Coming Soon – Page 8 – Lit World Interviews

February Farmer’s Market by @MLaSarre

I’d like to start this, my inaugural blog post for Lit World Interviews, by expressing my gratitude for my friend Ronovan and his invitation to share a wee bit of my perspective on reading and writing as part of his beautiful, Indy author-supporting website and blog. Ronovan does a fantastic job of keeping things lively and focused on a cause near and dear to our hearts: applauding and supporting Indy authors and making sure that we do all that we can to connect readers with great books and new authors. I’m so pleased to be a part of this mission.

As a new children’s author I find myself asking the kids I meet in my life a simple question at every opportunity (I call it market research, for free!). To the friends that sleep over with my kids, to those I meet at the elementary school during my volunteer hours as a reading helper, to the kids I’m shoulder-to-shoulder with on the floor of the kids’ book section at the local library, I ask: What’s your favorite book? I started noticing a pattern in their responses and an idea for this series of blog posts was born.

You see, as an Indy author, we all know how hard it is to compete with the steady stream of titles churned out daily by big publishing houses. As a children’s Indy author, I find it uniquely challenging to market my children’s books because social media – an Indy author’s best friend – is geared towards adults and keeps children just out of my reach. Kids read what they see in stores, on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and Costco, or the books they see in the Scholastic catalogs sent home from school, the books with intriguing cover art that catch their attention and prompt them to beg their adult to buy these books for them. And if you’ve ever tried, as I have, to get a teensy bit of shelf space at Barnes and Noble or Costco or get in Scholastic’s catalog, you know how hard that is. So, it’s no surprise to me anymore when the kids in my world tell me their favorite books are Diary of a Wimpy Kid, any number of Rick Riordan’s books, or the Warriors series. These are the books in front of them, so these are the books they read.

I am thrilled for the authors of successful kids books, I truly am. I’m a fan of Rick Riordan, he is brilliant. My only problem with the fact that kids only read what they see is that I believe kids are missing out on the breadth of creativity that is afforded to them in the world of Indy children’s books. Let me put this into grown up terms for you to illustrate.

Are you a foodie, like me? Sure, we buy our food staples at the local grocery store, but what we really love is the farmers markets. Only in a farmers market can we find the small batch goat cheese from a local farm, local and raw honey carefully crafted by the beekeeper up the highway, the jams that were lovingly jarred from sun-kissed strawberries in the tiny garden of a widower with a big heart. You don’t find those things in the local chain grocery store, but you love those wonderful products just the same. In fact, your palette would be woefully underwhelmed if you didn’t have those artisan-crafted treats to keep things fun and new and exciting.

Books are the same way, I think. Kids don’t know what they’re missing when they read books they see in the big stores. They don’t know that they’re missing out on the small-batch, carefully crafted words of an author who hasn’t made a big name for herself and probably never will. It’s up to the grownups in the world to bring their kids to the farmers market and show them what they’re missing. So, it is my heartfelt passion to be part of the group of grownups that highlights the books kids are missing out on. Your job as grownups is to help unite kids with the wonderful books of no-name authors who don’t have big house publishing contracts.

Starting with this post, I invite you to take a stroll down the lanes of this kids-book-loving farmers market I’ve prepared for you. The authors I highlight here have not compensated me in any way for mentioning their books and I bought their books myself.

This month, I’ve read three books by Indy authors that I think kids will love (I’m a kid at heart, and I loved these books!).

For Dr. Seuss Fans: Go Baby, Go! (Author and Illustrator: Beth Davis)

From a talented author and illustrator comes this super-fun book, perfect for new readers or parents/guardians/teachers reading aloud to young children, ages 4-6. The author’s illustrations are as colorful as the rhyming tale of a baby carriage on the loose. I laughed out loud in many spots and was completely entertained by the witty encounters the runaway baby has with the police, artists, old men and even a band, to name a few. Very clever, very fun, I completely enjoyed this book.

Amazon Link: Go Baby, Go!

For Laura Ingalls Wilder and Anne of Green Gables Fans: Through the Fields to School, My Life in Montana (Author: Maxine Albro Pogreba)

A heart-warming and poignant story of a woman growing up on a large Montana ranch, this book was every bit as comforting as sitting down with my grandma and hearing stories of the “old days.” Through short vignettes, the author tells the story of running through the fields to school, her large family of nine kids, and some of the stories she recalls from childhood. I particularly loved that this isn’t a long book and it’s written in a simple style that an elementary school-age child would appreciate. This would be a read aloud friendly book for bedtime or classroom story time, maybe as part of a history curriculum. I love giving kids the opportunity to see the truth of what simpler times were like – it’s great for their imaginations to recall that, not too long ago, families didn’t have so many of the luxuries we have to today. This is a priceless perspective that goes a long way towards instilling an appreciation for today’s modern conveniences. This is a well-written, delightful read.

Amazon Link: Through the Fields to School

Harry Potter Meets Game of Thrones: Son of a Dark Wizard – The Dark Wizard Chronicles Book 1 (Author: Sean Patrick Hannifin)

This newly published first book in a promising new series caught my eye because of its stellar cover. It intrigued me and I simply couldn’t resist reading the first page…which led to finishing this book in one sitting. Prince Sorren is the son of a dark wizard who has recently been killed by a boy believed to be the Chosen One of prophecy. Intent on avenging his father’s death and retaining his right to the throne, he sets out in search of the Chosen One and prepares for an epic battle. With an array of interesting characters, this book was remarkably well-written, well-rounded, and a page turner. So many times I have seen fantasy books become completely distracted by intricate back story and overly-detailed descriptions of setting, but not this book. For readers aged 9-13, this will be a riveting adventure that leaves them rooting for an unlikely hero. I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.

