Excellent piece. Everyone expects writers to have thick skin - and they need to - but criticism should be clear, unambiguous, and ideally suggest alternatives (not always possible, but desirable). This week I recieved some excellent criticism about a blurb I'd written for the back of one of my novels, from a professional who explained very well why it didn't work. (I've always hated writing those things, because I don't want to put spoilers in, and want my readers to come to them knowing as little as possible. But such idealism simply isn't practical from a marketing perspective.)

However, "I didn't like it" isn't criticism. It's just opinion. Besides, I've long since learned to disregard irrelevant criticisms of that kind (for example, people who take exception to my gothic horror/thriller novels because they are "too scary" or "too disturbing" - as absurd as criticising a comedy for being "too funny").