How do you handle feedback and reviews from your e-book readers and clients?

In my experience it is always useful to express appreciation for the time spent on the review, be it positive, negative, or entirely irrelevant. Because the person *did* spend time (sometimes what might be considered an excessive amount depending on the content and tone of the review), thanking them for the time spent is appropriate, in my opinion, as well as sometimes providing some much-needed perspective on the tenor of the commentary. If you begin from the perspective that you appreciate the person's time (even if you wish they had spent it otherwise), you can more productively evaluate their response and hopefully pull something out regarding the clarity or effectiveness of your writing or style even if their review is a negative one.

For pre-publication feedback, I seek out three kinds of readers. First, subject experts that can help me be precise and accurate. Their critiques come with remedies, and I'm glad to get them. Second, savvy writers. Some advice is instantly great; other ideas invite debate. We go back and forth, often finding a third path that does justice to both of us. Finally, friends whose role is to keep me cheerful and on track for completion. Everything goes better if you choose pre-publication readers that can help you in different ways, and make clear what their role is. Once your book is published, outside reviewers' agendas can be everything from noble to asinine. Enjoy the good ones. Skim the harsh ones and move on.

I try to make sure that I determine whether the source of the review is an actionable member of my audience vs. "informed" or biased, for example. This is because if they are a viable audience member who might respond productively to the written material (either by becoming a participating audience member, following the content, participating in future book sales, etc.) then the review becomes valuable in terms of knowing how to better address that segment of the population in the future. Conversely, if a reviewer is highly qualified to comment but not necessarily a viable potential audience member for my purposes, I always check to see if factual complaints, punctuation, etc. are valid but do not necessarily directly address content.

I check any negative feedback for validity; are they right? If so, I consider making a correction to the work. I am far from perfect but, strive to provide the best reader experience I can. Also, in the past I had responded to direct questions on forums, when tagged, but stopped that quite a few years ago after a backlash on Goodreads. If people have questions, most of my social media is public, they can ask on one of my platforms.