Want To Get Lucky This November?

I have two fantastic giveaways to tell you about! November is your month to get lucky! Lucky with books, gift cards, and a Kindle Paperwhite.  Check out the details of the first giveaway for Books-a-Fire. 

Books-a-Fire is a group of awesome authors. We will award a FREE Kindle Paperwhite loaded with books by the sponsoring authors. The contest starts November 3 and ends November 17. Although NO PURCHASE is required to enter, please browse our wide variety of books and click on author links for extra entries! In addition to the Free Kindle Paperwhite, we will award extra prizes: one $50 gift card, two $25 gift cards and two bundles of books by sponsoring authors. Entries close at midnight November 17, 2012 Eastern Time Zone, but don’t wait, enter today and spread the word! To enter visit our Book-a-Fire website www.booksafire.com.

Grand Prize: An Amazon Paperwhite, valued at $119, filled with eleven e-books written by the sponsoring authors!

Weekly Prizes: 

(1) $50.00 Amazon Gift Card
(2) $25.00 Amazon Gift Cards
(2) Bundles of e-books by sponsoring authors

You can enter this contest a total of 12 times, once on each participating authors site, plus the main contest page! Click here or above on the giveaway tab to enter on this site. Then, visit the Books-a-Fire website for links to all the other great books and places you can earn additional entries! Good luck! Happy reading! Books-A-Fire Giveaway



The next giveaway is awesome too - made especially for readers! My friend, author Rachelle Ayala, is sponsoring a huge ebook giveaway! Rachelle has picked twelve books that she loves or have affected her in some profound way (and Always & Forever made the list) and she's giving them away! There are a wide variety of books and three people will win.  Check it out:

Giveaway

They're choosing three winners!

First Winner: Will get the Complete eBook Collection... Yes all 12 of them!

Second Winner: Will get to choose any 6 eBooks out of the 12 listed 

Third Winner: Will get to choose any 3 eBooks out of the 12 listed 

To see what books are included and enter this fabulous giveaway, follow this link: http://b00kr3vi3ws.blogspot.com/2012/11/RachelleAyala.html 

Happy reading, my friends, and good luck! 

eeeChantelfff

Are Indie Authors Ruining the Publishing Industry?

I have a little rant today...well, okay, it might end up being a big one. 

In the last week, Amazon has gone on another witch-hunt to get rid of so-called 'fake' reviews. I've been relieved in that, so far, all of my reviews have remained intact as well as the reviews I've given to other books. I do know a few authors who have had reviews removed. The stupid thing is, the ones removed are from people that weren't even known to the authors. This means that, in fact, the reviews most likely getting removed are the true reviews. The only thing that makes sense to me is that a small group of people (including some publishers and traditionally published authors, as well as readers) are speaking out against Indie authors and putting pressure on Amazon to "do something about this problem!" So, is Amazon just arbitrarily deleting reviews? It seems that way. At the same time, I'm not sure what else they can do about it. I actually understand their position. 

The thing is, there are a lot of terrible Indie books out there. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm really not. But if you are a follower of my blog, you know I agonized over my decision to self-publish particularly because there are so many people out there publishing books who shouldn't be. My very first experience with an Indie book was something so horrible, I swore I would never buy one again. 

Once I met some Indie authors who actually are writing just as traditional authors, using editors, cover artists, beta readers, whatever they can to improve their product and make it fabulous, they slowly changed my mind. With proper editing, I think even a bad book could become a good one. Hiring an editor is the answer to every Indie author's problem. That and critique groups. I can't believe how terrific some of these people are at what they do. Truly talented folks!

I've been wrapped up in my own little world now, associating with people who are doing things the right way--people putting out top-quality books even though they are the dreaded "Indies." I started to get really upset by Amazon deleting reviews, picking on Indies, it would seem (although I've recently heard of traditionally published authors losing reviews too--I just think the people complaining about reviews are spurred on by Indie's and dishonest people paying for reviews **cough** John Locke **cough cough**). However, I've recently been reminded of why I once vowed never to buy another Indie book. 

I've fallen into being a book reviewer quite by accident. I never intended to become one. Really, I like such an eclectic mishmash of book genres, that I just figured it would be fun to put up reviews for the books I'm reading that I really like. I love writing, but reading has always been a passion for me. I wanted anyone who found me to be able to learn a little more about me by what I'm reading. Maybe get them to tell me more about them by what they are reading. I never really expected authors to start sending me their books and asking for reviews. 

