As I’ve mentioned before, I like to look at my readership stats. I know a lot of people like to look at their sales stats, but I’m not really in this for the money; I’m in it to make people feel feelings and enjoy the things I’ve written. (Sure, money would be great, but I’m a realist.) As a data visualizer, the worst part of the month for me is always the beginning, when my readership numbers are low.

This month, after some pretty good numbers in June, was somewhat disheartening. For the first four days of July, only 39 pages were read by Kindle Unlimited users. Now, I know that doesn’t necessarily mean people who bought my books weren’t reading them, and I did sell a bunch of paperbacks at TASSP, but the only readership stats I can actually see are the ones from Kindle Unlimited users.

Thirty-nine pages. One book. Four days. Blargh.

Then I woke up on July 5, checked my stats, and… 40 pages.

Which is worse, I wonder? That only 39 pages were read over four days, or that someone on the 4th only read one page and then put the book down? Either way, I felt pretty blah at the time.

Especially since I still haven’t had anyone review any of my work since February. I know people are reading my books; please don’t make me put a “begging for reviews” page in them. Those always seem a bit tacky. I feel okay asking on my blog because that’s what blogs are for — to talk directly to readers — but I don’t want to do it in the books themselves. And, I mean, as far as ebooks go, Amazon makes it amazingly easy to rate and review books. I at the very least rate every book I read, even if I don’t review them all. Every review and 4+ rating helps me get higher in Amazon’s mysterious algorithm, which then gives me a shot at my books showing up in a “readers also enjoyed” section.

So, y’know… a little help, please?