…..is a review. Well, ok, I would like people to buy my books, but if you’ve done that already, then thank you. But if you have a bit more time then I would really appreciate it if you could leave a review on Amazon, and Goodreads (if you are on there), even the same one copy and pasted on both sites.
Now, I know there are lots of issues with Amazon, and it is not the only place to buy books, or the best for various reasons. I would always encourage people to buy first from their local bookshop or local/national chain (Waterstones here in the UK). However, a lot of people use Amazon to browse as it is easy and convenient, and cheap at times, but if you have an account on there you can still leave a review for any product. Why Amazon? And what difference will it make?
Well, Amazon has complex algorithms I won’t even pretend to try and understand, but the bottom line from what I’ve been told is – the more reviews on there, the better. This means the books get picked up and promoted, put on special deals, put on lists and so on. That means my books will get put in front of more potential readers. Even if you read the book a while ago it doesn’t matter. Amazon doesn’t ask when you read the book like Goodreads, so you can leave a review at any time.
The other reason to leave a review is for the readers. People want to find out why you particularly liked a book. What was it that you enjoyed? Was it the characters? The action? The style of writing or the pace? The themes it explored? The blurb on a book can only tell you so much out of necessity to avoid spoilers and because of space, but readers can often talk about a book at length without spoiling every beat of the story.
A quick note, as I have had few people ask. Below is the list of all my books and my recommendation for the reading order, which isn’t what you might think.
Age of Darkness trilogy
Battlemage
Of Gods and Men (digital/ audio novella)
Bloodmage
Chaosmage
Age of Dread trilogy
Mageborn
Magefall
Magebane (coming June 2019)
Stephen Aryan 