Amazon Link: Son of a Dark Wizard

I’m so pleased that I found these wonderful new Indy children’s books to share with you, especially because I enjoyed reading them immensely! I look forward to updating you again soon with more books your kids are missing out on! Until then, remember, take your kids to the farmer’s market from time-to-time so they too can experience bounty by reading non-mainstream, excellent children’s literature.

About the author: Monica LaSarre is a ghostwriter and the author of Jasper Penzey: International Boy Detective, an 8-book mystery/detective chapter book series for 8-12 year olds. Read more about her on her website, http://www.monicalasarre.com. She can be reached via email at mlasarre@gmail.com. @MLaSarre

Amazon Link: Jasper Penzey International Boy Detective: The Ruby Brooch of Atlantis

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Time Management for Writers

Writers must always have time to write, and we need to be careful of getting too involved in selling our wares rather than creating our wares. Marketing is vital, but….. We all know by now the importance of social media as far as marketing our books is concerned. It’s important to have a platform, with a few favourite sites where we interact with others. If you still have small followings, you might be complaining about too few likes, comments, or retweets, but I also see many overly stressed writers out there whose followings have grown, trying to move at light speed just to keep up with everything. I promise you though, you will reach a point where you can’t keep up without pruning a little.

How many blog posts do you read every day? Times that you take to read an article vary. I’ve timed a couple, and for me they take between a minute to up to ten or more minutes to read. Let’s even things out and say an average of three minutes per post you read. Ten posts is thirty minutes, twenty posts is an hour. If you’re reading a hundred posts a day, that amounts to four and a half hours – two hundred means that around NINE HOURS of your day has been spent reading blog posts. I won’t break down time spent on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and so on. I’m sure you get the picture because it’s more of the same sort of thing. Responding to interactions on all of your sites takes the same average time per interaction, apart from Twitter which though quite zoomy, makes up for time spent in quantity of posts.

I personally adore blogging and the interaction there. I’ve made some firm friends thanks to good old Worpress, and I’m sure that even if I never write another book (ha haaa), I doubt that I could ever give up my blogging addiction. I learn things, laugh and cry about things there – it’s a fabulous universe. I think that we need to be a little careful of getting ourselves all tied up in knots when we break the “rules” that we see. It generally takes me at least a couple of days to catch up with comments or mentions on all my sites, but it’s something I always make sure I get to as quickly as I can. This unfortunately doesn’t mean that I can quickly catch up. Sometimes I’ve missed a comment, only to find it months later, to my cringing shame. I would never purposely ignore any comment, but as my online journey grows, it happens. And I never mind when a blogger takes a good long while to answer anything I’ve said on their blogs. I understand. Most bloggers do, so there’s no need for panic. We’re all living lives, some busier than others. Some writers are not only trying to write, edit, and do all the other things that need to be done in this new scribbling world, but are also dealing with problems, ill health, financial difficulties, or worse.

It’s important not to allow ourselves to get overwhelmed. I say this from experience, because it’s my character never to ignore anyone, and when I find that I accidentally have, it really upsets me. I often really do spend more than nine hours in front of my computer just catching up. The truth of the matter though, is that no matter how much we want to do every little thing that we think we should, it will get to a point where there just aren’t enough hours in our days.

It’s important for writers to manage their working hours. Right now I have a fairly loaded catch up pile to get stuck into (alright – I always have a loaded catch up pile), but I’ll never break my minimum one hour of writing per day rule. We should be making schedules for ourselves at some point. Daily time for writing, marketing, and the just for fun stuff should be determined, and unless there’s no choice, stuck to. There’s not much point if you’re spending all your time managing your platform if you don’t have the time or energy left to write books.

So I suggest to all you busy, busy scribblers out there, grab a notebook and pencil, and create yourself a timetable, with writing as your top priority every day, and then try and stick with it for at least a week. Don’t spend any more hours other than those you’ve allocated for social media. Do allocate yourself an hour at least a day free time – guilt free too – just because you’re a writer doesn’t mean that you’re invincible or a time growing master. Take a stroll – sit under a tree. Go a little easier on yourself. I promise you that nobody is sitting seething at the time it takes you to get to something – well, maybe there are a couple seething – but they really shouldn’t be. And if they are, well, that’s really not the end of the world. Doing the best that you can is all you can do – and it really is important to do your best, just don’t knobble yourself in the process.

The Owl Interview with the Owl Lady herself @VivDrewa

RW: We’ll get all of my personal questions out of the way first today and then settle into your books. Where are you from?

VIV: I grew up in Detroit and moved to Fort Gratiot, Michigan.

(On the shore of Lake Huron. A little northeast of Detroit.~Look it up Ronovan.)

RW: Who are your favorite authors?

VIV: Stephen King, Dean Koonts, Michael Weems, John Sandford to name a few.

RW: What is your favorite beverage to drink, any kind?

VIV: I love tea, hot or cold.

RW: What is your escape from writing when you are at that about to explode point?

VIV: Sewing. I love to sew and have for many years. Seeing something I can put together helps me relax and then I can get back to writing.

RW: What is your favorite word?

VIV: It’s outdated but I still use it: Cool!

RW: What is your background in writing, what makes you a writer?

VIV: My mom and grandmother always told us stories that they made up themselves. They were fascinating and one day I’m going to put them together in a book.

When I got older I was taken to the library and marveled at the many books I saw. Back then they had a section where they read to the younger children and I was taken there until I learned to read. That’s what started it all for me.

When I was 9 I wrote a poem and won third place for it. Then when I was 14 I wrote a short story and won second place. I knew at that point I wanted to be a writer

RW: What is the title of your book and why did you choose that name?

VIV:I have three books published and have one WIP.

The Owl of the Sipan Lord – When I started doing research for this one the time period chose me. I had a list of tribes in Peru and for some reason the Moche stood out. Researching further I discovered the Lord of Sipan and the story went from there. With this one I also contacted a well know archaeologist when I couldn’t find some information I needed. He was very helpful.

