ARCs and Reviews

An ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy of a book. They are usually given out to readers before the book is available for sale in order to generate reviews and early buzz. Sometimes authors give out copies after the book is published in order to generate reviews.

Why are reviews important to readers?

 

In addition to reviews helping readers find books they'll enjoy and warn them off of books they may not, reviews can also give more information that may not have been in the product description including tropes, characters, world-building, and writing style to aid in their purchasing decision.

Why are reviews important to authors?

 

Reviews generate buzz and excitement for the new release. This is important, especially in the first week a book's release when higher sales can translate into hitting a list like the NY Times or USA Today.

Reviews also help an author's discoverability. There are millions of books to choose from, making it difficult for an author, especially newer authors, to find an audience. Many authors resort to free and $0.99 books or box sets to entice new readers into giving them a try, which I believe contributes to the devaluation of all books (but that's a blog post for another day). But, the more reviews a book has, the higher the probability that the retail site will suggest the book to other readers, leading to more sales. I'm sure you've seen this before on your retail sites: people who bought "ABC" also bought "XYZ". This helps the book and author get discovered by new readers.

Why is an author's discoverability important to readers?

 

Let me start off by asking you this: how many times have you started reading a series only to have the author discontinue it in the middle? It's frustrating, right? Many times an author stops writing a series because sales are low and they need to move on to another project or sometimes *shudder* they have to stop writing all together to take a job that pays the bills. Writing a short review may help that author's sales, which may help that author keep writing the books you like to read.

So why doesn't the author just buy ad space to get the word out about their books?

 

Did you know many promotional book sites and email lists won't allow an author to buy promo space unless they have a certain number of positive reviews for their book? This is very frustrating for authors, especially new authors who don't yet have an ARC team - a dedicated group of readers who will review their books.
Reviews are also important because they can help a writer better learn who their target audience is, can help them create stories their audience will enjoy, and can help them see where to improve their writing. I will admit to using the criticisms from the first edition of Captive to improve the story for the second edition.

Why am I telling you all this?

 

For two reasons:
1) Your favorite authors need your support. Reviews don't have to be long. They aren't book reports. They can be a few sentences explaining why you liked or didn't like the story, as if you were telling your friends.

2) To be blunt and selfish yet honest, I need reviews for Captive. If you've read the book, please consider leaving an honest review at your favorite book review site (like Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, BookBub, or Apple Books).

Thank you and happy reading!

~ K.M. Fawcett

The gentle art of reviewing

'Reviewing' is such a subjective business. After I wrote a glowing review of Linnea Sinclair's Hope's Folly I went back and read all the other reviews on the book's Amazon page. Most are 4 or 5 stars, but a few – aren't. One person thought the book was far too long. Another objected to all the time spent on 'feelings'. Somebody else thought the pace was slow, another thought the romance moved too fast. Some were disappointed that previous characters didn't appear. And, of course, none of those opinions are right or wrong. Obi-wan Kenobi's comment to Luke on Dagobah comes to mind. "So what I told you was true... from a certain point of view."

All of this had me mulling on my own reviewing style. I always rate books at 4 or 5. Now, some people will think that's – oh I'm not sure what. Something negative. Something suspicious. But it isn't. You see, I don't often finish a book. I think life's too short (especially at my age) to waste time on reading something that doesn't grab me. In that case, I don't write a review. It wasn't to my taste. Neither is liver, or tripe. So if I finish a book properly (as opposed to skim reading from where I lost interest to see if my judgement was correct - Dan Brown's The da Vinci Code for instance) that's an automatic 3 out of 5. If I was critiquing a story, I would list the points where I thought improvements might be made. If I know the author, I might do that anyway, via email. But I won't write a review. If I enjoyed the story with only a few reservations, the book will score a 4 and I will offer my opinion. If I loved it, the book scores 5.

Mind you, I've sometimes changed my perception. Jack McDevitt's SF novel, Slow Lightning, comes to mind. I tried to read it a few times and gave up quickly. But then – and don't ask me why – I persevered, and the novel has become a favourite. Here's my review. Another example is Terry Pratchett's Small Gods. I LOVE Pratchett. But this book didn't press my buttons the first time through (although I did finish it). When I read it again at another time, it was a better read than I remembered.

I guess I should add that by now I've acquired the necessary thick skin about my own writing. Somebody doesn't like my work, that's okay. No one can please everybody. Other people have a different philosophy about 'reviewing', and simply see it as a way of recording their reaction to however much they read. Loved it, great, okay, ordinary, diabolical. Which is perfectly valid. However, if I followed that approach, I'd be writing a pile of reviews that said 'failed to capture my interest, never got past chapter 3'. The sad thing is, I'd have to give it a score out of 5 - and that doesn't work for me.

Pity they don't have DNF (did not finish) as a category. I wonder how many of those negative review on Fifty Shades of Grey were really DNFs?

