Amanda Meuwissen's Blog - Posts Tagged "comments"
The importance of community to an author
Sometimes I don’t think readers understand how much receiving an honest, positive review feels. Maybe not enough authors, especially if they become truly famous, have the time or wherewithal to express to their readers how much their comments mean to them. While having too many reviews to comment back on is a problem I’d love to have, I hope I never lose sight of how much fans drive me forward.
Recent Incubus review:
"I was lucky enough to get this book for an honest review. Well I didn't think I was going to enjoy reading this as it is M/M and the ones I read so far I really didn't like much, but this book, well, it rocked my world lol. I loved it, the characters were well written and you really got sucked into the book rooting for them all. There is so much more in the book than meets the eye and it wasn't distasteful. It was really a great book to read and if you never read any M/M books but love paranormal than this would be a super book to start with (wish that this would have been my first M/M). I really felt for Jim, Nathan and Sasha and couldn't stop turning the page because I wanted to know what was happening to them. I am so glad I didn't have to wait for the next book which I can't wait to read. I am giving this 5 stars; would give it more but there isn't any."
Recent Changeling review:
"This book is a great addition from the first. Still loving it. The characters really come to life and you get to know a little more from each one as you turn the pages. You can’t help but feel for them all, and keep your fingers crossed that it will all work out in the end. Really well written and the reader gets sucked into another world which is yet still so like ours. You can't help but fall in love with the main characters. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and will give 5 stars because there are no more to give."
-Reviewer for Paranormal Romance and Authors that Rock
But community as a writer isn’t just about getting comments from readers—though I love that part, and it’s one of the reasons I will write fanfiction until I die, because the ability to comment and respond to even a single chapter is made so easy online—but also in the community of authors themselves; other writers sharing ideas and support.
Being published through BigWorldNetwork is one way I’ve been able to hang onto the sense of community I love with fanfiction, especially since it has allowed me to get to know so many remarkable writers, narrators, and editors. As a BWN Team, many of us converse daily, and it never fails to inspire me when I see interactions happening.
After all, we’re not competitors. Books aren’t like other products where because someone buys another book, they won’t buy yours. Consumption of reading material is a constant thing. Just because someone doesn’t buy your book this month, or even this year, doesn’t mean they won’t eventually. So authors need to embrace being there for each other as much as themselves.
One great place I’ve found help with this—and goodness, do I wish I had more time to really make use of this site—is from groups on Goodreads, particularly Support for Indie Authors. If you’re an indie author, you should be part of this group too!
Being able to ask questions, share wins, review each other’s work, all with open, honest community is the best tool any author can have. So wherever you find that kind of community for yourself, embrace it. And if you’re a reader…be sure and leave a review from time to time. It keeps the muses happy.
Recent Incubus review:
"I was lucky enough to get this book for an honest review. Well I didn't think I was going to enjoy reading this as it is M/M and the ones I read so far I really didn't like much, but this book, well, it rocked my world lol. I loved it, the characters were well written and you really got sucked into the book rooting for them all. There is so much more in the book than meets the eye and it wasn't distasteful. It was really a great book to read and if you never read any M/M books but love paranormal than this would be a super book to start with (wish that this would have been my first M/M). I really felt for Jim, Nathan and Sasha and couldn't stop turning the page because I wanted to know what was happening to them. I am so glad I didn't have to wait for the next book which I can't wait to read. I am giving this 5 stars; would give it more but there isn't any."
Recent Changeling review:
"This book is a great addition from the first. Still loving it. The characters really come to life and you get to know a little more from each one as you turn the pages. You can’t help but feel for them all, and keep your fingers crossed that it will all work out in the end. Really well written and the reader gets sucked into another world which is yet still so like ours. You can't help but fall in love with the main characters. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and will give 5 stars because there are no more to give."
-Reviewer for Paranormal Romance and Authors that Rock
But community as a writer isn’t just about getting comments from readers—though I love that part, and it’s one of the reasons I will write fanfiction until I die, because the ability to comment and respond to even a single chapter is made so easy online—but also in the community of authors themselves; other writers sharing ideas and support.
