Paul emailed me with a suggestion. He thought we should make an audiobook of Absolutely Free by Zane Hodges. I like the idea, and we are considering doing that book, as well as books by Ken, Shawn, and me, read by ourselves. More about that in a future blog.
I looked at one audiobook by Lucas Kitchen. While there, I noticed that his book Eternal Life has 21 ratings and only six reviews. That means that 21 people took the time to rate his book on a scale of 1 to 5. And six people took the time to add a review. These reviews are very short, from one word (“Amazing”) to a few sentences.
What about GES books? Here is what I found:
| Name of Author | Name of Book | # of Ratings | # of Reviews |
| Hodges | Absolutely Free | 84 | 50 |
| Hodges | Gospel Under Siege | 10 | 1 |
| Hodges | The Hungry Inherit | 8 | 3 |
| Wilkin | Confident in Christ | 12 | 5 |
| Wilkin | Is Calvinism Biblical? | 57 | 21 |
| Wilkin | Secure and Sure | 12 | 5 |
| Lazar | Beyond Doubt | 18 | 7 |
| Lazar | Chosen to Serve | 47 | 22 |
| Yates | Hebrews | 12 | 5 |
Notice that the only books with 40 or more ratings and 20 or more reviews are three books responding to Calvinism. Not one of our books has 100 ratings, and only one has more than 22 reviews.
Most of our books have less than five reviews.
I think every one of those books could easily have 100+ ratings and 50+ reviews.
What difference does it make?
When people come across our books, they look at the ratings to see what readers thought. Then they read the reviews. The ratings and reviews often make the difference between a person buying a book or not.
What you write in a review not only may result in a person buying a book, but it could be instrumental in someone coming to faith in Christ. Our reviews express what we believe.
When you write a review, you are giving people a short testimony to the grace of God.
I realized that I have not reviewed all these books. Of course, it is not appropriate for me to review my own books. But I’ve shied away from reviewing Zane Hodges, Ken Yates, and Shawn Lazar because we publish these books. But that is a poor reason. So, I went ahead, and reviewed Ken and Zane’s books. (For some reason, I was not allowed to review Shawn’s books.) I also reviewed Lucas’s book Eternal Life.
Have you read any of our books? If so, why not go to amazon.com and rate and review them? It takes less than five minutes. Here is how you do it.
Go to amazon.com. In the white box at the top, which is preset to “All,” click the down arrow next to All and select “Books.” Type in the author’s last name and the first few words of the book title. That will bring you to that book, as well as others below it. Click on the book. Then click on reviews. Scroll down the left side below the bars that show what percentage of five-star, four-star, three-star, two-star, and one-star reviews there are. Just below that click on “Write a customer review.”
Then you select your star rating; you give your review a short title, and then you write a short review. Finally, you submit your review. It will go up on Amazon in a few days. You and your family and friends will be able to see your review. But, more importantly, people who are wondering whether to buy this book will be influenced by your review.
I highly recommend you take the time to review the books you have read. It is an important ministry.