The Angler and the Owl – I was worried about this book because I have a hard time figuring out who the male protagonist would be. My husband and I were watching “River Monster”, something we always do, and I got the idea for an angler for the part. And it worked out well because Jeremy Wade is very intrigued with the Amazon and this is where the book takes place.

From the Pages of Grandfather’s Life – This is a true, short story about my grandfather’s escape from Poland in 1913. I didn’t have any trouble with this title.

The Midnight Owl – I can’t say much because it’s my WIP.

RW: What genre does your book fall into?

“The Owl of the Sipan Lord” is a paranormal thriller

“The Angler and the Owl” is an action/adventure/light romance

“From the Pages of Grandfather’s Life” is non-fiction

“The Midnight Owl” – is a paranormal murder mystery

RW: Why do you write in the genre that you do?

VIV: I love the paranormal! It has always fascinated me and I make a point to read this genre and plan on all my books following suit.

RW: Tell us a little about your books.

The Owl of the Sipan Lord

Martin and Clare Montgomery worked as an archaeological team until Martin’s accidental death at a dig they were working on in Peru. Clare swore she’d never go back, but after having a dream about the dig that didn’t add up to the finds of the area, and the help of the Peruvian Pygmy Owl and a blue-eyed spirit, she did.

Her long-time friend and mentor, Carl Windmueller, believed in following dreams and encouraged her to go. He tries to research what she saw in the dream but is visited by a red-eyed spirit that causes him to have a massive heart attack when he gets close.

Unfortunately, Clare doesn’t understand what Carl was looking into by the books on his desk. Her friend Cord gets a team together and they head back to Peru.

The re-eyed spirit does all it can to keep the team from finding it’s secret that has been kept for the past 1300 years. Near fatalities plague the team taking her back to the day her husband died. But she kept on until the truth was fully discovered.
This is a story about a widow who, with the help of an owl and blue eyed spirit, solves her husband’s murder, and a 1300 year old mystery in Peru.
US: Amazon link.
UK: Amazon link.

The Angler and the Owl
&
France Hunter returns to the Amazon to visit the area she discovered her first new species of owl: the blue-ringed owl.
Danger follows her and the others through the Amazon rainforest and Amazon river. Will they survive?
US: Amazon link.
UK: Amazon link.

From the Pages of Grandfather’s Life

This is a true short story of my grandfather’s escape from Poland in 1913.
US: Amazon link.
UK: Amazon link.

How to stay in contact with Viv? Twitter-@vivdrewa Google+ The Owl Lady Blog
Click a here to go to her Amazon page and get a book!

@RonovanWrites
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On Google+

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#NewRelease A Galaxy of Possibilities: Representation and Storytelling in Star Wars @NatachaGuyot

LitWorldInterviews Author

Natacha Guyot

New Release

A Galaxy of Possibilities: Representation and Storytelling in Star Wars

Click the cover or the title and buy it today. I did. Then come back tomorrow for her Guest Author Post The Author’s Role in Representation

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ROMANCE SHORTS by LWI Author Sourabh Mukherjee

New For the Month of Looooove!

LitWorldInterviews Author

Sourabh Mukherjee

thestoryteller1974 Google+

Facebook

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PAPERBACK release!

ROMANCE SHORTS

Click HERE for Amazon UK.

Click HERE for Amazon US.

Read his LWI Interview here.

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Genre Blending

Before I finished my first book, I had a list of all the top agents and publishers in the USA and the UK. The very thought of going Indie struck me as amateurish and pathetic, and it was going to be big time or bust. I had my synopsis ready, and my query letter. The more I learned about Indie publishing though, the more I fell in love with it, and by the time my first book was finished I had a totally different plan. I didn’t kick the option of traditional publishing to the kerb – I still haven’t done that. Even though I’ve never queried, I try never to say never, but I wanted to explore the amazing new world of anything goes first.

As an Indie writer you get to write about anything under the sun – satire – taboo – trigger inducing – revolting – weird – boring as watching paint dry – anything at all. I don’t want to read most of these things, but quite a lot of people do (alright – maybe not the paint drying), and with it being incredibly unlikely for some of these things being published traditionally, quite a lot of Indie “books” are making a lot of money this way. Who knew dinosaurs could get up to what they seem to get up to these days?

Apart from all that though, there is still a lot of new ground to be broken with genres and niches that traditional publications very likely wouldn’t take chances on, but with the very real possibility in the Indie world that they could take off with a bang. I fully intend to utilise my self-publishing freedom to mix things up with a couple of sets I have planned for the future. The thought of making up whole new genres is exciting in itself because I honestly believe that the real growth of the Indie market has only just begun, and isn’t going to implode under its own weight as a couple of people are prophesying. It’s going to be about brand new ideas and new ventures into the unknown, and maybe not so much the picking of genres and niches that rocketed unknown authors into the stratosphere a couple of years ago.

We’re going to have to think outside the box if we want to be noticed in amongst the millions, that in all probability in a couple of years will be billions of books out there. So maybe try mixing things up for your next story. You have nothing to lose. Think Fantasy Western, or Historical Weird, African Sci-Fi Paranormal Romance. Botanical Horror. Flower Fantasy. Why not? Anything goes in the world of Indie – try and imagine the never before done, and you could very well hit on the next big thing.

The benefits of reading. The reader organisation and what are the benefits reading has for you?

Hi all:

Our business in this site is talking about books, writing, publishing, and of course reading. In my facet as psychiatrist I’ve been known to use examples from books and talk to patients about literature (and films. Many want to talk about anything but their mental illnesses, very understandable when in some cases they’ve been in contact with services for years and have been asked the same questions over and over).