Being published through BigWorldNetwork is one way I’ve been able to hang onto the sense of community I love with fanfiction, especially since it has allowed me to get to know so many remarkable writers, narrators, and editors. As a BWN Team, many of us converse daily, and it never fails to inspire me when I see interactions happening.
After all, we’re not competitors. Books aren’t like other products where because someone buys another book, they won’t buy yours. Consumption of reading material is a constant thing. Just because someone doesn’t buy your book this month, or even this year, doesn’t mean they won’t eventually. So authors need to embrace being there for each other as much as themselves.
One great place I’ve found help with this—and goodness, do I wish I had more time to really make use of this site—is from groups on Goodreads, particularly Support for Indie Authors. If you’re an indie author, you should be part of this group too!
Being able to ask questions, share wins, review each other’s work, all with open, honest community is the best tool any author can have. So wherever you find that kind of community for yourself, embrace it. And if you’re a reader…be sure and leave a review from time to time. It keeps the muses happy.
The Incubus Saga Tours and Reviews!
While one tour draws to a close today with an interview at Deal Sharing Aunt and a guest blog at Fang-tastic Books, another begins, starting with the kickoff and full listing of stops with I Heart Reading for my Enchanted Book Promotions tour.
But to top off all of that excitement, blogger Kristen Burns had a treat for me this weekend, having read and reviewed the entirety of The Incubus Saga, with perhaps some of the most heartfelt words offered toward my work that I have ever received, and I was just thrilled to go through each of her comments and that her final review for the series as a whole was 5 stars.
Definitely check out her thoughts on the series HERE with some snippets for you below.
"The thing about these books is, I didn’t read them for the action or the mystery or even the plot (though I did enjoy those things, don’t get me wrong). I read them for the characters, the emotion, and the depth. And they never disappointed, especially this third book. The author has this way of describing things, of showing-not-telling, of making you feel, of imbuing such depth into everything that I often found myself tearing up, frowning, smiling from ear to ear, reacting in all these different involuntary ways to what seemed like the smallest and most insignificant of moments because she made sure to give them significance and write in a way that portrayed that significance. And she made sure it didn’t stop with Nathan–I was feeling things for all the characters, everyone from main characters, like Jim, to side characters that weren’t introduced until the last book."
More Sidhe Reviews, Enchanted Book Promotions Blog Tour, and ColdFlash!
Today I came online to discover that Kris from Joyfully Jay, who has read and reviewed all of The Incubus Saga so far, had the review up, and I cannot beam any brighter.
"This is the last book, the one where it’s all been leading. And after the set up in the first two books, it had to be epic. And it was. It is an action-packed tale, one event happening right after another with only a little time to stop, breathe, and explain thrown in. We got to see and hear from characters that appeared earlier. The author did a great job of tying up loose ends, and of showing us the seeds she planted early on that are now coming to fruition. It had everything, absolutely everything, a final book should. That alone makes this a worthwhile read."
Read the full review over at the Sidhe page here on Goodreads, or here.
I've also had a TON of great blog tour stops happening. Remember to stay tuned to my social pages for each of those for some excerpts, guest blogs, and interviews. Currently running is my tour with Enchanted Book Promotions.
You can also watch the full author interview I had recently with my publisher, BigWorldNetwork, here.
And hey, just for fun, if any of you are fans of The Flash on the CW, and enjoy slash fanfiction...my current obsession and distraction while I work up toward diving into my next book is a little ColdFlash fic I've been working on called Out Cold - that means pairing up The Flash with his nemesis Captain Cold, FYI. It's been a blast from the past to be part of a budding fandom and enjoy blogging and gushing with some amazing folks. Never lose the little things. They can mean so much.
"This is the last book, the one where it’s all been leading. And after the set up in the first two books, it had to be epic. And it was. It is an action-packed tale, one event happening right after another with only a little time to stop, breathe, and explain thrown in. We got to see and hear from characters that appeared earlier. The author did a great job of tying up loose ends, and of showing us the seeds she planted early on that are now coming to fruition. It had everything, absolutely everything, a final book should. That alone makes this a worthwhile read."
Read the full review over at the Sidhe page here on Goodreads, or here.
I've also had a TON of great blog tour stops happening. Remember to stay tuned to my social pages for each of those for some excerpts, guest blogs, and interviews. Currently running is my tour with Enchanted Book Promotions.
