Reviews?

So, your book has come out. The publisher has sent it out to be reviewed. Now you wait...and wait...and wait..for one, just one. Hopefully more but one is better than nothing right?

What do you put more stock in? Review site reviews or the ones on Goodreads, Fictionwise, ARE and Amazon? At least with review sites you get verbage with the stars (or whatever they use) but with places like Fictionwise and ARE are only scores. Makes you wonder when there is a low score...why?

Not every review site will post bad reviews. Some only post the good ones. HOWEVER, there are those that post it all. Good, bad and ugly. Are these better sites because of their honesty? Or would you rather not get a review at all if it is going to be a bad one?

I am on the fence. Of course I want reviewers and readers alike to think that my book is the best thing they have ever read...but if they don't I would like constructive crit along with the not so great marks.

Is that too much to ask?

Contests?

Do they really work? I see authors who promo and run contests all the time, what I want to know is how much does it help? Does it really generate sales? Substantial sales?

What about places like Author Island that charge, what I feel in a big chunk of change for us no-money-making e-authors, for their services?

As a reader, places like that rock making it easy to find LOTS of contests to enter in one location but do they really help the little guy enough to offset the cost?

Piracy

Touchy subject, yes? As authors there is nothing worse than knowing that your "baby" is out there being passed around like a hooker at a frat party to anyone who wants her. I have learned that most of the "sharing" sites are out of the US and there really isn't much that can be done to have them take down the material that is in CLEAR violation of the copyright. Sucks but true.

As readers I have heard so many crap line that it makes me sick. One man said something along the lines of..."authors are just bitching because now they can't buy that second house in the Bahamas" ROFLMAO!!! I don't know about you but the first royalty check I got wasn't even enough to fill my car up with gas.

Don't get me wrong, I love writing and plan on continuing to do so, but I know so many other e-published authors just like me. They don't roll in the dough. Barely make enough to scratch by in this economy and then to have someone steal it?

Another woman said that Piracy is no big deal so I posed the question, "What would you do if you were standing in line at the grocery store, waiting to pay for the dinner that you were going to feed your family that night and a total stranger walked up, reached in your purse, took the $ you had in it and walked off?" Her response was that it wasn't the same thing.

I BEG TO DIFFER!!!! I have kids! They depend on me! THIS IS MY JOB!!! and YOU, the pirate, are stealing, literally, the food from my kids mouths!! The gifts from under the tree at Christmas!! DAMN YOU MR GRINCH!!! Have you no shame?

What did my kids ever do to you?

The answer...nothing. And you don't care. Why? Because to you, my kids and I are nobody. You don't know me, you don't live in my life or pay my bills or see the looks on my kids face when the tree only has a few gifts under it on Christmas morning. If you could see that, you would think twice. Do you really want to hurt the kids? Is it really your goal in life to make children unhappy or sad? If you say Yes, then I feel sorry for you.

remember, Piracy of movies or books is illegal. It isn't just some stranger you are hurting, but all those around them who you don't know, and don't care about, but for all you know you are stealing a book written by a single mother who needs that royalty check to put gas in her car to take her special needs child to the doctor. or to put presents under the tree. or for their next meal.

How does that make you feel?

Response Time

Ok, maybe I am anal...fine I know I am...but what the hell is wrong with follow through? If you are told you will here a response on your query in X # of weeks, wouldn't one think that an industry professional would adhere to their own guidelines? After all they were the ones who wrote them.

So here I sit, still waiting, twice as much time has passed as the "supposed" hear back and I have yet to hear anything. Hell I didn't even get an automatically generated "we got your submission" email. WTF?

This is the second time I have been this route with this "industry pro", and I use the term Pro loosely, and I think this will be my last. I have yet to find anyone that has said good things, though to tell the truth I haven't really been looking.

Here is what I know, IF I were given a time line by them for response and they didn't hear back from me, do I really think they would wait around? Nope. They don't really care about me. I think this is sad. After all, aren't they in the business to make $ and produce a product? What happens if you keep crapping on the folks you depend on for that product? They get tired of smelling like shit, that's what happens. They take a shower and then tell you to stuff it.

I am about at that point. I sent an email today asking is it usually took longer than the guidelines specified and am waiting to see if I get ANY response. Have no intentions of being a pain in the rear but come on! Any response at all is better than just ignoring folks. How hard can it be to set up an auto response? I know other Pro's do it. Why not this ONE? maybe they just suck.

