What you can do to help your favourite authors (other than buy their books).
In the last couple of years I have been learning more about the craft of writing, and about the publishing industry. I always knew writing a book was a great challenge, but I don’t think I really understood just how much effort is involved in editing, generating the interest of a publisher, and how challenging it can be to make a living from writing.
I have bought a lot of books in my life time, and have been given many as well. When selecting a book from a book store, my choice would be based on a lot of different things: the cover, the blurb, the first few paragraphs, the genre, a recommendation from a friend. In recent years, I have bought most of my books on line - from audible or from an online store. In these situations, I look at reviews from other readers - in order to make my choice. I read reviews written by readers at the point of purchase, or on goodreads - and I tend to look at a few positive and a few not so positive reviews, before I make my choice.
While I always read reviews, I don’t really write them myself and until recently - I haven’t thought a lot about that. It turns out I am not alone. Only a fairly small percentage of people go to the trouble of writing a review for the books they read. I guess in my case, I saw reviews as something other people did, not me. I felt no one would be interested in my opinion. Who cares what I think? But of course, people do care. People just like me, who are trying to decide whether or not this particular book is one they would like to invest in. And it ’s not just other readers who have a strong interest in reviews, but authors too.
Obviously purchasing a book is a great way to support an author, and buying books as gifts or recommending them to friends also helps as does borrowing a book from a library. But when you take the time to write a review, that helps an author far more, because, simply put, book reviews put their books in front of more people and increases their chances of book sales, which ultimately enables them to write more books for you to enjoy!
So, I have decided I am going to make amends. In 2021, I’m going to make more of an effort to review the books I read, as a way of paying my respects to the author who took the time to write it and, to help other readers make selections on what to read. In order to meet this commitment, I will have to get my skates on though, as it is April already and I have already read 12 books this year without writing a single review!
It will likely not surprise you that learning how to write a decent book review sent me down yet another internet research rabbit hole.
