Matthew Duncan

Have you ever chased a dream? Decided you were going to do something and put 100% of yourself into it no matter how hard it was or how many people told you that you could not do it. For most authors, that is how they would describe writing their first book; myself included. But I didn’t just want to write a book. I wanted to be a full-time writer who sold enough books to support myself and my family as an author. A dream I’m still chasing. One of the biggest obstacles to that goal is reviews. Just one, nasty, snarky, insulting review can slow sales down for a book by a lot for days or even weeks. It’s not just because it can discourage people from buying the book, but it also goes into the algorithm Amazon uses for their recommendation list. When you are shopping for a book on Amazon and you see a list like “Readers who bought this book also bought these books,” what you are seeing are books that not only sold but also with higher review ratings. They have to put in data for the computer program to make the selections and with millions of books in their virtual store, they need several metrics to help the program put before the buyer books that they will most likely buy and like. Happy customers will be repeat customers, so the books that get higher reviews get more marketing. The problem with that system is that most people don’t take the time to leave a review or even give a rating unless they have something rude to say. So, a lot of self-published authors have taken to paying underground vendors to post bogus five-star reviews for them. I will not do that. Not just because it’s a fraud, but because it’s simply dishonest. I want to succeed or fail on my own merits. There have been some wonderful people who have written some fantastic reviews for my books and I love them for it. Yet, it’s only been a hand full, so when I do get a few less than glowing reviews, it pulls down my average and my rankings. Even the great reviews that say they love the book but are four out of five stars pull the book down and my sales slow a little. Now I know that there are a lot of people who like my books. I can say that because for every ten copies of the first book in each series sold, I sell on average eight books of book #2 in each series. Who’s going to buy book number two if they didn’t like the first book? Yet, I only get two or three reviews for every 100 books sold. So, please keep this in mind. If you find a book that you really like and you want the writer to continue writing the series, give him or her a five-star review or rating. It could make all the difference in the world.