News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #123…
Summer is here! Not officially, but the past Memorial Day is often considered the unofficial start of summer. People were hitting the beaches in the tri-state area; many also remembered what that holiday signifies too. For the rest of the summer, in your leisure time, why not find a shady tree or park under your umbrella on the beach and catch up on your reading. Your choices are practically infinite with so many good books and good authors writing entertaining fiction and informative non-fiction—novels, short stories, bios, memoirs—it’s a reader’s world.
Amazon clamps down? The retail giant went after product reviewers paid by companies. It’s now using the info gained in that lawsuit to go after the companies themselves. Finally! This probably doesn’t affect all those suspicious book reviews, although it should. Amazon just considers books products, so why not consider book reviews product reviews. They do, of course. They don’t give a rat’s ass about the content of the review. They just want your ranking so they can calculate an overall rank.
Readers shouldn’t give a rat’s ass about the reviews either. Consider The Martian with its almost 28,000 reviews. If everything hasn’t been said beyond 100 reviews, something is wrong. Yet promo sites like BookBub key in on the number of reviews, so they’re also promoting excess. Even if all those reviews were legit, who’s going to read them? Readers, please, choose books by their blurbs, “peek inside” info, and even their covers—it’s much more efficient and probably more ethical. After all, it’s your tastes and opinions that count.
That doesn’t mean I don’t try to play the review game. I try to get readers who read my books to review them (see below). Some of mine aren’t even on Amazon. Rogue Planet has reviews on Bookpleasures and Readers’ Favorite (see below); these aren’t on Amazon. (Yes, I also review for Bookpleasures. My PR and marketing person offered the book there for review; I didn’t. And, while the reviewer was a nice guy, I don’t know him at all. He wrote a completely honest review.) I never pay for reviews either. I figure my review policy is generous enough. No author should pay for reviews.
New look. OK, it’s not a major change, but I recently invested in some website upgrades and maintenance—more money I really don’t have, of course, but that’s the lot of an indie author. My website people added missing book covers and those annoying “Buy Now!” buttons were removed—you now click on the cover to go to the Amazon page for the corresponding book. A few other things were done, and I still have to tidy up the text a wee bit.
I had planned to add a download feature for PDF files I can send you—for example, the PDF corresponding to my five lessons on writing fiction I compiled. I decided to just announce them on the “Free Stuff” webpage of this website. Most of that material is in the blog archives too. I realize a download button might appeal to some readers, but I had to cut costs on the website upgrade. This website is a major cost center in my meager budget, especially if you consider domain and hosting costs.
You can always help out this struggling old indie author by buying my books. See the sale for the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” below.
Rogue Planet. Here’s a recent review of my most recent sci-fi book from Sherri Fulmer Moorer of Readers’ Favorite:
“Rogue Planet by Steven M. Moore gives us a glimpse of an Eden that is more violent than the paradise we typically associate with the name. Welcome to a universe where humanity has spread to outlying planets, losing touch with Earth as they meet other species. One of these worlds is Eden, so named for its perfect environment, but unfortunately the people have made their society the exact opposite under an oppressive theocracy. The planet now finds itself in a civil war when a species they rescued from another dying planet have taken over the world, and cruelly subjected the first inhabitants of the planet to death or slavery. In this turmoil we meet groups of outlying tribes who, united under the last surviving son of a previous monarch ruthlessly murdered in the takeover, strive to take back control of their planet and join the Interstellar Trade Union of Independent Planets to prevent the savage lifestyle from continuing to plague their world.
Rogue Planet is a well plotted and well-paced novel that gives you a glimpse into a larger universe, filled with unique beings. It’s amazing to see how humanity is able to both thrive and struggle away from their home planet, as they learn to work with other species to form a peaceful galaxy, yet are still challenged by pockets of resistance or turmoil on other, more remote planets, such as Eden. Steven M. Moore does a great job with balancing both the good and bad aspects of humanity, and showing how it can work out for good or ill, depending on the intent and will of the people. I did enjoy this book and the new galaxy it opens up to readers, although I do wish there had been more ties to Earth throughout the plot. It is a good read, though, and very well written.”
“Clones and Mutants” on sale. Some authors bundle a series or part of a series. Here’s an alternative: from now until July 1, all three books in the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” are on sale AT SMASHWORDS, $0.99 for each ebook, reduced from $2.99. The clones make their appearance in Full Medical (coupon code VJ44L) as part of a complex government conspiracy, they combine forces with the mutant in Evil Agenda (coupon code LE48D) to thwart another plot, and they save the world in No Amber Waves of Grain (coupon code PZ86X). These aren’t comic book characters like X-Men—they’re real people who work to halt an apocalyptic future. Use the links and go directly to Smashwords to enter the coupon codes and get hours of summer reading for only $3. (Amazon addicts, did you know Smashwords also does .mobi files for your Kindle? They handle all popular ebook formats.) Pass the word about this sale to your relatives and friends.
Parallel literary universe. I mention this from time to time. For those readers who like series, I can offer a huge one. Many of my books belong on one huge timeline in a parallel literary universe. The sequence is as follows: the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series”; The Golden Lives of Virginia Morgan; the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy”; Soldiers of God; the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy”; Dr. Carlos stories in Pasodobles in a Quanum Stringscape and Fantastic Encores!; and Rogue Planet. That’s 13 books. (Here’s my Amazon author page for all of them.) Because that’s an unlucky number, I have two ready to go–#7 in the detective series plus another between that and Virginia Morgan—but they’ll never see the light of day if I don’t recover some expenses by selling some books. In any case, that “huge series” goes from current day to far in the future. You can have fun seeing who can finish reading that big series first (and maybe tracking down my timeline errors if I have any?). All of my books, including these, can be read independently, of course, because each book is a self-contained story. Why not start with “Clones and Mutants” above?
Reviews. I don’t have many reviewers, but I thank all who have volunteered their skills, time, and energy to write reviews for my books. All books in my catalog need reviews, so you can read ANY book in my catalog for free in return for an honest review. To sweeten the deal, I’ll throw in a freebie of your choice from that catalog—no review obligation, just a thank you for being a reviewer.
In libris libertas…
