love books? - support an author -

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......... is what every author thinks when he or she gets a good review. The positive boost to the often fragile writing ego, is simply HUGE. 

I've known of authors, who, after a bad review have thought of giving up the whole idea of writing. Then, something wonderful happens - they get a really great review. A review that gives them the confidence to carry on in their quest to write a best seller. 

Authors are sensitive creatures. Each book they write is to them the equivalent of giving  birth. Only this baby takes a helluva  lot longer than 9 months in it's gestation time. It can take years for an author to get their manuscript accepted by a publishers. 

Stephen King's book Carrie got rejected by publishers an unbelievable 30 times.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by  Robert M Pirsig, took an incredible 121 'no thanks' before he finally found a publisher. 

After all the blood sweat and tears of getting your book accepted, it still has a long road to go before the finished work goes on sale. 

Firstly there's editing. 

C J Cherryh -  -  author of more than 80  books, said  - It is perfectly okay to write garbage as long as you edit brilliantly. 

This is so true. A talented editor can help turn a good book into a great novel. Work together with your editor, and you will have a product worthy of publication.

After the editing comes the re-writes. 

And somewhere in between all this - is writing the back cover blurb. 90% of authors I know, including me, all say the say thing, "Oh my god - how I hate writing blurb. It's sheer agony." This may sound over the top, trust me it's not.

Why is it so hard to describe what your book is about? 

I guess it's because all an author has, is a few short sentences in which to grab a reader's interest, enough for them to buy the book. 

Then after all this hard work is over, the serious business of publicising the book begins. 

That's where you come in - you've seen the novel on the bookseller's shelf - you read the blurb, interest peaked - you bought it.

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You've read the book. You were enthralled all the way to the end. Are you sad that you reached the last page? Are you at a lost at what to do now? How about writing the book you enjoyed a review?

An author wanting a review isn't about having their egos stroked. 

Sure an author wants good reviews. Reviews help to sell books. But it's more than that. 

An appreciative review gives an author a huge boost of happiness along volcanic eruption proportions. 

An awful book review has the author thrown down into an emotional abyss of creative self-doubt. 

Authors write books to entertain. To make the reader experience a whole load of emotions from, terrified, sad, happy, to angry and beyond. To draw the reader of their novel into the story world they have created.  

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I write to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monster loose - Stephen King.

It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition - Isaac Asimov. 

If the author of the book you just read has entertained you, made you feel good about having read the book - then is it too much to ask for a - thank you? 

 Awhile back I bought C J Sansom's  book Lamentation -

I adore his Matthew Shardlake series, and even though he'd got thousands of reviews, I added my own review to the long list. It was my way of saying thank you to him for the immense pleasure I'd had from reading his novel.

For me, writing a novel is like sending my reader on a magical mystery tour. Knowing my reader has no idea where they will end up, but that they delight in the journey I have taken them on.

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If you have just been on a magical mystery tour - and read a book you liked, then please give the author that all important artistic lift - support  them with a positive review. 

Your recommendation will go a long way to showing an author they do not scribble in vain.  


And of course, no review is better than a bad review. That said, there's nothing wrong with constructive criticism, done kindly. 


I hope you have an excellent weekend, and that your week ahead brings your hopes and dreams closer to becoming reality.