Why Reviews Are Important
The publishing world is undergoing a massive reconstruction at this time, and it’s far from directed. The world is changing, technology is changing, business is changing, and nobody really has a handle on how or why yet, or what’s important and what no longer is. Those are the questions that are best answered in retrospect. What we do know is that reader reviews are an important — if not the most important — part of the process.
Reviews have always been important, but particularly for self-published and independent authors, they have become vital. This puts power back into the hands of the readers where it belongs.
Reviews are important for readers
Today’s readers are canny, not easily impressed by publisher marketing. Word of mouth is what motivates their purchasing decisions, and it’s reviews from other readers that tell them whether or not a book is worth spending their limited time reading. Marketplaces like Amazon.com and reader communities like Goodreads and Librarything have given an equal voice to all readers.
It’s from this compilation of viewpoints that today’s readers can form an opinion, from this gestalt word of mouth. Books with a lot of reviews are those that readers feel strongly about, and the weight of those reviews can tell us for good or ill. In many cases, these reviews are the only element not provided to readers by a publisher or author — they’re the only signposts that can be trusted in the sea of marketing.
This gives readers a tremendous power, for they are the new gatekeepers. Not the writers, not the publishers, not the editors.
Reviews are important for authors
And that works the other way, too. Savvy authors know that word-of-mouth advertising is the only true form that matters, and that it cannot yet be reliably created or manipulated. Writers, particularly independent and self-published authors, depend on reader reviews to get the word out about their books. A writer can have excellent prose and commission a perfect cover, but it’s the reviews that will make or break a book’s sales.
As an author I would thus implore you readers to take advantage of your position in the literary ecology. Spread the word about the books you love. Write reviews. We read them, and it’s the most valuable feedback we can get. It tells us what you like, what you want to see more of, what doesn’t work for you. Support the authors you like and it enables them to keep writing the books you love.
Reviews are important for the industry
Finally, the publishing industry relies on readers to act like gatekeepers and direct new readers to the books they’ll enjoy. The publishing houses cannot — and should not — perform that function. The more the power rests with readers, the better off the industry is as a whole. We no longer have to rely on editors’ guesses as to what sells, the market tells us itself.
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