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One of the ways readers find out about new books is through reviews on the major bookseller websites, which I discussed in a post about a year ago. You’ll find reviews on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, and many other sites. Authors rely on these reviews to get the word out.

Unfortunately, only a small number of readers post reviews. My first book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity, for example, has only 40 ratings and reviews on Amazon even though nearly 100,000 copies were sold in four languages worldwide. [Many additional copies have been sold through secondary sellers, for which authors get nothing even though Amazon takes their cut.] Tesla has 385 ratings on Goodreads, which is still a tiny percentage of the people who read the book.

The big-name authors (J.K. Rowling, James Patterson, Colleen Hoover, Jon Meacham, you get the idea) don’t have any problem getting ratings and reviews because 1) people buy fiction more than nonfiction and 2) because people tend to buy and leave reviews on books by famous authors. Less well-known authors, especially those who write nonfiction, tend not to get many reviews. And we could use them.

I recently came across the following meme from another writer, and it hit home. Despite decent sales, my newest book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, has only 28 ratings on Amazon and 26 on Goodreads. Here’s the meme:

There have been others like it, but the basic message is that people discover most books by seeing it pop up on the bookseller and book tracker websites. And every time someone leaves a rating or review it gives the book a little boost in people’s feeds.

As the meme suggests, you don’t have to write a long book review (but feel free to do so). Even a short review triggers the algorithms. Even better, both Goodreads and now Amazon (if you bought it from them) allows you to leave a rating without any kind of review. How easy is that? And it still helps.

So, l am asking for a favor. If you’ve read Lincoln: The Fire of Genius but have not left a rating or review, please do so. Here are the links to the two main sites:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Lincolns-Commitment-Technology-Modernize/dp/1493063839/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60103850-lincoln

Of course, if you’ve read any of my previous books, feel free to leave ratings and/or review on those as well.

Much appreciated by me and every other writer out there!

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius is available for purchase at all bookseller outlets. Limited signed copies are available here. The book is also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. If you read the book, please leave a review and/or rating.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.