Mary Newman's Blog - Posts Tagged "self-esteem"

I've had a bit of a downer at the end of this week, so thought I'd address it in this post.

As a relatively new author (at least to the published romance world) I have very few reviews or ratings on any of my books, either here or on Amazon. I fell into the trap of always looking for the first few each time I released a title and feeling disappointed when I wouldn't get any or someone gave me a low rating.

Then, Amazon decided to remove a good portion of reviews from my books because of their "friends and family" rule. Well, that hurt because it seemed my friends and family were the only ones who'd read my book and were willing to leave reviews. So, back to no reviews on some books.

Honestly, Goodreads hasn't been much better as far as receiving reviews. They tend to be arbitrary with no correlation between the star rating and the review. I mean, I get better feedback from individuals who just message me and tell me they enjoyed my book or wished it had a little more adventure or something.

So, after much thought (and pouting because sometimes pouting is necessary) I realized that I'm not writing for anyone but myself. This is something I enjoy doing. I do have target audiences when I write. I wrote many of the M/F romances for my daughters and sisters and the M/M romances were written for an old friend, who just happens to be a gay man.

That being the case, I guess I don't really need the extra reinforcement from reviews or ratings to bolster me up. If someone feels the need to review or rate a book, go for it, but I'm no longer going to hang on every star or word because it doesn't really matter. It's not going to make me write more or less, or in a different style.

Since I'm uncomfortable writing graphic sex scenes, I'll never write erotica. In any of it's forms. Nor will I add a sex scene when it doesn't fit the story line simply to have it in there.

Sending my characters on an adventure that doesn't serve a purpose isn't going to happen, either. Nor will I add filler pages to make the book longer when the story only needs to be a novella.

I write fluffy, fantasy, HEA romances because that's what I want to write. I publish them so those who want to read what I write have the chance. If that means only friends and family read my stories, I'm good with that. If Amazon doesn't want those same people to review or rate my books, okay, then.

As one daughter in law pointed out: "you write because it makes you happy right? follow your heart." By the way, thanks, Corina, I needed to be reminded of just that.