Shout It Out!—Why Reviews are Important to Authors

I haven’t posted a writing update in a while so I’m proud to say that I am writing. Or actually, revising. This book was such a cool idea, not that any idea is exactly new, but I like the fresh spin I added to it. Yes, I still have to do a  MAJOR re-write in the beginning of my novel, and yes it would make more sense to start over now instead of finishing up these last edits, but I never did like to make much sense. Seriously though, I’m a stickler for finishing things that I start, and I want to finish this book from A to Z. Then I’ll go back and fix A to J. That’s just the way I work, crazy as it seems. So I’m enjoying the writing and getting a lot done. I want to hand it over to my critique partner soon, but I don’t want to waste her time, so I plan on doing another revision before I hand it over to her.

You may start noticing that I will review a few books on the blog every now and then. These are just books that I happen to be reading at the moment, and if I like them I will give a review. Why? Because my friends, reviews are VERY important to authors. Reviews help readers make decisions about buying a book. And for a new author, when they don’t have a previous book to stand on, reviews can be a deal maker or deal breaker. For me, if I hear about a new book, I normally scroll through Goodreads or Amazon and check the reviews. I normally ignore the snarky ones, because all authors get a few bad reviews. I look for similarities in the reviews—Are most of the readers chiming in on how funny (add adjective here) the book was? Are most of the people saying that it was a good read? These decisions influence readers a great deal and I think as an author we have a responsibility to help each other. No, I’m not going to start reviewing books all the time, my blog will still be about my two loves, hair and writing. But like the author interviews, I plan to throw a few book reviews in too.

I receive several emails from readers who take the time out of their busy schedule to tell me how much they love my books. (By the way, for you newbies to my blog, click here to order Unbeweaveable.) But if you look on my Amazon page I have very few reviews. Yes this bothers me, but rather than complain about it I decided to take a more proactive approach and simply begin to review books that I like to read. Because honestly, unless an author specifically asks me, I don’t post reviews. And there are books out there that I simply adore, but I have never put a review on Amazon or taken the time to send the author a brief email. (Another reason I can’t complain, it would make me the biggest hypocrite.)

So if you come across a book you like, review it. Tell the world how much you like it. It’ll ensure that your favorite authors get to keep doing what they do.