My Views on Reviews

When I decided in March that I was going to be organized and more active on social media as a still-burgeoning author, I wrote down in my brand new planner that I was going to write one blog post a month.

Author stuff is anything written in blue. There's not a lot of blue last week.

I truly thought that April's blog post would be centered around my re-release of Play the Man and my release of the novella "A Valuable Trade," which would be published on its own outside of the anthology in which it was originally published. Unfortunately, I don't have the full print cover back from my designer, so all that's going to have to wait.

Crying Dawson and Sad Keanu. Just to give you an idea of my disappointment.

So while I was lamenting over the fact that I'm behind my self-imposed publishing schedule, I tried to brainstorm something else I could blog about. Life has been kind of stressful lately, so there's not much I have to talk about.

Every once in a while, I check my Amazon pages and Goodreads page to see if there are any new reviews or ratings for my books. As an author, I encourage anyone to leave reviews for books! Typically, I only end up leaving reviews if I really love or hate a particular item and feel driven to give feedback, so I don't always follow my own advice. And on my last check, I noticed a new review for Play the Man on Amazon! Yay!

A one-star review.

At first, I was totally bummed. Of course, I want everyone to love my books! I put my heart and soul into them, so it's devastating when I find out that someone doesn't like what I've written. But then I took a deep breath and smiled. I'm sorry that the reader didn't like my book and felt compelled to tell the world how she felt—but that's okay, and I'm glad that she reviewed my work, regardless of how many stars she gives me.

Reviews are so important to an author. Reviews are feedback! Reviews mean that someone's reading and reacting. Ask any author, and they will tell you that they love (and need) reviews for their works. It goes without saying that we favor the good reviews, but I say, "Bring 'em all on!"

I don't interact much with my readers; I want to, but I'm just not that engaging. Honestly, I'm a part-time writer. I'm a part- part-time writer; I'm lucky if I have the brain power left at the end of the day to sit in front of my laptop and type out a paragraph or two. So getting a review really does mean a lot to me. I've only been publishing for two years, so I'm still trying to get my name out there. If someone leaves a review, it means my eBooks is getting out there.

So give me any amount of stars you want, as long as you leave a review. Review me, review other authors. Do your favorite author a favor and review! Feel free to spread the word!

I'll talk to you next month.

Jay