I’ll be very grateful if those of you who’ve bought and read my latest novel, “A River of Horns”, fourth in the Ames Archives, my Western series, would please leave a fair and honest review on its page at Amazon.com.
I fear that launching it shortly before Christmas as I did, many people bought it, but didn’t read it immediately; and now, having done so, they’re not putting up reviews. Despite selling reasonably well, it has only 14 reviews at the time of writing (all of them very positive, but simply not enough of them).
Reviews are critical to independent authors like myself. They tell prospective buyers what to expect, and may be the deciding factor in their decision. Sadly, many authors (including myself) have encountered steadily declining numbers of reviews over the past couple of years. It’s not that the books aren’t selling; it’s that most people seem to have “switched off” from leaving them. That hurts us, both short- and long-term. It affects short-term sales, and it makes building a long-term readership for future books more difficult.
Thanks in advance if you’re able to help. In fact, if you’ve read other books of mine and not reviewed them, please consider leaving reviews on their pages, too. It’ll be a big help.
Peter
Review just posted.
My review just submitted to Amazon UK.
Yes, they ARE our lifeblood… But I'm finding that even leaving one it may not post for up to a week. Amazon is doing something with their algorithms again.
Sorry, I'm a bit late to the party. Just posted a review as Paul W.
I've got to wonder how much the requirement to be a 'verified user', with the corresponding ability to be tracked, causes people to not leave reviews. Because while I'd be open to leaving a review under a pseudonym, putting my real name out on the internet, particularly for a company with such wide reach as Amazon, is something I've avoided.
@Steve Sky: Amazon gives you the option to change your visible user name to something innocuous. I use "Amazon Customer", because, being an author, if I leave a review of another author's book, it might be considered pandering or backstabbing, depending on the review, and I don't want that. You can choose which name others will see in your customer profile.
Glad to see this series continuing but are the two latest coming out in dead-tree format?