Writers LIKE REVIEWS. (Especially me!)

If you ask any furry writer what you can do to support them, chances are they will tell you to read their work. Buy their books. Maybe sign up for a tier on Patreon.

Hell, I’ll tell you that right now. I have work featured in so many anthologies and a whole novel published! If you haven’t read them yet, check out my Works Published page!

ALSO! Phantom Janitor turned eight years old on December second. That is wild. It was published eight years ago. I was nineteen. Which means I was seventeen/eighteen years old when I started writing it.

Speaking of Phantom Janitor, there’s another way to support your favorite furry writers. Phantom Janitor is kind of part of the reason I am writing this post today.

Most furry writers will tell you just how much they love and appreciate reviews. And it’s true. In my experience with reviews, most are a bit of a mixed bag. It serves as a chance for a reader to point out things they loved about the work they read and maybe shine some light on things they didn’t. And with my rewrite of Phantom Janitor, I decided to do a deep dive on possible reviews for my book.

Two of the three reviews I found online had some positive feedback. Jacob called the book a “predictable but adorable” love story and praised character interactions. An unnamed user (who turned out to be my mother) titled her review “Characters that you really can’t help but wish were among your very best friends.”

The two reviews, plus some criticism I got back then got me down a bit. And, well… if you follow me you know about my complicated relationship with my debut work. I did focus on the negatives more than I should have. I was nineteen/twenty years old. I was still trying to figure out “Me” outside of the context of my faith and sexuality. I thought I had written something bad that people were going to hate. I felt so defeated.

People used to really get onto me about how I would talk about the book too. I wasn’t focusing on the positives of any of it, and just on how many mistakes and holes I had left in the final product. It was something I needed to learn to get over and accept. I wrote a novella at eighteen and got published at nineteen. How many other people can say that? A positive. People loved my characters. Like, really loved the way they all interacted. Another positive. Positive after positive started to come from what I thought was a very rash mistake.

And I was in a good place. Until a few months ago… I found a review on this other site. I don’t remember the name, but I have it screenshotted on my phone. 0 Stars. Marked “Did Not Finish.” The review read, “Got about 50% of the way through. Could see exactly where it was heading, no curveballs or twists to keep my interest.”

Honestly, that stung… For exactly ten minutes before I moved on. I came back to it recently, earlier this week, and I’m not even really hurt anymore. Obviously, if a person decided my book wasn’t worth finishing, then it wasn’t made for them and they can have a wonderful time reading a book more worthy of their time.

But the review made me think. I have read maybe five reviews that covered works I have either written or have been featured in. Each one of them (Except the one above) really brought a warmth to my heart. (Like there is one “on my first anthology feature in “Slashers” on my story “Nightmare at Elmwood College” that really makes me just so very happy and excited whenever I read it.

And that’s what is so good about reviews. You get to let the writer know what you think, good or bad. And they will most likely read it at some point! A good review can easily make a day. If you read a story, and even remotely enjoyed it, write a review. It doesn’t need to be on a big website like Amazon. It could be on Goodreads. Or even just on a personal blog like this. Because reviews can easily bring in other people. Other people who may use your review to influence whether or not they’ll purchase a book.

So now, we get to the part of the post where I am going to ask for your help.

I mentioned the rewrite of Phantom Janitor in this post. It’s a project I am still (slowly) working on. But I want to get more people interested and invested in the characters I am working with. If you read my debut work, and you had any kind of enjoyment, please let me know. It can be in the form of a review, a DM, a comment. I’d love to know what you loved, or maybe didn’t love. And if you haven’t, please pick it up and give it a read. It’s flawed, cheesy, and so so soooo cringey in places. But it has so much heart, and I tried my damn hardest with it. And I want to show you just how much I have improved since its release.