The power of positive words

This is the expression that I’ve had on my face since yesterday. I’ve been beaming because of a message I received from a reader in Slovakia.

She wanted to let me know how much she enjoyed the first two Lee Smith mysteries (One Way Ticket, Slovak edition, and No Return, English edition) and was looking forward to reading Excess Baggage when it becomes available again and Wave Goodbye when it gets published. I replied and hope I adequately expressed how much I enjoyed her message.

Publishers and publicists spend their time focusing on numbers and algorithms; that’s their job. Writers spend their time focusing on words, trying to find the right combination and number of words to tell their stories; that’s their job. But it’s the words of the reader (in any language) that mean the most in the publishing game – whether it’s one reader or millions of readers.

When someone spends their hard-earned money on something I’ve written, spends their probably already too limited free time reading what I’ve written, and then spends even more of their time to reach out and say ‘I really loved your books’, it smooths out all the bumps on any publishing roller coaster ride. It keeps me from flying out of my writing chair. Those words are the real payoff for me - they’re priceless.

And if a reader shares those words with their friends, and those friends read the books and share those words with their friends, and their friends read the books … and so on … those words add up to an algorithm that publishers pay attention to and publicists promote. Like my smiley face, it’s a big circle.

We put so much emphasis on the numbers that we often lose sight of the words. It’s the words that keep the ball rolling.

If you’ve read a book that made you laugh or cry, that increased your heart rate with joy or fear, that made you feel something – tell someone. Tell the writer. Tell your friends. You have no idea how powerful your positive words can be.  

Thank you, IKAR, for introducing my words to Júlia.

Thank you, Júlia, for your words that put this big smile on my face.