Being a published author has been very rewarding. I love creating fantasy worlds and orchestrating interesting circumstances for my characters to navigate. It gives me a tiny glimpse of what it's like to be a God. Lol. I immerse myself in the writing process and experience the lives of my fictional characters as if I were them. I feel every feeling and analyze every thought they have. I become attached to them until it's hard to detach when I finish the writing and editing process. I still get a lot of enjoyment out of it, though. However, once those stories leave my head and reside between the pages of a book, the nagging dread of waiting for someone to read it and tell me it's amazing keeps me in a chokehold.
Every time I publish a book, whether it be a novel, novella, book of short stories or collection of poetry, I anxiously wait for feedback. Sometimes, it takes weeks or months before I even know if someone purchased any of my books. Since I'm a new writer, I'm still in the process of building my audience, which is a subject for another blog post. I understand building my audience will be something I'll never stop doing as long as my work is out there for people to read, and even though it's hard, I'm okay with that part of it. The part that keeps me up at night is getting my readers to leave a review after they've read my books.
As a reader, when I'm done with a good or not-so-good book, the first thing I want to do is tell someone about it. So, I assume other readers share that same sentiment. Yet, getting my Sensual Beings (my audience) to write a review is like pulling teeth. I've even had some of them find me on social media to tell me how good my stories are, but still haven't reviewed any of them. It's enough to drive me crazy. Still, I try to exercise patience and understanding with them since we are living in the age of social media where people overshare, but only in spaces where they feel their experiences will be validated. Which is understandable. I just wished readers knew the importance of leaving reviews for books, especially for indie authors like me.
I know there are other options, like finding readers who do reviews for a living or for a hobby. I've come across some, but most cost money I don't have yet. Nevertheless, I did get a review for my new novella Pretty Privilege when I published it in April. You can find that review here. It was done by a fellow author (Yecheilyah Ysrayl) whom I respect tremendously. Yecheilyah is the author of My Soul is a Witness, Even Salt Looks Like Sugar, and a few other titles you can find here. I was ecstatic to get confirmation of my talent as an author by someone I admire. Getting validation that you've got something special makes writing all that more rewarding. It motivates you to keep going, even when writing gets difficult. That's why getting book reviews are the best compliment to authors! They are important as well. They represent our stories and drive new readers to check out our work. One or more compliments on our writing can be just enough to keep us going. Plus, reviews serve as promotion to increase the book sales, which is always a positive. Whenever you read a book that you loved, remember to leave that author a review to give them confirmation to keep writing.
Make sure to check out the review on my new novella Pretty Privilege here. Also, check out Yecheilyah's website for more information on her.
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