Why reviews are so important for authors

My favourite review I’ve ever received from anyone was from a lady named Margaret, who gave The Doll House one star because ‘she hadn’t read it yet.’ While it did make me laugh, reviews like this are surprisingly common and of course they’re frustrating for authors because they can pull down your star rating. In my case, this did actually disappear – I’m not sure whether Amazon took it down or the author did – but I know it’s a common problem so anyone reading this, please don’t review a book...