I was very interested when a few years back, whilst on a meeting with some forensic psychiatrist, one of my colleagues who worked at Rampton Hospital (a High Secure Mental Hospital in the outskirts of Liverpool) told us that she had joined in an initiative of the University of Liverpool to try and bring reading to a variety of settings, including mental health hospitals. The idea was that volunteers would run groups and would read especially selected texts (could be poems, short stories, etc) to groups of people (in that case patients) as a way of trying to engage them in an activity unrelated to the everyday of the hospital, and have interesting discussions and exchanges. The volunteers could be people who had nothing to do with the institutions or settings, and there was training and texts offered to them.

Chocolate books in a bakery for St George (St. Jordi) in Barcelona

The group seemed to work fairly well and I was happy when I heard the same scheme would come to the area where I was working. Before I left the job I attended a presentation showing the positive effect the group had had so far. I’m keen on volunteering to be a facilitator and once I have a more fixed schedule I’ll try and give it a go.

This is the link to the organisation (The Reader) so you can visit and get some idea of what they do.

http://www.thereader.org.uk/

Here they describe who they are and what they do:

We bring people and great literature together.

Our primary way of doing this is through our innovative shared reading model, bringing people together in weekly groups to listen to poems and stories read aloud. Thoughts and experiences are shared; personal and social connections are made.

There is no pressure for anyone to read or even speak because simply listening to the literature and the other group members can be a powerful stimulant. The group leader seeks to create an atmosphere of lively collaboration, which is best felt in the literature itself:

A bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast,

And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again.

The eyes sinks inward, and the heart lies plain,

And what we mean, we say, and what we would, we know.

A man becomes aware of his life’s flow,

And hears its winding murmur; and he sees

The meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze.

– Matthew Arnold, The Buried Life

It is our ambition to make shared reading widespread so that you could go to most places in the UK and easily find a group. We currently read with 2,000 people per week across a variety of settings; in the workplace, in prisons, on mental health wards, in care homes, in schools and in local communities.

Why do we do it?

Because, as one group member told us:

“you need it, you just don’t know you need it.”

The central power of the shared reading model means that we can help individuals to make changes to how they feel about themselves and how they relate to other people. Take a look at the Reader Stories dotted throughout the site to discover more about how shared reading is making a difference to people of all ages and backgrounds.

On the Events, Courses and Reading With Us pages, you’ll find other ways in which we are bringing people and literature closer together.

– See more at: http://www.thereader.org.uk/what-we-do-and-why.aspx#sthash.4gQ9ygU3.dpuf

I’m sure the model is replicable anywhere… or you might be able to create your own version.

I leave you another link discussing benefits of reading (this time individual reading but…).

What are the personal benefits reading has for you?

http://selfhelpfix.com/benefits-of-reading.php

Thanks for reading and if you’ve found it interesting…like, comment, share and CLICK!

Authenticity and Honesty as an Indie Author by @JoRobinson176

A couple of things we shouldn’t be doing. Sometimes you’ll see an author comparing their writing to a famous writer in the actual blurb of their book, or worse still on the cover. Doing this in a blurb is actually against Amazon policy, so it’s not a good idea to begin with. Some Indies seem to think that by the mere presence of a bestselling author’s name, readers will be more inclined to buy their own book. Speaking as a reader all I can say about that is that if I want to read a book by J K Rowling I’ll buy one of her books. If a reader or reviewer on the other hand compares a book to the work of a famous author I’m a fan of, I might be tempted to buy it – that to me is a genuine compliment, but if it’s the author making the comparison it always comes across as a little desperate to me.

Desperation doesn’t sell well, and readers aren’t stupid. We prefer authenticity in the books we read. Why on Earth would any writer want to hang on to another writer’s coattails? I’ve heard that copying famous writer’s styles can be a good writing exercise, although I’ve never tried it myself. I’d much rather stick to my own style, whatever that may be, than to try and sell anything on the back of someone else’s success. Every time a book makes it big there are suddenly thousands of copycat versions dumped onto the market, and none of them will ever have the impact of the original. Every writer has their own unique writing voice, and we should always be true to that – even when we’re selling our wares.

Another thing I’ve seen is #1 BESTSELLER plastered on the cover of a book. Then I’ve looked at the book’s ranking, and it’s at two million and odd. That’s not a bestseller and I don’t appreciate the attempt to con me. I’ve read several comments from Indie authors saying that it’s the truth because at some point their books have been number one on a free list. That’s just way beyond wrong so don’t do this. We’ve all been in the paid bestseller lists at some point or another, but if you honestly want to put that on your book it must have been number one on the main list, and if it reaches that beautiful spot everyone will already know what it is.

I always use the Look Inside feature on Amazon before I buy any book. A huge mistake some Indies make is to put pages and pages of reviews in their front matter. Often you haven’t got to the end of them before the preview ends. No book purchase from me in that case. I don’t have a problem with a few lines from good reviews on a single page, but more than that – yes – again seems desperate to me. Readers will read the book reviews anyway, both the good and the bad, so the reviews in the front matter aren’t going to mean anything except that they’re taking up too much space. The last thing about using reviews in your book is actually using them on your book. Fine for if the book has reviews from Kirkus or something like that, but putting one of the three reviews that the book has on your actual cover is not a good idea at all. The last time I saw this I cringed in shame on behalf of that author.

As self-published authors we have to act professionally, respect our readers, and credit them with the savvy to spot things like this. We should trust in our own authenticity and have the patience for it to be seen for what it is, and hopefully enjoyed for its own sake.

Advertising Your Book

Most of the reading public are not part of writers social networks in any big way. They probably all have a personal Facebook or a Google+ presence, and quite a few people these days have Twitter accounts to see what the ~~Kardashians~~ world is up to. A lot of them are on the mailing lists of book recommendation sites though, and that’s why an important part of marketing should be popping your books up on them now and then in addition to your normal tweeting and sharing on your regular sites.

If you can afford trying for a listing on Bookbub then that’s a good option, but not only is it going to get more difficult to get accepted there now that traditional publishers are using it, it’s also quite expensive. That doesn’t mean you have to do all advertising yourself though. There are a couple of much cheaper options to go for, which while they might not pack the punch of Bookbub, they’re still going to get you more eyeballs on your books, and hopefully a couple of sales from new readers.

