Lets face it. The world has gone review crazy. In the internet age, as more and more people shop online, more and more rely on a photo and a brief description to make our purchases; that, and of course the dreaded reviews.
Unfamiliar territory makes a skeptic out of everyone. "What do others think of the product?" Or, "the service." "Trust becomes a huge factor as well," yet we would rather rely on a complete stranger's personal opinion before we buy a product. Trusting the company, or the manufacturer becomes second, no matter the size or the longevity of the business.
This holds true for books as well. It's not that the biggest seller of books, Amazon, is in question here. They most always will come through. It's the multitude of authors that have come out of the woodwork in the past few years. You don't know them from Adam.
If it's not a big name, who will guarantee the book is worth reading? Even if it is a big name, there is still no guarantee. So, we rely on perfect strangers more than anything else to tell us if it was good read or not; even though books are so subject to personal taste; even if the book sounds good in the description. After all the description is know more than a sales pitch. People hate the "risk," even if they are only risking a couple of dollars.
As an author we know we are asking a lot of our readers. We are asking for you (the reader) to take a chance on us. We are asking for you to give up 8, 10, 12 hours of your life, to read our stories. We are asking for your money and ultimately if you the like story, we also will ask you for a review.
We don't purposily right bad stories to wast your time. We understand that everyone has different tastes and like different things, so we know up front that not everyone will like what we have to say, and some reviews will reflect this. We understand that and hope that you too will understand that as well. "Reviews rely a lot on personal tastes."
The fact is in this business, books with more reviews, good reviews, out sell the lower rated books by far. And, the books that have little to no reviews have a hard time keeping a float.
With that said, book reviews can make or break an author on Amazon. If you like a book, make sure you let the author know by writing a short review on Amazon. The author will appreciate it more than you know, and please remember no spoilers. ~ Thank you in advance.
If you have read "Viral Bound" and enjoyed it, please help me out and leave a review yourself. It will be greatly appreciated.
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