Snow Days With You is on its way!

The eagle-eyed among you have already noticed that Snow Days is up on Netgalley, available for reviewers and early readers! The short period between Netgalley release and general release is a particularly special period in the life cycle of a book.

The relationship between readers and authors is something that fascinates me and also occupies my professional musings. It’s important for the integrity of the whole process that reviewers are able to leave their honest feedback. I also know, after six books (plus the two Lilo ones) that readers like different things. I know I like some books more or less than others and the same is true for other reviewers. My books are also heavy on the romance (just the way I like it) which means readers who are looking for more of a women’s fiction read with a romance sub-plot might find too much of the central relationship in my books – and that’s fine.

Ignoring reviews entirely is valid advice, particularly for new authors. If I took on board all of the feedback from all of the reviewers over the past few years, I’d be trying to write sixteen different books all in one, it can be so conflicted between the different reader preferences. My editor and publisher are ultimately in charge of the quality of my books and there’s not a lot to be gained by searching reviews for constructive criticism when there is also a risk of alienating the readers who have loved my books up until now by changing something about my style.

So why don’t I just ignore reviews entirely? Why can’t I swear off Netgalley, especially right at the beginning when the very first early readers are meeting the characters for the first time?

I want to read those reviews because I write my books for an audience, not just myself. I spent months in Chamonix with Luna and Yannick while writing this. I got so deep inside their heads. I watched them – two very wary lovers – take slow steps towards each other, gradually opening up. And I want to hear about readers experiencing this along with them. I want to know if readers found Yannick a complete dreamboat (quote from my copy editor LOL). I want to hear if readers were frustrated by how difficult it was for them to finally reach out to each other. I want to see if anyone comments on *that* scene near the end!

Watching those first few reviews tick in is an important and exciting part of the process for me, even if it means I have to see (and quickly scroll past) the occasional review where someone didn’t connect with them. They don’t all have to be five stars – in fact, some of my favourite reviews have been four stars because they’ve still shown real interaction with my story and characters. But I wrote this story to share it with readers and this is the beginning of that journey!