Piper Morgan to the Rescue {+ Giveaway}

I’m super excited today to be participating in this week’s Cover Reveal Blast for PIPER MORGAN TO THE RESCUE by Stephanie Faris.

PIPER MORGAN TO THE RESCUE is Book #3 in Stephanie’s four-book chapter book series from Simon & Schuster's Aladdin line. As part of the cover reveal, Stephanie is joining us to talk about ‘the importance of reviews to authors’ and is hosting a tour-wide giveaway for one of her books. Please see the end of the post for more giveaway details.

Here’s a brief blurb for PIPER MORGAN TO THE RESCUE:

Piper helps some four-legged friends find the perfect home in the third book of the brand-new Piper Morgan series.
Piper is super excited to help out at Bark Street, a local animal shelter in town. Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by adorable puppies and dogs all day? And when Piper sees Taffy, the cutest dog she has ever seen, Piper is determined to find a way to bring Taffy home. But it won’t be easy—especially when she finds out someone else wants to make Taffy a part of their family, too!

Please join me now in welcoming friend, fellow blogger and author Stephanie Faris to Thoughts as she talks about the importance of reviews. Welcome, Stephanie.

We’ve all seen messages urging readers to leave reviews for authors. It’s the best way to show your support for your favorite novelists, people say. But are reviews really all that important?

Reviews are all about Amazon visibility. None of us really know for sure how Amazon chooses which books it displays in search results or recommendations. Most of these sites don’t publicize this information because if they did, authors would find a way to “work the system.” But one thing is clear: reviews boost your visibility on Amazon.

Some say a certain number of five-star reviews will prompt Amazon to recommend your book more often when customers look at similar items. Items with a large number of reviews will also often show up at the top of search rankings on the site. Although reviews aren’t the only factor for this, it does lend a book a certain amount of authenticity.

With both Goodreads and Amazon, a review does something even more valuable than help new readers find a book. It lets the author know that there are readers actually out there. A fellow author once said that she actually loved her first one-star review because it reminded her that people besides her friends and family were reading the book. I completely understood that. There’s nothing more exciting than realizing that someone you’ve never met picked up your book and read it. Okay—there’s one thing more exciting: someone you’ve never met picking up your book, reading it, and loving it!

So do your favorite authors a favor: leave a review. Even if you just give five stars and write “Loved it!” in the comment box, it could make a big difference, especially to a new author.

Stephanie, thanks for joining us today and sharing this look why reviews matter. Even as a book reviewer, I sometimes take for granted what it means to an author to have a review.

Now for those of you who aren’t familiar with Stephanie, here’s a bit of background on her.

Author Stephanie Faris

Stephanie Faris knew she wanted to be an author from a very young age. In fact, her mother often told her to stop reading so much and go outside and play with the other kids. After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Science in broadcast journalism, she somehow found herself working in information technology. But she never stopped writing.

Stephanie is the Simon & Schuster author of 30 Days of No Gossip and 25 Roses, as well as the upcoming Piper Morgan series. When she isn’t crafting fiction, she writes for a variety of online websites on the topics of business, technology, and her favorite subject of all—fashion. She lives in Nashville with her husband, a sales executive. 

For more on Stephanie and her writing, visit her website and blog. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

As part of the tour-wide Cover Reveal Blast, Stephanie is giving away an advanced reviewer copy of PIPER MORGAN JOINS THE CIRCUS. The giveaway is open through Sunday, Feb. 28^th.

To enter the giveaway, just click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the instructions. The widget may take a few seconds to load so please be patient.

Thanks so much for stopping by today during Stephanie’s visit. Do you leave reviews on Amazon and other sites when you read a book, especially if it’s one you really love? Do you judge a book just by its reviews? Doesn't the cover above just make you smile?

a Rafflecopter giveaway