I have to say that I haven’t done any serious marketing for my books, so I wouldn’t even try and call myself an expert on selling books. I’ve always worked in marketing though, so I have a bit of an idea. From what I’ve seen so far, I think that the marketing of eBooks is actually the toughest job in the sales world – especially as an Indie scribbler trying to get noticed. It’s always been my plan to write three to five books before I got too involved in the selling of them, and over the past year or so I have been poking around and about for ideas for when I do. As a test, I’ve run one of my books a couple of times on the smaller sites expecting nothing at all to happen, and was really surprised when it actually got sales.

So when you’re ready to promote your books, I suggest that you prepare your strategy, choose your promo days, give yourself a budget for advertising, and put it on a few of the cheaper sites. Most of them require a specific amount of reviews in the upper star range, but not as many as you need for the bigger sites. I got the most sales when I ran African Me & Satellite TV on Choosy Bookworm, but also a couple from The Daily Bookworm, and a few from People Reads, who will also advertise your new release before it has any reviews.

When you’re finally ready to start selling your books, you really should be paying for advertising if you can afford it, and the three sites above have prices starting at eight bucks, so even if you don’t sell too many books to begin with you won’t be lining up for loans either. While our conventional marketing ourselves on Twitter and so on is vital, our aim should also be finding a portion of those millions of ravenous readers out there who don’t have a social network presence, but do subscribe to book mailing lists.

Fair Reviewing or Review the Book, NOT Your Expectation.

If you have been around here long enough you know Book Reviews are something I am passionate about. How can someone be passionate about Book Reviews? I know how important they are to an author.

The more Reviews a book has on Amazon and other places the better chance of being seen by potential readers, moving up on lists of books that will be shared in emails and websites.
They give a potential Reader an opinion about the book.
They give the author feedback on what is working with a book and what is not.

Recently Author Jo Robinson, one of the Feature Writers here on LWI wrote Safe Reviewing. The article is well worth a read as can be attested by the record breaking numbers it is setting on the site to date in Views, Likes and Comments in just 24 hours. But it was also that article that reminded me of an article I had been wanting to write.

One of our LWI Authors has received what I will call Inconsistent Reviews. I had to think for a moment how I wanted to phrase that. One review on Goodreads simply had a Rating of 1 Star. When the book is consistently Rated 5 Stars, you know there is something going on, especially when there were no comments attached to the 1 Star. I did some research into the person’s Reviewing history.

Only likes a certain subject,style or author.
Seems to have a dislike for a certain type of author.

Another Review was a good Rating on Amazon but the actual Review was so completely opposite of the score I am questioning the person’s ability to do Reviews, only because they have their Amazon name include Reviews in it. The problem here is the person was expecting or wanting one kind of book and this was not that kind of book, so they decided to basically rip it apart in several ways that showed their lack of professionalism and actual ability to comprehend the book. I read the book. Every point made in the Review was such a sad piece of drivel that I was so angry by the end I wanted to somehow find a way to delete the person’s ability to write Reviews anywhere ever again.

That’s the purpose of this article. If you are expecting a Star Trek novel and you end up with a Dune novel, don’t complain. Science Fiction is Science Fiction. Just because it is not your flavor does not make it bad. If you feel let down because you were EXPECTING or HOPING for Star Trek and you didn’t get it, it’s not the Author’s problem. If you cannot find you are able to write a fair Review, then don’t write a Review at all.

I do my less than favorable Reviewing in Beta-Reading. When I Beta-Read I don’t hold back. That’s when you need to realize, especially with friends, there is no such thing as compromise or benefit of the doubt for that matter.That’s when the Author needs the absolute truth.

Will I give someone a bad Review of a book? I would prefer not to publish one. But there are times when there has been an agreement or an insistence and I had to do it.

So Review as you will but think before you Publish. As Jo mentioned, we as Authors nor Reviewers or even the basic Reader want to break down an Author. We want to help the Author and the Reader. You can do that in a Review if you take the time to do it right.

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Safe Reviewing by @JoRobinson176

It’s important not to tarnish your brand when you’re in the public eye – or to invite others to tarnish it for you. No matter how small a fish you might think you are. As an Indie author you really do have to be reading books by other Indies as well your traditionally published favourites, and leaving reviews for our peers is absolutely necessary for the good of the whole tribe. I will ask you one question though – how many times have Dan Brown or J K Rowling publicly published a bad review of their peers? They don’t, because there are reviewers out there who get to do those things, and they probably don’t want to get into barnies with other scribblers either. If you have set yourself up as a book reviewer as well as an Indie author that’s fair enough, as long as you’re prepared to take the possible fallout if you post a less than rosy review. I’ve seen troll brawls caused by a bad review that almost had me under the desk, and I wasn’t even involved, with authors taking down their books and bowing out of the industry.

I am not an official book reviewer. I do review books, but never publicly if I really haven’t enjoyed reading them. It’s not just because I don’t want to be the target of some troll rage takedown, but more because I know how much goes into the writing of a book. Not everyone can write a book. Even though we cringe at the thought of the millions of eBooks out there competing with ours for visibility, the fact is that less than one percent of the population of the planet are writers by trade, and that not all of them write good books. Their bad books are not hurting yours at all, so there’s no need to trash them when there are many non-writers who can and will do so with relish. We’re a little old segment of the planet, and I honestly don’t think that tearing each other down is the way to go. Especially if you have your writers eyeball out when you read a book and pick up on grammatical errors, expecting a novel to be written according to rules.

I haven’t written all my life, but I’ve read all my life, and I can tell the absolute difference to the way I read any book these days. I see things now that I never would have noticed before, but mostly I choose to unsee them straight away if I know they’re something I wouldn’t have picked up on back in my pre-writing days. So far I haven’t seen any writer who is also a book reviewer give a blatantly unfair review, so they’re mostly safe, but you have to ask yourself if posting a scorchingly bad review on any public site is worth the possible damage it could do to your public persona as an author.

