When I worked for Analog and Asimov’s, we had a perennial question: Analog routinely outsold Asimov’s by five or ten percent, but when it came to awards time, stories from Asimov’s always got lots of nominations and awards, while Analog garnered almost none. We knew Analog readers actually read the stories, because they wrote letters and kept renewing their subscriptions; they simply weren’t people who were interested in nominating or voting for awards. And I felt badly for the writers who didn’t see that external recognition, but there was nothing we could do to convince those readers to get into the award-nominating and -voting mindset.

Now I’m experiencing something similar, but not talking about awards. I know Fantastic Books books are selling and being read. For instance, the anthology Resistance was the #1 new release in American Literature Anthologies on Amazon, it is selling copies, and several readers have commented to me on individual stories in the book. But like most of the books my company publishes, it was yet to see a single reader review on either Amazon or GoodReads, or LibraryThing, or anywhere else I can find.

In the modern bookselling world, reader reviews are important. They make books more findable, increase their visibility on the bookselling platforms, and apparently translate to better sales numbers. But I have simply not been able to figure out why my readers are among those who don’t post reader reviews. In the old days, at Analog and Asimov’s, those readers who wanted to comment on stories had to write physical letters, in envelopes with stamps sent through the mail, and they did: we received dozens of letters every week. But today, those reader reviews are as simple as “click here, click a number of stars, type a couple of words.” Literally, just four or five words is sufficient: “I liked the book.” or “The story with the AI was cool.” And yet, nothing.

So I’m asking y’all: how do you urge readers to write those reviews? Or for those of you who do: what urges you to write a review?