One thing Kate Duffy said to me early on that has helped tremendously, is that not everyone gets a vote. Just because someone says something about a book, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they represent the readers I’m trying to touch. Not everyone is going to enjoy every book, or every author. Full stop. Period. Once we acknowledge that, it takes a great weight off when we’re under fire from a single reader, reviewer or faction of such.

I will say that a reader or reviewer who has taken the time to let me know they’ve enjoyed my books previously will have a lot more impact on me than someone who rarely reads my work, or claims to read all of it, but only bothers to post a review online or email me if they don’t like something.

That said, I was reading a blog post on Dear Author and something one of the reviewers said to another author really struck home for me. It made me realize I needed to look at my own stories for this particular piccadillo and work harder not to take the easy route. The criticism resonated with me even though it was not directed at me. I actually, was pretty happy about that. LOL

As a reader though, I like the summaries too. I agree – a well written summary can tell you a lot more about a book than the back cover copy. And when they stop putting back cover copy on books and just review quotes? Aargh! A good summary will usually let you know if one of your hot buttons is in a book you’re not sure about purchasing.

The one thing I know is that reviewers do a hugely important job and seem to get little thanks for it. While I may not buy based on reviews, I know a lot of readers do and I’m grateful so many talented writers turn their pen toward describing what they have read.

Lois