New Reviews and Thank Yous

I always worry that highlighting reviews for my novels will come across as bragging. The last thing in the world I want is to be thought of as a show-off. I think what most people don't realize, though--non-writers, anyway--is that being a published author feels like climbing the side of a cliff. There are few handholds and footholds. It takes so, so much work to move up even just a little bit.

Small press authors have so few chances, and no real advantages over other authors. We generally can't get stocked in bookstores. We can't get advertising space in Amazon email newsletters and whatnot. We can't afford to give away hundreds of review copies in order to create buzz about a book. 

So, we rely on readers. It may sound kind of unfair-ish. But the truth is, all that marketing stuff the big presses do is to create a giant spark. What really sells books even for them is word of mouth. It's people saying to their friends, "Hey, have you read This Awesome Book? Well, you should!" I never saw an ounce of advertising for the Harry Potter books, or Twilight, or any of the other blockbusters out there. I had friends tell me about them, because friends had told them, or their kids were reading them because their kids' friends were reading them. And so on  and so forth.

Reviews feel like my life-blood. It's not bragging--it's hanging on to the one and only thing that keeps me going in this business.

And over the past two weeks I got two emails from readers (well, readers' moms) and two new 5-star reviews of Finding Angel. I'm sharing them with you today, starting with the moms who emailed me:

"So Nick walked in the door from church, sat down and finished the last 20 pages of the book. We were supposed to leave for Epcot and he wouldn't let us go until he finished. And then he said 'its a good thing we already have the second book, b/c I'm starting it as soon as we get home'. I'd say he liked it ;-)"

and

"Holly can't put your books down!:)"

Now the reviews:

"Finding Angel was one of the two best books I read in 2012. It's a page-turning quest. Angel is a compelling heroine. Gregor may be one of my favorite heroes, ever and I'm a hero-girl.
If you're a Chronicles of Narnia fan, Finding Angel is "that book" where you enter the wardrobe (except that you enter through a hand-drawn gate) and are transported to a world that vibrates with description.

The pace of the story is what catapulted it to the top of my list. I'm not a fan of slow start, action, slight breath, more action (I skim adrenaline moments). I want a story that unfolds smoothly where each page, word, description makes me want to read more. Finding Angel is that story. Angel is brought into a world she knows nothing of and discovers it's beauty, magic, and power through daily chores, visits to town, and her relationship to her cousin, Gregor. While that may sound boring, it's not, trust me. It allows the reader to experience Angel's world through her eyes. Of course, those chores help Angel discover her talents, those visits uncover secrets, and Gregor (insert swoon), his story is what makes Finding Angel exceptional.

The story is even richer for Christians. The faith elements of the story are Easter eggs. They're cleverly intertwined through the story so that when you know what to look for, you find them and smile."

and

"Finding Angel is a well-crafted and enjoyable contemporary fantasy for younger teens. I was impressed by the clean style and creative story. It's refreshing to get away from vampires, witches and werewolves. There is magic in this story, but not witches or wizards, simply those with Talents.

(a bit of plot summary, which I cut to save space) What follows is an excellent story that weaves elves, dragons, a singing beetle, a family feud and scientists into a something refreshingly unpredictable, very suitable for the age group and pleasant to read."

(This one came along with the Seal there on the right. It's from the Awesome Indies site.)

Well, I hope you didn't find this post braggy. It's really meant to be a thank-you to all the people who have supported me, read and reviewed my books, and told others about them. You really are my handholds and footholds right now. Without you, I'd have fallen off this cliff a long time ago.

Bits and Pieces of Coolness

Sticking this in here--
I never showed ya'll...
This is the bookmark
DeAnna Newsome
designed for me!

My last post talked about how I have been feeling about my writing lately, about how certain expectations have left me wondering if this really is God's path for me, and how I have realized I need to trust first.

