Why a Children’s Book App Got More Ratings in 8 Months Than Its Paperback Ever Has
In January, Doreen’s Conversation Kriolu App had 6 ratings on the App Store. Today it has 76.
We didn’t run a campaign for this. We didn’t email anyone asking for reviews, and we didn’t ask friends and family either. It came from one small update we released in February. Then it worked quietly in the background while we were busy with everything else.
This post is about that update, what it changed, and why it’s something a print book simply can’t do.
Background
Doreen is a self-published children’s book author. Her book, Conversational Cape Verdean Kriolu for Everyone, teaches the language of Cape Verde. We turned one chapter into a free app with an email signup inside it, which brought in over 300 subscribers in less than a month. Then we launched the full paid version, which has netted over $2,000 so far.
Since then, we’ve built a landing page, run Facebook ads to reach people who’d never heard of Doreen, and used push notifications during Cape Verde’s World Cup run. But before any of that, back in February, we released a much smaller update. At the time, I didn’t think it was worth writing about. I was wrong.
The review problem every author knows
If you’ve published a book, you know this feeling. You launch, people buy, some of them tell you they loved it, and your listing still shows a handful of reviews.
So you start asking. You message friends. You add a “please leave a review” page at the back of the book. You email your list. Maybe a few more trickle in.
Here’s what I’ve come to believe: that silence doesn’t mean people didn’t enjoy your book. It means leaving a review takes effort, and it happens after the moment has passed. Someone finishes your book on the sofa, feels good about it and puts it down. The listing is on a different device, on a website, a few clicks away. The feeling fades before they get there.
Doreen’s app had the same problem. From launch in June 2025 until January this year, it collected 6 ratings on iOS. People clearly valued it. They were subscribing, and later paying. They just weren’t rating it.
The update: asking at the right moment
Both Apple and Google let an app show a small built-in pop-up that asks, “Enjoying this app?” You tap the stars and you’re done. No leaving the app, no typing, no searching for the listing.
What matters is when it appears. In Doreen’s app, it shows up right after a learner finishes a lesson or game, when they’ve just had a good experience and the feeling is still fresh.
Two things are worth knowing, because this isn’t a trick:
- Apple decides how often the prompt appears. It’s limited to a few times a year per person, so you can’t pester anyone with it.
- You’re not allowed to offer rewards for ratings. No “rate us five stars and unlock a bonus level.” The rating has to be honest.
All it does is ask the right person at the right moment, in the easiest way possible.
The results
Six ratings in January. 76 today. That’s 70 new ratings in about eight months, from people using the app in the normal way.
The breakdown: 65 five-star, 6 four-star, 2 three-star and 3 one-star, about 4.7 overall. I’m glad the lower ratings are there. They show these are real people giving honest feedback.
We only added the prompt to the iOS version, where Doreen has more downloads and paying customers. Her Android app has 7 ratings. I’m not comparing the two platforms head to head, but those 7 tell you something. Without a prompt, the only people who leave feedback are the very motivated ones, who’ll go looking for the listing and write a paragraph. The prompt reaches everyone else. On iOS, that’s the difference between 5 written reviews and 76 ratings. Most people will tap a star. Very few will write an essay.
Why ratings matter more than they look
- Visibility. Apple and Google don’t publish exactly how they rank apps, but ratings are one of the signals they use. An app that people are actively rating, and rating well, gives the store a reason to show it to more people.
- First impressions. When a parent searches the App Store, every app in the results shows its star rating and how many ratings it has. Before they’ve read a description or seen a screenshot, they’ve already seen what other people think.
- Trust. One app has 6 ratings. Another has 76 at almost five stars. Which one would you tap?
- Feedback. The lower ratings and written reviews tell us what to improve next, and because it’s an app, we can act on that in the next update.
- Everything else works better. The landing page and ads brought new people in. The World Cup push notifications brought people back. Every one of those new iOS users had a chance to meet the prompt at the right moment. None of these changes works as well on its own. Together, they build on each other.
Why a print book could never do this
Doreen’s paperback has been on Amazon since March 2023. In that time, it’s collected 29 ratings. Since February, the app has collected 70.
To be clear, this isn’t me saying the app is a better product than the book. The two haven’t been bought by the same number of people, and Amazon lets readers leave a quick star rating too. The difference is when someone gets asked.
A paperback can’t ask for a rating. At best, you print a line on the last page and hope someone remembers it, finds the listing and takes the time. It also can’t be improved after it’s printed. If you realise six months later that you should have asked for reviews differently, you can’t change the copies already on people’s shelves.
Doreen’s app is different. We noticed a gap, released a small update, and the app started asking its happiest users for feedback at the right moment. Everyone who downloaded or updated the app afterwards got the improved version automatically.
When you repurpose your book into an app, you’re not just changing the format. You’re turning something finished into something you can keep improving, one small update at a time.
If you’ve published a children’s book
If your book has a handful of reviews and you’ve wondered why people who say they love it never leave one, it might not be about the book. It might be about the timing.