In the beginning, I thought it was sort of neat. I get free books to read, and I can share the message with my readers about new books out. I've moved on to author interviews too, all more of a chance to let my readers connect with new authors. The problem is, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, so I've told people, 'if your book isn't at least a 3-star for me, I won't post a review.' My books I love feature was truly just supposed to be books I love. 

Here's my problem--I've received a few books in the past few weeks, some even with a so-called 'publisher' of the small-press variety. They are, in a word, horrible. Either I can't make heads or tails of the story line, or there is just a bunch of talking heads sitting around chatting and I can't focus on anything as my eyes glaze over, or the dialogue is so stiff and the writing so passive, it's obvious to me the person didn't even bother to submit to a critique group and get basic help, let alone attending writing classes or hire a quality editor. Heck - even just ask some English major at a college to go over it. Anything! 

I made it through around 15% of the first book, though I set it aside several times and proclaimed I wasn't going to finish it. Then, I'd get to feeling bad. I looked at the book on Amazon. It has glowing reviews. Am I just too jaded by my "critique" mentality from helping my partners at www.critiquecircle.com? Was I being too hard on other authors? I tried so many times to read that book, making it through a few pages at a time before I finally couldn't handle it. If it is just me, I guess that's the way it rolls, but I would never read that book for pleasure.

So, I moved on to the next book. The person I got this book from is super sweet, and we've talked quite a bit. As a person, this author is great. The story line of the book might even be fabulous--but I will never know. The problem? Talking heads the entire way. Number one rule in every class I ever took says don't have talking heads (where your characters are just talking back and forth with nothing else going on). This book is the worst case I have ever seen. Pages and pages of just dialogue. No modifiers even to tell who is speaking through PAGES. What happens if I lose track of whose speaking? Do I go back to the beginning of the chapter where there was a so-and-so said, five pages back, and then count lines to figure it out? Sorry, but I'm not willing to do that. 

An editor could have fixed these issues, should have fixed them. What scares me is that these books were both supposedly put out with a publisher. Is it a fake publisher that is actually just the author's business name? I'm not sure. When I chose to self-publish, I put my own name as the publisher, but I know some authors create a publishing company to try to lend legitimacy to their work. I figure, my work speaks for itself. I'm willing to embrace the fact that I self-published. You may be asking, am I so cocky I think everyone will love my book? Of course not. I'm not writing for the masses, but for a target audience.  And even within that audience, some people won't like what I've done. We all have different tastes.  But do I think my book is high-quality with good sentence structure, great plot elements, and a basic comprehension of proper grammar? Yes, I do. And even though I had a few problems with these things in the beginning, that's what my critique group and editor were there to help me with. 

To make my long rant even longer, here's my new policy. I just received two unsolicited manuscripts this week. The authors didn't even bother to ask me first if I wanted them. I deleted them, because I've had enough right at this moment with reading Indie material, though I'm sure I will get back to it eventually. If you want me to review your work, ask me first if I'd like to, send me the MS when I ask for it, and know this...if I take the time to load your book to my Kindle, and it is horrible, I am going to say so. If you want a review from me, it will not only be posted if it fits my "books I love" slot. I will give an honest opinion. 

As far as whether Indie's are ruining the industry, cheating readers with fake reviews, yadda, yadda, yadda - I still think the answer to that is no. Even if you don't have an ereader - you can download the sample on Amazon itself to see if the author has a clue about what they are doing in the department of writing. I don't buy any books anymore without reading the sample first. It's just a good practice to get into. If I can't make it through the sample, I'm not going to enjoy the book, so I'll save my money. This can't guarantee that a technically proficient writer will be able to tell a story that will satisfy me overall, but even traditionally published authors can't always fulfill that with their books. At least if I read the sample, I'll know they took the time to write the story in a manner that the writing itself won't present a problem. 

Amazon may continue deleting reviews.  I don't really think this will help the problem. Sample reading is the answer. At least for me. What are your views on this issue?

Thanks for reading everyone, and letting me rant. That's been building up! Whew! Have a great week.

eeeChantelfff