I have heard stories from a few others who have sent to them and their tales of woe were just as bad. One got a rejection after sending a follow up eamil after the alloted response time had lapsed...then after another "unspecified" length of time actually got an email from them saying they wanted to see it? Huh? Yeah you heard me right. Rejected then later got this lovely "sounds great and we would love to see it" email.

Another person I spoke with was treated about the same. Waited 4 times the specified response time because she really wanted in with them, sent a followup email and recieved a rejection within an hour. Ugh.

Now, don't get me wrong...these are just a few incidences. I am sure there are those out there who can say nothing but good things about this Professional but I haven't found one yet.

is it just me? Am I being a bitch by expecting someone to follow their own rules? Or should I just shut up and deal, after-all I have sent to them before and know that there are others not happy with them and their practices?

What would you do?

Loops

My word there are a shit load of loops out there! I had no idea that there were so many...and it seems they are all they same.

How helpful are Promo loops in the grand scheme of things? Do they really help sales that much? OR are they just another one of many "tools" that an author can use that really don't reach the people we want them to...READERS!

I have been trolling the loops for awhile now and am ready to give my impression.

I think that loops were a GREAT idea when started. They offer a way for authors to get "out there" and make themselves known. But at what point does it become over kill?

When I stop by six or seven loops in a day and I am seeing the same names over and over, the same excerpts, the same blurbs is it helping?

There are a handful of loops out there that get a HUGE following and are always very active with not only authors but what appears to be readers (though in the age of Cyber-tech who can really be sure who they are) These loops I think are the best bets. Unfortunatly they are loops that belong to authors of specific publishers.

Is there a better way to advertise so that we are showing our face to readers? Not that authors aren't readers but you know what I mean.

Hmmm, I will have to think on this one

Release Day

The day is here. Finally after months of work, work, tears, frustration, work, anger, work....the day has arrived. You have arrived. You are now officially a PUBLISHED AUTHOR!!

Congrats. Now what? Promote on loops, blogs, and such until your fingers are numb and your vision is blurry. Interact with potential readers, post excerpts, blurbs, have contests. Comment. Comment. Comment. and then do it all over again on the next designated day. You post of Myspace, Facebook, you tweet your news. Cross promotions with other authors, blog hops...the list is endless...and tedious...and time consuming.

Does it really help? Maybe. I think you will generate some sales from this type of promotion but how much? And is it really worth it?

Cover Art

The flutter you feel when you get you cover art is wonderful. If you open the attachment and love the art you are lucky. What happens when you open the jpg and you cringe?

Ugly art. Hmmm, can anything be done? Usually not. At least not in most cases. What you get is it. The final. Congrats. Now live with it.

Again?

Yes, again. Round Three. Hopefully by this point the big stuff was all taken care of and this round is little stuff like commas and such. If not, I may kill my computer.

More Editing

Holy Crap! And I thought round one was bad. I haven't seen that much color sice I was a kid aforgot my big bos of crayons on the sidewalk and they melted under the scorching heat. While the swirl of colors was pleasing to my child's eye, the fact that my crayons were now a big blob on the walkway didn't escape me. I sat down right there in the sun and stared at the mass of color. Overwhelmed. What should I do?

Scrape them up and work with it.

Round two edits, when as colorful as the first can be a bit daunting. I thought I fixed all that shit in the first round...Now I have MORE?!?! *hangs head* okay, fine.

So here I sit telling you all that round two was as scary as round one. Now I need to get busy and try to fix the blur of color

Editing

*grumble* Round one *DING*

so you signed the contract, sent it back, filled out all the paperwork, and just got your first round edits...What a mess. Here you were all proud and happy and now this editor just track-changed the Hell out of your baby.
What do you do?
Why, edits, of course.
Here is the deal. Editors work for you publisher. It is their job to help you fine tune the product,(it's a product now, not your baby anymore)for sale.

What is the ultimate goal? To sell a shit load of books, make an ass load of money and retire to a tropical location with a hot cabanna boy whose only desire in life is to give you full body massages by the pool.

Will it happen? Maybe, but if you want to get there you have to be willing to take feedback from you pro's, be willing to work on things, delive a product that both you and the pub are happy with and then breathe a huge sihg that it's done.