On the other side of the coin, leaving a glowing review for a book that you didn’t like at all could also affect your credibility, so don’t do that – rather abstain entirely and move on to a new read. Lately there have been a couple of furores in Indie world about all sorts of things from attempts to get funding to take time off to write a book, to vicious troll attacks and catfishing. We all should realise that there are a lot of people out there on the internet who will attack with the slightest provocation, and sorry to say, some of them have written books, so I suggest that we stick to doing what we love best, and leave the review takedowns to the many people who enjoy that sort of thing. We’ve got much more important things to be getting on with than spending any of our time trashing anyone else’s book publicly. If you can’t give it three or more stars, just let it go.

Book Cover Design – The Law

The only way to ensure that you have a one hundred percent original, and copyright infringement free cover for your book is to either make it yourself with all your own images, or purchase a bespoke artwork, specifically created for you. Not everyone is inclined to create their own, and bespoke book covers are very expensive, so many Indies use images bought, or downloaded for free online. Before we actually use these covers, there are a couple of things that we need to know.

All photos and images found online are automatically protected by copyright. If you download any picture without permission or payment, thinking that if you just fiddle with it a bit and change it with a bit of judicious rendering it will be alright, that isn’t true, and you are infringing on the copyright of its owner, and could find yourself in quite a bit of expensive trouble. Even if you didn’t know this when you did it.

All commonly used free images in the Creative Commons have licenses, and it’s very important to read these carefully before using an image. Many of them are free to use and change as you wish for commercial use, but there are often other instructions in the license box. Sometimes there’s a limit to how many of your final product you may sell, and sometimes attribution is required for any use of the image.

If your cover designer has committed copyright infringement in any of the elements on your book cover without you having any clue about it, you are still liable for that infringement from the minute you publish it, so you need to be very sure that any cover you purchase has been made by a designer aware and respectful of these laws.

Thinking that it is highly unlikely that you’ll ever be found out is also not a good idea. Most professional photos and images are fingerprinted so that they can easily be tracked online, no matter how much they’ve been altered. Artists and photographers these days are getting more and more outraged at the theft – innocent or otherwise – of the work that they do in order to earn their livings.

Images in the Public Domain (pre January 1, 1923) are safe to use as you like, although sometimes attribution to the photographer is required. Not very often though. So those are good to go.

Stock images are safe if used correctly – paid for or downloaded from a site like Dreamstime when offered for free. You can do anything you like to them once you have them and use them as many times as you wish. Read licences carefully first to make sure that they aren’t Rights Managed images, because those have restrictions on various uses.

These rules apply to all publishing – including publishing posts on your blog. I’ve been guilty of using images just hoiked off the internet before I knew these things, but now I’m incredibly cautious before using a picture I’m not sure I’m allowed to use. Fortunately one of the biggest boobs I ever accomplished was to delete every single image in my media gallery from the beginning of my blog. I was devastated at the time, but quite relieved now to know that there’s nothing lurking around there anymore that could get me sued.

So now you know all of these things you might be thinking that you’re not going to be able to find anything decent for your cover, but that’s not true. There are great images out there both free or at a cost that you can afford, so go for it intrepid Indies! My last two thoughts on the cover subject would be to be absolutely sure that you trust your cover designer if you take that route, and secondly to check the popularity of a purchased image if you’re planning on using it as is. There are loads of eBook covers out there using different versions of the same image.

My Grl by John Howell @HowellWave Interview

Reviewed by Faridah Nassozi for Readers’ Favorite – Rating – Five Stars

My GRL by John W. Howell is a fast-paced thriller that shows how your life can be turned upside down in the blink of an eye. John J. Cannon was looking forward to a long island vacation but instead ended up chasing and hiding from the bad guys. From losing Gerry who he was getting close to calling a friend, to discovering the real truth behind her death, to discovering who Sarah, Gerry’s friend really was. It is a well-written story that kept me glued, page after page.

Anonymous Amazon Customer-Rating 5 star The author John W Howell has constructed his thriller very cleverly and created a truly pleasurable reading experience. I found myself suspecting just about everyone of something and being right only about half the time, which is probably in itself one of the marks of a very good thriller.

RW: John, what is your background in writing, what makes you a writer other than your ability to hold a pencil, type a writer or in some other way make words appear on a page?

JOHN: What really makes me a writer is I do it every day. Besides that, I have studied the craft and have written four books now. One published, one at the publisher for release (heaven knows when) and one just completed. The other one? Holding the laundry room door open in a breeze. (yes it is that bad)

RW: Where do you live and that will tell us how big that laundry room book needs to be?

JOHN: I was born in Detroit Michigan but have lived in Illinois, Indiana, Connecticut, Ohio, and California. I currently reside in Texas on a barrier island off the coast of South Texas

RW: So you write all the time and live on an island. I always ask what an author does to get away from writing when they need a break from it, when it’s just frustrating them for the moment, I think I can guess yours but tell us anyway.

JOHN: I usually don’t take a break from writing. I do take a break from novel writing by doing short stories. When I really need to get away for a few I take a walk on the beach

RW: Okay now into the real reason people are here. What is the title of your book and why did you choose that name?

JOHN: The title of the published book is My GRL. I choose the title since the story is about a guy who buys a boat and he names it My GRL.

RW: What genre does your book fall into?

JOHN: My GRL is a thriller.

RW: Why do you write thrillers?

JOHN: I find the Thriller genre open enough to allow me to create the kinds of situations that are interesting to the reader while challenging myself to insert the kinds to twists, turns and excitement the reader is looking for.

RW: Tell us a little about My GRL and what inspired the idea.

