I finally received an email with lots of goodies attached ... my ARC and editor comments. And I have 20 days to read through it all, make my comments, corrections, etc. Yikes! I can do this. Yes, I can. Uh ... right? Fortunately, nothing really big going on at work, so I should have time. I just want to make sure I do a thorough job. So, nobody better bug me! Or ... grrrrrrr. (Just noticed: is it any wonder my editor says I use maybe a few too many ellipses?)
I read and reread the email, and then a few more times to make sure I didn't miss anything. So, this is the skinny: my feedback on the first draft ARC is due March 23rd. Cover should be coming around the beginning of April, so I need to start collecting reviews. If I would like them added to the back cover, that is. Of course, as anxious as I am, I already sent out requests for reviews to several mystery review websites and authors. Keeping fingers crossed. -- Thanks Michael Murphy for agreeing to do one :-) And to Cjung at Over My Dead Body. You both are great for responding so quickly, and settling my nerves since this means my back cover won't be blank! haha
Okay, what next? Well ... (yet another ellipse ... sigh) just have to wait and see! If all goes well and according to plan, I will be seeing my baby in print sometime in June. Then, I'd absolutely love to have a book launch event. Maybe at our local library or perhaps at one of the area bookstores. I'll have to start researching. Hmmm. Yet another task to consider, but such fun!
Update: Yet another thanks goes out to Sand, a wonderfully kind and helpful lady who happens to run the very cool ezine, The Piker Press and also agreed to do a review. Then finally, to Apex Reviews who will take a look and see :-)
All great people who help to make this project a success.
With the flooding of self-published work there comes another flood -- paid reviews. It seems there are a few well-known reviewers climbing aboard to take advantage of a new opportunity to make money, i.e. charging for their reviews. And I'm talking big dollars to fork out. Well, at least for some folks like myself with limited income it is a bit steep. Kirkus Indie charges $425 to $575 for a 250-350 word review. This option is geared toward self-pubbed, indie pubbed, POD, etc. authors. Okay, so on their webpage they do state that you will receive "a fair and unbiased assessment of your work" and that the rating can be anywhere from positive with stars down to negative.
Can you imagine? Fork out a few hundred, hard-earned dollars and get back a negative review? Ouch! At the same time, isn't this what really should happen? An unbiased, honest-to-goodness review of your work. I'd imagine that's what everyone should expect, but it's a pot-pourri of feedback out there. Friends and relatives who only want to give you a pat on the back and a leg up, persuading potential readers to buy your book. And of course, there are many others out there who would probably say all sorts of nice things, warranted or not, if you shoved some green under their noses.
I say this. Getting reviews, paid for or not, will always bring some bias along with them. In other words, it's not a perfect system. I, for one, from the reader's POV tend to ignore book reviews. If something strikes my interest, I buy it and read it to gather my own conclusions. But that's just me. As an author with a few books out there, both adult and teen fiction, I haven't really gotten much of anything in the review department. My books are selling okay, nothing worth writing home about, and I often wonder ... if I paid people to review ... hmm....
So, what's your take on it? Are paid reviews okay? Do you read reviews and let them influence your book-buying habits?
Whips, Cuffs, and Little Brown Boxes
Not So Snow White
Cinderella Geek
