IJustFinished's Book Reviewers Made My Day!

For those of you that follow this blog, you already know that this blog/website(Ijustfinished.com) and start-up are all the pursuit of my dream. For those of you just landing on this page, or just finding Ijustfinished.com for the first time you may see a nicely polished book website. Regardless,in reality there are a lot of blood, sweat, and tears behind the site. Last night was I had a "Thankful Gratitude" which was again rekindled this morning.
Here's what happened...
Last night, (Sat) I had a lot of business to do in Austin. I still consider Austin home, and all my friends are there as well, and a couple of Ijustfinished.com's team members. We (SilverBack and I) were with Luvyaduvya, and out of the blue one of our oldest friend calls and invites everyone over to have dinner, and hang out. After debating the luxury of a social life, since we are at least three weeks behind with work for Ijustfinished.com, we decided to stay for a while and you know, socialize.

Although we had a great time, I felt very guilty that during this 'free time' I should have been working, and the site was being neglected. We drove home (about 2 hours) and just got settled to bed, and my phone chimes (hey Renee, you have new email), so I check my email on my phone. Yes, I do know that I have issues, thank you very much. There in my in box on Sat night, two new reviews submitted for the website. I was so excited that people think enough of Ijustfinished.com to go there and write and post a review, even on Sat night. I went to bed thinking, "the site is going to make it after all, the people we have are just amazing".

So then this morning, I began to manage the reviews that have accumulated over the last 24 hours, and here is the really cool thing. We also had a new reviewer register yesterday, and she (Alexis88) submitted a review. Her review was in response to another review posted on the site previously, giving "All Ye Zombies" a 1 rating, and the newest reviewer loved the book. So she was compelled to write a dissenting review of the first review. HOW COOL IS THAT!! That is the conversation of books! That is the whole point of the site, for people to talk about what they like and hate and how books affect them. That is the reason why the site was founded in the first place, and today I feel like a very proud parent.

I cannot begin to thank all of the reviewers enough. Since Aug 1st, 2008 when the redesign, and the ability to upload reviews went live, the amount of reviews, and quality reviews posted is amazing. Reviews are posted everyday, and we are nearing 100 reviews posted. There are sites with years behind them, whose numbers we are gaining. I cannot thank you all enough!

We are continuing to schedule authors to interview on 'Coffee with an Author' and working to bring authors and readers together for the conversation of books. The reviewers are amazing, and I spend a large amount of my time working to get more books from publishers, which I can in turn send out to this amazing, ever growing community of book reviewers. I am honored to so for you all, and am humbled by the passion and intelligence demonstrated on Ijustfinished.com everyday.

Thank you so very much!
Renee

(Forgot to mention the last trip to Barnes & Nobles 18 books that we have reviews posted were being featured, 5 on the first table when you walk in!)