December 6 question: Book reviews are for the readers. When you leave a book review do you review for the Reader or the Author? Is it about what you liked and enjoyed about your reading experience, or do you critique the author?
When I first started leaving reviews, I started out leaving reviews with critiques. I would note editing problems and all kinds of issues.
One that I feel guilty about was a steamy romance novel where there were two versions of the scene where they “got together” as it were, one right after the other. This was clearly an editing snafu, and the book was co-written. I imagine both writers thought they were supposed to write the scene, and no one noticed the problem when they edited the book.
Now, I spend a lot less time on the reviews and, as an author, only post good things about the book. My reviews are short and sweet. An example might be: “I loved this book. The mystery was awesome. I didn’t see that coming at all. I could hardly put it down.”
If there’s an editing problem, I’ll reach out directly to the author via email so they can fix it and upload a new version without trashing their reviews.
The same goes for the report an error feature, if I can find an email address, I will email the author rather than use the report an error because that can get the books removed from Amazon for petty things.
So, why do I reach out directly instead of using the tools that the retailers give us?
First, because reviews are for the readers, like the prompt says.
Second, and more importantly, reviews sell books. And, as an author, I want to help my fellow authors sell more books.
Trolling my fellow authors with bad reviews is not helping me or anyone else.
My fellow paranormal cozy mystery authors aren’t my competitors. At least, not in the sense that only one of us can win. We’re not competing to hold our readers’ attention. We’re all in this together.
Our readers read a lot. Some readers read a book a day or more. Others, maybe a book or two a week.
I cannot write, edit and publish that fast. No one writer can.
So, I’d rather build community by leaving good reviews when I read, and reaching out directly to my fellow authors with any problems that I notice. That way, they might do the same for me. And we can all share each others’ books.
I want to build up my fellow authors with swaps, blog posts, and more so that we can all reach more readers.
And even if you’re not an author, it benefits us all if we support independent authors and creators. The more people keep writing and producing their art, the more voices are shared, the more people feel recognized and seen, and the better everyone’s mental health becomes.
The more we build a community, the better it is for all of us.