I think all reviews are great! Positive or negative (because I can’t count how many times I’ve bought a book after reading why someone else hated it), I think reviews are the best way for readers to discover books.

Sometimes readers ask me how or when to post a review. Usually I answer, “Whenever you feel like it and however you feel like it!” But to put it more succinctly:

1) I don’t care when you review my books (near the release date or years after) or if you purchased the book before you review it. I’m just glad you’ve given my work a try.

2) I don’t care where you post your reviews. Amazon, Goodreads, Booklikes, your blog, over your back fence to a neighbor — I think any mention at all is great, wherever you feel comfortable posting it. I will never ask you to post to a specific bookseller or site.

3) I don’t care whether it’s positive or negative. Do I hope you love the book? Of course! I don’t want you to feel that you’ve wasted either your money or your time. But I don’t love every book I read, and sometimes I shake my head over books other people love. So why would I expect readers to love every book I write?

4) I don’t care whether you use your real name or an anonymous one or a fake name that you invented for the internet (Meljean Brook isn’t a real name, either!) I don’t care if your review is five words long or five thousand. I trust readers to decide whether a review is trustworthy and/or helpful — and they all make that decision in different ways. Some don’t trust five-star reviews. Some don’t like short reviews; others hate long ones that give too much info. So the more variety, the better.

5) Reviews are for readers, not for authors. Of course I love it when my work is reviewed! I might even ask to use your review to promote my work. But please don’t feel obligated to write reviews for my sake or for the sake of my career. Only do it if you feel like doing it. You are not responsible for my livelihood. I am. So please don’t feel as if you taking something away from me by not reviewing and/or writing a negative review.

I also generally make it a policy NOT to comment on publicly posted reviews of my work, because I feel that author intrusion stifles reader discussion, and I don’t believe it’s the author’s place to tell readers how they should read or review a book. Sometimes I will make exceptions to that policy — if I’m really familiar with a reader/community, or if I can clarify some non-story issue (about pricing, dates, or so on) — but typically I will try to stay away from such posts.

Sometimes I will retweet review links; sometimes I don’t. Generally this has nothing to do with the review itself or the person who tweeted it — I’m not always on Twitter, so sometimes I just don’t see the links. Sometimes I feel that I’ve already blasted too many reviews/too much promo at my readers, so I hold back.

So this is all a very long way to say that I appreciate reviews and discussion about my books more than I could ever say — but I will generally NOT take part in any online activity regarding the reviewing or discussion of my work. So if you feel that I’m ignoring you, I’m not. I just don’t like to step on readers’ toes, and it’s often very hard to know who does and doesn’t mind a little author intrusion, so I err of the side of caution.

That said! If you want to point me to your review, please feel free to send me an email. Often during release week, I’ll highlight reviews that have come in and try to point readers to those blogs and reviewers, or I’ll add quotes to the book page on this website.

Also, if you ever have a question about my books (or if you and other readers are having a discussion and need clarification on a point) also please feel free to email me. I’m always willing to discuss my work; I just don’t feel comfortable barging in on readers’ spaces.