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The fall-out from changing publishers
Changing the guard
As I announced in a blog post a little while ago, I’ve had to republish all my books due to circumstances beyond my control. It has now been about 10 days since I started the process of removing the titles from the various sites and republishing them under the new D2D label, and I thought some of you might be interested in the fall-out from the process.
Administration
First off, if you had a contract with your previous publisher, you can’t just give them the bird and self-publish or go with another publisher. You’ll need a letter of rescission, returning to you the rights for the book. This is a legal requirement. In my case, the split was entirely amicable and I have that letter. You won’t be able to use any existing ISBNs, either. New publisher = new version.
Sales Rankings
As far as Amazon and the other vendors are concerned, your newly-published book is a new listing. All my books had to start afresh at eleventy million, and work their way up from there.
Reviews
I thought I’d lose all the reviews – but in fact the vendors’ software has recognised the same title for the same author and ported the reviews over. The only non-starters were for my Iron Admiral titles. It has always been a problem with those books. The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy became Conspiracy on some sites. Then I confused the issue by putting The Iron Admiral Book one: Conspiracy on the cover. Anyway, while a human would immediately see the books are the same, the software program didn’t make the connection. Apparently I could contact Amazon and ask them to re-link the reviews. I confess I haven’t bothered.
Links
That has been the biggest pain in the posterior. Every link for every book had to be updated, on every site. Authordb, Author’s Den, Bookbuzzr, my own website – oh gosh, I’d better do the ones on Facebook. What about Linkedin? I’ve probably forgotten a few. Needless to say, sites which reviewed the book and had links will now be wrong.
The outcome (so far)
I’ve been interested to see that, of all the books, Black Tiger is doing the best in sales. I was beginning to despair over this title. Not that it’s zooming along, but sales are better than they had been. On the flip side, Morgan’s Choice and Morgan’s Return, which had been my flagships, never slipping much below the 60k rank on Amazon US, are languishing. Fortunately, I have reviews (at a review site) in the pipeline for Morgan’s Return and Black Tiger. I’m hoping they will help increase exposure. I’ve temporarily reduced the price for Morgan’s Choice to $2.99 to try to gain some interest.
Advice
Quite a few small publishers are falling by the wayside, so the time may come when you’re in the same situation as me. The best advice I can give you is document what you do. Write it all down in a spreadsheet. Links to reviews on websites, interviews on websites, places where you’ve listed your books – anywhere you’ve sent a link. You might not be able to get all of them updated, but an email to the owner asking for an update will usually be seen in a positive light.
How you generate new sales I don’t know. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve found blog tours and paid advertising doesn’t do much. I can only hope it’s early days and sales will recover. Have any of you been through the process of changing publishers? If so, what was your experience? Do you have any suggestions?
Two thumbs up for Draft 2 Digital – another way to self publish
As I explained in
my last post, my publishing arrangement collapsed when the company I worked through, folded. For me, writing is a hobby and with nine books published, I didn’t want to find myself up to my armpits in the mire of managing a whole bunch of accounts with Kobo, Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Before, I’d left most of that (not Amazon) to Smashwords but I’d never been too thrilled with the Smashwords process. Having worked in IT for many years, I understood the pain of different strokes for different folks and formatting to suit. Smashwords makes its premium product available on many, many platforms and lowest common denominator is certainly the way to go. If that’s what you want.As far as I can tell, I’ve never made sales to palm devices or the more basic readers. In fact, I have never made many sales through Smashwords at all, so I was open to considering another choice.
Enter Draft 2 Digital (D2D), a new player in the formatting market. I decided to try the concept with The Iron Admiral, a book which I had only published on Amazon. It wasn’t even a simple choice, since it is an omnibus, a combination of both my Iron Admiral books. When I write, I use Microsoft Word with two basic styles, one for normal text and one for chapters, which I allow Word to number for me. I don’t use drop caps on the first letter of a new chapter, but I do make it bold, and slightly larger than the rest. It works well and I end up with clean, well formatted documents. No headers or footers needed. D2D’s software picked up the styles and created a table of contents. The system will generate a simple copyright page if you want, but I did my own, which it recognised. I did not enter an ISBN. In fact the company quite correctly states that an ISBN can be more of a hindrance than a help because you should have a separate ISBN for each format of any given book.
Draft 2 Digital puts your uploaded MS through the process, and shows you the structure of your chapters as it has recognised them, on this layout screen. 
