Do You Want to Give A Shout Out for a Favorite Author?

By Peg Brantley

Evocative Characters. Intriguing Crime. Compelling Stories.

Most of our readers simply enjoy our books, and really in the end that's quite good enough. But sometimes readers would love to know how they can support us and get the word out.

Here are a few ideas:


★ Write a review for Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, DorothyL, For Mystery Addicts, your local library’s website, or any other online review site. It doesn't have to be detailed. Just what you liked.


★ Talk about the book on social media sites. Twitter, Facebook… you know what I mean.


★ Blog about it.


★ Ask your local library to order a copy of the book.


★ Donate a book to your local dentist, doctor, or hairdresser to put in the waiting room.


★ If you’re part of a group, even a group that's not about reading, tell them about the book.


★ Suggest the book to your book club, if applicable. Most of us would be happy to attend a book club in person if possible, or Skype.


★ “Like” the book on Amazon.


★ Direct people to our website.


★ Write a review for your local newspaper.


★ Purchase copies to give away as Christmas and birthday gifts.


★ Pin the cover or other pictures to Pinterest.


★ Share your favorite quotes from the book online. If you purchase an e-book, highlight your favorite quotes. (Personally, I get a kick out of these even though I'm not sure they contribute to any sales.)


★ Suggest the book on reading forums, like those you can find on Goodreads.


★ Make a video about the book and upload it to YouTube or Vimeo.

Can you think of any other way a reader can help spread the word? (Thinking hard about this as my next book is about a month away from release. October 22nd, October 22nd, October 22nd…)

I'm currently in NYC enjoying a brief getaway. If I don't respond quickly to your comments, you'll know why—I'm either at MOMA or Ground Zero.

What's Next for Thursday?

The Woman Who Died a Lot (Thursday Next #7) by Jasper Fforde (Viking hardcover, 20 October 2012).

Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.

Thursday's had a rough time.  Injured in her last adventure, she[s been quietly recovering at home in Swindon, trying to ensure that her brilliant daughter Tuesday, now sixteen, has a somewhat normal life.  Her son Friday is dealing with the  dissolution of the Chronoguard and looking for a new direction for his life.  And then there's Jenny, the daughter who doesn't exist.

Now, hoping to get back into Bookworld SpecOps, she is instead offered the supposedly more prestigious position managing the All-You-Can-Eat-at-Fatso's Drink Not Included Library.  She's disappointed, but decides to make the best of it, when suddenly she realizes she's not herself but a temporary replacement created by the evil Goliath Corporation.

Running a library is difficult, especially when she has to explain to the board why she's not in favour of dawn raids for library fines and deal with militant Enid Blyton fans who want the books returned to their original non-politically-correct form.

Yes, the storyline is as confusing as it sounds.  That's one of the hallmarks of a Jasper Fforde novel.  Fforde plays fast and loose with time, existence, bureaucracy and religion, but he has a wonderful way with the English language and the many shades of meaning a single word can have.

It's probably best to read this series in order, beginning with The Eyre Affair (2001) in order to become accustomed to Fforde's unique writing style.


The Penguin Group has kindly offered  a hardcover copy of THE WOMAN WHO DIED A LOT for one of my readers.  Please comment below about Jasper Fforde and/or Thursday Next, and make sure to include contact information.  Entries from the US only, please.

Excuse me while I have a crazy moment of pure passion

By Gayle Carline

Wait - am I up again? Already?

Sorry, I'm a little crazed this week, as in, the further I get into this week, the crazier I am. You see, I'm on the board of my library's "friends foundation." If you've never heard of that term, we're the folks out raising funds to support a library's programs because they are usually at the mercy of city or county budgets.

Our library, fortunately, is not wedded to the city, county, or even state. It's a stand-alone unit that gets its own funds from the city's taxes. But that money only covers the basics of salaries, building maintenance, utilities, etc.

The Placentia Library Friends Foundation raises money for special programs and events, and even keeping the library relevant, with computers and training classes.

But I digress. The reason this is making me crazy is that, for the past year, I've been in charge of the library's biggest fundraiser - our Author's Luncheon. It happens this Saturday and has been running smooth as a well-oiled machine, which means everything's primed to go to hell in a handcart.

They put me in charge because I was silly enough to complain last year that they didn't give me enough to do. Lesson learned. I decided if I was going to be in charge, we'd have mystery authors. Everyone jumped on board with the theme of Make Mine a Mystery. We've got two dynamite speakers, Jeff Sherratt and Michele Scott.

Jeff writes noir stories about a defense attorney named Jimmy O'Brien. He's such an engaging guy, I always tease that he could sell books to a corpse. Michele writes everything, and I mean, if it pops into her noggin, she'll get a story out of it. She writes cozies, thrillers, women's fiction, and even young adult. Her thriller, Daddy's Home (written as A.K. Alexander) turned up in the Wall Street Journal's Best Seller list a couple of weeks ago for Fiction E-books.

As you can tell, I'm uber-excited to have these two come and speak at our luncheon.

I get really riled up when I start talking libraries. I want to support them in as many ways possible. I've read the news about library closings. I've heard people say libraries aren't relevant anymore. Sad to say, even members of my local community have said libraries are on their way out.

