Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Please Review







A writer's ego can be a fragile thing. A good rejection letter (an oxymoron if there ever was) can have us flying high for days. A contest entry that says, 'don't quit the day job' can have us deleting our hard drives and taking up needlepoint.



So what can readers do to help? Write a review. Post to your blog, to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Send a note to the author. We love reader mail. You can make our whole year with one letter that says you bought the book.



Readers probably can't imagine that their words carry so much weight, but they do. You are our audience. After ourselves, you are who we write for every day. You are who gets us into that chair, hands on keyboard, for another 8 hour day of writing. Maybe several days of just an hour a day because of day jobs, kids, and spouses.


When it can take months, if not years to write a book, we just need a little encouragement to put pen to paper to go another round. A review, good, bad, or indifferent, at least lets us know our words are being heard.


Be kind, review!!


Jill's book, Tempting Adam, is available at TWRP, Amazon, and other online bookstores.

5 comments:

Paisley Kirkpatrick said...

I love sending notes to authors after I read their stories. It seems lately I have lucked out with great stories and one I even typed her a note before the tears on my cheeks dried. I agree, be kind to the authors, it can mean a lot. I'm not published yet, but have so enjoyed some of the kindness of judges in contests. :)

Jill James said...

Paisley, as a judge I love getting a thank you note. I work hard to be fair but true in my judging and a thank you is nice for my time spent.

Josie said...

Hi Jill,
A writer's ego is fragile? Ha! You have no idea!
But even a tiny spark of encouragement and kindness will keep me writing. :)

Jill James said...

Me too, Josie.

Lee Lopez said...

Absolutely!!