I’d rather be writing books, but if I don’t wade into the promo stream, how will I ever send my babies out into the world? Like any new endeavour, the path is uncertain and fraught with hazards. There is enough information—good and bad—to make your mind spin. So, sometimes we make mistakes.
Recently, I wrote that people who don’t buy my book from Amazon can’t leave a review. I was so convinced of this statement; I offered my first book free for five days so readers who’d previously purchased a print copy at a reading or local bookstore could purchase it for $0.00 and it would show as a verified purchase.
Now I’m reading that’s NOT TRUE! You don’t have to buy my book from Amazon to leave a review. As I’m sorting this out (in my own confused mind) I thought I’d share my discoveries with you. As much as I hate being wrong (don’t we all?) I think it’s important to correct misinformation. I mean, it was misinformation that got me here in the first place.
Who can submit an Amazon review?
Bottom Line: Anyone who’s made any $50 purchase from Amazon can leave a review. Amazon is a huge distributor, so they make their own rules and sometimes tweak them. I tested this theory just to be sure.
I bought Wren Handman’s urban fantasy novel, In Restless Dreams, from her at an author reading in February. When I tried to submit to Amazon.com (US) I didn’t make the cut—I haven’t purchased anything from the US—but I was able to leave a review on Amazon.ca (Canada) because of those supplements I ordered back in March.
What does this mean?
If you picked up a print or digital copy of any of my books sometime, anytime, in the last few years, (even at the library) and read it, you can leave a review (as long as you bought something else from Amazon.) Now that I know this, I’m going to cut/paste some of my Goodreads reviews to Amazon. It only takes a minute and every review helps an author.
What does “Amazon Verified” mean?
Simply that the customer who wrote the review actually purchased the item at Amazon. Some customers like to see this badge before they buy so it gives more credibility to a product or book review. People used to rig reviews by creating thousands of fake names and accounts, so now Amazon is more careful, which I like. Ethical and honest is good.
What if you don’t use Amazon Kindle?
As of July 2020, I’ll still be on Amazon, but I’m taking all my books wide. So, you’ll be able to find them on Kobo, Apple IBooks, and other distributors. You can post reviews in any of several places. I’ll outline some below.
Why are reviews so important ?
Reviews aren’t just important to an author, they’re important to a reader. Do you read reviews? I do. A good reviewer doesn’t just say I liked it or I didn’t. They reveal enough about the story to allow you to make an informed decision. For example, although I write urban fantasy, I usually read and watch murder mysteries, psychological thrillers, and action adventures—which is why there’s a “twist of murder” in my books. I like eccentric complicated characters who live big in the here and now . . . unless I’m delving into history. So that’s what I look for in a review.
How do reviews help an author? First, they help potential customers decide if they want to read this book from the millions available. Many books I compete with have hundreds and thousands of reviews. Seriously. I’m still trying to figure out how to make that happen. I think I should create a coven and get a magic wand!
Book Promoters
Most of the book promoters I want to approach have strict eligibility requirements. For example, Adrenaline sends out thousands of weekly newsletters highlighting free and discounted mystery & crime e-books, but to be considered you need a minimum of 10 reviews and ratings (stars). I recommend you sign up for Adrenaline if you like mystery and crime. I’ve discovered and downloaded a few e-books lately that look fantastic.
Today, I should have just enough reviews—THANK YOU EVERYONE!—to submit to Adrenaline for a July promotion.
Another e-book promoter is The Fussy Librarian. Join for free, and choose your genres and email frequency. I’m running a promo for To Charm a Killer with them on July 7.
Goodreads is fairly well known. I track books I’ve read and want to read there. I also post reviews. Goodreads keeps Listopia—lists of books where readers vote for their favourite books.
My books were just listed and you can vote for them! You’ll find the lists on each book page. Please vote and follow me on Goodreads!
Bookbub is another site that can really drive author and book ratings, and you can sign up to receive emails from them that feature free and discounted books. You need heaps of reviews to become one of their featured authors—it’s like winning a lottery—but I know someone who did it this year, so it’s possible.
You can leave reviews for books you’ve read on Bookbub without making any purchase whatsoever! Here’s my Bookbub page.
This is just a smattering of the marketing know-how I’m learning as I roll along as an Indie Author and Publisher. You can see why I’d rather be writing or walking my dog in the woods!
Thank you SO much if you’ve already posted reviews for my books! You have no idea how much I appreciate your support.
I bought the paperback edition of In Restless Dreams from Wren Handman in March 2020. We read together at an Author Reading in B.C. and she was so funny and entertaining, I had to buy her book. (Mini-spoiler: Wren read the part where Sylvia eats “the brownie” at a party—an act that shows her hero’s innocence.)
Written in casual first person, we spend the whole book in Sylvia’s head. She’s a normal teen with some extraordinary problems. Her parents are separated, so after her mother almost commits suicide, Sylvia and her thirteen-year-old brother, Eric, are sent to live with her rich attorney father in the Upper East Side, New York. Oh, to have such problems—a mansion, a father who doles out credit cards, and a hot chauffeur to shuffle you to and from prep school!