Well, get this:

As part of that trusting first thing, I've decided to NOT look at Amazon for new reviews. It had become a bit of an obsession for me (yeah, sad, eh?) and I realized I just needed to quit cold-turkey. Since then, I've had two friends tell me they'd be posting reviews of Seeking Unseen, and a third friend from my homeschool group excitedly told me about how her husband loved Finding Angel.

Side note: the number of grown men that have enjoyed Finding Angel has really surprised me :).

Also, I posted last week on my homeschool group forum, in a message titled "Last Ditch....", where I basically laid it on the line that I didn't want to nag and sales-pitch, but even though I feel like I talk about my writing too much, an unusual number of people seem to be like, "You're an author? I didn't know that." So, I told them about the books--again--and explained clearly that I have them with me for sale when I come to park day...

Three moms responded, two wanting Finding Angel only and one wanting both books. That, for you math-challenged, is four books. When I left the park, though, I had sold TEN.

See, told ya, coolness!

Anyway, total change of subject here. Check out Mike Duran's post from Wednesday, in which he describes a new project he's working on. Sounds really cool. And he's tagged me in that post, so I will be posting next week on one of my works in progress...one I haven't shared much about.

Surprises, surprises....

My Weekend at Universal and Blatant Self-promoting

So, the fam went to Universal Studios again, where we, of course, spent most of our time in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. If you're friends with me on FB, you can see the pictures HERE. If not, well, friend me :P.

For ya'll who simply don't wanna do either, here are a couple pics:

See how nice I am? Showing you pics like this even though I worked so hard to get them all posted on Facebook? Don't you feel guilty now?

And, here's the blatant self-promoting:

A new review for Finding Angel showed up on Amazon this week that totally made my day when I found it.:

"I looked at Finding Angel at first and thought, "Nice little fantasy book, I'm sure." Well, now that I've finished it, I owe the author a HUGE apology for not expecting more. Not only did the plot and characters hold my attention well, the writing was first-rate, and I was amazed to discover that this book was not just a fantasy, but suspense and mystery as well."

You can see that I'm not making it up HERE. 

Also, the newest blog review of Seeking Unseen is up HERE. Woohoo--love that readers are enjoying the second book even more!

Last, and yeah, probably least, I made a new banner for my other site: www.findingangel.com. I like the way the banner turned out, but I still need a new background. But at the moment, the plain light gray is better than anything I've tried :P.

More Thoughts on Book Reviews: Turning the Scope Around

I had an interesting online conversation the other night with a writer friend of mine. Not someone I know deeply well, but have chatted with a several times and he's someone I respect as a writer. He'd just read Finding Angel, and has rated it "3 stars." He sent me an email to give me a heads-up before posting the full review, since it's not going to be a glowing, raving one. I appreciated it, and asked for some personal feedback.

While I didn't take the rating personally in the first place, our conversation made me feel even more okay about it. He made comments like "steady, solid prose." The main downside was that the action didn't start soon enough for him. 

I found myself saying, "I'd rather hear that I can sling a sentence but the story was too slow for someone's taste than hear that my prose is clunky."

It was a gut reaction. Before that moment, I had no idea I felt that way.  

And then he went on to give an example of a book he also gave 3 stars to for similar reasons as mine. Mrs. Perigrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I nearly laughed out loud. I LOVED that book. 

THIS is where explanations make all the difference in the world. I could have seen his three star rating and been hurt. But because he backed it up with reasoning--honest reasoning--I am totally fine with it. It put me in a class with a book I'm honored to be compared to--regardless of star rating. I can see because of his comments and the comparison to Mrs. Perigrine's that this is something I'd consider a taste issue.

You see, I happen to like books that take their time to build a character and a world before starting the heavy action. I also like subtlety. Little hints and clues of things to come that don't necessarily smack the reader in the face. 

I read a blog post very recently about Madeline L'Engle. It had to do with her religious beliefs, but the blogger commented that he was in the middle of reading A Wrinkle in Time. He said that thus far he is finding the book "boring." 

