Lede
A modern hermit wants silence, then spends the afternoon feeding platforms that reward noise.
Hermit Off Script
This caricature is painfully accurate: a hooded silhouette at the laptop, one speech bubble shouting “More keywords!” while the other mutters “Must learn Korean!” like enlightenment is hiding behind a plugin update. On the desk sits the author survival kit: the book, the brand, the dashboard, the newsletter, the review links, and the quiet shame of another renamed image file. The sign says “The Modern Hermit”, but the posture says “one-person publishing desk with a spiritual pulse”. And that’s the joke, isn’t it? I write about divine love, surrender, and the intelligence of the heart, then crawl back into the marketplace to bargain with platforms that do not know love from loading speed. I want depth, but I also want discoverability. I want mystery, but I also want metadata. I want readers to slow down, while the web keeps asking me to make everything readable in seconds. Now the joke has grown legs: the book is listed across retailers, has a Readers’ Favorite 2025 Gold Medal, and Goodreads is counting thousands of ratings as if the soul has finally agreed to become a scoreboard. I should be grateful, and I am. But the machinery around the work still turns meaning into fields, buttons and tiny boxes. The caricature does not mock my face. It mocks the era: a human trying to sell silence through forms. I am not a hermit. I am a monk with Wi-Fi, and the router keeps the calendar.
P.S. So I pray, then I tag. I write about surrender, then I rename an image file. The feed wants speed; the soul wants silence.
What does not make sense
- Calling it solitude while running multiple public storefronts like a one-person high street.
- Writing about surrender while refreshing analytics as if devotion is a dashboard.
- Asking readers to go deeper, then begging platforms to rank the work higher.
- Building “simple” review culture while living inside a constant optimisation loop.
- Treating love like an infinite thing, then packaging it into boxes that demand specs.
Sense check / The numbers
- Retail and bibliographic listings put Just Love Her in 2024 under Mystic Publishing with ISBN 9781068630002; AbeBooks, Angus & Robertson and Adlibris list the paperback at 248 pages. [AbeBooks / Angus & Robertson / Adlibris].
- Waterstones lists “Just Love Her” as a paperback with 248 pages, published 09/07/2024, priced at GBP 10.99 – which is a lot of soul for something the internet will still judge in 3 seconds. [Waterstones].
- Goodreads currently surfaces the book at 4.30 average rating, with current snippets showing between 5,695 and 5,699 ratings, and 38 reviews. [Goodreads]
- BookAwards.com lists Just Love Her as a 2025 Gold Medal title in Non-Fiction – Religion/Philosophy, linked to the Readers’ Favorite review page. [BookAwards.com].
- Readers’ Favorite lists the review page under Non-Fiction – Religion/Philosophy, Kindle Edition, reviewed on 16 October 2024, with multiple reviewer entries on the page. [Readers’ Favorite].
- Simple Book Reviews brands itself around speed: “one-minute takes” and helping readers choose in under 60 seconds – which is basically the opposite of a 248-page meditation. [SimpleBookReviews.com].
- TheModernHermit.blog describes itself as “dry British satire with receipts” and “new posts weekly”, which means the hermit has less a cave and more a publishing calendar with shoes on. [TheModernHermit.blog].
The sketch
Scene 1: The Prayer and the Keyword
Panel: A hermit in a hoodie meditates. A laptop glows like an altar, flashing “SEO required”.
Dialogue:
Hermit: “I seek silence.”
Algorithm: “Add 5 more keywords.”
Scene 2: The 248-Page Speedrun
Panel: A reader holds a thick paperback. A timer hovers above it, screaming “60 seconds”.
Dialogue:
Reader: “This feels… meaningful.”
Timer: “Decide. Now.”
Scene 3: The Award and the Gatekeeper
Panel: A gold medal hangs in the air. A platform bouncer blocks the door with a clipboard titled “Metadata”.
Dialogue:
Hermit: “It won. Let it be seen.”
Bouncer: “ISBN first. Then we talk.”
What to watch, not the show
- Platform incentives that reward speed, not depth.
- Search and recommendation systems that turn art into input fields.
- Retail gatekeeping: visibility rented out in tiny slices.
- The addiction to measurement: ratings, counts, rankings, cadence.
- The quiet fear that meaning is not enough unless it performs.
The Hermit take
The work has a spine. The systems around it keep asking for circus tricks.
Write the truth, then automate the noise before it eats the day.
Keep or toss
Keep
Keep the spiritual core, the satire and the uncomfortable honesty.
Toss the reflex to turn every good thought into another optimisation chore.
Sources
- Mystic Publishing listing (pages, date, price): https://mysticpublishing.co.uk/
- Raz Mihal post with author stats and embedded ratings: https://razmihal.com/just-love-her-readers-favorite-gold-2025/
- Simple Book Reviews positioning (under 60 seconds): https://simplebookreviews.com/reviews/
- TheModernHermit.blog homepage claim (weekly posts): https://themodernhermit.blog/
- BookAwards.com 2025 Gold Medal listing for Just Love Her: https://bookawards.com/book-award/just-love-her
Further links
Buy links
- Waterstones (paperback): https://www.waterstones.com/book/just-love-her/raz-mihal/9781068630002
- Amazon UK (paperback edition page): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Love-Her-inspirational-journey/dp/1068630000
- Amazon UK (Kindle edition page): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Love-Her-inspirational-journey-ebook/dp/B0D9FPWPQ2
- Apple Books (UK): https://books.apple.com/gb/book/just-love-her/id6526484342
- Kobo (ebook): https://www.kobo.com/my/en/ebook/just-love-her-1
- Barnes and Noble (ebook): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/just-love-her-raz-mihal/1145977634
- Better World Books (paperback): https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/just-love-her-a-poetic-and-inspirational-journey-into-love-s-divine-essence-9781068630002
- AbeBooks (paperback marketplace): https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9781068630002/Love-poetic-inspirational-journey-loves-1068630000/plp
- Indigo (paperback): https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/just-love-her-a-poetic-and-inspirational-journey-into-loves-divine-essence/9781068630002.html
- Strand Books (paperback): https://www.strandbooks.com/just-love-her-a-poetic-and-inspirational-journey-into-love-s-divine-essence-9781068630002.html
- Angus & Robertson paperback listing with ISBN, publication date, publisher and 248 pages: https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/books/just-love-her-raz-mihal/p/9781068630002
- Adlibris paperback listing with ISBN, publication date, publisher and 248 pages: https://www.adlibris.com/se/bok/just-love-her-9781068630002
Review links
- Goodreads (book page with ratings and reviews): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216474926-just-love-her
- Kirkus Reviews (trade review page): https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/raz-mihal/just-love-her/
- Literary Titan (review): https://literarytitan.com/2024/08/30/just-love-her/
- StoryGraph (reviews page): https://app.thestorygraph.com/book_reviews/b193da40-7b66-45fb-a1d1-58adda30c773?page=2
- Readers’ Favorite review page with category, edition and review date: https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/just-love-her
Official pages
- Main book page: https://razmihal.com/books/just-love-her/
- Mystic Publishing page: https://mysticpublishing.co.uk/
