Colleen Hoover's Perfect Strategy to Handle “It Ends with Us” Critics — Mirror “50 Shades of Grey” Author (Exclusive)

"I don't want to just delete my socials and disappear," says Hoover, who has had to learn how to take the heat from online critics

Bestselling author Colleen Hoover, 44, started her writing journey as a fan, bonding online with fellow readers over their favorite books before she ever wrote one of her own. So even after her books started getting more and more attention — including some harsh criticism for the depiction of domestic violence in It Ends With Us — stepping away from her social media would have felt like leaving her community behind.

"I don't want to delete my socials and disappear just because they're not as positive as they used to be because I feel like that would be punishing the people that have gotten me where I am," she told PEOPLE for an exclusive story in this week's print issue.

Related: Blake Lively and Colleen Hoover Promise It Ends With Us Stays True to Form: ‘If You Liked the Book, You’ll Love the Movie’

"There've been levels at my career as I've seen it kind of steadily grow, where I'm like, 'Okay, this is good. I have a positive audience. My social media is positive, let's stay here,'" she says. "And then TikTok just blew it up and everything changed and I was like, 'Okay, how do we deal with this? How do we not internalize it?'"

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While Hoover says the social media attention on her books has "never really gone away," a whole new audience might be set to discover them soon. Her 2016 novel It Ends With Us will hit theaters Aug. 9 as a film she co-executive-produced with stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (who also directed). Fortunately, she's gotten some tips from other authors who have trod similar territory.

Related: Blake Lively 'Exceeded All My Expectations' in It Ends with Us, Raves Author Colleen Hoover (Exclusive)

Hoover's friend and comrade in steamy romance E.L. James, 61, author of the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy, has been through a similar trajectory. The erotic trilogy first blew up online in 2011, and since then, many pearls have been clutched over its sexy, R-rated content. But through it all, James stays engaged with the people who got her where she is today.

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"She went through a lot of [similar situations]," Hoover explains. "And she's just very good at focusing on the positive and still interacting with those people who have supported her along the way. Just seeing how she hasn't pulled away from it all and has still found a way to manage being grateful and thankful and interactive with those who have been there from the beginning, I think, is the biggest example that I've seen that I want to emulate."

It helps that Hoover has a strong support system in her own life, too. In fact, Hoover sometimes finds herself comforting friends who get upset on her behalf instead of the other way around. But she says that focusing on the positive and keeping an eye on the bigger picture is her way of dealing with it all.

Related: Colleen Hoover Hasn’t Let Fame Change Her: ‘Life Honestly Feels Very Much the Same’ (Exclusive)

"A book that has this many readers, the negative attention's going to be loud, and so I do my best just to stay away from that," Hoover says. "I think people focus on all the negativity, but that's going to come with a book that has had this many readers, of course. And so that's how I look at it."

"I do hope that [the movie] captured the book well, but with everything there's going to be critics, and I'm prepared for that, and I don't stress about it."

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