Organic Book Reviews Are Gold!

I am a small fish in a rather large pond. Name recognition is one of the goals of any new author as we struggle to compete with the big names. This is where reviews are so helpful. Do you buy anything anymore without looking at the reviews? I don't. If you read a book by any author and love or like it, give the author a virtual hug by writing a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If star reviews are silver, written reviews are gold! It doesn't have to be long or wordy, just a short blurb to encourage others to read it.

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First sub-edit from editor

I have written about this before but it's worth mentioning again. I feel like a fraud. And it's not just me. A niece recently shared a NY Times article (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/your-money/learning-to-deal-with-the-impostor-syndrome.html?_r=0) about this very topic and according to researchers, pretty much everybody feels this way at some point. They call it the 'Imposter Syndrome'. Famous writers have experienced it, a renowned marketing expert and even US presidents. The key is learning how to deal with this feeling. We can acknowledge it and cower, allowing it to stand in front of us like a club bouncer, denying us from moving forward, or we can recognize it, tell it, "You don't scare me!" ( even though it scares our pants off ) and push past it. It makes me wonder how many people with amazing potential have been frightened off by it. How many wonderful creations, thrilling inventions or new strategies have never seen the light of day becaus...

Trying a New Genre

Though I write Regency Romance (and children's historical fiction), my very favorite genre to read is the "Whodunnit", the classic murder mysteries of Agatha Christie fame. It was her books, in fact, that made me into a reader as a child. These mild mysteries, that have had a following since Ms. Christie's days, seem to have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity of late under the genre name of Cozy Mysteries. The thought came to me a few months ago, "Since you like them so much you should try writing one!" So I am. I have created a dynamic duo, to borrow a phrase, who snoop out clues and help the local Bobbies. They are rich, beautiful and from the upper classes - because for some reason that's often how we like our heroines to be. This book will not reflect the politically correct culture of our day, but will try to capture the essence of life in the 1920's, while solving a crime. I think it will be a lot of fun!

Judging a Book by its Cover

Okay, confession time. How many of you choose a book just because you like the cover? Well, apparently a vast majority! A book's cover is the author's sales pitch to the reader. It must grab the potential buyer's attention and outshine the millions of other covers out there. No pressure! I am also learning that there are many, subtle indicators, to readers of particular genres, about what they can expect to find inside a book. If your cover promises something that the reader does not actually find within its pages, you can lose a reader. The opposite is true too. If your cover does not suggest 'PG 13' rated content within, but the book contains it, you can offend your reader. Wow, it's a minefield! Research of other covers in your particular genre is a very important place to begin. I self-published my first book and created the cover myself. I was new to the industry and had no training. That was probabl...

Julie Regency Romance

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