The Well Written Review

In numerous places, in these indie author streets, there is an understanding that we, authors, should not read the reviews of our books. In part for our mental well-being and in part because reviews are for other readers. And still, no one talks about reading the reviews for books by other authors. and in reading those, I found a phrase that makes me pause.

… is well written.

The first time I noted it was while looking through the reviews for one of the “Have You Read” posts. The book was by a Jamaican author who has a substantial catalog of books that range from romance to suspense. And in reading that the book was “well written”, I felt a kinda way.

Then I heard the phrase on a Tiktok by a Jamaican Booktokker who was talking about Caribbean contemporary fiction. She was talking about a book that would show up every year in posts for Read Caribbean month, and by the way she used the phrase, it cemented my thoughts on what “well written” means. At least to me.

So, when I come across a review that says a book is well written, it feels like a “but” is coming.

Or that it is shorthand to “I should find something nice about this book because I’m a nice person”. Plus, it’s easier to say than “although there were no grammatical errors and it meets the standards by which a book would be published, it just isn’t my cup of tea”. Perhaps, they didn’t like the book, but it was not an out and out hate, so some kind of virtue has to be applied.

But as reviews are for readers, does the phrase “well written” help in the decision-making when considering taking a chance on a book?

All the same, as an indie author, I now see the importance of how you make the reader feel as opposed to how grammatically correct a book is. I see this in the black romance spaces where readers will support a book and they will call it out if the errors are too many.

So, I here and now vow to not only write well, but write stories that will hit the reader in the feels because the last thing I want is a review with the phrase the book “is well written”.