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How your pre-order can help …

August 18, 2022 by Patricia Sands Leave a Comment

One week to go to release day! And the ‘to-do’ list doesn’t seem to be shrinking.

If you are considering ordering The Secrets We Hide, how about placing a pre-order now? That way you are assured the ebook will be sitting in your mailbox on publishing day and your print copy should arrive then too. For some reason, some print copies are being sent out already … the publishing world works in mysterious ways.

The more pre-orders you place for me, the better the chances of The Secrets We Hide making a best seller list. I thank you in advance!

Pre-order on Amazon

Pre-order on Kobo

Pre-order on Barnes & Noble

Have you seen the trailer for The Secrets We Hide? Feel free to share it from YouTube.

Here’s a reminder that the Goodreads giveaway is open now and ten ebooks are up for grabs. Here’s the link for that. Good luck and thank you to everyone for all of your support.

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Filed Under: Author Promotion, Blog, News, Uncategorized, Writing Tagged With: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, France, Hawaii, Japan, Kobo, literary fiction, new release, Patricia Sands, pre-order, The Secrets We Hide, trip fiction

“Go forth and review!” ~ Rosie Amber’s good advice

August 9, 2016 by Patricia Sands 6 Comments

For anyone who has ever felt intimidated about writing a book review, here’s some excellent advice reposted from “Reviewer Extraordinaire” Rosie Amber on her fine website. Click here to get to know more about Rosie and her reviewers.

4 Quick Ways To Write A #BookReview And Overcome Your Fears #MondayBlogs

POSTED ON JULY 25, 2016 BY ROSIE AMBER

 

Authors WANT  Reviews

Make an Author's Day

Simple! How many times have you read pleas on social media for readers to write reviews? – Probably Loads.

Does the thought of writing a book review send you racing to the hills? – I can see plenty of you nodding in agreement.

WHAT holds you back?

Reading Soft edge

6 common replies:

I can’t write.

I can’t write paragraphs about a book.

I don’t know what to write.

I’m afraid of what people will think of my review.

I’m an author and don’t want a backlash on my own books.

I don’t have the time.

Let’s turn this around

I can’t write – I bet if you can read, you can write.

I can’t write paragraphs about a book – Good News, Amazon accepts one sentence reviews now as do many other sites.

I don’t know what to write – Ah! Quick Question – Why did you like or Dislike the book? Got an answer? Then you have a starting place.

I’m afraid of what people will think of my review – Facing fears is part of life, it is hard, but I bet you’ve faced much harder challenges. Authors LOVE reviews, other readers also like to read them to see if they agree or disagree. Every reader will get something different from their experience. An honest review from someone who genuinely read the book IS REALLY APPRECIATED.

I’m an author and don’t want a backlash on my own books – This one STOPS TOO MANY AUTHORS from writing book reviews and it shouldn’t. In fact if you are an author, one way to hone your writing skills is to READ, READ, READ and from this you will be noting what works, what doesn’t and you will have all the skill sets to write a review. IF YOU WRITE WITH HONESTY AND COMPASSION I can’t see an author would want revenge or to be labelled a TROLL, these are far and few amongst the millions of authors who GENUINELY WANT A REVIEW.

I don’t have the time – time is what you make of it and those who have this as their reply probably won’t have time to read this post, so we’ll say no more.

So BE BRAVE – make a promise that the next book you read you will write a review.

Not sure which star rating to use? Read more here

Goodreads Ratings                                                                                                                                                          

GoodreadsAmazon

Amazon Ratings

4 Quick Ways to Write a Review

  1. Go to Goodreads or your Amazon account. Start with a one liner. Can you include the genre? The lead characters? The setting? Say “I really enjoyed this book” or “The book didn’t work for me”.
  2. As above, this time write 4 sentences. Keep them honest and make them about your own thoughts from the book.
  3. If you wrote your review for Goodreads, copy and paste it to your Amazon account. Or vice-versa.
  4. Really, really stuck for something to say? Read some of the other reviews for the book, they might jog your memory about a point, but still make your own review honest and genuine.

Finding yourself in a loop of reviewing friend’s books, just so they review yours? Review swaps are never a good idea, they become shallow and very obvious to other readers and you will only end up feeling guilty if you can’t be honest. Draw a line, perhaps explain that you don’t wish to review books for friends and you won’t ask them to review yours in turn unless either party truly wishes to read the book. But that no one should feel obliged to review as a swap. You can still support them by buying a copy of their work, this way their reviews will be from REAL readers who have found and bought their books and in the long term will be the reading audience of tomorrow.

Check out my simple book review templates, written to encourage those NEW to reviewing who need to boost their confidence.

