2023 A to Z Challenge Blog: Reviews

Here we are again, slowly wending our way through the last nine letters of the alphabet, some of them the least used letters of all. Today, the focus is on the letter R. Did you know that getting reviews is one of the biggest challenge an author faces these days?

Writing and editing a book has always been the most intriguing part of my career as an author. Once the book is finished and formatted, it goes to be published. Then comes my least favorite job, promoting it. I suck at promotion. I’ve tried several different things, but inevitably, they fall short of the mark.

The one aspect of promotion though that is completely out of my hands is getting a reader to review the book once they’ve finished it.

Reviews don’t have to be complicated. If you like a book, say so. Even if you didn’t like it, say so. Bad publicity is better than none at all. But don’t just say, this is crap. Explain yourself. An author can’t fix an issue if they don’t know it exists.

Giving a book one star without leaving a review is like going to a doctor and being told you’re going to die without an explanation.

If you’re going to take the time to review, please don’t spoil it for other readers by giving away too much of the plot or the ending. As a writer, I strive to keep the reader guessing. Saying something like I knew the butler did it from page one, ruins the story for potential readers.

But the absolute worst are, you guessed it, fake reviews. Those reviews are usually posted by trolls, people with nothing better to do than create havoc and try to ruin an author for God alone knows the reason.

The next time you read a book, please consider taking a few minutes to review. The more reviews a book has, the better its chances of getting noticed by readers and Amazon.

That’s it for me today. Find other bloggers and their posts here. https://tinyurl.com/3we8aa84

Come back tomorrow when I’ll give you a Did You Know? for the letter S. Enjoy your day.