#minicon

I had meant to talk about this right after MInicon, but bad things happened and I got distracted.

At Minicon, I got to talk to a few small press authors whose books I have reviewed over the years.  They *remembered* those reviews.  One had even printed out my review because I’d made special mention of how much I liked a story that she’d never been able to sell (outside of getting it into a collection of her work.)

Another author emailed me today to let me know her second book is coming out because she’d appreciated how “accurate” (if sometimes nitpicky) my review of the first was.

Reviews are super important to small press and independent writers.  Not just to them personally, but also to letting other people know their books exist.  If you’ve read a small press book, go ahead and post about it where appropriate.  If you don’t feel articulate enough for a review, “I liked this book because (simple reason)” or “this book is good” will do fine.  (If you’re going to be more critical, though, you should be more clear on what it is you didn’t like.  It’s fairer to the author.)

Off to Minicon, hoping the weather isn’t TOO bad.