As an author I love/adore/need to hear reader response on a book. But I also want to know what reviewers see in the book as.
I'm not here to argue one way or the other on the impact professional reviews have on a book's sales or it's best use for toilet paper ratings. Reviews are a fact of life. They are supposed to be a way for readers to gage.....something....again I sense a hot topic here and am avoiding it.
What I am trying to say, and speaking only for me, I enjoy getting reviews from review sites. I want to know what they think of the book on a scale of One to whatever awards they give out. I wanna know how I'm doing.
So this summer it seems getting a review is taking forever. I can't help but think that means my writing is getting less interesting. It feels like a negative to me. So talking to a reviewer I found out an amazing thing. Reviewers often get and read a great number of books and put off writing the review for up to six weeks.
WHAT? After six weeks and no review I'm sure everyone hated the book!! I'm contemplating taking a hammer to the keyboard after four weeks. Depression has set in, I've quit brushing my teeth and have begun existing entirely on M & M for their medicinal qualities.
Just saying, authors really are needy creatures. Six weeks to wait for a review is torture. Take that into consideration next time you finish a book and love it, but go on to read the next book, putting off writing that review. Somewhere an author just lost a tooth due to chocolate overdose because she's sure everyone hates her book.
3 comments:
Gail, let me assure you that I don't wait weeks to write a review. I want to write it while the story is still with me. I've just finish Wanna Play and love, love, loved it. It's the wee hours of the morning for me so I will have my review for it done by Sunday. I was surprised to read about the weeks it takes to get them. I have had books for weeks,but they are read and reviewed by a months end. And I try to read them in the order that I receive them, but I write my reviews within a couple of days of finishing the book. I want to capture my feelings and thoughts about the story while they are still with me.
That's my way. Can't speak for them all. I've had your latest for about 2 weeks (with ebooks you don't have to wait on the postman)but I had work and a couple of other book I was working on. It was hard because I wanted to dive right in to yours..:)Well I'm still riding high from your latest in the Ghost Unit and could sing praises all night but I've got to sleep so I can function later. My review will be posted on Night Owl Romance's website. If you'd like I'll email it to you.
Thank you Susan!! Of course I want you to email it to me if you can. I'm obviously doing the pee-pee dance waiting to hear. LOL
hugs
Gail
Hi Gail,
I really appreciate you broaching this subject. I'm like Susan in that I do my best to read books in the order that I take them for review so as to be fair in regards to turnaround times. I usually have somewhere in the ballpark of 60 books out for review at any given time so organization really is key for me.
There is such an interesting dynamic at play here because I think that reviewers often lose sight of the impact that they can have on authors as well as on other readers. I've always been an avid reader and am confident that I'll always some level of hero worship for my favorite authors so it's mind-boggling at times to think that something I can say or do would have an impact on them.
Thanks Gail...your message was definitely heard.
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