The best way to thank an author is to leave a review.
If you follow my blog regularly, you’ll notice that one of my regular features is the Blogger Salute–it’s my way of saying thanks to the countless book bloggers who spend time not only reading the books, but also writing thought-provoking reviews.
However, and this is a big however, I sometimes forget to thank the hundreds and hundreds of readers who without any reward of their own take time to post a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo and Goodreads. This is my official THANK YOU! Those reviews are often how new readers decide whether or not to chance a book by a heretofore unknown author. I can’t begin to tell you how important these reviews are. Not only do they influence other readers, but the frequency with which they show up also influences some of the retailer algorithms which in turn means that my book pops up when someone is looking for a book in that genre.
What is a review? In short, it’s nothing more than your thoughts on the the book. It can be as short as a sentence or two saying that you enjoyed it or didn’t, that it kept you turning the pages or not – or – it can be paragraphs detailing what you liked or didn’t like about the book. More often than not it’s just a few sentences saying something like I enjoyed this book because the characters touched my heart. It doesn’t have to be fancy or eloquent, it simply has to be true.
The next time you get an e-mail from Amazon or one of the other retailers asking if you’d like to review the book you’ve just read, please click yes! It’s an awesome way to share your thoughts with other readers and I know I will wholeheartedly thank you for doing it.
