Independent authors need ratings.
Independent authors don't have large advertising budgets; as a consequence, feedback and ratings are vital for building an audience and demonstrating that their work is valued.
I know, I know: it's a hassle. Amazon won't let you leave just a rating - you have to leave at least a sentence feedback - and writing something vague and nondescript like, "I really enjoyed reading this novel!" is unsatisfying, whilst writing a more meaningful review that exactly captures your feelings about the book is hard work. I hear you. I'm working on being better at it myself.
But, to independent authors, a positive single sentence review with a rating is no small thing at all. Get enough of those and you can get listed on websites which will only list your book if it has above a certain number of reviews: it all helps, you see.
In January 2013, I added up my sums and determined that over 1,600 people had downloaded 'AFK', my free Kindle novel, from amazon.com. Only four of these people had left a rating. That's a quarter of 1%, and for a book they got for nothing.
If you have read and enjoyed one of my novels, please consider leaving a review and rating at the place you obtained it from - be that Amazon, Smashwords, Lulu, Barnes & Noble, Apple or right here on this website in the comments section for the book you read. If you want to go that one step further, a Facebook/Google+/Twitter share would be wonderful. If you blog and would like to review one of my books there, that would be fantastic.
But a single sentence review at Amazon is also great. Really. It helps me tremendously and I cannot tell you just how much I love seeing just that an extra person has read one of my books and enjoyed it.
You'll put a smile on my face, I promise you.
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