Taking It All in Stride: Reviews

We hope our novel brings mothers and daughters together in discussion. That has always been our main focus. To accomplish that, we want to get it into as many readers' hands as we can. Reviews are certainly a huge part of that process.

We have put our novel out there to several places for review, and so far have received nothing less than 4 stars and glowing reports. One of our favorites was from http://www.featheredquill.com/ who gave us 5 out of 5 stars and said, "A heartwarming story of family love, the perfect book to share between a mother and daughter."

However, I fully expect to get a negative review at some point. I have been in enough book clubs to know how varied readers tastes are. There have been widely popular and critically acclaimed books I didn't like, and much less favorably accepted novels I have loved. Same for movies, clothing, food, etc. What makes this country so great is freedom of choice and expression.

I have a review blog myself (http://etjrmbach.blogspot.com/ - please keep checking it out) and review for Rebeccas Reads (http://www.rebeccasreads.com/), and I always try to be fair even if I don't love a book. I think most reviewers do the same.

A friend recently copied me a on a review and subsequent author backlash. Sadly, the review commended the author's story but pointed out the distraction of severe grammatical errors. I think most readers would appreciate this. The author did not! Sadly, she embarrased herself and other authors. I am personally thrilled with all the new review sites that will review Indie books. A shout out to all of you!!

For writers, and any other kind of businessmen/women, let this article be a shining example of how NOT TO handle criticism: http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html

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We'd love to know how much stock you put into reviews (whether it's books, movies, places to eat, etc). Let us know in the comments below.