Why Reviews are Important

Now that the writing and editing part is done, the author gets to step back and watch their hard work be published and made available to readers all over the world. It's a shining and proud moment for us to see all our hard work being put up for everyone to see.

And now it's the readers' turn to do their part. What do they have to do?

Review of course...after reading the writer's creation.

Here's why reviews are the most important part of the whole writing and publishing process.

For the reader it's a chance to voice their opinions. Just like you have the chance to review products, as a reader you have the prerogative to review an author's "product" as well.

One of the benefits of writing a book review is that you get to analyze the story and understand all that the writers' are trying to teach and portray through their stories. You get a chance to consider the writers' vision of the world and hence develop a different perspective to see things all around you.

When you write a review, you get to share your interpretation of the story with the world too.

For a writer, reviews are extremely important. If they receive a good review, they derive encouragement from it and continue to pursue their dream. It's hard to stay motivated in this competitive profession and reviews are a surefire way to make them stay anchored to their aspirations. They also find out from their readers all the things that appealed to them in a particular story. Through that feedback, they can use it to work on their next story and insert all those "popular" elements.

Unfavorable news is a writer's nightmare. But if they can extract any good thing from that is that some readers are kind enough to offer constructive criticism that helps the writer avoid mistakes in their next work.

Reviews help shape the writer and build their own unique writing style.

Still not convinced that you should write book reviews? Here's another reason.

Putting up reviews will show writers that their books have been bought. Seldom, some publishers won't be regular with submitting sales reports to authors; vanity publishers even tweak and alter the reports a little so that they don't have to pay the author. The author unfortunately will find themselves in a position where they have no proof on whether or not their books have been sold.

It's a rare occurrence but unfortunately it does happen to some authors.

This is where readers can help by reviewing on sites that sell books. Reviews give writers evidence that their books are being sold and they are not being cheated out of their royalties.

The one thing all readers must remember is that a writer is putting their heart and soul into their writing. They spend many hours creating that one story that will not only entertain the reader but help them escape into a wonderful fantastical world.

The least a reader can do is appreciate a writer's hard work by leaving a review, whether good or bad to show them that they have at least been read.

And sometimes that is all we writers want.