Always, especially with my new book FIVE YEARS LATER which is already gaining both great praise and great dislike. Good reviews feel like Christmas. Bad reviews feel, well, bad! But it's important to remember that your work isn't going to be for everybody - and that's okay! One of the greatest things I ever read was "oh, they didn't like it? Good. You had something important to say".
I think the most poignant feelings of success always come for me the day that I get to hold a copy of my newest book in my hands for the first time. I imagine this is what a mother feels like when someone hands her her new baby! All that work, that time, the blood and sweat and tears, they've finally paid off! Now the "raising" of the book is another story :)
Writing, Publishing, Promoting - all of it can be very emotionally draining (and life is emotionally draining enough without being a writer). If you really want to make it in this cut-throat industry, you just have to keep going and keep getting smarter about the industry. Get second opinions. Hire an editor. Set an advertising budget. Do your research. And never give up!
