Christian perspective, a retelling of a particular myth or legend…) 

What “weird” ideas do you hope authors write about one day, without listening to the doubt of “no one will like this”?