You can also watch the full author interview I had recently with my publisher, BigWorldNetwork, here.
And hey, just for fun, if any of you are fans of The Flash on the CW, and enjoy slash fanfiction...my current obsession and distraction while I work up toward diving into my next book is a little ColdFlash fic I've been working on called Out Cold - that means pairing up The Flash with his nemesis Captain Cold, FYI. It's been a blast from the past to be part of a budding fandom and enjoy blogging and gushing with some amazing folks. Never lose the little things. They can mean so much.
Positive Reinforcement for Writers
I don’t think it can be said enough that reviews, comments, and simple little nudges of encouragement, are not only wonderful to receive as a writer, but the very foundations of what makes us want to write more. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure I’d write even if I never received a single accolade, but when I do receive positive comments…it’s this insane confidence builder, this rush that wow, I connected with someone because of something I literally poured part of myself into, and this person/people liked it!
But one of the other reasons it can be so important to let your favorite writers know how you feel about their work is because those same people, who you might love but maybe aren’t the type to review or ever do more than beam that they wrote a new book, or posted a new chapter online, is because your positive reinforcement can help combat the negatives they are almost certainly also getting.
One single bad review/comment can completely eradicate the good feelings created by positive ones, because that’s just how humans are built. 7 good reviews and 1 bad—you instantly forget all the good and start second guessing yourself, why do I even do this, and the only thing that can help is time and, frankly, that next positive review. It really does help to go back after some time has passed and see another glowing comment to combat the bad.
Now, I’ve been lucky lately, it’s been a LONG while since I had a straight up mean review, and I’ve had some very helpful criticisms lately that were well-stated and didn’t bother me at all, just made me nod along like, yep, you’re right, I’ll work on that for the next thing I write, or that during a story has helped dictate how I proceeded and things I ended up including to combat a reader’s concerns. Those types of comments don’t sting the same as something purely negative but spur me on, like, oh I got this!
But as I have in the past dealt with some pretty awful reviewers, and have sadly seen very recently the effects that type of thing can have on others when it happens to them…I’d like to put out a plea to all you readers out there to remember that every little kind comment even just an ‘I love this’ means so much to writers. Because sure, we’re writing for ourselves, but we’re also writing for you, and what makes me want to attack that next project most is seeing how happy my work can make others.
So please know how grateful we all are for your comments and support, and consider offering positive reinforcement where you can, because we all know how awful it can be to deal with bullies and trolls in this world, and what a better place it would be if we were all just there supporting each other instead.
As for you bullies and trolls…suck it.
But one of the other reasons it can be so important to let your favorite writers know how you feel about their work is because those same people, who you might love but maybe aren’t the type to review or ever do more than beam that they wrote a new book, or posted a new chapter online, is because your positive reinforcement can help combat the negatives they are almost certainly also getting.
One single bad review/comment can completely eradicate the good feelings created by positive ones, because that’s just how humans are built. 7 good reviews and 1 bad—you instantly forget all the good and start second guessing yourself, why do I even do this, and the only thing that can help is time and, frankly, that next positive review. It really does help to go back after some time has passed and see another glowing comment to combat the bad.
Now, I’ve been lucky lately, it’s been a LONG while since I had a straight up mean review, and I’ve had some very helpful criticisms lately that were well-stated and didn’t bother me at all, just made me nod along like, yep, you’re right, I’ll work on that for the next thing I write, or that during a story has helped dictate how I proceeded and things I ended up including to combat a reader’s concerns. Those types of comments don’t sting the same as something purely negative but spur me on, like, oh I got this!
But as I have in the past dealt with some pretty awful reviewers, and have sadly seen very recently the effects that type of thing can have on others when it happens to them…I’d like to put out a plea to all you readers out there to remember that every little kind comment even just an ‘I love this’ means so much to writers. Because sure, we’re writing for ourselves, but we’re also writing for you, and what makes me want to attack that next project most is seeing how happy my work can make others.
So please know how grateful we all are for your comments and support, and consider offering positive reinforcement where you can, because we all know how awful it can be to deal with bullies and trolls in this world, and what a better place it would be if we were all just there supporting each other instead.
As for you bullies and trolls…suck it.
