Let's talk about reviews

Since I've been writing about words, I'm just going to keep doing that. Not my words today. Not necessarily, anyway. Words other people write about the books they read. Yep, reviews.

I'll confess right up front that I never really thought about reviews. Not book reviews anyway, not until recently. Sure, they were nice and sometimes a good review would make me pay closer attention to a new release, but traditionally, I went with what looked interesting to me or what someone else had read and now insisted I read too.

I am also one of those people who balks when something gets incredible amounts of hype. Harry Potter? Twilight? The Hunger Games? I read those books because I finally, -finally- grudgingly gave in to the overwhelming enthusiasm from people who'd read them already. So book reviews have never been that much of a determining factor for me.

Now, however, I understand that when it comes to selling things to people, I'm really kind of a fluke. There are a lot of people out there who rely heavily on reviews to tell them where they ought to spend their allotment of dollars. It makes sense. People have only so much mad money and there are a LOT of options out there for spending it. If you go to a website, be it Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Chapters, and you have the choice of two books, which would you buy? The one that has a 100+ reviews telling you how much other people enjoyed it, or the one with no reviews at all? Not even a flood of negative reviews. Just... nothing.

Exactly.

So! This year, I am resolving to give back to authors of the books I've read. Not just by letting them know what *I* think about their books (for better or worse; I don't like everything I read), but also to contribute to the pool of opinion surrounding their work, so other people can make decisions and maybe plunk down a couple-three of those spare dollars in their pocket.

Which means I'm also going to say: If you've read Immortal Lies, whether you loved it or hated it or something'd it in between, please leave a review on a public site. Blogs are great, but Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Goodreads are better. Reviews help authors gather up more readers and more readers keep us writing.

(BTW, if you have not entered -- or even if you have and want to spread the word -- there's still a week left on my print giveaway. Check it out here!)