I am in touch with many Indie authors and all of us can't stress the importance of reviews enough. Not only does it help us with marketing and getting the word out, but that one review could be the reason for us to keep going. Sure, we would rather not get negative reviews (who wants those?) but it helps us find the right audience. Finding a target audience can be difficult but by the reviews our books get, we can usually tell pretty fast who loves our writing style and stories and who doesn't.
I mean lets face it, some readers just don't get us. Some readers only care about a certain genre, not willing to try something new. I was like that too to a point before joining Instagram and meeting so many incredible authors. I want to support other authors and even though there are still genres I won't read, I came across a lot of incredible books, usually not so much my thing. Recently, I read a dark romantic comedy/ horror romance, which I would have never touched in the past. It was more romance than horror, but still gave me the creeps at times. I am actually considering reading the second book. 😀
We all have different tastes. I love the readers who enjoy and can't wait to read my books because they are my kindred spirit. I appreciate readers who might not exactly prefer my chosen genres, but still loved the books they read and left a great review. Likewise, I understand some concerns of readers when they don't really like a book, the writing style and story, even though I believe that most books still deserve positive feedback while making your voice heard. I have read a lot of reviews over the past few months (nor for me but other authors) who were flat-out mean, super harsh and totally unnecessary. If you disliked a book, fine, write that and leave it at that. There is no need to write a novel about every single detail you hated. It blows my mind when I see jerk-reviews like that because most of the other reviews are normally high praise and so seeing one or two cruel reviews, just to bring the rating down is just petty. Jealous much?
Luckily, most of the readers I have come across, are fair and try to uplift the author and not tear him/ her down. Seeing that makes me happy. I do the same thing when I write a review. If something was terrible or bothered me, I will mention it, but normally, I try to focus on the positive because I know just because I might not like it, doesn't mean others won't. Perspective people!
Now, something that makes me happy beyond imagination is when I get messages from a reader while they are reading one of my books. This has happened two or three times now and one of the best things you can do for an author. It's an incredible feeling, when the reader shares his thoughts with you, asking questions, even though they don't want the answer, and seeing your story through their eyes. Knowing a reader is completely intrigued and captured by the story you created is the best compliment they can give us. 💖💖💖
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