It allows the user to select several special sections, as shown here for Supertech. I asked for an ‘about the author’ section, which you set up as part of your account, with profile and (optional) author photo. I created my own ‘also by this author’. The system will generate an ‘also by this author’ but the books have to be on D2D already (at least I think that’s what happens). Bearing in mind the system is still in beta, I ‘went it alone’ for most of these. That way, I have control.
Having picked your options and selected your cover, press save and D2D will produce three files for you. One is a mobi, for Amazon, one is an epub for Kobo, Apple and Nook, and one is a print file for Create Space. Although I didn’t proceed with the Create Space option, I tried it out. Personally, I feel a print file needs more tweaking to look really good, so although the pdf wasn’t bad, I had my reservations. For instance, do you want all your chapters to start on the right hand page? Where do you want your page numbers? Do you want headers giving the book name or something? That said, D2D worked out the number of pages and sent me an email with a template for the print cover – class act, IMO. I would have ended up with a good, clean paper back if I had proceeded.
Once the system has generated the files you can (should) check each format you intend to use, and go back and reload your files if something hasn’t worked as you expected. I had a slight problem with the auto-generated pages and sent an email, asking for help. The response was prompt and personal, not a generated page spouting boiler plate pearls of wisdom.
When you’re happy, move on to selecting your outlets. I chose Amazon, Kobo, Apple, and Barnes & Noble. Although D2D states that it may take anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks to process the file at all outlets, The Iron Admiral was loaded to all outlets within a couple of days. I was so impressed, I used D2D to republish all my books.
Reporting is a breeze. Sales are shown by outlet and by book and is updated pretty much immediately the data comes through from the outlets. And payment is through Paypal, not messy paper cheques. Unless you want a messy paper cheque. Alternatively, they’ll make a direct deposit to a bank account.
Of course, Draft 2 Digital takes a share – generally 10% of list price. See the Pricing page for details. It also has to take 30% taxes out of your earnings, as per US Government regulations. But non-US authors can apply for an ITIN or the more easily obtained W8-BEN stating you are exempt from paying US taxes.
I’m impressed with this software. It works with writers, using the best of Word. If, like me, you don’t want to mess about with multiple accounts and you’re not too fussed that your books won’t appear on EVERY platform, give them a try. Draft 2 Digital.
The Good news and the Bad news
First, the Bad News
Sometimes things happen which we’d rather avoid. One of those just happened to me. For reasons beyond my control, I’ve had to change my publishing arrangements. So there’s going to be a bit of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ going on with all my titles. All my books have been taken down from Omnilit and Smashwords, which means they’ll disappear from Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Apple. One by one, they’ll be removed from Amazon. It has already happened for Supertech and A Victory Celebration. But they’ll all be back as soon as I can manage it – in ebook, anyway. Print versions may return later.
But the Good News is…
I’m taking the opportunity to make a few small tweaks to some of my titles. Reviews are people’s opinions, nothing more, nothing less. Some people like my books, others aren’t quite so impressed, a few hate them, and that’s fine. But sometimes, people will actually say something that sticks. For instance, in Morgan’s Choice some people said the romance between Ravindra and Morgan didn’t seem likely, or was contrived. What I tried to write was a situation where neither person wanted a relationship to happen, tried to avoid it, in fact. Perhaps I over emphasised the denial at the expense of the growing attraction. Now is a perfect opportunity to add a sentence here, a line there, to hopefully make my point a little clearer.
In The Iron Admiral, some people remarked they couldn’t visualise the human ships, although I had described the Ptorix ships very clearly. Mia Culpa. In fact, I know exactly what the human ships look like – I drew a plan of Saahren’s flagship, Arcturus. But the description was lost in editing, no doubt because I listened to that ‘rule’ that says not to use too much description. Again, a few sentences might help. We shall see.
So keep an eye out on your favourite ebook platform. All my books will be back. And remember, if you mention particular points in your review, you might just be making a difference. I won’t be cutting back on Jess’s swearing in Starheart, though. That’s the person she is. If the F word offends – don’t read the book.
The magic of book marketing
In the last couple of days, my book sales have escalated, propelling Morgan’s Return into the top 20 for space opera (which is the genre I write). Its predecessor, Morgan’s Choice, is also back in the top one hundred. Please understand, I won’t be giving JK Rowling a run for her money anytime soon. We’re not talking huge numbers, but it’s nice to have an audience. Very nice.