Boring? That was *the* book that spawned my love for fantasy and sci-fi novels. I picked it up today and read the first few pages and my heart did flip-flops. I love, love, love A Wrinkle in Time. One thing I love about it is that it doesn't just slam you into action. It starts with Meg sitting in the attic while it's storming outside. She's just thinking about her life, letting us get to know her.

BTW--I have thrice had my writing compared to Madeline L'Engle's and nearly had my head soar right off my body! Logically, if we follow this through, that means the blogger I mentioned would likely find *my* book boring. But knowing he feels the same about a book I adore makes that perfectly okay.

Anyway, my writer friend has yet to publish his review, but I do have one three-star on Amazon so far. I'm going to share it with you, and give you my take on it.

I really enjoyed this book. The story was creative and imaginative. I loved the characters throughout, especially Angel, Gregor and Sir Benjamin. The writing was a bit disjointed at times. I would have liked a bit more of a fluid feel through the text, but I was pleasantly surprised with the complexity. It was far more then I expected.
I certainly was wrapped up in the storyline, curious to turn the next page and see what awaited me. I could have done without the small interludes between the scientist and Dawric. I didn't think they added much in the ways of story or suspense level.
I think this is a great Middle Grade Fiction read. It is simplistic enough that a child could follow it and not inappropriate in content. Teens and Young Adults may be interested as well, but might find it to be too choppy for their taste. A fun story and worthy read.

There are two main complaints in there:

The reader found the writing disjointed/choppy/not fluid enough--which to me are all essentially the same thing, and refer to the style of writing. They didn't say my dialog was stiff and unnatural or my sentences were clunky. They're not saying my writing is bad, just not the style they prefer.

The reader also didn't dig the villain interludes. I knew from the beginning those would be a point of either love or hate for many readers, falling into the category along with prologues--extraneous info that some readers feel passionately against (a reason I kept those bits very, very short). I can also take it to mean the the story stood strongly on its own without the interludes, which is a good thing.

Anyway, in this review, the positives seem to far outweigh the negatives. I see words like: enjoyed, creative, imaginative, loved, pleasantly surprised, complexity, more than I expected, wrapped up in the storyline, curious to turn the next page, fun story, worthy read.

If that's a three-star review, I say bring 'em on!

"Oh, really?" you say. "You want three-star reviews?"

Well, of course I'd rather have higher ratings. But I'm looking at it this way. The three-star reviews I've had so far have had such positives in them I find it hard to be upset. So far, I know of four people who have said they'd rate Finding Angel 3-stars:

The two I've shown above.

Another is a reviewer who ended up asking me so many questions about Finding Angel we became friends. That, to me is a positive. Not just that I got a new friend out of the situation, but despite the story not wowing her, she continued contemplating it.

And the fourth person is a good friend, who has not posted a review but discussed her rating with me personally. I'm going to respect her privacy and not give any details, but I will say this--I respect what she had to say to me, I didn't take any of it personally because I know she has very particular taste, and I know that on some level the story *did* hit home with her and I am happy in that knowledge.

Also, if I extrapolate (which is a highly inaccurate process, but all I've got here), taking into account all the reviews I know of posted online and the comments made to me by readers that were never posted as reviews (sorry, you'll have to take my word on this), for every three-star review I get I'll be getting several four- and five-star reviews. As long as the weight leans toward the top of the scale I can be happy, because you really can't write a book that pleases everyone. (Even Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has 198 three-star reviews on Amazon right now. But the others outweigh them by so much.)

My point in all this is to follow up an what I was talking about in my last post about star ratings. Different elements mean different things to different readers. When I first look and see two stars knocked off a rating of my book, I think, "Holy cow! What did I do?" But for them a star isn't necessarily made of the same stuff as it is for me. Not that it answers the question to life, the universe and everything, but I find that interesting.

Thanks for indulging my inner musings as I turn the microscope on the ratings given my own book.

First Time Author Reviews

I've mentioned on here that I'm a member of Amazon Vine, which means I get some free stuff in exchange for reviews. I do mostly books. Go figure :P. And most of those books, I've realized, are first books. I could turn this into a post about marketing and new authors, but I won't. Just saying it does make sense, since it's the first books that need to get "out there." I know this all too well.

