Going for 50: one reason I write

Having a book on Amazon is a little like sitting by the phone waiting for someone to call and invite you over. I remember when I was a kid, with rotary-dial phones and before answering machines. You'd call up a friend and count the rings. If you got to seven rings, you were pretty sure no one was home. Ten rings, and you'd hang up. Any more than that, and you had to admit you were just desperate.

I have watched my own son go through this even in a world with answering machines and facebook and cell phones and texting. One Saturday morning he left messages and texts for five friends and then spent the next few hours waiting for a reply. Broke my heart to watch him wondering if maybe they were all doing something fun without him. (They were all at baseball or soccer games or other obligations.)

My point is, that's what having a book on Amazon is like. I watch the sales and download numbers, but even more I watch the reviews. Every review that's posted is a new thrill. It means someone not only got the book, but they devoted a few hours to reading it. And they took extra time to come back and let me and everyone else know what they thought about it.

You can leave your own review by clicking here.

Of course I like the 4-star and 5-star reviews best, but any review is fabulous, like a Saturday morning when I was eleven and the phone rang and my friend would be suggesting we ride our bikes down to the ferry or make an obstacle course in the back yard or go play with the new kittens at the dairy farm down the street.

But the title of this post is "Going for 50," right? Last week I tweeted a pitiful plea for reviews of Semper. At the time, Semper had 37 reviews. Today it's got 41, which is awesome. But I'd love to have 50 reviews before June 26, which coincidentally will be my birthday. (No, not my 50th birthday. Please. I've got a few years before that milestone, thankyouverymuch.)

So I'm taking that pitiful tweet and expanding it into a whole pitiful blog post. Because I'm insecure that way. So, if you've read Semper, please pop on over to the Amazon page and leave a one or two sentence honest review. I am grateful that you read it, and I'd love to know what you actually thought about it.

And if you haven't read Semper yet, it will be free for Kindle (and Kindle readers on all platforms) March 29 through April 2.