Like a lot of people, I make goals for myself every January. Personal goals and writing related ones. Some of these writing goals are within my control, such as, I will write XX pages a day or update my webpage every XX months. Other goals are more what I call aspirations and mostly beyond my control. I will be a New York Times bestselling author or one of my books will be turned into a movie (I especially like this one).

A few years ago I was researching an author who was speaking at my writers' group. I noticed on Amazon that one of her books I'd read had over 350 reviews. 350! Seriously. I've only ever had a handful of reviews for my books on Amazon, maybe 6 or 12 at the most. I thought to myself that, even though all her reviews weren't good, to have hundreds of reviews on Amazon was a sign of success, and I immediately established that as one of my aspirations.

Well, in mid 2012, Harlequin offered one of my backlist books for free Kindle and Nook download. Very cool! Over the months, I've been racking up the reviews. As of today, I have 148. Not quite 350, but I'm getting there. Almost all the reviews are good. Like the author I researched, I do have a couple zingers. Such is the life of an author :)

I'm still thrilled that 148 people were moved enough by my story to take the time and post a review. I'm feeling a little bit successful.

Cathy McDavid

P.S. - if you're interested, the book COWBOY DAD is still available for free. Here's a link to the Amazon. Go check out the reviews for COWBOY DAD.