The age-old consternation over Amazon ratings hits home with the release of my first novel.

Like a number of book bloggers, I juggle between my author hat and my reviewer hat. Having done both now, I can see how fraught and loaded the issue of Amazon ratings can be. As an author, I’m deeply aware how consequential those little yellow ★ are to self-esteem and financial rewards. I definitely want to support deserving authors on Amazon, but I need to have a system in place if I want to still keep up my reviews as a book blogger.

Here’s the TLDR: I am only leaving 5-star ratings for books that I liked on Amazon, even if my blog gives out fewer stars for the same book.