Thursday 28 July 2016

#AugustReviews Are Go!

This blog post comes to you accompanied by Jamiroquai "Cosmic Girl"



NEW! August Reviews (or #AugustReviews)

I know how hard it is to get reviews. 

I reckon my review ratio is about 1:50 and that's mad. Or is it? I don't review much - kettles, holidays, pubs, cars, cabin shorts - so why should I expect readers to review my books?

Short answer is, dear reader...



Us small press/indie/selfie authors struggle. It's almost unequal (but not quite), which is why you, as a reader and consumer, are confronted with the same kind of crap book in the supermarket. Crap? That's a bit harsh, Marky.

Is it? Tell me. When was the last time you actually read a Trad novel you bought at Tesco and thought it was special? 

Here's the story of a Tesco bestseller.

One of my best friends is reading Girl On A Train. She shared some early chapters with me. What a lot of bollocks that novel is! I work with fourteen year olds with more literary chops. It's a GCSE piece and with that, I'm being charitable. The writing is as stodgy as yesterday's porridge and as for the exposition...*

Yet, she has over eleven thousand reviews partly because people have heard of the book. 


And my friend really likes this novel so it's all about opinions. And yours counts.

*

A lot of the success of that book is all down to advertising and us small fry can't access those channels.

Radio is closed for business, newspapers won't touch us, the TV people just laugh, Facebook charge a fortune, (sigh, remember those early days on there?); those ads on the train station are ludicrously expensive and thus we struggle to get out there, despite increasing numbers of Indies pumping out quality product, with professional covers, proofreading, editors etc.

So please, this August (#AugustReviews) make the summer special by reviewing ONE book on Amazon. 


You don't even have to have read it recently and it doesn't have to be mine - we all suffer from lack of exposure and, yet, some of us are bubbling under ready for a big breakthrough. 

YOURS can be the review that inspires this.

Write ONE review for August and then tweet it here: 

#AugustReviews



Loads more information from leading novelist, Terry Tyler - whose idea this is - is available on the blog below. 

Please visit: Have a look at what she has to say. 

One ickle wickle review this August can make all the difference.

http://terrytyler59.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/augustreviews-because-every-little-helps.html

Thank you in advance. Wiz.

*See? I wrote a review in about twenty seconds straight from the heart. It's THAT simple :-D xx









4 comments:

  1. This is such an entertaining post Mark, well done :-) Let's hope this initiative takes off!!

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    1. Thanks, G. Got to keep this fun, but also remind our readers how important this all is! Hope everything is well. Mxx

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  2. Am getting RIGHT behind this: reading a new book by Antoine Vanner..and rescheduling posts on reviewing as well as usual 'Review' tweets!

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    1. I think I've got one of those somewhere, Carol :-D This is a great idea.
      Post yours and I shall RT gladly. Hope you are well too. Mark xx

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