Ratings Rewind
One of the biggest pieces of advice for new authors: find authors publishing books like yours, then study their journey and recreate it. But what does that journey actually say?
- Do you need four or five books out before anything takes off?
- If you write in a tight niche, can your first book take off on its own?
- Is it one big moment, or years of steady readers first?
Goodreads can't tell you. It only shows today's number. Ratings Rewind is a free tool that turns back the clock on any author, using saved copies of their Goodreads pages. The Internet Archive's free Wayback Machine has kept dated copies of many Goodreads pages for years, so you can often see what the count was on a given day.
Watch it on Rachel Reid first. Then try it yourself, step by step.
Rewind Rachel Reid
A note: Her story might seem obvious, since so many people know about the show. That's why she's the example: you can watch the rewind find what you already know, then run it on an author whose story you don't.
A note: why Rachel Reid?
Her story might seem obvious, since so many people know about the show. That's why she's the example: you can watch the rewind find what you already know, then run it on an author whose story you don't.
This is what Goodreads shows today: three of her books, one number each.
This is what Goodreads shows today: three of her books, one number each.
Is this her path? Draw a line from each launch to today and it looks like steady growth. Maybe. But it's a guess.
So rewind, with saved copies of each page. Her first book, Game Changer (2018).
Her newest, The Shots You Take (2025).
Her most rated, Heated Rivalry (2019). Flat for years, then straight up.
The big jump is the show. The Heated Rivalry TV series premieres in November 2025, then wins at the Canadian Screen Awards.
But what happened in the years before? Next to the show, they look flat.
Zoom in on those years, before the show was ordered. Game Changer came out in October 2018 and gained 3 to 6 ratings a day.
Five months later, Heated Rivalry. From the start it gained about twice as many a day as book 1.
Did book 1 change when it came out? I can't tell: I found no saved copies before 2020. Dashed lines are where no copy survives.
Then The Long Game, the sequel about the same couple, in April 2022. Both books sped up by a similar share, but Heated Rivalry gained more than twice as many extra ratings a day.
Compares the year before the sequel with 2023 to 2025. The step shows up 6 to 9 months after the sequel, so it's the likeliest cause, not a proven one. Something like BookTok in that period could be part of it.
The biggest change before the show: early 2023, when Heated Rivalry's pace jumped by half and held for two years.
Zoom back out. Two upticks: early 2023, after the sequel, and the show. The first looks small here, but it lifted Heated Rivalry's pace by about three-quarters for two years, long before anyone ordered a show.
And The Shots You Take, a standalone, rose far less, even with the show: about 4 times its pace before it, against more than 80 times for the series. The success may be series specific.
- Game Changer259,119
- The Shots You Take32,301
- Heated Rivalry469,309
Ratings a day before The Long Game
- Game Changer3 to 6 ratings a day
- Heated Rivalry7 to 11 ratings a day
After it, 2023 to 2025
- Game Changer9 a day, +65%
- Heated Rivalry20 a day, +74%
Questions a rewind can help answer
- Is the success series specific?
Leans toward yes: with the show, both Game Changers books I measured gained ratings more than 80 times as fast as before it. The Shots You Take, one of her two standalones, rose too, but only about 4 times. - Did a sequel bring readers back to an earlier book?
Leans toward yes: both books sped up after The Long Game, though the step shows up 6 to 9 months later. - Which book gained readers faster?
Heated Rivalry, from its first saved copy. - Did one book lead?
Yes: Heated Rivalry led, and book 1 followed at about half its pace. - How long were the steady years?
About six years at 7 to 24 ratings a day, until the show was ordered in June 2025. - What came first: the jump, or the deal?
Leans toward the sequel first: the 2023 step came about a year before Crave started developing the show (March 2024, per Playback) and more than two years before it was ordered.
This is one part of the picture
Rachel's rewind shows steady growth, and why Heated Rivalry outran Game Changer. It doesn't show why readers found Heated Rivalry in the first place. That needs outside context: BookTok, wider trends, what readers were talking about.
Goodreads ratings aren't sales, and a lot happens that a ratings page can't show: BookTok campaigns, publisher promotions, price drops, Kindle Unlimited, newsletters and ads. A rewind shows when things changed. On its own, it can't tell you why.
Your turn
Rewind an author you're watching
Right here
Do it hands-on, step by step
Six questions, one at a time, on this site. Your answers stay in your browser.
Watch Abby's example firstThen start your own