JOHN: John Cannon is a San Francisco Lawyer who wants to take a leave of absence from the firm. He buys a boat he names My GRL unaware a group of terrorists want to use his boat to destroy a symbol of America’s greatness. His first hint of trouble is when he wakes up in the hospital and learns he was found unconscious next to the young woman who sold him the boat in the first place. The only one standing between the terrorists and the successful completion of their mission is John Cannon.

I was on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Lexington which is moored in Corpus Christi. My sister and I were touring the boat since our father had served on her as a naval aviator during World War II. I was struck to see all the armament was no longer in place. This symbol of America’s military might was defenseless to any attack. After leaving the boat, I constructed a story on how to attack the Lexington and then a story on how to prevent such a thing. The story of My GRL fell into place.

RW: Tell us about your John Cannon and also who you envision playing him in a movie.

JOHN: I think I would like to see Bradly Cooper play John. He has the kind of seriousness coupled with humor that is the essence of John’s personality. John J. Cannon is a normal person caught up in extraordinary circumstances. He is a guy who wants to become a charter captain and ends up having to deal with a bunch of pretty bad characters. John is not a superhero nor does he possess secret abilities that allow him to overcome his adversaries. He is slightly OCD and is worried about many of the same things that we all are. He has a dry sense of humor and his legal training allows him to keep a fairly even disposition while things around him become increasingly complex. He loves good food and is especially fond of a Tanqueray martini on the rocks

RW: What message do you think your book delivers to the reader?

JOHN: The basic message is people with a cause are convinced righteousness is on their side. The terrorists are firmly convinced that because of past offenses, their current plan to kill innocent people is just. So we cannot hope to convince these terrorists to give up their cause simply because we don’t think it is lawful. I would hope anyone reading this book would come away with the feeling that military solutions are not always the way to stop hostilities. It might take a deeper understanding of the motivation of the adversary to successfully come to a peaceful solution.

RW: Describe your book in one word.

JOHN: Intriguing

RW: What did you learn about yourself from writing this book?

JOHN: The first thing I learned was I could, in fact, finish a book that was readable. Up to this point my efforts were not what I would describe as stellar. The second was I could write about a subject that I knew little about. People who don’t know me think I have been around boats. I really had to research all aspects of the book since none of the hardware and software related items were in my experience profile.

RW: How did you end up with MSP?

JOHN: I did a number of queries and for whatever reason never connected. I then went and did some research on publishers who would accept a first-time author who did not have an agent and found Martin Sisters Publishing

RW: What is your biggest tip for someone to getting published?

JOHN: Too often, authors rush to get a book published with some disastrous results. The author must do the research necessary to find out how they want to be published. If they want to self-publish that carries one set of responsibilities. Traditional publish is another option but does have certain requirements. So my tip is to take the time necessary to determine the path that is right for the person. There is no real right path, but a path chosen that is done in haste could be very disappointing.

RW: When you’re not writing who are you reading?

JOHN: I am reading Allure of the GypsieS by Charles Yallowitz. It is his third story in the Legends of Windemere series. He has actually published five books, but I’m a little behind since my TBR pile gets higher by the day.

RW: Who are your favorite authors?

JOHN: I have three current favorites, Charles Yallowitz author of the Legends of Windemere series, Kevin Brennan Author of Yesterday Road and Occasional Soulmates and Andra Watkins author of Not Without My Father: One Woman’s 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace and To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis.

RW: How do you like to keep hydrated?

JOHN: I love to drink water while working and a margarita after.

RW: What are you working on right now?

JOHN: I have finished the third book in the John Cannon trilogy and it has a working title of Our Justice. The next book explores the daughter father conflict in a world filled with bad choices. We’ll have to see how it works.

My second book in the John J. Cannon Trilogy is titled His Revenge. It is the story of John’s efforts to bring the terrorist leader to justice with the help of the FBI. The title is a little bit confusing in that we are not sure whose revenge is eventually satisfied Johns or the Terrorist leader? When the book is launched the answer will be apparent to the reader.

RW: What is your favorite word?

JOHN: Impecunious.(poor) I loved the word ever since studying for the GMAT. I used to love to say “In my current state of impecunity ….” I could then beg off anything.

Acquire My GRL at:
Amazon: US Canada UK Australia
Barnes and Noble
iBooks
Kobo

Make sure to CONNECT with JOHN at:
My Blog Fiction Favorites
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Google+
Authorsdb
Goodreads
Shelfari

Living on an island, writing and walking on a beach? John, you’ll have a visitor soon. Ah, the dream life. And John, I have plenty of door holders so pick that one up, dust it off and get to revising it.

As always . . .

Read a Book, Write a Review.

@RonovanWrites

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Relating to John’s suggestion about knowing your path and role in traditional and self-publishing, check out Choose Your Publishing Option. Free for ebook or pdf at Smashwords here.

Writers Resolutions

Happy New Year fellow scribblers! It’s that brand new shiny first day of another new year, sprinkled with fairy dust, hope, and endless possibilities. Writers all over the world are cracking open the first page of their special edition unicorn diary and filling it with resolutions for the year to come. Some writers are also staunchly refusing to write that list on the grounds that these things just set you up for disappointment when you fail to reach all your goals. I see their point, which is why my resolution for this year is to not set myself unrealistic goals. For those of us who like a challenge, I’ll share a couple of my favourites.

Be Gentle with Yourself

If you’re going to set yourself deadlines to publish, or minimum daily word counts for this year, it’s a good idea to err on the side of caution. Just because you know that you can comfortably write two thousand words a day doesn’t mean that life will allow it. If you think that you can have your new book ready to publish or submit by the end of March, set your deadline for the end of April instead.

Get Organised

Writing is not only your passion, it’s also your job when you choose it as a career, so try and be professional with all the accoutrements of your trade. If you can, have an “office” – a place to set up your computer, files, books, research, and the twenty five thousand gorgeous new pens in your collection. A place where you work. Set your working hours, and try to stick to them every day before doing anything else.

