Every published writer writes about reviews. That is, their
own reviews of their own works. I do that occasionally, too. In fact, my last
blog was about a review I was very pleased with. I don’t like to hit people
over the head with my reviews, though, so I don’t trumpet about each one. I
guess this is because I dislike seeing all the notices of reviews in my
networking streams. They’re not informative and there’s no reason for me to
read them.
If I were casting about for something to read, I’m sure I’d
feel differently. I would avidly read notices about reviews. If my To Be Read
pile were less than 100 books, that is. (Those are physical books. There are
more unread books and stories languishing on my e-reader.)
Every published writer who gets reviews also laments about
the ones that aren’t favorable. Some of those bad reviews are legitimate
complaints from the reader about confusing plot or character, or about an
unsatisfactory ending, or about expecting one type of story and getting
another. Some, on the other hand, are just sour grapes rants that have nothing
to do with the quality of the book or story being reviewed. Let’s all discount
that latter type! I’m sure most readers do.
I write reviews. Very seldom on Amazon or Goodreads, though
I have a few there and hope to have a lot more in the future. My reviews appear
in
“Suspense Magazine” almost every month. I give my reviews a lot of thought.
One thing I pride myself on is being able to read a book outside my comfort
zone, or even in a genre I’m not interested in, and still be able to give it a
competent review.
What are my goals for each of my reviews? They are to hook
up the right readers to this work; to fairly and accurately stress the strong
points of the project; to tell my review readers what the book is like so they
can determine whether it will be a good read for them or not. If a reader of
one of my reviews finds a new series or a new author--or a new stand alone
novel--that they enjoy, my work has been done correctly!
