Personal Commentary

Lynne Scott will not be writing any reviews for posting on other sites. I’m not very good at it. I wrote one earlier this week and I’m not very proud of myself now. We all make mistakes – I made one, and I’ve corrected it. Now I’d like my readers and fellow authors to learn from my mistake.

The book warranted a solid positive four-star review – great plot, great characters, well done cop-speak dialog. It had some issues in POV and style that occasionally took me out of the story, but nothing to knock it below the four stars. It was a good debut novel, and I have no doubt the author’s next one will be even better.

Even though I gave it the four star review, I somehow managed to write only one paragraph about all the great stuff while wasting several on the minor problems with the book. What I should have done was the reverse. Mention the problems, and then talk about all the good things the author did. If I had to detail the problems, it should have been done in an email to the author. The author deserved a better write up.

Why didn’t I do that? Because sometimes I’m just an idiot.
The review was up about twelve hours before my brain engaged and I removed it.

We need to have some honest conversations concerning reviews – reader versus author? Can we do that? Maybe, but it’s not going to be easy and it will take more than one post.

I wear both hats on any given day. I write almost every day, but I still love to read. When it comes to reviews, what I want as a reader shouldn’t be too awfully different than what I want as an author.

What I WANT to see in a review as a READER –
1. Honesty. Don’t inflate the review. “Good book, good read!” means more to me as a reader than a whole bunch of empty 5 star reviews. Not every book is a 5. I enjoy the 4s just as much in most cases because I’m not looking to be wowed only to be disappointed.
2. Brevity. Just tell me what you liked and move on. I don’t need a 3 paragraph recap of the damn story. I want to read the story for myself. A couple short paragraphs is about the limit of my “give a crap” when I’m shopping so just say what you have to say.
3. A recommendation/non-recommendation for this and the next book. “I can’t wait for the next book” or “I’ll spend money on this author again” are things that say this is worth my money.

What I WANT to see in a review as an AUTHOR –
1. Honesty – Yeah right. As long as it’s the good kind. Otherwise I’d like you to practice what your mommy taught you, “If you have nothing good to say, say nothing.” Or at least not publicly. (I should have listened to my own rules earlier this week.)
2. An indication of what worked. – It doesn’t have to be a big deal. If you liked the humor or the banter, just say it worked; you don’t have to provide an example.

What I DON’T WANT to see in a review as a READER –
1. Claimed relationship Wife/Bestie reviews – “Buy my husband’s/sister’s/friend’s book. He worked hard.” This is an automatic killer for me. I don’t mind if you know the author, but write like you don’t and include something useful about the book not your relationship.
2. Spoilers without warning. Telling us who the killer is, how the book ended, or discussing plot twists without warning proves the writer of the review is a complete and total ASSHAT. I have been known to reply to those reviews and tell them they are an idiot (foul language can get you banned. Yes, it’s hard for me to express myself properly without expletives but I have to make do.). I generally follow that up with a note to Amazon.

What I DON’T WANT to see in a review as an AUTHOR –
1. Personal criticism – Attack the work, not the author. The difference: “This is s***!” is about the book. “Joe Blow is s***!” is about the author. Don’t do that. It’s rude.
2. A headline that turns off the review – I saw one recently in which the reviewer gave the author four stars, but the title was “MEH… “ Do you need to read more? I did because I was curious how MEH equaled four stars. It still wasn’t clear from the review.
3. All the same things that I don’t want to see as a reader.

One of my favorite reviews seen on another author’s book on a long gone website was, “Suspense and quirkiness. Solid read. I’ll buy again.” I bought the book based on the 4 out of 5 star review. Sadly, I can’t remember the name of the book or the author anymore. I’m sure it’ll come to me about 0330 tomorrow morning.

So, how am I going to let you know that I liked a book by someone else? I’ll put them in my blog and I’ll send a note to the author that I did so. Nothing big, nothing fancy. No more than “A good book, a solid read.” Just the book description and the cover, and maybe something about the author and where you can find the book.

If it appears on my blog, I read it, I liked it, and I would have given it a 4 star or better review. I won’t post a book with a link that I haven’t read and wouldn’t spend my money on.

In my next post, I’ll talk more about the idea of author’s trading reviews and the even uglier practice of author’s using secondary accounts and names to review themselves.

As I prepare to release Vapor Point, I find myself stuck between a rock and hard spot. Amazon is offering a great new program that might help an independent author like me get noticed and perhaps be read by people who may not otherwise see my books or know of my existence. The new Kindle Unlimited program is part of KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) Select – the author side of Amazon Prime.

With the original Prime membership, a reader could “borrow” a free book each month. As an Indie, I didn’t get too excited about this. Let’s face it, who’s going to borrow a $4.99 book by an unknown author like me when you can download your favorite established author’s new $12.99 book at no charge. While I would love to say that I’m all about trying the new guy for free, it’s simply not true. I’m just like everyone else – I’m looking for the best deal for my money.

However, with the new program there will be no limit on the number of books that can be borrowed by a program member. This means you won’t be forced to choose between the new Michael Connelly thriller and my latest release – you can have both for your membership fee. Download and read any book past the 10% point – a little farther then the free preview – and the author gets paid. A sweet deal for the reader and the author.

Here’s the rub – an author must make Amazon the exclusive digital (ebook) distributor for the book for as long as it’s enrolled in the program. The enrollment period is in 90-day increments. Here’s how Amazon explains this:

So if I want in, I can’t sell an epub file for a Nook, Kobo, or Sony reader – those folks get their digital books through Barnes and Noble.

