50 Reviews

Republic finally hit 50 reviews on Amazon.com just the other day.  I’m not sure why this feels like a milestone to me, but oddly enough it does.  The book’s been out for three years, and seems to be selling better now than it ever has before.  This is a good thing. And while not everyone who read it loved Republic, or even liked it, enough of them did that the vast majority of the customer reviews posted are 4 and 5 stars.  Sprinkled with a couple of 2-star reviews laced with comments like “Is the author an idiot?”

I think part of it is simply this: when I published Republic, I essentially said, “Screw the mainstream publishing industry” and went out on my own. Large New York publishers have long been considered the gatekeepers of literature, filtering out the crap so that readers don’t have to. Self-publishing … especially now that the barriers to entry are so low … removes that filter.  And there is a lot of crap out there, no question.  What the last year has done, for me, has vindicated that choice.  Earning a real income from my writing (occasionally even enough to cover the groceries or rent), knowing that the book has now reached upwards of ten thousand readers (many more if you consider the free copies I gave away), and seeing a significant number of happy readers posting their feedback and reviews on Amazon has given me the ability to clearly see a vision when I’ll have many more titles out there.

Anyways, enough of all that. I’m off work today, and have lots of writing to do.

P.S. If you’ve read it, and haven’t posted a review, what are you waiting for?  If you haven’t read it, you can pick up a copy here.