A few people have asked how I managed to do that.
The answer is simple: I haven’t a clue. As I said in the title, maybe it’s magic. Maybe a sprinkle of fairy dust landed on my shoulder, and caused Amazon to send out the ad at top left. If we exclude the possibility of fairy dust, I don’t know what I did to have Amazon send that out – but it did and my languishing sales took off. Maybe – and I’m guessing – it has something to do with the fact that Morgan’s Choice was in the top one hundred for several months a few months ago. Maybe Amazon thought it was worth telling people I’d written a sequel. But I didn’t pay for the ad. It’s sort of an adjunct to the emails we all regularly get, listing a selection of books in a genre you’ve bought. I usually get a list of my own books, with a couple of others, like that one there.
Let me tell you a few things that didn’t cause that spike in sales.
I’ve written a ‘good book’.
I don’t know what that means. ‘Good’ is subjective at the best of times and has different meanings. Does it mean it’s a great story? What you think is good, someone else will think is a crock. If ‘good’ means the book has been well-produced in that it’s been edited, has very few typos and is correctly formatted, well, yes my books are all those things. But again, so what? Readers don’t much care about those things. Writers do.
I advertised.
I have bought advertising but what I’ve bought for this book has not yet appeared. I’ve bought ads on The Romance Reviews and the-Cheap – even on the mighty Zon, where I paid $100 to be in the Amazon Book Club, which I feel was a waste of money. Morgan’s Choice was in a list of twenty or so books, not sorted by genre or anything else, a grab-bag listing for the day. I have seen no spike in sales that I could attribute to any sort of advertising. Except that headline one up there.
I participated in blog tours.
Not for this book, I didn’t. I did for Starheart, where I managed my own tour, and I bought a tour for Black Tiger because it was a different genre to my usual space opera. Again, in my experience, blog tours don’t really work.
I have a huge web presence.
Not really. I have an author page on Amazon, Omnilit and Smashwords. I’m on Facebook, but I recently whittled down my friends list to people I actually interact with. I have an author page with 400 ‘likes’. I have a website where I talk about writing and science, a separate site for historical topics and a third where I share my photos. (I’m a keen photographer.) I don’t do a newsletter. My name is on sites across the web where I’ve signed up but don’t actually participate. Oh, and I’m no longer on Google+ or on Goodreads. After all, how much time can a person spend updating sites? I also don’t touch the Kindle Boards.
I bought reviews.
At the time of writing, Morgan’s Return has no reviews on Amazon or anywhere else. I don’t ask for reviews, and I certainly don’t buy them. I have placed the book at two review sites on the basis of a free book for an honest review. Morgan’s Choice has a full house – one star to (a lot more) five stars. That’s okay.
I bash the book on Twitter.
Yes, I do some sales tweets. I’d be stupid not to – but that’s certainly not all I do on Twitter. I participate on Triberr and I’ve found a lot of great blog sites that way. The best way to turn people off is to shove your product down their throats. I don’t.
It’s on Kindle Select.
Morgan’s Return isn’t on the program.
It’s a cheap read.
Yes, it is. $4.99 is cheaper than the big league. But it’s not $0.99. There are two reasons for that. One, I work hard at what I do. I think I’m entitled to a fair compensation. And two, the readers of the planet aren’t stupid. If you give your book away, or undervalue a 100k+ word book, why should they give it any respect? To be sure, there are well-produced, well-edited, free or ultra cheap books out there – but there’s an awful lot of garbage, too. I don’t want my work to be automatically lumped into the garbage category.
What works?
I’ve stewed on that subject for a while. I don’t know why Morgan’s Choice took off, either, or why it suddenly declined. But there is no doubt that if one book takes off, the others are towed along in its wake. So…
Write more books. That’s it, in a nutshell. If you have a backlist, readers can discover one book, then happily go and read your other work. I do that all the time. If I find a writer I enjoy, I’ll dig out everything they’ve written. It’s a network effect, a web. The more books you have available, the more entry points you have, the more chances you have to establish readers as fans. This latest surge is an illustration. At the time of writing, Morgan’s Return was at 19 in space opera and Morgan’s Choice was at 27. What this means, folks, is that NEW PEOPLE ARE BUYING Morgan’s Choice.
