Indie authors are always banging on about reviews. This is because they are important for helping you to sell more books, for many reasons like social proof influencing buyer decisions and also some promotion services only accept books with a certain number of them or with a certain average score.

And its so hard to get them. You can sell 2,000 books and only see 20 reviews come from those sales. You will probably get less than 1% of readers who will review the book. And you really want to have at least 100 reviews on a book to really demonstrate that social proof (although 10 should be the first low bar to aim for) so that’s a lot of books you need to sell. In order to sell more books. You see, it’s a vicious cycle…

And it’s easy to understand why people don’t review books that they have read, even if they enjoyed it. There’s a lot of reasons and, as a reader, I’m guilty of all of them myself. You don’t have time, not even five minutes to spare. You rush to finish the last page before you get off the train on your way to work and then you’re never going to go back and review that book later on like you might intend to. Instead, you finish a hard work day, get back on your bus or train and dive into the next book you’re dying to read.

Or it’s just a hassle, especially if you’re reading on your phone like I do. I love the Kindle app, I read almost exclusively in that now and have for years (and the Play Books app which is almost exactly the same) and they have streamlined the reviewing process but it’s still a bit fiddly and when you have thumbs the size of garden spades like I do then it’s just a pain in the backside to accurately tap the right buttons.

There’s another reason. A really good reason. It’s because a lot of people read a book, kinda enjoy it but it’s just a bit… meh. Whatevs, m8. 

And that’s what, perhaps, some of us indie authors don’t get when we complain we don’t have a high ratio of reviews to sales. It might just be because your book isn’t blowing people away. It’s not BAD, either, it’s not that. It’s just not motivating anyone to take action. 

People often ARE motivated to leave a review is when they just LOVE the book. When the content wowed them, emotionally, and they felt like they wanted everyone to know. Those, clearly, are the BEST kind of review and you can tell when someone has had that reaction on finishing a book.

Readers also review when they are surprised. The surprise motivates them to action. It might be “wow, this was not what I was expecting and it’s so great.” or “I wasn’t going to get this because usually I don’t like dinosaur romance urban fantasy but this was the best example by far.” or “I didn’t see that twist ending coming! I can’t wait to find out what happens next!”.

Surprise motivates reviewers in negative ways, too. You see a lot of “The cliffhanger ending was a cheap way to get me to buy the next book and I won’t. I didn’t even know it was a series. One star!” type reviews. And “The science in this supposed scifi was non-existent! I’ve been duped.”

Either way, it’s the emotional impact of the surprise itself that motivates the action of leaving a review. 

And now the reason I wrote this post today.

Someone left a truly wonderful review on one of my books this morning that was clearly motivated by the emotional impact of my story and the surprise they felt.

What’s more, it is exactly the kind of feeling I was hoping to give the reader when I wrote the book, so it is gratifying to see it in action. I want my readers to be so blown away by my writing that they feel compelled to shout about it. That’s my ambition.

This is the review:

It says. “Thrilling read. This was a beautiful, diverse and intense journey depicting the true primal side of mankind incorporated into a world of dazzling technology and vast advancements in genetic engineering and manipulation. I must say that the penultimate battle had me experience such a smorgasbord or emotion I fear if every page was similar (which they very nearly were) I would never manage to put my kindle down. As it currently stands I am delighted I gave this book a chance since it exceeded all my expectations and definitely has me eagerly awaiting book two in this series. My thanks to the author for creating such an enticing storyline.”

What I love about this is that it demonstrates so well what I was just talking about. Motivation to take action after reading due to the EMOTION in the story. And also note the SURPRISE. They gave this book a chance and it exceeded their expectations.

I’ll say it again: that’s what I’m aiming for. That’s my ambition.

And I try not to get hung up on reviews too much. I know they are written not for the author but for other readers and that’s great. And I don’t mind at ALL when someone leaves a 2-star review saying they just didn’t get it or it wasn’t for them. That’s fine, thank you for giving my book a chance – honestly.

But getting a rave review clearly makes me happy and motivates ME in return to achieve quality rather than just pumping out crap then tricking people into buying it.

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to leave an honest review, it means the world to me and I’m sure to any author.

So, I won’t beg you to review my books (much). I will just try to write so brilliantly that you feel compelled to do so. 

Another recent review that blew me away and started me thinking about reviews in this way…

My new mantra