You read a book, you enjoy it, you may recommend it to your friends, you may go on social media and say, ‘Hey, this is a good book!”, who knows, you might even reach out directly to the author and let them know. I’ve always shied away from doing the latter, believing they don’t want to hear from some random person. I think I may have been mistaken.

I remembered how much effort and time goes into creating a story, a collection, or a novel; how much of themselves a writer weaves into each sentence to bring the tale to life. And this is true for any type of artist, any creative endeavour.

Then they put it out there for public consumption. A natural progression, but also a brave act. I don’t think it matters if it’s a writer published by one of the top five, a self-published author, or the person who just sold their first story to a fresh new magazine, they all doubt themselves. I know of authors who can’t read any of their published material because they can see flaws in the work.

Feedback, along with good reviews and star-ratings on platforms like Amazon or other sellers, on Goodreads and The StoryGraph are vital to sales. And the cynical may say sales is what it’s all about.

But getting praise on a job well-done?

Letting the writer know, directly or indirectly, that they’ve moved a reader in some way?

It’s that which keeps a writer going, which of course means…

Positive feedback saves lives. The lives of tales yet to be told, and books still unwritten.