Every Review Counts

I noticed that the majority of my readers who read all of my books will leave reviews on just one or two of them, and I really wish that wasn’t the case. I wish they’d leave reviews for all of the books they’ve read, whether they’re mine or someone else’s. I risk sounding ungrateful in this post, which is NOT what I want because I appreciate each and every review, and I think my readers know that. I’m just going to ask for your patience as I explain.

Amazon is a tricky beast. She’s like a dragon: powerful, mystical in her awesomeness, sometimes cranky, and always unpredictable. Just when you think you have her figured out, she changes her mood and you’re left in the dark again. With a single beat of her mighty wings, she will leave you standing there alone on a windy cliff. All you can do is watch as she sails away and disappears into the clouds.

Okay, enough with the corny metaphors. My point is, Amazon’s a bitch. There are algorithms always working behind the scenes over there that tally all the data on a book, including its reviews, and decide whether to highlight the book for other readers or to let it fall into obscurity. Amazon’s goal is undeniable and admirable: put books that readers will like on their radar. That’s it.

If you think my books should be on other readers’ Kindles (or in their hands), then you can make that happen. It’s as simple as leaving a review. The more high-star reviews a book has, the more Amazon’s algorithms pay attention to it. There’s a category called “Highest Rated” over there that my books qualify for if my average rating is higher than books in the same genre. Sometimes, Amazon will take a book that others love and offer it on special promotion, sending out emails to readers or putting it on Amazon’s front page. You only qualify for these highly-coveted positions if you have the reader support to put you there.

This is why it’s especially important that you leave a review if you loved a book. It seems like people who didn’t love a book will take the time to leave a review sharing that opinion, but they won’t do it if they loved it. How do I know this? Well, you can go see for yourself. I have a few low-star reviewers who mention they loved my other books but didn’t love the one they reviewed. And you can see in their review history that they didn’t bother reviewing the books of mine that they did like. I guess some people just feel like warning people away is more important that encouraging people forward. Regardless, it doesn’t give readers who might like my work the opportunity to learn about it because of those dang algorithms. The algos don’t care if this person read all my books. It only cares that he left me a 1-star review.

So, here I am on bended knee, asking you to please review all the books you’ve read. If you loved them, say so. Share your opinion with the mighty Amazon dragon so that she might deign to sprinkle a little magic on my books and make them appear before the readers who might be tempted to read them. And use different reviews for every book; don’t cut and paste. The algos recognize a cut and paste and then deny any weight to them. Review all the books you liked, for all the authors out there hoping to find new readers. It’s really a self-serving thing when you think about it. The more you support your favorite authors, the more you motivate them to write. And then you can feed your inner dragon more of the good reads you so crave.