(Well some of them, anyway)
My novel Star Riders has been on Amazon for six weeks now, and it’s got four reviews. Not as many as I’d like, but they are good reviews. And only one of them is from someone I know!
Here are some excerpts:
“provides a lot of detail on the aliens races/worlds without overpowering the story.”
“a real page-turner!”
“The story pulls you in at the start….and there are many pivots and twists along the way.”
“He painted such vivid pictures I could totally envision the aliens, other worlds, etc.”
“tough to put down”
“a unique, fun book”
As far as ratings, three are 5-star, and one is 4-star. So all in all, I’m pretty encouraged by the feedback.
But…
I really need more. I set myself a goal of getting ten reviews before I start paying Amazon to promote the book. There’s no sense paying them to get people to look at my book’s page, if they get discouraged by the low number of reviews. My research indicates that ten is pretty much the minimum.
So while these are good reviews, I need to get more. I’ve heard from plenty of people who are reading it, or who have read it, and promised to give me reviews, so I’m being patient and waiting. But I’ve also decided to stop being bashful and just ask, and keep asking.
I’m also reconsidering how I worded the “call to action” at the end of the book. This is a request to readers to write a review, and to sign up for my email list. My research said this should go immediately after “The End”, without even going to a new page (in the e-book). Here’s what it looks like:
THE END
If you enjoyed Star Riders, there’s more coming soon!
A sequel is in the works, and I already have a short story about Moovik’s first experience with Throngans at Del Veranno, years before he met Bacary.If you’d like to get a free copy of that short story, and to hear when the next Nodal Community novel is available, please join my email list by clicking here.You can also sign up for my email list from my blog, at www.rickaallensf.com.
Also, if you liked this book, please consider writing a review on the Amazon page where you bought it, which will help encourage others to try it out.Click here to get to that page.
Thanks again for reading!
Rick A. Allen
And while I’ve seen some fruit from this (one of the reviewers signed up, and a couple others who didn’t write reviews), I’m thinking people are still not seeing it. For example, one of the reviewers said “Hoping there’s a sequel!” Which makes me think she stopped at “The End.” Or maybe she didn’t believe me.
Any ideas on how I could re-word this so people actually read it? Or what would encourage them more to actually write a review? Please leave a comment by clicking below.
I also set up an author page on Goodreads. 
If you don’t know what that is, it’s a social media for readers, to help people find new books (you may have noticed a Goodreads widget on the side of this blog, which automatically shows what books I’m currently reading). It’s run by Amazon, so naturally it already had a page for my book, which links back to Amazon. And I found several ratings already there! No reviews, but ratings, which is nice. Three 5-star ratings, three people who’ve put it on their “to-read” list, and two who are currently reading it.
My next blog post will be on how Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) works. I’ve been doing research and getting prepared so I’m ready to go when the tenth review shows up. I also plan to write a post on how I’m plotting out the sequel (in which a new world is discovered).
Rick A. Allen - SciFi Author 