Yup, a rare, out-of-cycle email. I wanted to share that I finished the first pass of Secrets of Deara. There's a ton wrong with it, but (and this was a better turn of phrase for the previous book) the bones are good. That's the crux of this email. The cycle between books should be shorter than usual. It's ironic that after asking ya'll to rate my books, yesterday I received the worst review I've ever been given. The person clearly hates my writing style of switching between multiple first person PoVs, and jumping in time. Totally fair--I like my style (obviously), but I don't expect everyone else to like it. It's still a bit of a dagger in the gut, not because I take the criticism personally, but because there are so few reviews that the one really prominent negative review will hurt sales. I was considering my options to bolster reviews. My plea in the last email didn't amount to much. There's the carrot option--offering some kind of freebies to you, my friendly and loyal newsletter readers, for leaving a rating/review. Then there's the stick option--threatening to kill off main characters if ratings/reviews don't increase. ("The beatings will continue until morale improves!") Since I'm writing a prequel, the stick option eventually leads to causality problems as I wipe out main characters who are alive in the future. Such a conundrum. But I don't have anything to give away! Well, maybe some book marks. It's also worth mentioning that the face lift for the Guardian League series finished this week. It takes time for the changes to propagate through the Amazon system though, so I sometimes see the old covers pop up. I'll wait and send out updated pics for the next (intended) newsletter. May you get lost this week in another world. Follow me on Goodreads. |
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I had a couple of things I wanted to mention. One is what looks like a weird new scam that I haven't worked out yet, and the other is just an update on how I'm doing in marketing. Scam Alert! So, the potential scam. I received an email that looked like this: Your book just gained new reviews from my readers community.<screenshot of a GoodReads book review>Did you get it?Looking forward to hearing from you I followed up with a couple of emails, and I basically think the paid-book-review people...
Last week was Homecoming week, and my younger two girls are both now in High School. It's really something watching how much effort the girls (and their mom and other girls' moms) put into the preparation. Meanwhile my oldest had a rugby tournament, where they awarded her MVP. Certainly a better way to spend her time than watching that Arkansas v Notre Dame football game. Brutal. Yes, to relax, she does rugby and boxing. Any wonder I came up with Red? Really miss having my oldest girl around....
We're a few weeks into the school year, and settling in to the new/old routine, more or less. With my oldest off to college, and my youngest now in High School, I'm getting sentimental about all the lasts. Last time I'll help one of them learn geometry. Last time I'll teach one to drive. Last time I'll find a "box of strawberries" in the fridge that is nothing but stems. It's funny how even the things you don't like become things you miss, innit? My oldest sent me one of her papers from...