Being a product manager by day, we live by a principle of gathering user feedback to improve our product. That's something I carried into my writing life, and up until The Rule of the Damned launch, I can confirm I've read every single one of my reviews, more than once. Some of the reviews, I've even applied in certain places in my books too. (The point of this whole exercise).
Now you have to understand, I don't actually care about the star rating, it's really the content of the review I look at. I've received some excellent 3 star reviews that I've been very happy with. I've also received some higher rated reviews that have hurt. Because some of the passive aggressive comments affected me way more than I wanted to admit, and knocked my confidence in ways I didn't expect. I also began to obsessively check my reviews multiple times per day.
After chatting to a friend about it, she suggested a tactic to me that some authors have been trying recently which I'm really intrigued by. Each time you approach a round of edits that includes your editor, ask her to read the reviews and pick out the parts she feel is relevant before she starts. Not only does your editor understand your vision as an author, but she also understands which parts may be relevant to you or not.
An example of what I mean, if someone says they don't understand Multi POV, I'm not going to change my book to accommodate that feedback. But we can look at ways to make this as easy to follow as possible, like with a glossary and additional resources. Thats something an editor will understand about your work, and if not they will discuss it with you to get clarity they need. As we start nearing The Clash of the Damned, I can't wait to try this tactic. I'm really hoping this is the key to balancing "user feedback" vs preserving my confidence as a writer.