Reviews are a funny thing. When you’re waiting to be published, published author friends warn you not to read them.

With good reason, I’ve realized.

A negative review has the power to make you doubt everything. When you encounter criticism, you can start to question your ability to string words into complete sentences, your self-worth, your fitness to live amongst human beings.

On the flip side, take too many positive reviews as the gospel truth and you might end up with an overinflated opinion of yourself and your writing. I don’t care how many people like a book, there’s always room for improvement.

Still, most of us — myself included — can’t help but sneak a peek at reviews from time to time. And, thanks to Amazon algorithms and whatnot, we’re always begging for reviews. Good or bad, a review helps a book’s visibility — and getting a book noticed on Amazon creates sales, which leads to money in the author’s pocket.

Start raking in enough pocket money, and that elusive goal of quitting the day job can become reality. What author doesn’t dream of that?

I was reading an e-newsletter from Goodreads or Createspace or somewhere else I can’t remember. In it, there was an interview with Susan Mallery. She said something about reviews that I don’t want to forget, so I made a quote card about it.

Feel free to share it with your friends!