The Importance of Reviews

Firstly I have to point out that this is not a way for me to make myself seem important. I’m not. I love reading. I don’t always enjoy the same things as everybody else. It frustrates the hell out of me when an author I really enjoy reading suddenly stops releasing books because nobody else has bought them. This post is from my point of view as a reader and lover of books. I don’t pretend to understand the arcane and dark mojo that is the publishing industry. I just love the output.

So what can I do? I review books on my blog and copy them to a couple of places. Most authors if pushed will tell you that any reviews or comments on their work is really important. Publishers take notice of these things. I write my simple little reviews because I want to keep reading books I enjoy and because I wanted to see reviews that made sense to me. Hopefully somebody has found some kind of benefit from reading one of my reviews.

What can you do? If you enjoy reading a book you can head over to Amazon or Goodreads or wherever you like really. Once there give it a star rating that matches your opinion of the book. Then say something about the book. It doesn’t have to be eloquent (mine aren’t). It can just be a simple comment on how much it made you think. Or even just a simple “Awesome book. Can’t wait to read the next one.”

That isn’t much effort and it might actually be the difference between getting to read another book my a favourite author or wondering whatever happened to them. Support your favourite authors. Chances are they don’t make much money and your one minute of time supporting them could make all the difference in the world.

Do it now. Pop on to your favourite online book store and find the book you’ve enjoyed the most in the last month or two. Rate it and say something nice. That’s it. Job done. You are a star.