While I'm not sure exactly how Amazon ranks or suggest books to potential readers, I've been operating under the belief that reviews help.
Cover Image for Pursuing Other Opportunities. Click on the image for more information.
To that end, I've asked people that I know (some friends, some acquaintances) to volunteer to read and review each of my novels as they were released. On a positive note, I don't have trouble getting people to say yes -- on Pursuing Other Opportunities, my most recently released novel -- I had 48 people say they would do so.
Unfortunately, I've discovered there seems to be an ever-widening gap between good intentions and actual results.
I set a goal and a deadline -- get 20 reviews posted by July 1st. As the request went out in mid-May, it seemed like a reasonable target.
Now I sit at the end of August with only 16 reviews.
And I'm asking myself what to do...
Do I pester the volunteers? Ask them to get moving on that review? Risk offending them?
Or do I just "get what I get and not throw a fit?"
