There are excerpts on here under the working title, New Life and Reveal. They will be linked in the tags for New Life… that should bring up any excerpts I have pushed to the blog, but know that there have been changes made since they were published. One of the big changes is that the Cooks, Jim and Dave, are now Jim and Dave Chance. Kind of worked with the title.

This book isn’t part of the main story line of the Dixon-Prince series, but Jack and Amy Dixon are prominent through the story. Warren Chestik, Jack Dixon’s head of security is also more prominent, which has lead me to begin writing his story. That one has the working title Sniper, and is about half done. I think that one might keep the title, though. There are also a few excerpts from that story on the blog.

If you haven’t already, you should subscribe to the blog. Posts are generally Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and subscribers get an email on Saturdays telling them what the posts were for the week. A few times a year I also send out a special notice to subscribers… like the one they got when this book opened for pre-order, or if I have a book on sale or free. Subscribers also get the ebook Escape for free.

I would love for you to join me here, Goodreads, Facebook, MeWe or Gab, too. And I always enjoy getting feedback.

The first one is fans. Not just those that drop a like on FaceBook or other social media platforms, but that take an extra moment and hit the share or retweet button. It can’t be overstated how important that is for our success. Most of the platforms limit our organic reach through our social media channels. Even though my FB has thousands of followers, only a couple dozen will see the posts, the result of “the algorithm.” For the rest, they would have to go looking them on Monday, Wednesday and Friday when I post to it from the blog, or on Tuesday and Thursday when I post up a link of a book for sale, or Saturday, when I post the summary of the blog.

If they don’t hunt down my page, they don’t see it. FaceBook wants me to buy ads so that people that have already “liked” my page will see what my page has posted.

It is only marginally better on my personal FaceBook profile. More people will see the “share” I post on my profile. But the algorithm limits that, too. What is more effective… not only because it hits more people, but hits different people… is when my friends share my posts.

Not just on FaceBook, but also on Goodreads, MeWe, Parler, Gab, Twitter. Anywhere. And not just me, but ANY friend that you have that has any sort of “business interest” they are promoting through social media.

The second one is reviews. I can’t overstate the importance of reviews, either. They are the ultimate marketing. Books that have good reviews, and lots of them, sell. And the books that sell are pushed up in the rankings… getting more exposure… because they sell.

Amazon and every other retailer is in the business of selling. So, if they are going to use their limited space to promote something, they want to promote something that converts. I can pay for ad space (which I do), but those ads only pay Amazon if the viewer clicks through. So, if an ad doesn’t deliver clicks, they are less likely to serve it. At the same time, they make MORE money if after the clickthrough to the ad, there is a sale. Reviews can help drive both of those.

I do spend a little time reading books with no reviews. If the premise seems good, I will give it a rip. But many readers will not spend their precious time or money on a book with no reviews. They want to know that someone else took one for the team and read it… and enjoyed it.

Not only that, but some of the marketing platforms won’t let me promote a book that doesn’t have some minimum threshold of reviews. So, I can’t even pay to GIVE AWAY free ebooks without having reviews on file for it. Oddly, the reason an author will give away books is to get reviews.

Catch-22.

That is why I will often offer up free reads to people, gifting them book through Amazon. The other option is to “buy” reviews. I don’t like that. I have run across several paid reviews that really weren’t “reviews.” In fact, it was pretty obvious that the reviews weren’t real. And fake reviews are worse than bad reviews for conversion… so I won’t buy reviews.

In fact, if I give you a book to read, as I hope for a review, I won’t hold you to it, nor will I be mad if the review isn’t a five-star masterpiece. I’ll hope that you’ll give me four or five stars, but after you get the book, it’s free-will.

So, fan-shares and reviews are the two things that really drive everything for indie authors, and others with a similar business model.

FaceBook changed their algorithm in February to curtail page posts being distributed. So, all of the pages you subscribe to… the posts to those pages are less likely to show up in your feed. You have to go look for them.

Personally, I think they did that to bump revenue for sponsored posts. I can’t scroll my feed without an ad from FB telling me I can “boost this post and get 1000% more engagement.” So, instead of posts from pages that FB says pollute the feed, I get ads from them telling me to boost everything polluting my feed…

Anywho…

Subscribing is FREE. There is a link to the right. And then, you’ll get all of my posts delivered to your inbox, AND you get a link to download Escape, an ebook I wrote JUST for this. (the link has a couple of excerpts, just to whet your appetite)

Not only would I love for you to subscribe, but when you see a post you like, I’d LOVE for you to share it. If you read one of my books, a review would be awesome as well. For Indie Authors, those simple things… shares and reviews… are like gold.