The Most Important Words I'll Never Read

Now that 43% of book sales are made online, book reviews make or break the success of a book. Amazon, Storygraph, Goodreads, Fable, and the like feature readers' star ratings and opinions on what worked and what didn't in their latest read.

Authors invest a lot in generating more reviews for their books. So if book reviews are so important, why on earth would I advocate for authors never, ever visiting one of these sites and reading them?

Why authors shouldn't read their book reviews

If you've spent time in author spaces on social media, you may have read the phrase "review sites are reader spaces." Reviews are intended for readers to share opinions with and make recommendations for other readers. They are not a good avenue for providing feedback to authors.

Preserving readers' space for honesty

When authors regularly interact in reader spaces, it can make readers uncomfortable being honest about their experience with the book. It's vitally important that readers trust reviews to be a straightforward and transparent depiction of the highs and lows of a book so they can make informed decisions about what to invest money and time in.

Protecting authors' mental health

Let's face it—writing and publishing a book is hard, and authors often pour a lot of themselves into their work. It's a vulnerable thing to send that out into the world, and very few people have skin thick enough to handle people calling their baby ugly. It's especially gutting because by the time people are reviewing the book, nothing can be done to fix it. Some readers wax negative as "constructive feedback," but once the book is out in the world, all authors can do with this feedback is get their feelings hurt.

Avoiding "main character" of the day backlash

Every week, a new author finds themselves in hot water because they dug into their reviews, got stung by a low star rating or unexpected bit of criticism, and decided to post on social media. Some criticize giving honest negative reviews, some feel the need to publicly defend their work by pointing out inconsistencies in reviews, and some, worst of all, have named and shamed specific reviewers. This is bad behavior, and it inevitably earns them controversy that does nothing positive for their reader community or their books. And it can all be avoided by resisting the temptation to click into the reviews!

How can readers communicate with authors who don't read reviews?

Let's say you want an author to know how you felt about the book. Here's my recommendation, based on whether you've got positive or negative things to say.

If your feedback is good: email, DM, or tag in posts on social media.

There is not an author alive who wouldn't welcome a reader reaching out to say they loved the book. From well-established, bestselling authors, you might not get a response, but these kinds of notes from readers mean the world to smaller, newer, and indie authors.

If your feedback is mixed, bad, or "constructive," don't.

If you overall had a great time with the book but wished a few things would have been different, that's something to share with other readers in a review, not directly with the author. If you did not enjoy it, the author never needs to know that.

The exception to this is if you find a typo or formatting issue in an indie author's ebook. These are fixable, and it's helpful information for self-published authors to receive directly via private communication like email or DM. Please do not use Kindle's "Report Error" button to do this! That feedback goes to Amazon, which may halt sales until authors reupload edited files, resulting in authors missing out on income over a single typo.

Want to see my (hopefully not ugly) baby? A King's Trust comes out March 25, 2025. Sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know when preorders open!