So this past summer I participated in my first "review round" in a group to which I belong here on Goodreads. It was...an experience. While I wouldn't say that I'll never do another one I likewise wouldn't say that it's on the top of my to do list.

To put it politely, it was an eye opening experience that revealed to me why so many authors avoid review rounds all together.

A little background here for those who may not be familiar with the process. Essentially what a review round consists of is a group of people (10 in my case) who agree to review a set number of books (4 in my case) in exchange for an equal number of reviews of their book. This avoids the non-reciprocal rules of Amazon by virtue of the fact that whoever you review is barred from reviewing you. Simple right?

To a young author the prospect of quickly boosting their review numbers can be enticing; I'd be lying if I said the thought hadn't crossed my mind before signing up.

But today, after going through the entire process, I'd like to caution my fellow authors against using review rounds. Why? Through my own experience I've come to realize that what they offer is not what we should pursue.

Now hold on a minute, how can I advocate against collecting reviews? Every new author is told repeatedly from every source imaginable that gaining reviews is the path to success. We'll come back to this in a minute.

Let's look at what a review round delivers to you. Using my example for demonstration, upon completion I have 4 new reviews for my book. What's wrong with that right?

For starters, these reviews are not by readers. By definition in order to be in the round you need to be an author. So these are reviews by fellow authors. Nothing wrong with that so long as they chose to read your book. But wait...they didn't. Your book was randomly assigned to them. They were told to read in exchange for reviews of their own.

This type of a setup invariably leads to people who otherwise would never read your book, reading your book. The rules tell all reviewers to essentially remove emotion from the equation and review each book clinically based on merit and execution. A nice ideal to strive for but a little unrealistic on the face of it.

We're all emotional and tend to review books based on enjoyment of them. If you would otherwise not enjoy reading a particular type of book; being told to do so isn't going to help the enjoyment much.

Remember that path to success? It may be paved with reviews but those are reviews by fans. The real key to success is not gaining reviews so much as it is gaining fans.

What I've come to learn is that, as a newbie author I shouldn't be chasing after reviews; I should be searching out fans. Readers who will love my words and always come back for more.

Reviews do not equal sales. But for every genuine fan you make...you've earned future sales for every new book you publish.

Despite the importance they place upon themselves, this is what review rounds cannot give you. They can deliver you reviews but not fans. You might get lucky and find a fan. I truly enjoyed 1 of the books I read and look forward to the next release from the author. He gained a fan in me. But the time and effort spent reading books that are not enjoyable to you may not be worth it to "maybe" gain a fan.

I won't say the review rounds are to be completely avoided. If it's the path you choose there's nothing wrong with it. Your experience using them may be completely different from my own.

Just do yourself a favour and know the difference between what you want and what they'll provide.