What do you do about reviewing? I'd really like to know.

Writing a book isn't as easy as you might think

I made a comment recently on Facebook, as I struggled with the action in my latest book, that anyone who thinks that writing a book is easy has rocks in their head. Perhaps I should have said anyone who thinks writing a book is easy hasn't done it.

Some people, it seems, can churn out a book in a month or two, which keeps their fans fed. Barbara Cartland wrote 723 books in a 75-year career, which is not much shy of ten books a year (!). However, most of my author friends are nowhere near so prolific. When I publish my current book, For the Greater Good, it will be the second this year, and really, the first (The Stuff of Legend) hardly counts because most of it was written last year.

I wish the prose simply flowed from my writer's fingertips, but it doesn't. I write, I stop to work out where the story goes from here, I do some more writing, then I read back over what I wrote and fix the typos and maybe the wording. By the time the story gets to my editor I've probably edited it myself three or four times. Then I incorporate my editor's suggestions. And then I'll go through it again.

When I started off in the writing game, I did reasonably well, financially. I'm not talking even midlist, but at least I got my costs back. That's no longer true and I know I'm not the only author who has had serious thoughts about giving it away. After all, if people don't read what we write, what's the point?

If you want to encourage your favorite Indie to keep writing, there are a couple of small things you can do. The most powerful (unfortunately) is to write a review if you enjoyed a book. It doesn't have to be much - just "I liked it". It's sad but true that reviews drive vendor algorithms. Books without reviews disappear into the rising tide of new books. (Also, it does give authors a bit of encouragement to know someone enjoyed the result of their hard work.) Apart from that, tell your friends. Nothing works as well as word of mouth.

Meanwhile, the work on For the Greater Good is nearing its end.

Here's the blurb

A Human settlement is destroyed and all signs point to an Yrmak raid as Imperial agents Tian Axmar and Brent Walker scour the site for clues. One thing they never expected to find was a survivor, a rare alien feline with unusual talents.

As tensions between Humans and Yrmak ratchet to the point of no return, Tian and Brent must bring all their cyborg skills to bear as they follow a dangerous trail of deception and misdirection. 

The feline, now dubbed Puss and strongly bonded to Tian, holds the key to many of the questions driving the investigation. Unfortunately, that bond drives a wedge between Brent and Tian’s working relationship, leaving Brent with second thoughts about his decision to become a cyborg.

As the evidence unfolds, it becomes clear that a devious plot to incite an interspecies war will strike at the very heart of the Empire. With lives at risk, there's no time to waste. Racing against the clock, Brent, Tian, and Puss must stop the planned carnage, and this time for Brent and Tian… it’s personal.

I'll have it out for preorder very soon.

It's not your book anymore

Books are a bit like kids.  You get this idea for a story, you work and work and work and write and edit and hate it and love it… and there's a book. You have the book edited, have a cover designed… and finally it's finished, ready for the next phase of its existence. You're an anxious parent, you might shed a tear as, heart in mouth, you send your creation off into a larger world where readers wait with (you hope) breathless anticipation. You wait for the first sales, the first reviews… 

Of course you do. You created it.

But once you hit that 'publish' button, it's not yours anymore.

When a person buys a book, it's their book. Their opinion of the content is every bit as valid as anybody else's. And there's bugger all the author can do about it. These days it's all out there, warts and all. People are encouraged to leave a comment about anything they buy – and that results in gaming the system. People leave negative reviews of their competitors' products, whatever they might be. Including, of course, other authors. People buy reviews to improve their 'visibility'. Publishers like Amazon have done their best to tackle that rort. Sometimes, it's true, they seem to use a bulldozer where a shovel might have done a better job. And they certainly haven't done a good job of attacking the other side of gaming, where bad reviews are left for no good reason. This could be an author's street team jumping on another author's book. Or maybe one of the groups on Goodreads which seem to target some authors. Or it could be somebody whose cat died today, or has a bad dose of PMT to take out on some anonymous person in the virtual world.

We've got to live with that. Shrug and move on. This is why I don't read reviews anymore. I certainly don't want to be accused of being one of those badly-behaved authors we've all read about, denigrating reviewers, and in at least one famous case, tracking them down and attacking them. I don't mind if people don't like my books. There are plenty of books I don't like. But ooooh… there are times when I wish I could engage the writers of some unfair reviews. Like the person who left a one-star review because the book wasn't what she expected, despite the fact that the author had made it clear in the blurb that the story wasn't a romance. Or the person who slammed just about everything about the book after cheerfully admitting they'd only read up to 23%. Or the person who gave a book one star because two names in the story were similar to (not the same as) characters in a popular franchise. Or the person who gave a book one star when it hadn't even been published yet. (Goodreads allows for that). And woe betide the author if a 'reviewer' uses Aaaargh (or spelling derivatives) in the title, or the words "I tried to like this book…" (To which I say bullshit. I never buy a book intending not to like it. But I don't 'try'. To paraphrase a famous literary critic, "Like or like not. There is no try.")