My answer is that they are more relevant than ever and we need to do whatever it takes to keep them. Why?

For one basic reason: Libraries are, and will always be, the last bastion of free information and education. Yes, you can find almost anything on the Internet. But it's not free. (No, not even with free WiFi at Starbucks.) Not if you're poor. If you are living hand-to-mouth, if you're scraping by on a couple of part-time jobs that offer no health benefits but have you working over 40 hours a week to try to feed your kids and keep your house payment and your car operating, how on earth do you go out and buy a computer and pay a monthly bill for internet service? Even a smart phone can be out of your budget.

But you can go down to your library and get knowledge. We have computers and classes to train you to use them. We have books with information about how to get things done, and books about people who started with nothing and built empires to inspire you, and books that just let you escape from a day of drudgery. We have movies. We have books on tape. We have tutoring programs and children's programs and librarians who are there to help you find what you're looking for.

It's all for your use, and it's all free.

As I watch the gulf widen between the very rich and the very poor, my passion for libraries grows stronger. So, no matter how much crazier this week becomes, or what kind of spinning I will be doing this Saturday, trying to make all of our patrons happy, I know I'm supporting something great. I will do it with a glad heart… a large glass of wine.

Libraries, Nook Readers, and Amazon

By L.J. Sellers and Andrew Kaufman

L.J: In response to one of my blogs about enrolling in the Amazon select program, which requires exclusivity, a librarian posted this comment:
"As a public librarian and a Nook owner, I see another side. We are struggling to offer ebooks and eaudiobooks to our patrons without any increase in funding while still keeping up our print collections for patrons who have not jumped on the ereader bandwagon. We have to deal with everything from publishers who won’t sell to libraries at all, publishers who charge libraries up to 10 times the price of what an individual pays, publishers who limit the number of times the item we purchase may be used, etc. We have access to one company (Overdrive) who will maintain our ematerials, but we are bound by their policies or we can go independent, but the costs and knowledge base required are so astronomical that it currently isn’t possible to maintain our own ematerials. Seems like everyone is trying to figure out the best way to do this.

...It worries me when I read that some of you want to be Kindle exclusive. As I said, I have a Nook and I don’t want to switch to an Amazon ereader for many reasons. It worries me that some day there might be only one ereader and we would all be at the mercy of one company. None of you mentioned selling through Overdrive and I wonder your thoughts on that.

Please know that the library community wants you to make money. We are author’s biggest champions and want you to flourish in whatever medium is popular at that time."

Andrew’s response: I actually struggled for quite some time over the decision to make my work exclusive to Amazon, and the reasons were exactly as mentioned above. I didn’t want to keep people from having access to my work simply because they owned different e-reading devices, didn’t think it would be fair. In addition to that, I believe competition among companies is of benefit to all.

Unfortunately, at the same time, I also noticed that my sales on Nook and other e-reading devices had been progressively dwindling down to practically nothing. In addition to that, on Amazon—the place where I make the lion’s share of my earnings—my sales were also showing a steady decline as the market became flooded with more self-published authors than ever. I was sinking all around and at one point, wondered if I could stay afloat. I soon came to the realization that if I didn’t have readers, I wasn’t going to survive as an author, something that’s as vital to me as breathing. I had to do something.

As independent authors, we face a particularly difficult challenge because odds are stacked against us. We carry the stigma that our work is inferior to traditionally published authors. We also don’t have the kind of wide distribution channels that mainstream authors have, nor do we get cash advances to rely on. We make our money one book at a time, one reader at a time. In short, it’s up to us and only us to ensure our work gets read, and we have to do what we can do increase the odds.

After releasing my new novel, one that I’d worked tirelessly on for more than two years, and after seeing that it was beginning to fall through the cracks, I knew I needed to take action. I believed very strongly in it and knew I needed to do whatever I could to ensure its success. Select was an opportunity to do that, to breathe new life into it, to give it the exposure it needed. In all honestly, was my only option. I took it.

Do I feel badly that readers with Nook and other devices are being penalized? Absolutely. However, I also realize that the decision to go exclusive is not forever; it’s for ninety days, and I can most certainly make my work available to the others after that if there’s a demand for it.

L.J.’s response: I also feel badly for Nook readers, but I’m running a small publishing business that supports my household, and I had to make a profitable business decision. I hope Nook owners will take their case to B&N and ask them to make the changes that will allow self-published books to be discovered. Without that, most indie authors aren’t making money on Nook and have little reason to stay.

As for library patrons, I would love to make my books available to them, but unless I donate them, it’s nearly impossible. Even when I had a small publisher, libraries didn’t buy my books, despite my great reviews and the thousands of dollars I spent sending out promotional material.

As for Overdrive, they don’t deal with individual authors. Even my ebook distributor, which handled hundreds of authors (all with five books or more) had difficulty accessing Overdrive. The other consideration is that indie ebooks typically sell for less than five dollars, and digital files never wear out or need to be replaced, so the library market holds little profit for indies. Still, if the opportunity were available, I would donate ebooks to libraries just to expose new readers to my work. But I have no idea how to make that happen or if libraries can even accept donated ebooks.

The bottom line is: Amazon is the only company that has ever supported my work and helped me access readers, so they have my loyalty.

What are your thoughts on this hot-button topic?