Do Your Most Important Research

Your most important research if you’re a fiction writer is to read. Always have a book that you’re reading. Who said work wasn’t fun?

Look After Yourself

Writers are the worst for forgetting about their own wellbeing. We get lost in the stories and bang away at our computers for hours before surfacing and wondering where the day went – or the night, and having to fight our way through piles of chip and sweet packets to get out. Then we’re just too tired to do anything other than what we have to. Make an effort to give your body a little TLC with a bit of healthy exercise, relaxation, and some good food and sunshine. Laughter helps too.

Play a Little

Write something out of your comfort zone. Something you think that you can’t do. Write a short story in a genre that’s foreign to you, or play around with your writing style.

Finish It

We all have hundreds of half finished things lurking around, that we’ve started and then totally forgotten about. Dig around in the murky bowels of your computer and find one, and then finish it.

Own It

Writing is something that nobody gets to tell you how to do. Apart from having to learn about grammar and spelling, your learning to write comes only from reading the works of others, and having the talent and whackadoodle magic scribbler’s imagination to do it yourself. Let it flow naturally and without fear.

Be Careful Who You Ask

I’ve seen a lot of new writers have all the wind taken out of their sails by asking for critique. Too much and too often. Rest assured that there are many, many pontificating and self righteous people lurking around critique groups just waiting for a newbie to pounce on. They will rip the soul out of anything you submit purely for the pleasure of being the awesome super cool dudes that they think they are. Don’t lose your dreams to these people. If you’re not confident enough to write on through till you’re finished the book before asking for critique, be yourself a lurker and watch from the sidelines before putting your baby before the wolves.

Back Up Your Work

There are loads of free and paid ways to back up your work, and you should do this Every – Single – Day. I lost tons of manuscripts, research and cover art when my old computer crashed. You could use a memory stick, Dropbox or simply email your manuscript to yourself when you’re finished writing for the day.

And so onward and forward my fellow people of the pen, into our shimmering new year, I wish you all a prosperous one, filled with happy days of writing, and writing, and writing.

Buy @NatachaGuyot book for her Birthday. That’s the gift every Author wants.

What do you give an Author for their Birthday?

You buy one of their books on Amazon Kindle!

Happy Birthday

LWI Featured Author

Natacha Guyot

Read this fascinating ladies interview here.

@NatachaGuyot

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HTML Crib Sheet

Because Christmas day is one of the few days when Indie writers can’t think up good enough excuses to stay hunched over hot computers in their garrets, and the time of year when they totally invest themselves in the overconsumption of mince pies while staring resentfully at their abductors, and probably drink too much eggnog trying not to think about their abandoned work in progress, I’ll keep this Thursday’s post very short with a couple of tips for those nontechie scribblers amongst us.

1. Create a clickable link to go into your eBook. Type the text as you want it to appear in your manuscript – the name of another book for instance. Highlight that text and right click on it. Select Hyperlink and paste the URL address into the box and save.

2. If you find it painful creating HTML for clickable links on your blog posts, go to Ecalpemos and you can generate them there.

3. Instead of inserting all the HTML code yourself, if you want to create a post complete with pictures, links, and text to send out for a blog tour, click on your Text tab in a new blog post, create the post there and then copy and paste it onto a Word document. Double check before sending it out by copying the text from your Word doc, pasting it into a new post, and checking in your preview window to make sure all is as it should be.

4. Remember that all HTML posts must be done in your Text tab, and not the Visual one.

Happy Holidays!

Echoes of Narcissus in the Gardens of Delight by @JoRobinson176

Donna thought there was something wrong with her. That she was suffering from a mental illness that has caused her husband to despise her, distance himself from her, and cheat on her. She blames herself for the desolate, miserable thing that is her marriage and her life. Then she comes across a book that will change everything for her, and reading it, she discovers that there’s nothing wrong with her mind at all, but that there is something very wrong with her husband instead. Marco, she realises, is a malignant narcissist. A text book case. He has a real and documented mental disorder, and that he’s been controlling, manipulating, and abusing her for decades. The sudden full knowledge of all that he’s purposely done to her enrages her. Not sure how to leave after thirty years of what she finally knows has been intentional mental and emotional abuse from him, and believing that she has nowhere to turn, being so physically isolated, she bides her time.

Then she meets and befriends a group of unusual people who share her passion for gardening, and so begins her journey to escape. She joins her new friends in their project to assist elderly people in old age homes care for their small gardens, as well as secretly supplying those suffering from painful and terminal illnesses with medicinal herb and plant remedies, including illegal plants such as cannabis. As weeks go by, she delves into her memories, relearns what it is to be respected, liked, and loved again, and slowly she formulates a plan to safely leave her dangerous husband. But unbeknownst to Donna, Marco is in serious trouble, and has desperate plans of his own, and absolutely no regard for her safety.

** This is a work of fiction, but malignant narcissists really do exist, and it is a recognised mental illness. Unfortunately, many people never realise that they are involved with a narcissist, because their actions are so demonically bad as to be unimaginable and unbelievable, and so they spend their lives in misery, depression, fear, and isolation. If only by the accidental reading of a fictional story, I hope that this book will help even one person, unknowingly suffering narcissistic abuse, to realise that they don’t have to, and that it’s never too late to start over, be happy, be fulfilled, to love and care for yourself, and be truly loved and respected by others.

Jo Robinson very recently returned to her homeland, South Africa, after having lived in rural Zimbabwe for eighteen years. Her obsessive affection for the African continent, most humans, and all creatures feathered and furred are what inspire her writing. She is the author of African Me & Satellite TV, the science-fiction/fantasy series Shadow People, and a couple of short stories, which will be free to download from Amazon from 26 to 30 December, Fly Birdie and The Visitation.

To win eBook copies of Shadow People and African Me & Satellite TV, send Jo a message from THIS page.