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I’ve blogged about this before, so you might be thinking, why is she talking about this AGAIN?! Well, very recently I had an experience with one of my books that really brought their importance to light.
As you may (or may not) know, I recently republished my books WIND OVER MARSHDALE and LONE WOLF. (I tell all about the reasons for that in last week’s post.)
Something strange happened after the books had gone live, however. Before the new books went live, I had 40 reviews on Amazon, linked across the ebook, paperback, and audiobook versions. When the new version of the ebook was published, however, it was like a fresh slate. There were zero reviews in sight!
This was not unexpected. It takes time to “link” new versions of a book to the old version. I sent the appropriate message. Unfortunately, I had waited too long to upload the new version and it could no longer be linked to the old ebook, but once I published the paperback, all would be well. (Or so the friendly customer service rep from Amazon told me in an email.)
I hurried double-time to get the formatting done on the paperback version, afraid of what would happen if I continued to procrastinate. Once it was safely loaded, another friendly customer service rep assured me they would transfer the reviews from the old paperback to the new one, thus “linking” all versions–past and present–together and saving those precious reviews!
A meme I sent out when the alarm bells were going off in my head!
But… ACK! When I checked sometime later, only seven of the forty were showing up! Much investigation and several emails later, I discovered that for some reason, 33 of them stayed with the audiobook version! More emails and another friendly (but not so helpful) person told me there was nothing they could do. I would have to contact “Audible”.
Well, I persisted, and finally–and quite suddenly–all 40 reviews showed up on both the ebook and paperback versions! Phew! I also managed to get the 8 that were left for LONE WOLF transferred as well.
Online reviews really are an author’s lifeblood.
It’s what propels books forward in search engines and enables author’s like me to compete with ‘big names’. It adds credibility and even factors into whether I can apply for certain types of advertising. In short, online reviews are valuable beyond what most readers realize. It’s why we’re always bugging readers to “leave a review” or at the very least “leave a rating”.
As I said, I’ve blogged about this before. Reviews really are important, folks! In Read, Rate, Review I lament the lack of reviews for my book ALIENS AMONG US. (Among other things!) In Reading and Reviewing – Why Both Matter, I talk about some of the reasons reviews are so important.
If you’ve read any of my titles, would you consider leaving a review on Amazon? it doesn’t have to be long-winded! It’s not an English assignment! Even a rating will do.
Reviews and ratings really do make a difference! If you have ever bought anything on Amazon, you are eligible to leave reviews and ratings. here is the link to my Amazon Author page to make it super easy for you.
Thanks!