Evaluating Feedback

It doesn’t matter
what I write.
Someone will hate it,
telling me this in glorious, gleeful detail.

If I listened to all of these someones,
I’d never write another story.
It is impossible to please everyone.

I don’t try.
I have an editor I hire.
She knows what I want to achieve
and I trust her judgment.
If she likes it,
I’m happy.
If she doesn’t like it,
I listen to her feedback.

Seth Godin
asks

“How do we differentiate
between constructive, useful insight
and the other kind?
How do we decide
which feedback is actually a clue
about how our core audience feels,
and which is a distraction,
a shortcut on the road
to mediocre banality?”

Knowing whom to listen to
and whom to ignore
is a key to success.

Learn how to evaluate feedback.