There is NO SELL BY Date on writing a review – read a book a while a go that you ALWAYS MEANT TO WRITE A REVIEW FOR? Feeling guilty that you didn’t write a review at the time? No Problemo! Write this in the opening line “I read this book a while ago.” An author will be SO pleased to get an honest review that they won’t mind if there was a time delay on your side.

Minstrel Loveheart

Go. Go forth and review.

As an author AND an avid reader, I thank you for this, Rosie!

And to support Rosie’s post, here’s one from Barb Taub (on her always entertaining website) announcing that August is “Write An Amazon Review Month”. 

Before I became an author, I had never written a book review. Now, it’s an automatic part of my reading routine. How about you, dear blog readers? How do you feel about writing reviews?

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Filed Under: Blog, News, Uncategorized, Writing Tagged With: Amazon, August reviews, authors, book reviews, Patricia Sands, readers, Rosie Amber

Suzanne Kelman is in the house!

March 15, 2016 by Patricia Sands 8 Comments

canstockphoto8136400There are a lot of great new novels being released by friends in the next couple of months. My TBR list keeps growing and growing! How about yours?

Suzanne Kelman is a fellow author in Amazon’s Lake Union Publishing group, the “Lovely Ladies of the Lake” as she has christened us.  The Rejected Writers’ Book Club will be released on March 29th and I can’t wait to read it.

When you read Suzanne’s work her humour shines through and when you talk to her it’s contagious. She and author KJ Waters have a regular podcast, Blondie And The Brit  and I was delighted to be a guest with them last month. There was a lot of laughter!

Welcome, Suzanne!

PS ~ Congratulations on the51NUncEkikL-1._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_ upcoming release (March 29th) of your first novel, The Rejected Writers’ Book Club! I’ve pre-ordered my copy! Please tell us a bit about the story and how you came to write it.

SK ~ The Rejected Writers’ Book Club started out as a screenplay. I began writing the script but the more I worked on it, the more I realized I needed to delve into the characters in a much deeper fashion than is possible in 110 pages of a movie script. So, I decided to play with it, and for fun, I took on the 2013 Na-Na-Wri-Mo challenge. On a dark, stormy, November, night the Book Club was born.

The story came about because I had noticed there was a lot of shame around writers and rejection. I went to a book signing once, and the author started the reading by tipping all his rejection letters from publishers onto the table to demonstrate the length of his path to publication. I was very impressed, and it was liberating for the writers around me. After that, I always had the hankering to write about celebrating rejection. It is a part of the path to publication, and each letter proves a writer was brave enough to send their work out into the world.

PS ~  You have an impressive background in screenwriting, Suzanne. How did you get involved in that?

996097_10202738741089294_515605397_nSK ~ Another interesting story. My background is originally in theater, and similar to my novel writing career, I became a screenwriter by accident. I was writing a stage play that wouldn’t lie down and be staged. Are you beginning to see a pattern? Anyway, the longer I worked on it as a stage play, the harder time I was having staging it, as I kept visualizing it on a movie screen. I was talking to my writing mentor about my frustrations, and he said, “why don’t you just write it as a screenplay, instead?” And I thought, why not.

I knew nothing about screenwriting, so I started from the bottom. I literally went to “Utube University” and typed in “How to write a screenplay” and went from there. What happened after that was love at first draft. I realized something vital about myself on the pages of that first script; it was that I wrote in pictures. The jump from the page to the screen was a wonderfully freeing experience for me. After that, I devoured everything I could about screenwriting, and I have gone on to write many more.

 PS ~ Do you have a preference between writing screenplays or novels?

SK ~ They are such different animals it is hard to compare, and I love the variety they both bring me. Writing a book for me is like sitting down to an 8-course meal in France with three types of wine, a fish course and assorted sorbets in-between. You take your time, enjoy the company, and every flavor is revealed slowly along the long winding journey which is the meal.

On the other hand, writing a screenplay is not unlike being served one of those $100 gold leaf desserts all the enjoyment is packed into a few mouthfuls, but every bite is so exquisite with the intensity of the flavors. That is the difference for me, I just get up each day and decide what I want to eat before I start work.

PS ~ It was great fun chatting with you and KJ Waters on the podcast program the two of you host, Blondie and The Brit.jpegituneschannellogo How did the two of you begin this undertaking and how on earth do you manage to find the time? You are both fabulous interviewers, so relaxed and entertaining!

SK ~ I really enjoy podcasting, everything about it. I think it feeds my theater roots. First, I get to hang out with the author of Stealing Time, KJ Waters every week. We met four years ago, through Twitter, and she is an absolute hoot. Secondly, my world can be very isolating in my little studio as I beaver away creating invisible characters and make-believe worlds. But then the solidarity I feel connecting with other writers through podcasting is world stretching.