Anyway, my latest pick from Amazon Vine is a YA book called Hemlock, by Kathleen Peacock. It's about werewolves, and a girl whose town is being taken over by Trackers--an organized vigilante group of werewolf hunters. For some reason, this book has made me give serious thought to my reviews of these first books. Am I being too harsh with some? If so, why?

You can see some of my negative reviews  for Amazon Vine, first books HERE and HERE and HERE.

I do have positive reviews, of course. Some first books have blown me away. (For example, THIS and THIS and THIS.) But the negative ones are what have made me think. Because as a new author, I wonder if I should be more understanding. That thought has only recently occurred to me in regards to Amazon Vine books. And it's because of Hemlock.

Okay, I know this is feeling wander-y. Bear with me.

As I was reading Hemlock, I noticed some of the same "first time author" issues I've faced. Stating the obvious, over-explaining, focusing on plot to the detriment of characterization. In some ways, those things irritated me. I found myself thinking--and this is where the whole connection thing comes into play--"Why aren't these things being fixed? This book is published by one of the Big Six publishers! They have the big bucks, and hire the best editors!" I realized I was setting the bar higher for first time authors with big presses than first time authors with small presses. Because I'm with small press, and yet my editors have scoured my writing for all these issues! So why are the big press editors not?

I feel like shaking my finger at them. Shame, shame! If we can do it with our little budget, then you surely can!

And yet....I felt a connection to this author because of shared issues. And I actually enjoyed the plot, once things got going. The author reminded me of me, the way she planted clues and revealed things later. Her ideas aren't too far from my own thinking, too--I actually have a short story published that involves a small town with an organized vigilante group of werewolf hunters. I liked that the romance in the book wasn't the main plot line, that it was second to the mystery that evolved. I wanted to root for her, because doing so was like rooting for me.

Honestly, this post isn't meant for anything but me to share this experience. I doubt I'll change the way I review books, whether through Amazon Vine or not. But the idea that ALL first authors have issues to overcome, regardless of who their publishers are, has shifted my view a bit. It's also made me believe even more strongly that I could have found a large press to take me.

What say you? Should first time authors be reviewed differently than veterans?

PS--the cover of the book is gorgeous, isn't it? But it has nothing at all to do with the story. So not getting that trend...

More than Numbers

I knew it would happen. I knew that after Finding Angel released I would become one of those authors obsessively checking Amazon and Barnes & Noble for reviews. I knew that I'd be plagued with worry over what people think of the novel. I am generally not someone who worries about what people think of me, but this is my book. This is my baby. And what people think matters when it comes to books. Because books that don't get thought of well don't get read.

I also knew that I would be disappointed. Most people don't leave reviews on websites. Think about a book you know everyone has heard of. A book that you know has sold millions of copies. Go look it up on Amazon. You may find a few thousand reviews. I did that just now. The Hunger Games has just over 3,000. Twilight just over 5,000. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone also just over 5,000. That is a drop in the bucket. A few thousand out of millions upon millions of readers. If you see a book with a few hundred reviews, it has most likely sold hundreds of thousands.

That still doesn't help me feel better. Yes, I know my book has been out all of one month. Yes, I know it's through a small press. But, still.

OK, I am not here to whine. I am here to tell you what does help. Something that happened today. A girl who was taking a homeschool class with my daughter told me she loved Finding Angel. Face to face with genuine excitement in her eyes. Followed by sincere disappointment when I told her it is likely going to be a full year before the sequel is published.

That is what helps, because I see that I wasn't just shooting in the dark. I hit the mark, the target audience I intended, and those readers are truly enjoying what I wrote. Will I ever get to the point where I have thousands of reviews? Likely not. But when I see real joy in the eyes of someone who has read my novel, I know it's not really the number that counts.

Of course, I won't be at all upset if next time I check Amazon that number goes up ;).