I think one of the things writers worry about the most is reviews. In some ways, yeah, that makes sense; we all want the things we put out into the world to be loved, and by the time our books are out in the world, it’s too late for reviews to matter to the writing process. On the other hand, reviews are usually written for a reviewer’s close circle of readers, from arm’s length (as they should be), and there’s no reality in which every reader likes every book. In fact, books with great sales usually have a healthy number of negative reviews!
Reviews are important, no matter their form, for spreading news about a book. Lately, however, we’ve been hearing about authors who’ve purchased reviews–sometimes many, many reviews–in order to game the system of word of mouth. Sure, some books will have hundreds of reviews, and others, great books, will have very few or no reviews. Sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason to what people will gab about on the internet! Here’s an article that offers five ways to know if book reviews are fake. Look especially at the J-curve; that might not seem like a good thing to shoot for, since that curve includes negative reviews, but it probably means that you’re doing quite well!
