There's something so inviting about sharpened pencils. They make my fingers itch to write.
Writing a book is often a solitary task. Oh, authors aren’t always in a vacuum. We have writing friends, critique partners, editors and beta readers who give us feedback. But it’s a long process from conceiving a book to seeing that story fully-realized and available to the reading public.
Feedback often comes to us in the form of reviews. Professional reviews and customer reviews, good and bad, every reader has their opinion about a book. And that’s as it should be. The reader is an active participant in receiving and interpreting the story. But reviews often just scratch the surface. As an author, I’ve often wished there was a way to pinpoint what specifically in my story touched a reader’s heart.
The Kindle* “Popular Highlights” feature comes close. If you’re a Kindle owner, as you read you can highlight sections of text. You can choose to share your highlights with other Kindle readers. Amazon takes all these bits and pieces of highlights and tallies them. If a book has three or more people highlight the same piece of text, that “popular highlight” gets added to the product page for that book on Amazon. It looks like this:
Now, I can see why people would highlight a text book or a cookbook or even poetry. But a romance novel? When popular highlights appeared on my product page for my historical novel Ambersley, I was surprised and then pleased. Pleased because the most highlighted text in the book (now up to 31 highlights) was a tiny snippet that I remember touched my heart as I wrote it:
Most people misunderstood the moon. It wasn’t cool and distant, shrouded in mystery. The moon waited in the sky and offered its friendship to the people below, but was often overlooked in favor of its brilliant rival. The moon encouraged silence. It kept your secrets. It presented your worst fears, yet it offered hope when the bright reality of day denied there was any hope left.
What I didn’t realize was that these same words would touch others deeply enough that they would highlight them or that a message of hope I wanted to deliver with this story would be received with equal passion.
Popular highlights are way cool in my book because it allows an author to see what bits and pieces of a story connect most with the reader. So, thank you to all the readers out there who are sharing their highlights. Also, if you own a Kindle and you don’t want to share your highlights, read how to Customize Your Reading on Kindle Keyboard to learn about annotations and sharing privileges—you can keep your highlights and notes private.
Of course, nothing beats a personal note. Most authors include their website and/or email address at the back of their digital books. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to receive an email from a reader who loved my story and my characters. It’s what gives me the strength to move forward with the next story, even when it’s in the chaotic infancy stages or the mire that some people call writer’s block.
I write because, first and foremost, I love to READ. Thank you to all the readers out there for sharing the joy.
(Please note: I used Kindle as an example in this blog because it provides a unique reader experience. I do not own a Kindle nor do I personally endorse Kindle or Amazon.)
I do own a Kindle and love mine. Amy, it’s great to know that about the popular highlights. I’ve never used mine but from now on, I will. And I love that passage about the moon.
Happy to share, Edie. The highlights popped up on my book page one day, and I poked around to figure out what was going on. There’s lots of integration between Amazon, Kindle and Shelfari (Amazon owns Shelfari now, too). Book clubs can now be virtual!
Amy, you are always a fount of knowledge (and wisdom). I enjoy seeing what reader’s highlight for my Kindle books – sometimes, the quotes highlighted even surprise me. I feel a connection to my readers when I see specific instances where my words impacted them. Emails rock too. And reviews where the reviewer takes time to mention what they specifically liked about the book. I just got a cool review yesterday for Soul Survivor and was touched at how into the book the reviewer was. Totally made my day 100 times better!
Now I have to figure out how to use that Kindle highlight tool on my Fire.
If it weren’t for people like you, teaching me about cool new features on all these gadgets, I’d still be oblivious! Thank you!
Misty–I’m jealous of your Kindle Fire. I’ve been wanting to get one or an iPad, and I just can’t convince myself that I *need* it. Check out the link I put in the post. It should take you to the instructions for how to utilize all those tools on your Kindle.
Amy,
I highlight passages that speak to me or create a powerful image. It’s good to know now that these find their way to the author. I’ll have to do it more often now that I know–and of course, hope others do it with my work.
We writers need affirmations. 
Mary Jo–I agree, authors DO need more affirmations. We’re notoriously hard on ourselves, aren’t we? And I do love that Kindles and other ereading devices allow us to share the imagery that touches us.
I still find the whole writer/reader connection magical. Someone on the other side of the world can read my book. I wish readers knew how much a few words can mean to a writer. To know we made that connection is so special.
Jill James`s last blog was …Why 99 ¢ is a good price for a short story?
I couldn’t have said it better, Jill. The feedback from readers is priceless. I’ve gotten emails from readers that made me weep with joy. I thought being an author was all about writing stories, but now I realize it’s about *sharing* stories. I’m still humbled when I realize how many people have read the stories I’ve written.
Hi Amy,
I love that little feature. Makes it easy to cross the writer/author divide. A Kindle Fire is on my wish list too – one day!
Dale Mayer`s last blog was …It’s a Dog’s Life – FREE for 2 days!
How cool is that? Yes, that passage you used is beautiful, Amy. Very moving.
But what’s even more cool is that it did touch so many people. Nicely done.
I love that passage!
Karin* Tabke aka Harlow!`s last blog was …National Bestseller
What a beautiful passage! I’m not surprised it has been highlighted so much. Sadly, the best I can do with my Kindle is download and read a book. lol. I really need to learn more about it. But glad you mentioned this! I’ll have to look into it.