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| Your Review is Important |
Do Reviews Matter?
What defines a great author? Is it the prose of Shakespeare or perhaps the hair-raising tales of Stephen King?
Perhaps both – and more. There are as many variables as there are readers.
Not every story will appeal to everyone. Some like romance, some like mysteries, yet others like an adventure. How about sailing off into outer space, or submerge into the murky minds of sociopaths? There is a book for every person. Every genre has an audience and an author. That is the connection.
What if Mark Twain had stayed a river boat pilot, yet wrote all his stories but never published any? He certainly wouldn’t be as well known. As it was, people talked about his piece in the New York Saturday Press: The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Yes, he had written before in newspapers and the press, but this time people talked about it and he was on his way.
But I don’t know syntax from semantics.
We don’t have to be great, or even good, authors ourselves to leave a review. Today we can point and click on a star to get our point across. Leaving a comment is optional. However, the more information about why we picked the rating we did is welcome.
Why do it? What’s in it for me?
It’s a fair question. Most of us feel that we did our part when we bought the book. Why should we take the time to review it? Doesn’t it only benefit the author?
Well, yes … and no.
The publishing world has been and still is, undergoing changes. Nowadays anyone who wishes to publish a book has access to the wherewithal for somewhat reasonable fees. In a time frame where the traditional publishers would publish a thousand books, now tens of thousands are printed.
The upside is those good authors who wouldn’t have been picked up by a traditional publishing house now have books on the market we can read.
The downside is that writers who fall short of basic skills in story-telling, proof-reading, and editing also have plenty of books in the mix.
So how do we know which are good?
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| Everyone benefits from your opinion. |
We know by our reviews. When we support an author, it helps keep him or her in the writing game, and that helps readers find the better writers. It’s not complicated. It really comes down to us as readers.
What book have you found that you would give a good rating? Leave a comment.
Writing Fiction is posted on Wednesdays.
Thank a veteran.
Writing Fiction 