Seeing Stars on Amazon

I was piddling around between editing bouts last evening reading and commenting on a few blogs I follow. One of my blogger friends and I got into a discussion about my book, “Red Clay and Roses”, which she just read.

It thrills me to no end when someone thinks deeply over the issues presented in the book and engages me in discussion, and we moved from comments to email.

After our discussion, I clicked on a link in her comments to discover that it took me to my paperback page. Now this blogger is one of two people who have bought the paperback online. (Yeah, that’s right, two. I have sold a couple of dozen paperbacks to Central Florida independent bookstores but only two online. And the paperback has special features the digital copy doesn’t have.)

I’ve sold hundreds of digital copies. (Was hoping to hit a thousand by year’s end, but that may not happen with only one more promo planned for this year. Anyway, I digress.)

Amazon defaults to my digital page. I never even visit my own paperback page. I just don’t go there.

But while I was there I noticed it shows not only my written reviews, but also star ratings left when a review wasn’t posted. My digital page doesn’t show those. It just shows the number of written reviews.

Does anybody know why? Most of my sales are on my digital page, so it would be really cool for me if these star ratings showed up there also. Do you have to special request it?

On my digital page reviews show as follows:

24 – 5 star

5 – 4 star

4 – 3 star

1 -2 star

0 – 1 star

On my paperback page it shows:

31 – 5 star

7 – 4 star

6 – 3 star

1 – 2 star

0 – 1 star

I jumped for joy over this. That’s 7 more 5 stars, 2 more 4 stars, and 2 more 3 stars. So, see, it would be in my best interest, I think, to have the starred reviews appear in addition to the written reviews. But I don’t know if it’s just select pages that Amazon posts these stars on or if mine was just overlooked. Should I email them or is this how it is for everybody? I can’t tell by looking at other people’s pages. Some people don’t have paperback books. Is this just a trial thing Amazon is testing on certain pages? Are they looking to see if this helps sell more paperbacks?

Just curious. Drop me a comment if you know anything at all about this. And readers…do write those reviews…even if it’s just a few words. There is no word limit now. (It used to be twenty.)

We authors live and breathe for reviews. We check our pages ten times a day. Maybe you posted something between breakfast and lunch, or lunch and snack. Perhaps you dropped a few lines after dinner, or just before bedtime.

A great review carries us through weeks, even months, of hearing nothing at all. It reinforces our strengths. We smile for hours after reading…like a Cheshire cat…really we do. We even cry happy tears of joy.

And even a critical review gives us a reason for a good cathartic cry. It helps us understand our weaknesses. Also, we can blame you for our bad day, for pulling out our hair, or for our writer’s block and lack of confidence. Justify our need for additional medication.

UPDATE: Well this sucks. I just checked it again and it’s gone. 😦