Book Reviews – The Other Side of the Fence

I started this blog quite a few years ago, sharing mostly musings on odd subjects and reviews of theatre, television, movies, and, of course, books.

At the time I never thought that I would end up being a published author. To be honest, I still have to pinch myself sometimes because I think I’m asleep dreaming all this.

Now that I am an author I am realizing just how valuable book reviews are to the author. Yes, a review is just one person’s opinion, but they can help us make our books better.

Book reviews help me get a feel for what my readers want. To get the balance between dialogue and action right. To set the scene properly. To make sure that my stories make the person feel like they are in Victorian England. One of the best pieces of feedback I received was being told that the reader felt like they were actually there, racing around London with Holmes and Watson.

Another lovely person told me that they ship my version of Lestrade with one of my original characters. Dorothy. I went around for days with a huge grin on my face. To me this means that my characters felt real enough for someone to become emotionally invested in them. As a writer I want people to become emotionally invested in my characters. Hell, I’m emotionally invested in them. I have to be, or else they fall flat and become nothing more than the written equivalent of paper dolls.

So if you read a book and enjoy it, why not review it? It doesn’t have to be much. A rating on GoodReads or Amazon, even a few words in a Twitter post with a link to the book. It all helps.

Sherlockian Author Profile – Margaret Walsh

Contemplating my Statistics

I’m finding myself more and more fascinated by the Last 7 Days statistics that WordPress supplies each blogger.

This week has seen some interesting traffic on my blog.  The post with the most readers this week was “NCIS in Australia” https://margysmusings.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/ncis-in-australia/  Referencing NCIS seems to draw a lot of readers in.  Shows just how popular the show still is.

My book review posts have got a lot of traffic.  This is good.  I do like to know that what I have read is of interest to people.  It encourages me to do more book review posts.

Interestingly, some of my much older blog posts have been read this week.  https://margysmusings.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/a-skirt-full-of-hedgehogs/ (8th April) and https://margysmusings.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/the-private-life-of-sherlock-holmes/ (1st April) both got several readings this week.

It is so hard sometimes to know what to blog about that will hold people’s attention.  I am not a niche blogger writing on just one subject, so by definition I will have a smallish readership, because the book people won’t find my occasional style blog interesting, and the style people won’t find my personal reminiscences interesting.  But if I tried to limit myself to one subject I would get bored very quickly.  You’d find me either shooting smiley faces on the wall, or in a corner wearing one of those pretty jackets with wrap around sleeves. I’m pretty sure it’s damn near impossible to type wearing one of those jackets… unless you use your nose to type.

Please, if there is something I write that you really enjoy, then do let me know.  Every piece of feedback helps me know that my blog is reaching out and entertaining, because that was all I really wanted from this endeavour in the first place.