You aren’t famous, you don’t have many blog followers, or that big a goodreads network, and you’d just be one voice among many on the big sellers sites. What possible odds can it make if you review a book? The answer is, far more than you think.

With books, it’s not about big advertising budgets – those help, granted, but people often read books because of word of mouth recommendations. If you love a book, the odds are you know someone else who will, and if you tell them, maybe they’ll pick up a copy.

Famous books with massive sales can make it seem like the whole book industry works this way. It doesn’t. The big sellers are rare. Most publishing houses sell in the thousands, not in the millions. On that kind of scale, a few books here and there really does make a difference. The smaller the publishing house, or the more obscure the author is, the bigger the difference your review is going to make.

Authors read reviews. The less famous an author is, the greater the chance they’re going to care what you personally thought of their book – no matter who you are. Did you like it? What did you like? What worked for you? Authors read reviews to find out who their readers are and what those readers are enjoying. We want to play to our strengths. If the things we like about our books are the things readers like, that is a huge morale boost. And we want to know who isn’t going to like the book so that we can pitch it to the right people.

A good review can be the difference between giving up, and keeping going. Especially early on.

If you love a book, talk about it. What you say matters, and makes a difference. Your words can keep authors going, and will increase the odds of there being another book from them somewhere down the line.

Become a reliable, insightful reviewer and people will pay attention to what you have to say. That can mean publishers start seeking you out to send you their books. Authors do look for reviewers who seem relevant to their book, and if you put yourself forward as a reviewer, all manner of things can happen as a consequence.

If you are a reviewer and you’d like to alert CI to what you do, leave your link in the comments.

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