However, I will add one thing; it’s easier if you write one genre. My space opera sells. My historical fiction novel, To Die a Dry Death, won a bronze medal in the 2011 e-lit awards and has a swag of excellent reviews from a wide range of sources. But it hardly sells. Some people have given it a try after reading my SF, and have been pleasantly surprised, but that’s rare. The same thing has happened with Black Tiger, which is just as fast-paced and action-packed as my SF – but it’s a paranormal romance. (Or at least, as close to a romance as you’ll ever see from me.) The reviewers on the blog tour all said the book was different from the usual paranormal, and they were surprised they enjoyed the read. Again, I have done the same thing, only the other way around. I remember buying a well-credentialed Elizabeth Moon book which became a DNF. It wasn’t space opera, you see.
So there you have it. You’ll find there are a whole raft of people offering to help you sell your books – for a price. By all means give them a try, people can’t buy what they don’t know about. Just bear in mind that what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another. I firmly believe word of mouth is the only real way of making sales. But why people decide to buy particular books is beyond me.
I’m sure not complaining and I’m ridiculously thankful to Amazon for that ad. And if it did involve a sprinkle of fairy dust, it’s all good.
Amazon enforces its rules
Take note, authors and publishers. Amazon is a very large organisation and like many other monoliths (Government Departments, Apple and Microsoft come to mind) flexibility in dealing with clients is in very short supply. This is a cautionary tale.
A few weeks ago, I decided to bundle my two Iron Admiral titles (The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy and The Iron Admiral: Deception) into one volume and sell it for less than the combined cost of both books. It’s a common practice after books have been out for a while. While I was at it, I thought it might be nice to add the new book to Kindle Select, maybe interest a few new readers. After The Iron Admiral had been out for a couple of weeks, I received a message from the Kindle Select people.
“We found the following book(s) you’ve published doesn’t meet the KDP Select content guidelines. Books enrolled in KDP Select must be exclusive to Amazon in digital format while enrolled in the program. The Iron Admiral (ID: B00AWU85FA) is available on:” with the link to The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy on Barnes & Noble. “In order for your book to remain in the KDP Select program, we’ll need you to ensure that it is exclusive to Amazon within 5 days from the date of this email. If, after this 5-day period, your book is still not exclusive to Amazon, it will remain for sale in the Kindle Store, but will be removed from KDP Select. Upon its removal, it will no longer be eligible to earn a share of the KDP Select fund.”
I’d read the Guidelines and checked my interpretation with a friend, who agreed I wasn’t breaking the rules. So I wrote back to them, explaining this wasn’t the same book, that The Iron Admiral was an omnibus, with a different ASIN and ISBN. In hindsight, you might think my mistake was obvious. It wasn’t to me. In any case, here’s Amazon’s response.
“Thank you for your email.
Publishing your content in multiple parts or a varied format on another site is not acceptable. All content made exclusive to Amazon in KDP Select must remain for sale on our site only. However, you may choose to make up to 10% of your book available on other sites as a sample.
Please note that digital content that is available elsewhere is not made eligible for KDP Select by adding or removing additional book content, adding a bonus chapter, author’s commentary section, introduction, illustrations, making minor language edits, or changing the book’s cover art, title metadata, etc. We reserve the right to determine the types of Digital Books that we accept in KDP Select. Your book will be removed after 5 days of receiving our initial message.”
I thanked them politely for clarifying and said I wouldn’t be taking down the two books in the omnibus (Conspiracy and Deception) from other retailers, and that I assumed they would remove The Iron Admiral from the Kindle Select program without any further intervention from me. To which I received this response.
“Hello Greta,
We’re sorry to hear you’d like to cancel your content’s participation in KDP Select. Your book is enrolled in KDP Select until April 4th and cannot be excluded from the program during this time.
If you don’t want to renew, simply go to the book’s “Edit book details” page anytime during the current term and uncheck the box next to ‘automatically renew this book’s enrollment in KDP Select for another 90 days.’
As your book is currently still enrolled in KDP Select, please ensure that it meets the requirements of the program.”
At this point, I’m rolling my eyes. Left hand… right hand.
So what the hell. I pulled the books (Conspiracy and Deception e-book versions) from Smashwords and Omnilit. After all, my main purpose was to gain new readers, so Kindle Select was probably more useful to me than not. There’s usually a delay in moving from Smashwords to B&N, but there wasn’t. The e-books were removed forthwith.
This is the next missive from Amazon.
