Let’s be honest.
Writers are terrified of reviews. Completely terrified. We don’t know whether they’ll be glowing or straight up mean. By putting ourselves out there on a piece of paper, writers are putting their souls out for review. It’s a harrowing experience we all have to go through.
The one thing we can all agree on: We Need Reviews!
Books are a dime a dozen now. Readers can choose between hundreds, thousands, or even millions of books to read nowadays. Some choose based on the cover, despite the old saying. Others go off what’s written on the back. But many go off what the reviewers say.
Indie authors are struggling to get their story seen and read across multiple social media platforms (It doesn’t help that most of us are introverts). We’re all fighting one another for the attention, but at the same time, encouraging one another to keep going (especially the #writingcommunity on Twitter). We don’t have the marketing budget that large publishing houses do. So when someone reviews our work, it is like bread for the hungry soul.
Whether the review is a glowing praise or constructive criticism, writers crave for their readers to leave reviews and let them know what the world thought of their story. But what is ironic is many of us will scream to the community “DON’T READ THE REVIEWS!”
The reasoning behind this is because of the trolls and the reviews that tear our books apart. It happens. I’ve personally had a review that said TO DREAM IS TO DIE was awful because the main character was a total b*tch and couldn’t be related to. As the author, I can’t argue to tell them their wrong. It’s just the way it is.
In other words, not everyone will be satisfied with a book. It happens. You can’t please everyone and it is something everyone has to come to terms with. It’s a difficult thing to accept, but its a part of life. But don’t let it dishearten you!
If you’re a reader and you’ve either fallen in love with a book or have thoughts on how it could be improved, tell the world! Write a review on Amazon, Goodreads, wherever the book is posted! One review for an author, especially an indie author, could help in a sale, which gives the author the reward for their work: potential revenue.
Sure, authors write for the pure love of it. But they also want to hopefully make some money off of their talent so they can afford to eat, or afford the rent.
Read the book!
Feed an author’s soul!
Write a review!
Feed the author!
For some strange reason your blog page doesn’t want me to like this post. So instead I’m going to comment. I love this post! And it was so well put!! ❤️
haha Thanks!