Book Reviews, good or bad, how they affect me

Writing fiction comes not only from the mind but also from the heart. An author will pour his or her soul into creating the characters and the plot. They will try their best to get the research right and delve deeply into the protagonist's and other characters' motivations, and personalities. There is hardly a moment when I am not thinking about my book, not to mention the hours spent bashing it out. None of this is a chore because if it were I wouldn’t be doing it. I write because I love it. I love telling stories and creating what I hope are believable characters. I find people fascinating and hope to encompass some of our hopes, desires, dreams, and troubles into my fictional characters lives.

Knock backs are inevitable though in all walks of life whether an actor, artist or writer and personal tastes differ, thank goodness. It would be a very dull world if we all liked the same.  Art is subjective and fiction is art.

One of the most nerve wracking parts of writing are the reviews after the book is out there in the big wide world!  Good and glowing reviews are great and help motivate me to continue writing. It gives me great satisfaction knowing that I have given readers pleasure, or have helped them escape from the troubles of the world and their lives for a while as they immerse themselves in one of my crime novels. But all writers get bad reviews. Some of these reviews are motivated by jealously or superiority, they can be cutting and scathing. Some are genuine. Some readers will find that my books are just not their cup of tea, and will say so which is absolutely fine by me. Other reviewers can offer up criticism that can make me think and perhaps improve.

I sometimes read reviews of my books on Amazon and eslewhere on social media although I try to train myself not to. It's one of those things though where I say I’ll just have another peep, then sometimes wish I hadn’t.  Yes, bad reviews do affect me, although I tell myself they shouldn’t, but as mentioned above good reviews also affect me and encourage me to continue writing.

How valuable is it when a reader posts a review?

Reviews on Amazon affect sales in that they also influence publishers to put more weight in terms of marketing and money behind you and the more reviews you get on Amazon, the more Amazon plug you for free! After all they’re in it to make money by increasing sales of popular books. It is highly unlikely that any author will consistently get five star reviews across all their titles. Mine usually average out about 4.5. (The occasional one star review can pull the star rating down).

Some of my most rewarding reviews come from when someone messages me to tell me how much they enjoy my crime novels and occasionally I receive a handwritten letter, which is lovely.

Reviews do count, so if you have read any of my books do take time to leave a review even if it isn’t a glowing one, although I hope it will be a good one!!