These are not all examples from my books, you understand. It's one of the trials of this Writing Game, experienced by all authors, which seems to be getting worse. Coupled with that, it's harder to get your name out there, harder to attract readers. It's said that you have to have a backlist to make an impact. Well, I've got a backlist. Here it is.

Ptorix Empire

The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy

The Iron Admiral: Deception

The Complete Iron Admiral (Conspiracy and Deception in one volume)

Starheart

Crisis at Validor

The Stuff of Legend

*

Morgan Selwood

Supertech (short)

Morgan’s Choice

A Victory Celebration (short)

Morgan's Return

Ink (short)

Kuralon Rescue

*

Dryden Universe

A Matter of Trust (novella)

The Demon's Eye (short)

Eye of the Mother (novella)

A Dryden Collection (the three stories above in one book)

Ella and the Admiral (novella)

*

Paranormal

Black Tiger

White Tiger

Black Tiger / White Tiger (Black Tiger and White Tiger in one volume)

*

Historical

To Die a Dry Death

I've given you the results of my mini-marketing campaign last week. I've done one more thing – listed my perma-free book, The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy, with eReader News Today. I had excellent results through them some years ago. Here's the post I wrote about it. This time, the book was downloaded about 750 times. This does not necessarily translate into reads, or reads of other of my books, but might help. We shall see, but right now, I'd say it was a waste of money. Giving away books has lost its impact. In fact, it has fed reader expectation that books should be free, especially if you're not well known. There are so many free books out there that many are never even read.

Mind you, there are still indie authors out there who make a respectable living, and all power to them. They've established a fan base, are prolific enough, and write what their readers enjoy reading. But judging by comments from fellow writers, there are many in the same situation as me.

If you're getting the idea from all this that I'm disheartened – you might just be right. I obviously don't write the kinds of books that readers want to read. In the SFR niche, more and more of the titles seem to be steamy stories set in space, with a bare male torso on the cover. Whatever floats your boat. But that's not what I read, and it's not what I write.

On a more positive note, I've just received my copy of Timothy Zahn's latest novel, Thrawn. If you're a Star Wars fan you will have heard of the Thrawn trilogy. I'm so pleased Grand Admiral Thrawn has been embraced into the Star Wars canon. I loved the way he was portrayed in Star Wars Rebels and can't wait to see him in a future Star Wars movie. I'll write a review for next week. Oh – and I promise I won't 'try to like this book'. Even though I have high hopes. Here's the link to the book on the Zon.

The joy of #marketing

(c) Stock Unlimited

I've said often enough in the past that blog tours have lost their punch in the saturated ebook marketplace. But I've recently released The Stuff of Legend, and if sales were delivered via an IV drip the patient would be wise to be very worried. I do diddly squat in the way of marketing, so that might have something to do with it. 

What to do? 

Well, despite my protestations that reviews really don't matter, they do as far as visibility on the Zon is concerned. My first move was to enroll the book for Netgalley via Broad Universe. But Netgalley doesn't guarantee reviews, and even if reviews are forthcoming it might take time. 

While I was busily gazing into my navel trying to come up with some other clever ideas, an email arrived from the Romance Reviews talking about a new blog tour site offering reduced rates. I know a lot of authors have done well through TRR (the Romance Reviews), so I thought I'd give this new operation a try. It's called Book Unleashed. The site looks thoroughly professional, and since the email promised exposure on TRR I figured all I could lose was a few more dollars. I selected the one-day Book Blitz (scroll down on the website for the details).

I was reminded that I had some outstanding credits on TRR, and popped over there to use them for a  headline ad. Here's the info on that one. I'll confess I think that TRR is aimed more at the sexy end of the market and it's strictly a site for romance readers (hence the tile), so m y book may be a bit too science fiction for them. But hey. What's going to happen?

I've covered a few bases. Now to see what happens. Netgalley is happening now (here's the link to the book.) The headline ad will appear in the next few days. The book blitz event will be happening on 27^th March. Here's the link. I'll report on what, if anything, happened after the date.

The Stuff of Legend

When history professor Olivia Jhutta receives a distress call from her parents, she sets out into space with their business partner, her grandmother and injured Confederacy Admiral Jak Prentiss to find them. But she’s not the only one interested in the Jhutta’s whereabouts. The Helicronians believe Olivia’s parents have found an ancient weapon which they can use to wage war on the Confederacy.

Jak goes on the trip to fill in time while he’s on enforced leave, helping Olivia follow cryptic clues in what he considers an interplanetary wild goose chase in search of a fairy story. But as the journey progresses and legend begins to merge with unsettling fact, Olivia and Jak must resolve their differences and work together if they are to survive. The two are poles apart… but it’s said opposites attract. If they can manage to stay alive.

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