“As we emailed to you earlier, KDP Select content guidelines require that books enrolled in KDP Select are exclusive to Amazon.com while enrolled in the program. As the following book(s) is not exclusive, it has been removed from KDP Select, but remains live in the Kindle Store. It is no longer eligible to earn a share of the KDP Select fund, however you will be paid for any borrows that your book accrued prior to its removal from the program.
The Iron Admiral (ID: B00AWU85FA) is available on: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-iron-admiral-greta-van-der-rol/1112380196?ean=2940011221439“
That link goes to the print version of The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy on B&N. I sent the pixies an email pointing out that fact, and have not, to this point, received a reply.
So…
- an omnibus is not a new book in the eyes of Amazon.
- Automated replies seem to be the go at head office.
Make sure you understand the rules, and play within them. Noted.
Changing genres has its problems
My latest novel, Black Tiger, was released early this month and I don’t mind admitting I expected to make a few sales. My space opera, Morgan’s Choice, had been in the top 100 best sellers on Amazon for three months and my other SF romance titles, Iron Admiral: Conspiracy, Iron Admiral: Deception and Starheart (along with the shorts) were doing fairly well, dragged along in the slipstream. Surely the people who bought those books would buy this new one?
I’d trumpeted my intentions on my usual venues – Twitter, the blog, Facebook author page. I wrote a number of articles about the new book, showed off the cover. What else was I going to do?
Blog tour? I decided against it. I’ve done them before, with limited outcomes. I think they’re overdone and I’m not at all sure they attract too many new people, so you’re just preaching to the converted.
Kindle select? No. I’d done that with Starheart and although the results were reasonable, several people had asked for formats other than Kindle.
Giveaways? I figured I’d given away enough books to prove I produce a quality product. I’ve given away plenty of copies of my earlier books on blog tours, discounts and the like. I’d had limited success from Goodreads giveaways, in terms of increased sales. Putting a book on the ‘to be read’ list on Goodreads doesn’t necessarily mean much at all, in my experience – and I’ve done the Goodreads giveaways four times. Besides, all profits from Black Tiger will go to the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation to help support tiger conservation. Giving the book away defeats the purpose.
Online book launch via Facebook? Again, I’m not at all sure how successful these are. I’ve been to quite a few, and really, the usual choir turns up. I don’t think Facebook was ever a great place to market. The entreaties to ‘buy my book’ are so common, and getting worse. Everbody sells but I wonder how many buy?
Advertising? Yes, I had to get the message out somehow, and this book was a different genre. So I bought a big ad on The Romance Reviews and an advertising spot on The Cheap. I haven’t noticed a surge in sales. The ads are pointed at Amazon, but maybe buyers are going to Omnilit or Smashwords.
What else? Buy reviews? (I have my tongue in my cheek, given the recent furore on that subject) I don’t think so. I’ll wait to see what readers have to say. That said, I have sent copies to a couple of reviewers and I’m waiting in hope for the results.
The book has only been out for a very short time. Still, my experience so far underlines the message that writing in a different genre can be a dangerous endeavour. I did consider releasing the book under a different name but if I’d done that, I would have had to build an audience from scratch. At least by publishing under my own name I thought some of my SF or hist fic readers would try the book. Without a doubt, I was right.
Ah, well. It’s early days. Patience (as they say) is a virtue. Any ideas, people? Do you disagree with my assessment?
Too much romance or too many space ships
I’ve just been over to the Space Freighters lounge where I read a fascinating article about Romance Writers of America, which is cleaning its stable (as it were) of non-romance elements. And fair enough, too. The name says it all, after all.
But then the writer talks about science fiction romance, which is (I guess) what I write. She tells of her experience in a contest. Here’s the quote:
“I recently got contest feedback from a multi-published romance writer who was generally very complementary, but worried that I strayed into SF thriller territory, rather than romance because the romance was not more than 50 percent of the story and wasn’t resolved last.”
Hmmm.
That got me thinking. I’ve never really pretended I write ‘romance’ as in genre. I write action-packed space opera with romantic elements and I’ve struggled to make the romance romantic enough. I think. But then again, my two Iron Admiral books satisfied the exacting romantic demands of Two Lips Reviews; they both scored five kisses and recommended read. Mind you, Morgan’s Choice didn’t quite make the grade as a make-you-sigh romance and neither did Starheart. Although the reviewer agreed both were great sci-fi.
So I’ve fallen between the stools. Too much romance for science fiction, or too many space ships for romance.
