So, I’m looking for reviewers. Obviously, I want good reviews… but I also really want honest reviews (I’d rather have an honest 4-star than a BS 5-star). Potential readers that value reviews can spot a fake a mile away. I know that I have.

To get that done, every once in a while I will gift a few books to try to get reviews. Right now, I am willing to do another 5 free books (you get to choose any of my Kindle titles). I gift them through Kindle… so you will have to give me your email address. I won’t record it beyond using it to send you the notification to pick up the gifted Kindle book.

I won’t be offended if you choose to subscribe to my blog, but you don’t have to… And even leaving the review is on the honor system. After you pick up the book, I can’t take it back. Again, my only requests are A) you collect the book from Amazon fairly quickly. They don’t notch it as a sale until you claim it… so I pay for it, but don’t get the royalty… which offsets part of the cost of the book… until you claim it and B) that you read it sometime in the not too distant future and leave a review.

Sorry, but I can’t do the same deal with the printed books. It’s too expensive.

If you REALLY want to help me out, you will also leave reviews for other books of mine that you might read. Other indie authors would appreciate you reviewing them, too. Publishing house pay review services a LOT of money to get those initial reviews. I just don’t have that kind of budget… nor the patience to deal with a publishing house. Frankly, I don’t have the kind of budget I would need to start with a publishing house anyway. Unless you already have the name recognition, they want new authors to front most of the money they are going to spend to get you launched.

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.

I actually enjoy the act of writing. Even editing. After the book is “written” I know I will have to read it several more times. Countless. The first few editing passes will be to correct major issues. Perhaps the thrust of the story changed as it was being written, or during the first edit I saw a direction the story was already moving that was unrecognized before. The first pair of full reads after the initial draft will be to work on those problems.

Over and over I will go back and reread the story. Checking timelines and making sure actions and characters have workable progressions. Then, I need to clean up the language and read for typos and grammatical errors. (Don’t worry… there will still be some when I’m done)

But, after living with a story for months, it is time to slap it on the but and send it out into the world.

That’s when things get difficult. Until one builds a fair amount of success, their new books are invisible. They are just sitting there in the warehouse of availability… but nobody knows they are even there. Even people that “search out new authors” really don’t. They are people that are willing to read new authors. But they need to be found.

That’s where “the share” comes in… You, enlightened reader, have the ability to be the influencer. Those intrepid souls that seek out new authors are really intrepid souls that read unknown authors their friends have read.

My friends and followers on social media… THEY are the ones that can make or break a book. By sharing their reads with their friends, a market can be found. Instead of languishing in the vastness of the virtual warehouse that is Kindle, a few brave souls may wander by, looking for something unique. If they share, in turn, then a few more may make the discovery.

So, right now… today… you have the opportunity to be the influencer. Give one of my books a read. Give it a share. Start the process. Then you can say that you read my stories back before… I know that I would be grateful.

Or maybe it is more like a prisoner that can’t get outside.

Several times in the last few days I have had interactions on FaceBook with people on my friends list. They aren’t seeing any of my posts about writing. If I post something political, it is everywhere. Mention a book, invisible.

Perhaps it is the algorithm looking for conflict to create engagement. Or maybe it is related to the 50 ads I get from FaceBook each day offering me more eyes on my posts starting at $5 a day.

Either way… I have become invisible. And without more marketing, my books won’t be read. It’s frustrating. Really frustrating. The flip side of the coin is that there are a million different marketing paths I can take. But… most of them suck. All of them promise massive sales and engagement, but there is always a little hitch.

Regardless, I either have to find a way to break out, or just accept that actually selling books is too far fetched. Personally, I think stealing the spoon from the prison food line and trying to dig under the wall is a lot more attractive than giving up. But the question remains… Will I just dig myself into a different prison?

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.