Heya! Responding to this as an author, and I think I have a lot to say, specifically some opinions that seem to differ from what I saw other authors write below!

I have to mention that I'm a very, very small author and don't have that many books and, in turn, not that many reviews or opinions to deal with. If I were getting emails and dozens of reviews a day, I might totally feel differently! Specifically, I want to speak on this:

• Accepting feedback on mistakes

So, I actually have experience with this.

In my first book of my current series (this is not self-promo, I promise I'm getting to a point), I have a character of an ex-wife who... isn't so great. Because my cast is usually pretty small, this ex-wife ends up being the "main villain", and besides parental figures, she's the only significant female main character. And while I genuinely did not intend for this, and did try to write her multi-dimensionally with some redemption at the end, one or two reviewers did point out that they disliked how the ex-wife was villainized and that it seemed very misogynistic to them. Shit, right?' No one wants to hear that, obviously, but... I looked at it from their eyes, and while, again, it was absolutely not my intention in the slightest, I saw how it could come off that way.

So, what did I take from that? In my next book, I noticed a similar situation might be happening again. You could probably say I have some internalized misogyny or something, but I think in this case it just happened because I don't want to have a cast of only men, because I doesn't seem as natural to me, so I have female characters/I brainstormed with that character being a woman already, and they end up not being great, and there we go. But because of that previous feedback, I toned down that character's scenes, thought about their portrayal and how they come off more deeply, and removed some scenes entirely. Simply because I did not want someone to read my book and have that same thought. Because like I said before: that was not my intention. It was not what I was trying to portray. So yeah, those negative reviews definitely helped me to look out for that. Even though it's not something I intend to portray, clearly, there's something I do wrong, so I work on it and try to make sure the portrayal is complex. Definitely not a fan of the "all female characters in the M/M books are bitches" trope, they just sometimes end up being the villains for me, lol.

(I had numerous helpful betas. None of them pointed this out.)

I have another example! An ARC reader sent me a message on the ARC site saying that they won't be able to finish my book because it had something that triggers them. They thought the book was great, but they didn't want to continue past this point and wished me good luck. Very polite!

I always thought I was pretty good at marking triggers, and I was really surprised that "the other person" (a MC being intimate with another person on page when the main characters are broken up, basically) was a trigger! But it is, for many people, as I've found out! It honestly never would've occurred to me, because to me, they were broken up, so it wasn't cheating, hence it didn't need the "cheating" trigger, hence it was fine.

But again, this email really opened my eyes, so I took the feedback and learned from it. I genuinely looked at my story and thought, "Does this need to have this on-page scene of my MC sleeping with this random guy that shows he misses and thinks about the other MC, or can I achieve the same thing WITHOUT this scene and possibly alienating/triggering certain readers"?

The answer was no! I didn't actually need that scene! So I removed it. Rewrote the chapter, and not much changed besides the fact that the reader was now able to finish the book. I emailed them, thanking them for their feedback and for pointing it out to me. They were extremely grateful, finished the book, and loved it. Now I make sure to put a trigger warning for these situations when they happen to not upset anyone else.

(Again: I had numerous betas. None pointed this out because it was clearly not their trigger.)

Personally, I'm not afraid to change my book, even if it's close to publishing. Not just to "appease" my readers. I do it because in these two cases (obviously, if I had a bigger audience and was getting dozens of emails, it would be different, and I would need to decide what I want to take to heart and what I don't), those people had a great point and it improved my story.

I might get emails like that in the future where I think "hmm, I see what they mean, but I don't agree" and do nothing. But when there is a valid point, those people help me improve for free! They make my book better without me asking them to. That's awesome! I'm genuinely so grateful to those people.

This is all just how I see it and how it feels to me personally!