I hunger for them, as Cthulu hungers for the stars.
If you can help me get them – by recommending Alex to other readers who then post a review, or by posting a review yourself – I would be deeply grateful.
First off, let me talk about the reasons. Awhile back I set 20 Amazon reviews as my goal. My readers, being awesome as they are, helped me surpass that goal, and I’m currently sitting pretty at 26 reviews. (One of them is from my mom, but I think that still counts. More on this in another post.)
My main hope in hitting that goal was that my book’s visibility would improve when your typical Amazon Shopper sorted a list of books by “highest review first” – and it has, dramatically. The first time I checked that sort, Alex was around position #250. Now, in a sort of Kindle Mystery & Thrillers, Alex is #27. That’s out of 50,050 results as of tonight. In a sort of Mystery, Thrillers & Suspense (paperbacks and e-books combined), Alex is #30. That is out of 85,951 results.
That is awesome. If you have posted a review, that’s what you’ve done for me. Thank you.
I have seen a bump in sales which I am, rightly or wrongly, attributing to those reviews. I’m averaging a book a day. It ain’t the NYT Bestseller list, but from where I’m standing, it’s no less fantastic.
I’ve since become aware of the Kindle Indie Books page. Amazon will periodically choose an independent author to feature at the top of the page, based on sales rating and/or reviews. They also list the top-rated books from independent authors midway down the page.
My new goal is to get Alex featured on this page, most likely by having it appear in the top-rated books section.
My review numbers are not too far away from some of the other titles currently listed there. Sandi Krakowski’s Read Their Mind made the list with 42 total reviews and an overall rating of 5.0; Robin O’Bryant’s Ketchup is a Vegetable has 51 reviews with an overall rating of 4.9.
Hm… that one looks interesting. I think I’ll pick it up. Anyway…
If I can get Alex to 50 reader reviews, I think I can get it on this page (or at least qualify it to be selected). I’ll be continuing to bug people harass people remind people who haven’t yet posted a review to please consider doing so, but I could also really use your help. I know a lot of you have told others about Alex (thank you!) – if you happen to know someone who’s read it (and hopefully enjoyed it) but hasn’t posted a review, would you bug them for me? Some talking points are:
– If you liked the author, posting an Amazon review is a very real, tangible way of supporting his work. – Amazon reviews give him more visibility and help him to move more books. – He bypassed traditional publishing in order to keep his work cheaper for readers; he is relying on grassroots support in place of the normal support infrastructure a traditional publisher might provide.
Disclaimer: As always, the reviews don’t need to be good. A one-star review will be as eligible as a five-star. I’m looking for honest reviews. If honest reviews can’t get me to my goal, then I don’t deserve to meet it.
Thank you for reading and thank you for all your support so far. I have the best readers in the world.
Note: I modified this post on January 5, 2012 because I think my initial enthusiasm for Amazon reviews, while warranted, was going a bit far. I originally offered an incentive to five random reviewers once I hit 50 reviews. I’ve since realized I’m not comfortable doing anything that could be interpreted as offering rewards for reviews. So, I’m putting that particular reward into my back pocket, but my guess is, you’ll see it again; just not for reviews. – AJN
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