Review Your Favorite Reads or Risk Losing Them!

When you like a book, do you post a review for it? Many of us don't. For whatever reason, people who hate a book seem more inclined to review it than those who love it. This certainly hurts the author of the book getting all bad reviews, but it has the potential to harm readers long term too.

Just as empty theaters kill any talk of a movie sequel, a trail of poor reviews without good ones to balance them will kill a burgeoning series. Sales will suffer and no author trying to make a living at his/her craft will continue to write books that are regularly panned by readers. 

This isn't just speculation. I recently read a post by a very popular author who has over twelve hundred readers on her Yahoo loop. She's discontinuing a series her readers are clamoring for because all she gets are bad reviews on Amazon. She gets emails from readers who tell her they love the books. But apparently none of them are reviewing the books on Amazon so sales are suffering.

It would be nice if authors could keep writing books just for the love of the characters and world we've crafted, but the reality is that we can't. We're running a business and we won't survive long if we spend all our time writing books we know won't sell. So we stop writing those books. If you're one of the readers who happens to love these books, you lose out too.

I'm as guilty of this as the next person. I often neglect to review books I've liked. But I'm going to work to change my evil ways. Because I don't want to be responsible, even slightly, for great books not being written. So sharpen your pencils and get out there and review, review, review. In gratitude, your favorite authors will keep writing the books you love to read.

Happy Reviewing!