Actually, Amazon has rules about authors reviewing each other’s books because it can be taken as an attempt to influence competition! When I heard that I thought it was hilarious and ridiculous. Authors DEFINITELY don’t think of each other as competition. If someone writes something similar to me, chances are her audience is my audience! And readers don’t sit there going “well, I’m only ever going to read one fantasy novel, so if I buy hers, I’ll never buy yours!”
That’s . . . like . . . THE OPPOSITE of how it works.
Support fellow authors, folks.
You are so right! I love how my 19th century authors have “shout outs”. A character in a Martha Finley novel wanted to read a new popular novel, “The Wide Wide World”, and her dad previewed it and pronounced it “wholesome”. And that was my introduction to Susan Warner, who in turn introduced me to E.D.E.N. Southworth, …
You might not be allowed to review fellow creator’s work – but you can drop references. Scott Bieser drops easter eggs throughout his work, and fans search for them.
Wasn’t this how the Cthulhu Mythos became a mythos. Lovecraft’s colleagues used the necronomicon and stuff in their own works as references and nods.