Once the interview is over we normally all feel like old friends. As far as time goes, neither KJ or I had any idea how long it would take to book guests, talk to guests, plan interviews, edit podcasts, etc. But, somehow we have managed to swing it because we both love doing it so much. It is one of the things I’m doing right now that I feel is not only of great value to our audience but also to our authors in their career. We are very excited to see where it all goes.

PS ~ You have made quite a transition moving from the U.K. to Washington State. Did your writing career begin before you moved or after?

SK ~ I have lived in America for 20 years and only started writing seriously in the past six. Having decided to homeschool my son I had to find a creative outlet that could be achieved easily from home. With my creative background, being a writer seemed to fit the bill. It’s funny I write every day now, and it seems strange to me that I haven’t done this for the whole of my life because I love it so much.

Local scenery that inspired the fictional 'Southlea Bay'
Local scenery that inspired the fictional        ‘Southlea Bay’

PS ~ I have great admiration for writers who bring laughter to their readers, and you do that brilliantly! Do you ever see yourself writing a serious novel or screenplay or will comedy always be your focus?

SK ~ Some of my screenplays have been serious, as I was finding my voice, but comedy is what I always seem to come back to. Over the last three years, I have been intentionally branding myself as a humor writer.

I grew up in a home where comedy was used as a pressure valve to deflate the volcanic eruptions in a family of five children. So, it is natural for me to see the world from a very comical persuasion. To make the whole world laugh is my goal because the value in that is so high. I have a couple of projects on my schedule at the moment that aren’t comedic, but somehow I always managed to sneak it in when I can.

PS ~ What plans do you have next to share with us?

SK ~ I have just finished a mid-grade comedy novel called “The Misadventures of Horace Higginbottom”, which I’m about to start shopping to publishers. Originally, I wrote it because my son was a voracious reader and he liked to read books that were funny. When we found a comedic series, we would order the whole set from the library so he could binge read them all. So I was sure there were other parents out there with the same problem. I wrote “Horace” to help encourage mid-graders to read chapter books.

I am also halfway through my second Southlea Bay Series book that I am hoping to complete by the end of May.

In my screenwriting career, I’m working on a T.V. series pilot and a feature film that are both in development. I know it all sounds like a lot, but I am a pick and mix kind of writer and find having more than one project helps stimulate the others. I may work on a screenplay on a Monday and a chapter of my book on Tuesday etc. subsequently I have never suffered from writer’s block and my days can be very adventurous as I navigate my waters.

PS ~ Suzanne, thanks for stopping by so we can all celebrate your new release. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you these past few months. Thanks, also, for having me as a guest on your podcast. You are offering a wonderful opportunity on that platform to other writers and it’s a great example of how authors support each other. Kudos to you and KJ Waters for that!

To discover more great information about Suzanne, please go to these links:

Website      IMDb       Blog       Twitter

Facebook       LinkedIn       Amazon

Spend more time with Suzanne on some of the other stops on this entertaining blog tour!

 

Right dates Blog Tour .001

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Filed Under: Author Promotion, Blog, News, Uncategorized, Writing Tagged With: Amazon, Blondie and The Brit, Lake Union Publishing, Suzanne Kelman, The Rejected Writers' Book Club, writing

Podcast time~a chat with Blondie and The Brit

March 3, 2016 by Patricia Sands Leave a Comment

There are many different ways authors connect with each other and with people who enjoy reading. It’s a lot of fun and so rewarding to simply have a good chat as we did a few weeks ago, when I was invited to be a guest on BlondieandtheBrit.com . If you have some time, pour yourself your beverage of choice, put your feet up and hang out with us for a while. Help yourself to some goodies from the local pâtisserie!

IMG_9004

Hey, Suzanne Kelman and KJ Waters ~ I just listened to our interview and can’t thank you enough for inviting me to join you. It was great fun!

Patricia Sands — Episode 25 — Love in Provence
Award-winning author Patricia Sands joins Blondie and the Brit for a delightful discussion about Patricia’s passions: writing and France. She shares her best…
BLONDIEANDBRIT.PODBEAN.COM|BY PODBEAN DEVELOPMENT
 IMG_9635
Thanks for stopping by today. Watch for Suzanne Kelman to visit here on March 16th for a blog tour stop celebrating the upcoming release of her novel, The Rejected Writers’ Book Club! 
12670932_10208918696624320_6299835432215242203_n
KJ Waters is the author of Stealing Time,51rddgCwUYL._UY250_ a time travel thriller set during the summer of 2004 where Florida was battered by 5 major hurricanes in less than six weeks.
The second book in the series is in development and expected to be released in the spring of 2016.

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Filed Under: Author Promotion, Blog, Writing Tagged With: Amazon, BlondieAndTheBrit.com, books, Lake Union, Love In Provence series, Patricia Sands, podcast, The Bridge Club, writing

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