The Importance of Book Reviews

Publication day for Christmas for the Home Front Girls is on Monday 30th and nearly 3,000 readers have pre-ordrered it on KIndle or in paperback, which is just amazing - thank you all so much. I hope you're going to love catching up with Sally, Betty and Lorna and finding out what's going on in their lives in this new book. 

Isn't the cover illustration just gorgeous?

Publication day is always busy. There's lots to do on social media. The book will have a blog tour, so there will be reviews to read and share and reviewers to be thanked. Other revewers who aren't part of the tour may also have their reviews ready.

I'd like to use this blog to thank all book bloggers and other reviewers. The reviews you share with the world really does make a huge difference. And the commitment shown by those of you who run blogs is just extraordinary. Publishers and book publicists are always on the look-out for friendly bloggers and keeping up with all that reading is a job in itself - completely unpaid (unless the gratitude of authors counts as payment) and often done on top of a paying-the-bills job, not to mention all the family and personal side of life. And, just like authors, book bloggers have deadlines, because every publisher is aiming for publication day. Running a book blog can be a massive, time-consuming commitment.

I do know a couple of former bloggers who stopped book-blogging because in the end the pressure was just too much. It's a huge shame that the book-blogging world has lost these wonderful reviewers, but at the same time it's also understandable. As with so many things these days, sometimes you just have to be kind to yourself and leave the strain behind.

The feedback and reviews written by 'ordinary' readers - by which I mean readers who aren't running their own blogs - are every bit as important. Sharing your reviews on Amazon and other platforms mkes a significant difference to a book's success and visibility. Some reviewers write loads, other just pen a few lines, others just a handful of words. You don't need to write much to get your point across and, trust me, every review is appreciated by the author.

So - to all you reviewers out there, thank you xxx