Reviews - The Ultimate Motivation

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

Samuel Johnson

I received a fantastic review from a friend recently. Paraphrased it went something like this:

I’m glad I finally decided to read your book—the characterisation and sex were great. I might even have teared up once or twice… but I just got my period too, so I was emotionally challenged.

This is probably my most favourite review ever! There's nothing like a good writing buddy to lend their full  support... while keeping your ego in check :). It's all about balance, people.

Meanwhile I got a few lovely (unqualified lovely) reviews over at Amazon. I don't usually post such things or even go looking for them, but I was checking my book links etc. the other day and was so pleased with a couple of quotes in particular I thought I'd share them:

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. I was expecting a bit of fluff book to pass the evening hours.....this book was great,and one I may reread on a cold winters night!

(as I know I only keep my absolute favourite books on hand for cold winter nights, I take this as a special kind of compliment! Thanks Karen)

and

I really enjoyed this author and I loved the way she wrote the sex scenes. You really felt what the characters were experiencing and the emotions of the scene came through loud and clear. Write some more books Sami!

(I'm trying, really I am, zzrole).

I do get the occasional thumbs down on Amazon and other such places, but I find comments like this buoy my writer's spirit so much the occasional bad review doesn't have the kind of power it could have. So today's lesson for any readers out there is this: if you read a book and truly love it, or even have anything positive to say about it and you have the time to say it, please do. It does wonders for a writer's motivation to know someone is going to keep your book as a cold winter's night reread, let me tell you. This is a big part of what keeps us writing.

Thanks to all those who take the time.

Sami