Social media and the internet are both tools many people use to navigate their daily lives, myself included. We use apps to shop, to purchase, to plan, and to keep up with the people in our lives. This poses a potential problem for future authors like me: how do we make ourselves (and our work) stand out on such a big platform when there are so many options to choose from?

Let’s be real, even choosing where to go to eat with a group of friends or family can be a lengthy ordeal. Should we should dine in, take out, or have it delivered? Then let’s say you decide on delievery… well, even that leads to more options: restaurant delivery, Uber Eats, Skip the Dishes, Door Dash, etc. In a world where anything is possible and the options are endless, how do we narrow down our options?

Many decisions are made (or aided by) reviews. Whether it be a first-hand review by someone whose opinion you trust, or a yelp review, or how many stars an item gets on Amazon—we rely on our fellow humans to help us make choices.

Let’s move the analogy from food to books. If my book was available on Amazon (which one day it will be, more on that to come), and someone else had a book with similar themes how would you decide between the two? In this hypothetical scenario let us say both books are of equal quality regardless of plot differences. To make my decision on similar products, I, for one, absolutely scroll down and look at the reviews. How many stars does it have? What are some of the comments people have written about it?

Would you go with the book that had a 5 star rating, but only 2 people had reviewed it? Or would you go with the book that has a 4 star rating, but 100 people have reviewed it?

I cannot speak for you, but I would be much more inclined to go for the second book that more people have reviewed. It doesn’t mean the 100 know better than the 2, but there tends to be a feeling of safety in numbers.

Reviews have guided my decisions in many different areas of my life and now that I am putting my author hat on, I am realizing how important ratings and reviews are in an entirely different way. Those stars and comments have much more sway than I initially realized and could be the deciding factor in whether my work gets purchased.

So today I urge you all to think of one book that has positively influenced you or that you would recommend to someone who enjoys that genre and go to your amazon account, or goodreads account and please rate and review the book. 

In a world with so many options, sometimes it is the smallest gestures that make the biggest difference. Just one book, and five minutes, that’s all I ask.

Today, I will not only be submitting an online review for the book I just finished reading, but I have also added the link below incase you find yourself inclined to read it as well.

Happy review to you, and you, and you!

Grave Mercy, written by Robin LaFevers
Genre: Teen Science Fiction/Historical Fiction/Romance
Book 1 of 3