The first half of the book follows Sylvia’s challenges adjusting to the rich privileged, ofttimes, cruel kids at her new rich prep school. About half-way through the book, Sylvia eats “the brownie” and suddenly starts seeing things she shouldn’t—even given the nature of “the brownie.”
The back-half of the book chronicles her adventures as the new Phantasmer—a being who can change Fairy with her thoughts. She’s introduced to The Stranger from the Unseelie Court and the hot, blond green-eyed knight from the Seelie Court, and we are entertained with the history and complications of Fairy.
There’s a thread of Alice in Wonderland running through the text. My favorite quote: “Artists and thinkers imagine so strongly, they warp bits of the world to match their creation. Lewis Carroll dreams of Jabberwocky and somewhere a fae is born who truly hates Vorpal swords.” Sylvia’s entry into Fairy is much like Alice’s into Wonderland, and this is exactly what Handman’s done in this book—dreamed a Phantasmer and so she is born.
Judging by the lengthy set-up, I’m assuming this is a series. Hurray! There’s already a hint of a love triangle between Sylvia, The Stranger, and the Green-Eyed Knight.
A Yukon camping getaway in December with a Newfoundland dog and a wolf-dog tells you how much Casey and Eric need a break alone together. Eric Dalton is the Sheriff of Rockton, a Yukon town of two hundred rebellious refugees and Casey Duncan is the detective. There is one more law officer in this town, Sheriff Will Anders, who’s holding down the fort while his friends escape for two days. Literally. Rockton is a fort in the wilderness, complete with walls and gates. People have to apply to live in Rockton and everyone accepted is there escaping something life-threatening, be they perpetrator or victim or both.
Casey and Eric met in book one, cohabited in book two, and now, in book five, they’ve settled into a marriage. So, as couples do at this stage in their relationship, they’re contemplating what comes next. Children. However, Casey was beaten so badly by a gang of men when she was a teenager, she isn’t sure she can conceive or carry a baby to term. This obsession with parenthood and babies is a theme that gets triggered in the first scene and carries through to the end.
Eric has gone hunting with the wolf-dog and Casey wakes up alone in the woods. Well, alone except for Storm, her bouncy one-hundred-and-forty pound Newfoundland dog who is now sixteen months old and learning to track. Casey and Storm go to collect wood for the fire, and Casey hears something. A baby crying. Except there’s nothing anywhere but a heap of snow in the middle of the clearing. A trained homicide detective, Casey is immediately suspicious, then she begins to dig. What she uncovers is bizarre and heartbreaking: a murdered woman with an infant beneath her jacket clutched to her chest. The rest of the book is a chase to discover murderer and motive.
The baby is tiny, a month old at best—a winter baby—born in a time of hardship. She’s healthy though, despite being buried alive in the snow, freezing and dehydrated. Someone’s been nursing her, though not the dead woman, who Casey quickly discovers is a wildling with tattoos.
This story delves into life in the various communities outside Rockton, each with its own morals, rules, and cultures. Besides the folks who live in the First and Second Settlements, there are traders and tribes of hostiles roaming the woods. And as Casey pursues the killer, we meet representatives from all these communities.
Would you ever contemplate living alone in the woods? Some people do. Maryanne, a professor who was once Rockton’s biologist, left the town of two hundred to live with another woman and their partners in the woods: a doctor, a wilderness guide, an eco-builder, and a biologist. They had plans and hopes and wilderness experience until the hostiles attacked, killed the men, and took the women.
Maryanne, who Casey meets and brings back to Rockton, explains that the hostiles also have rules. Sex must be consensual and women choose partners as necessary protectors. Women are not allowed to bear children, so if they get pregnant, it’s terminated. Rape is forbidden. The female shaman conducts rituals and makes the teas: two types … one that creates a state of “tranquil unreality” and another for special occasions that ramps everyone up into a “wild, primal frenzy.”
A complexity of this story is that Eric and his brother Jacob were born to settlers. When his parents left him alone to go trading, Sheriff Dalton and his wife took him to Rockton and “adopted” him without his parents’ consent. Eric’s background naturally affects the way he lives. He was too young to remember but still wonders about his real parents.
Much crime fiction is plot-driven—follow the clues, solve the murder—but in this book more than in her other four novels, Armstrong balances plot and character development. Casey grows with every encounter and reveals more of her hidden personality. Throughout the book, we are privy to several different types of relationships. People come to the Yukon to escape the south but bring their problems and prejudices with them.
As usual, Kelley Armstrong delivers a tense, suspenseful mystery, with her characteristically clean, tight prose. With so many eccentric suspects, Casey is kept guessing and second-guessing right until the big reveal. In the end, Casey and Eric get their quiet moment alone, and it’s time to contemplate love and families and what they want next. This series could go on forever. Let’s hope it does.