Realistically, 98% of my (not so many to begin with) book sales are through Amazon. I’m not bothered by a retail exclusive clause that doesn’t allow me to sell digitally through Barnes and Noble for the 90-day period, but I don’t like that I can’t distribute to my readers through my own website. Do I understand why Amazon requires this exclusivity? Of course – we all do. If you want to drive Barnes and Noble’s digital trade into the ground, then you have to cut off the supply to the other devices. And the way to do that is through incentives to the publishers. In this case me.

What makes it a painful decision is that a lot of my personal friends have Nooks and Kobos. I take pride in being a loyal friend. But financially… it would be silly not to try this program.

I didn’t load the digital version of Blood Link Book V – The Healer to Barnes and Noble when it was released in December. That decision had nothing to do with the KDP program. At the time, it was a decision based on the hassle of working with Barnes and Noble. They were making some internal changes to their self-publishing program and loading or adjusting books was a giant horking pain in the butt. I chose to hold off loading the book in hope they’d resolve some of their technical issues. I never did get around to loading the book. The mail from Blood Link fans with Nooks or Kobos was minimal. I took care of those few folks independently utilizing PayPal. But based on the exclusivity agreement – I won’t be able to do that if I opt into the new system.

I think it’s important to point out that this doesn’t mean that the folks who don’t own a Kindle are without options. Anyone can read a Kindle formatted book on a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop without buying a Kindle reader. The applications are completely FREE through Amazon. I’ve embedded the link to the applications page for you here. This was how I read the Kindle version of my books for the first year I was published. Now I own an inexpensive Kindle as well as a Nook so I can read in either format.

I’ve been at this for a couple years now, and if you’ve spent any time following along, you know that I’m terrible at self-promotion. That hasn’t stopped me from stumbling around and trying new things. I still have a lot of questions about this program:
Will this help me be seen and become established?
Will I sell more books/make more money?
What will it cost me in terms of readership?
Will I go from a faithful ten readers down to a faithful eight?
Do I enroll one book or all my books?

I don’t know the answers yet. But I do know that if I don’t sell enough books to cover the costs of editing, producing covers, and my website, then I’m not going to be able to afford to continue publishing, much less ever afford a vacation, a boy toy, or a new .45 and the ammo to put through it. You all knew that I’d come back to the weapon didn’t you?

Based on where I am and looking at where I would like to be, I’m going to give the program a try. And just for the record, I threw the boy toy in as a distraction in hopes that Mr. Scott wouldn’t notice the part about a new .45. Ssshhhhhhhhh!!!

I took a little time off. Call it a voyage of self-discovery. Hell, call it what it was – a reality check.

The simple truth is that I doubted myself. I know… it’s shocking, but there you have it. I too have doubts. I let one person’s opinion matter more than others. Not that I should have discounted it, the opinion was valid and deserved consideration. Someone had to have the courage to tell me what they thought even if I didn’t want to hear it. But I took it to heart and let it eat at me when I should have just accepted it for what it was and moved on.

Here’s what happened.

I sent out several chapters of a work in progress and asked a few of my favorite betas to read it. My only question was: Does this have legs? I wanted to know if they felt like the story had potential or if I’d gone too broad on the topic. Five out of the six betas liked it. They pointed out a few issues that I would need to address if I was going to make it work, but they liked the premise.

The sixth beta – not so much. He told me that it was “fine,” but he didn’t feel an urge to read more. He already knew that my gal would kick butt and take names. He told me I was “predictable.”

As we all know, it wasn’t personal. It was honest and damn important feedback. I just couldn’t see it for a little while; nor could I accept that there was nothing wrong with being “predictable.” It took a bunch of conversations with other authors and readers to understand that it’s not only okay to be predictable in some ways – it’s important.

If you read certain authors, you know what you’re getting each time. It’s why you buy and read their books.

A Harlequin romance will always be feisty girl meets hot guy, they connect, sex, misunderstanding, sex, misunderstanding, and happy-ending. Women buy them because they know exactly what they are getting and it’s what they want. They don’t want real life, they want the fantasy of what a romance novel offers.

Everyone picks authors based on their likes and the predictability of those authors. You read Dean Koontz and Stephen King because you want the crap scared out of you. You read Michael Connelly because you love Harry Bosch and you like cop novels. You read John Sanford’s Prey series because you like psychos and cops. You read Russell Blake because they’re fast paced and fun.

My ten faithful readers buy my books because they like what I give them.

I write books about strong women who generally have some type of problem to overcome. They often have a military or law enforcement background because these are the people most likely to be put in the positions I want them put in. The books are action, adventure, and suspense with a healthy dose of non-gratuitous sex connected to a non-sappy love story.

My heroines are sometimes the damsel in distress, but they are never completely helpless and they are never, ever, drama f***ing queens. They’re independent, resilient, resourceful, and in most cases, willing and able to fight back. They are also tender-hearted, love dogs, want to find love, and almost all of them are flawed in some way. Life, their jobs, wars, discrimination, and crazy people may have battered them, but all of them will attempt to stand on their own two feet. And all of them just want the love of someone who accepts them for who and what they are.

My heroes are almost always the doers of the world. Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and cops. Who wants a hero who has no idea what to do when the s*** hits the fan? They’re often men who’ve seen a little too much of the dark side of the world, but they aren’t afraid of confrontation, and they don’t suffer fools. This is rarely the first rodeo for these guys.

And, my people are not “youngsters.” I prefer them to be in the mid-thirties or early forties. I get tired of perky and inexperienced. Give me someone with some life experience who’s made mistakes and knows what they want in a job, a relationship, and in life.

So, yeah. I am predictable. I write what I like to read. Each one is better than the last one. And each one will leave you satisfied.

This is my niche.