Gothic Readers: Why Your Goodreads and Amazon Reviews Matter, Part 3
Here's my last post about writing reviews. In my previous posts (Part 1, Part 2), I talked about how your written review on Amazon or Goodreads benefits readers, and I highlighted the different purposes of Amazon and Goodreads. Up to now, I've only hinted at the value of your written review to the author. Now, I'll dive a little deeper. And if you have something to say about written reviews or questions to ask, please let me know in the comments!
Authors spend months, sometimes years, writing a book. (My gothic romance, BLOOD & WOLF, took years.) But the journey isn't over when the author types THE END. The author confronts a fresh, perhaps even more formidable, challenge both before and after publication.
The book has to find readers in a crowded space. And that requires the author to put in a lot of effort, investing time and money.
Authors utilize events, newsletters, and frequently paid ads and social media to publicize their books. With an eye to leveraging key words, categories, search terms, etc., the author tries to position the book so that it will be served up to potential readers. The ads and social posts are fine, but the effectiveness of these tactics passes quickly. The content of a feed is here one moment and gone the next, and it's a gamble whether a potential reader will see an ad on a busy screen for the period that it runs. With paid ads, BTW, the tactic is an expensive, long-term proposition.
I'm not complaining, and I'm not against ads or posts; they have their place. But when I compare them to the power of a written review, they don't have the same bang. Written reviews take advantage of the algorithms that drive Amazon and Goodreads, and outlast ads and posts. This power improves the immediate online visibility of the book, which may also boost sales—and, of course, every author wants to sell books—but it also supports the author in less tangible ways.
Written reviews help writers build their reputations. This can lead to more opportunities for the author, such as interviews, collaborations, or speaking engagements. And perhaps even more importantly, it can also fuel greater creativity. Knowing that readers connected with their work, authors get motivated to keep writing. To an author, a review means I wrote something that touched someone else. Pretty heady stuff! It also says someone cared enough about their experience to share an opinion. That's validation.
While I think written reviews are especially effective for independent and smaller-press authors, even traditional authors with the powerhouse of a big publisher behind them appreciate written reviews. No matter what the author's situation is, the marketplace is so crowded that a review can mean the difference between an author and/or book being noticed or disappearing into the shadows and remaining hidden forever.
So, please help an author today! Visit Amazon and Goodreads and navigate to a book you enjoyed this past summer, then click those stars and jot down your impression. In the minute it takes, you'll make a big difference to that author.
If you believe in my work, I hope you'll leave a review for BLOOD & WOLF:
And if you want to review The Winter of Haunted Hearts, my soon-to-be-released collection of gothic romance short stories, send me your email address here.
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