And yet that’s a nonsense, isn’t it? Of course there’s romance in science fiction (the straight stuff). The most glaringly obvious recent example is Avatar. Without the romance there would not have been a story.
Let’s take another example, one a little more unlikely that might need a modicum of thought. Terminator. Come on, folks. If Sarah Connor hadn’t fallen for Kyle Ree
se and made John, the Terminator wouldn’t have been sent back through time.
Then there’s Star Wars and the chaste kiss in the Millennium Falcon. You don’t think that was romantic? Tell that to the folks who designed the movie posters.
Branding is such a difficult task. Do any of you have any answers?
The end of a relationship
Pfoxmoor, the small publisher responsible for bringing you all my books, is closing down. It’s a sad day for me. The person I worked with was (is) a good friend and I owe her a great deal. Life’s like that, isn’t it? It can’t be helped. For me, it means I have seven publications without a home. My only real option in a short time-frame is to self-publish. So that’s what I’m doing. The split has been entirely amicable and I’ve been offered every assistance. I feel like a duckling having to make that big jump out of the nest hole in the tree, out into the Big Blue.
Already, you’ll find all my titles have been removed from Smashwords. Rest assured, though, all my books will be out there with a minimum impact on the reading public – at least on Amazon. Print and other e-formats may take a little longer.
Meanwhile, I’ve taken the opportunity to re-do my covers. That’s the new look for the Iron Admiral. I hope you like it. And don’t forget, you can still get A Victory Celebration for FREE through 5 August.
Is writing a bit like prospecting for gold?
You know, there’s a lot of similarities between the business of writing books and prospecting for gold. Think about it. There you are in London trying to scrape a living doing something or other and you hear the news they’ve discovered gold in Australia. A place called Ballarat, quite near Melbourne (wherever that is). It’s 1851, life’s hard, cold and grim in England. Why not go off on the Big Adventure? Somewhere new and warm. Sure, it’s a long way but you’ll only be away for a year or so. They say you can pick up nuggets as big as your fist, just lying there for the taking. A few weeks and you’ll come home a millionaire.
But it isn’t like that. You join the other thousands intent on the same purpose, enduring bad food, harsh weather, unsanitary conditions. Sure, a few people make it big and find a large nugget. But most of the people who make it big are the people who supply the miners with everything. Food, safe drinks like lemonade, mining equipment, sex.
For us poor writers the conditions may be a little better, we’re not at risk of a cave-in or typhoid (I’m not, anyway – don’t know about you). But I’ve paid an awful lot of money to attend courses, join writing groups, buy ‘how-to’ books. I’ve sold a few books – panned some gold dust from the river, you might say – but I haven’t found that nugget yet.
I hasten to add I never expected to earn a mint from this (nice to have but not a requirement). I enjoy the courses. I tend to treat writing as a hobby and (generally speaking) it’s fun. I reckon if I wanted to make money out of this, I’d be offering a service to writers.
What do you think?
How do you measure your success as a writer?
Just a few days ago I wrote a post about the possibility of receiving negative reviews for one’s work and how we must try to rise above them. Yin and Yang, I wrote, black and white. We must take the good with the bad. And that is all true. But you know what? The positive reviews are why I write.
In the days after the negative review appeared, two glowing reviews were written for two very different books – The Iron Admiral: Deception and To Die a Dry Death. It would be foolish of me to imagine that everyone would react to my writing as these two people have for these two books. But the reason I go to all this trouble to try to make my words resonate, to get my facts as straight as I can, put my ego on the line when a book hits the marketplace – is for exactly this. In these two cases, I’ve written a story that other people have enjoyed.
I’ll take time out here to explain that for me, a review is not the same as a critique. A critique is something I get on the rough drafts, the unpolished gem, where people I know and trust can tell me all the things that are wrong and don’t work, correct my spelling, fix my grammar. A review is done on the finished product, where I’ve given it my best and, for good or ill, it’s out there in public. Not everybody bothers to write any sort of review, either positive or negative and certainly none of my stuff has made it to the best seller lists. It’s an ambition, of course it is, but not on the expectation of earning a mountain of money. (Don’t tell my husband, okay?) I write, therefore I want to be read. I want to share the stories in my head and you betcha, I’m really, really grateful and delighted when readers enjoy my work.
So thanks, folks, for the positive reviews. I’m very, very grateful to know that I’ve been successful.
