[Updated] Your ratings are noticed and appreciated.

Some of you who read my stories leave a star rating on Goodreads or Amazon. Probably once a day, I check to see if there are any new reviews and/or ratings.  I memorize the number of both, and when I refresh the page and see that the number has increased, it’s like getting a surprise gift.  I always notice these and I sincerely appreciate them, regardless of the star rating—negative reviews help me grow as a writer. One cool thing about Goodreads is that, unlike Amazon, star ratings without a review are not anonymous. I always make a point to “like” these ratings, because it’s important to me that you know I noticed. However, some of you have your accounts marked private, so I can’t interact with your rating at all. And honestly, my first instinct is to send you a Goodreads friend request just so I can say thanks, but I have to restrain myself—that’s probably a little too in-your-face.  I want to, though.  I want to ask how you heard about it, what made you decide to take a chance of it, what your favorite parts were.


It’s just that there are so many books out there, you know?  At the end of all my stories I acknowledge there’s an ocean of them out there.  And you dip a bucket into that ocean and pull up a few dozen books, and for most people, that’s probably every book they’ll read in their entire lives.  A bucket of books out of millions.  Out of hundreds of millions.  So to think that in that vast expanse—to think that someone passed on an award-winning book, or a book that’s all the rage, or a book written by someone that anyone would know, to instead spend an hour reading something that a nobody wrote, it just feels great.

But I’ll just settle for this: I see you, and I appreciate you. It’s always a thrill when a friend or family member reads anything I write, but it’s a special kind of awesome when someone I’ve never met or interacted with scoops up one of my stories and then takes the time to leave a rating. Thank you for your time. You are wonderful.

My books on Goodreads:

My books on Amazon:

Update: Someone brought it to my attention that by clicking on the date underneath a star rating, you actually can click “like” on any star rating, regardless of their profile settings.  I eagerly did so and discovered the following day that my total number of ratings had actually decreased, so I guess there’s a valuable lesson in there.

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