Tag: author

The Mistake of Book Reviews Equaling Books Read! Duh!

On By dotluvs2writeIn Fiction Writing, Inspirational, Life, Marketing, Musings, News Events, Publishing, Reviews, Writing Techniques4 Comments

After the years I’ve spent writing novels and novellas and receiving a modest amount of reviews and knowing how it all works, in the past few months, I’d totally forgotten all of it!

It wasn’t until a few days ago my novel, Painted with Good Intentions, was named a finalist by N.N. Light Book’s Heaven’s yearly awards in the genre of inspirational fiction/romance, that this misleading appearance came to me.

Oh, I suppose I should explain a bit about my book’s nomination and being a finalist in that genre I mentioned. To make it easier, I’ll post part of the email I received from the company who reviewed my book last year so that you understand what I’m talking about!

The email reads:

Each year, we rate the books we’ve given five-star reviews (December 2022 – November 2023) and award the best book of the year in select categories. We’ve tabulated the votes and we’re pleased to announce you’re a finalist in the category for inspirational fiction/romance.

We’re announcing the finalists on N. N. Light’s Book Heaven on Friday, December 15.

The winners will be announced on Friday, December 22. 

Congratulations on becoming a finalist. Out of the 1,200 books we read and reviewed in 2023, yours is one of the best. 

So, that was pretty exciting.

After receiving this email, of course I had to post it on my Facebook page.

I also must tell you that I’d nearly given up writing due to the enormous effort it takes promoting and marketing my works. I don’t have much time to do that because I work five days a week and really haven’t had the mental or physical energy to focus on my work-in-progress for several months now.

So, I thought my writing days were over. After all, the highest number of reviews for my books is 31 on Amazon, and, well, that isn’t that much. It’s not awful, but it isn’t what I was hoping for.

Therefore, I believed I did not have much of a readership, even though I know my friends have read my books, and some people I don’t know. Nevertheless, this didn’t make much difference to me.

It wasn’t until I posted about my book being a finalist in the company’s yearly awards and a couple of people under my announcement posted they had read and really liked my book and recommended it that the realization hit, and I remembered that most people don’t leave reviews on books or anything else.

The nomination and this realization that more people than 31 do read my books and that I do have a following resurrected my desire to write and to go back to working on Relics of Life, that already has nearly 59,000 words written so far! How could I not finish it? That would be a wasted effort!

It’s a joy to be able to delve back into this story and be reminded by another poster that I have a gift. Yes, this gift is from God, and I shouldn’t hide it or bury it.

Hoping this is a good reminder for other writers that may have, somehow like I did, forgotten about the fact that not many reviews doesn’t mean that people aren’t reading your work!

Keep on writing!

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The Importance of Positive Feedback

On By dotluvs2writeIn blogging, Fiction Writing, Inspirational, Writing Techniques4 Comments

you can do it

Doesn’t it feel great when you get awesome, positive feedback from fellow writers reading and critiquing your stories?

I’ve gotten many on the three works I ran through the critique queue: my novel, Passage of Promise, my novella, Mourning Dove, and my novel, What She Didn’t Know.

Whenever you feel down or unsure about your story or even your ability to write, that changes when you get wonderful comments after constructive feedback from your fellow writers.

For example, one of my fellow writers commented on my scene descriptions (scenic surroundings) in my novel, Passage of Promise, as “second to none”. That really made my day.

A couple of days ago, I received a lovely comment on three of the chapters submitted last week from my novel, What She Didn’t Know, saying, “Powerful chapters. You are doing a great job of capturing the impact of family secrets and poor communication.” And a couple of weeks ago, with two prior chapters before those, another critiquer said, “No reader would ever be bored with this story. A more zest soap opera than one could find on the boob tube. Lots of engaging characters and snappy dialogue, and a narrator telling us about the human condition.” These remarks truly boosted my confidence and brought me joy. My characters are coming through so well, and that’s vital to me.

I mentioned in a former blog post how important critique partners are. I’m reiterating it here, showing the beautiful rewards you get, in addition to helpful suggestions. You get encouragement and praise at times. And every writer needs that.

 

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