How Holly Lisle gets her Books Reviewed

This is what Holly Lisle does to get some reviews of her books on venues like Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

She asks, on her very lively and well-commented blog, for a group of reviewers who will receive a free PDF copy of her book. They read it and, Holly hopes, review it.

They send to Holly a link to the review and she checks it out. If they don't trash the book or indulge in personal vitriol against her, they are eligible for a free PDF copy the next time around.

She's hoping, in this way, to have a stable group of 25 reviewers to help her promote her books.

You can read more at: Nine Reviewer Openings for Warpaint. | Holly Lisle: Official Author Homepage. In fact, I recommend you stay and read a lot of things from Holly's blog, and become a regular reader of it, since Holly good at mentoring beginning writers through the information she provides there.

What is the lesson for the many of you out there who have a book out there--- self-published, traditionally published, small press, Lulu.com--- and need to get the word out?

Gather some reviewers by offering a free PDF copy of your book. I know that with my WP software, Open Office, it's pretty easy to make a PDF file.

Ask your readers, if they can, to post reviews in Amazon.com and like places. Ask them to contact you with the link to where they posted. Those who do can be the start of your own little inner circle of readers/reviewers.

One of my writer friends, Amanda Borenstadt, first contacted me when she found my blog, and she offered to let me have a free e-book copy of her book 'Syzygy' if I would review it. I accepted it, but I dreaded reading it because I was sure that a self-published book would be quite bad.

It turned out to be a great read and one I would recommend to others. And Amanda stayed on to be a regular reader of my blog and my number one commenter here. We've also become friends, which is kind of strange for me, since I have Asperger Syndrome, I don't have much experience with having friends.

Reading about Holly's reviewer-roundup method, it makes me wish I'd done that when my Lulu.com book came out. I may still do that, since I've long wanted to withdraw 'Opium Cactus' because of a few typos in it I didn't catch, and add some new poems, three short stories, and some articles on writing poetry from this blog.

I'm open to suggestions from my blog readers on what all will go in 'Opium Cactus: Bigger, Longer and Uncut' (or whatever I call it), and I'm also looking for a few volunteers who might like a free PDF copy and might be willing to write a review for me.

Author Holly Lisle's gone Indie

Holly Lisle, author of 32 sci-fi and fantasy books, has announced she is quitting Big Publishing to go indie.

This will without doubt be a success for her, as her blog has a large following and she's been self-publishing her non-fiction for a while now.  But I think it will also be a good thing for all indie authors as it will bring more attention to the fact that indie publishing today is quite different than the old school vanity presses.

I remember years ago reading the author Laurence Block's advice to young writers. He said that in his early years, writers got started writing short stories for the many paying markets that then existed. He said that though the publishing world had changed since then, young writers would continue to find venues in which to serve out a writing apprenticeship.

Publishing has changed again. Now the unpublished writer will be serving out his apprenticeship in the world of blogging and indie publishing--- perhaps publishing early novels and short stories through Smashwords, or novels in real-book form through Lulu.com--- both free options. A blog, I believe, is essential for such an indie writer. It provides proof to the potential reader of your book that you are indeed able to write the English language without a net. It also provides immediate feedback.

I have reasons that have nothing to do with writing that make it essential that I be an indie writer. I have one poetry book out, Where the Opium Cactus Grows, which is published by Lulu.com. I had said I was going to publish most or all of the poems from the book on this blog. I still intend to do that, and I also want to provide at least most of 'Opium Cactus' as a free ebook through Smashwords.

I also have my new web fiction novel Taliesin, and may be publishing some short fiction on this blog and/or in ebook form.

Through my blog and related activities I've had the opportunity to meet other indie authors such as:
Amanda Borenstadt: Syzygy
Tracy Krauss: And The Beat Goes On
Michael Anthony Lee: Horker's Law (The Six Books of Magic)

One advantage of indie publishing is that you can create your own little niche-genre, and that actually will help you out in gaining a readership. Christian science fiction, especially that with hard science fiction elements, is not welcomed at major Christian publishers (or secular SF ones), but is a natural for indie publishing.

One thing you can do to help your indie writer friends is to purchase/download your indie fiction from Amazon.com. This helps the book climb in sales on that site. Reviewing and tagging indie books is also a mitzvah you can do for your indie writer friends.

Write a book along with Holly Lisle

Author Holly Lisle, whose web site is a treasure trove for the writer or would-be writer, has a new feature 'Write a book with me'.

She shares a little about the progress of her current book, and those participating share their word-counts and issues with one another in the form of comments to her blog entries. To view the latest post, here is the 'Write a book with me category'.

I'm considering whether to play along, myself. So far sharing about my works in progress has been more embarrassing than encouraging--- not because of what people say or don't say, but because I just look back at what I wrote about with intense shame. (My internal editor is Adolf Hitler.) But I have just started a fantasy story, one about an orphan whose new legal guardian is an evil mage, and who finds an interesting solution to that dilemma which leads to only more trouble.

I'd really like to hear from anyone who is or might be participating in Holly Lisle's 'Write a book with me' project. Drop me a comment!

A Chain of Mentoring; and Mugging the Muse

As a writer I have a mentor, Holly Lisle. She would undoubtedly be surprised beyond words to know that I consider her my mentor, as I am mentored through her excellent web site and blog--- you may find it at Holly Lisle.com.

I recently (yesterday, I think) downloaded her free ebook Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love And Money. Among the many things I learned when reading the ebook 'cover to cover' yesterday was that she herself had a mentor, Mercedes Lackey, and Mercedes Lackey had a mentor, C. J. Cherryh. So, to the extent that I can be mentored through an ebook and a web site, I am part of a chain of mentoring, and a pretty cool one--- at least to me.

Mercedes Lackey, one of those on the chain, is one of my favorite fantasy authors, and possessor of one of the most interesting writer-names ever. (What is a Mercedes lackey? Why, the servant who takes care of your Mercedes, of course). Mercedes Lackey published her first story (or one of the first) in a Darkover anthology. Darkover is a fantasy world created by the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, and MZB was very generous in helping new writers get started by editing a large number of Darkover anthologies.

I really like the idea of writer mentoring chains, and in a way that's a part of what this blog is about--- a sort of an exchange of mentoring, as I am mentored by the many writers (published and not-yet-published) on the CSFF blog tour list and elsewhere, and I try to pass the mentoring on by sharing what I have learned.

Mugging the Muse gives some very practical advice on how to become a professional writer, and how to avoid some of the mistakes she made that have had a bad impact on her career.

As a result, I've decided it's important to actually plan my writing career, and I have determined a bunch of activities which will help me to do this (not all of which I feel like sharing.)

One of the things that she mentions as being good for the career is series novels (as in MZB's Darkover series) and she gives some good advice for creating a series character you can live with.

I have decided that perhaps what I ought to do is work on an old fantasy world of mine (or a fantasy/sci-fi world, similar to Darkover in that respect) and add to it elements of other worlds I have created--- most specifically the Five Elements, a fantasy world organized around the Asian Five Elements of myth and legend. I want to put together a good solid fantasy/sci-fi world which I can use for a variety of story ideas I have had.

I also want to work on a couple of short stories. I haven't done that in a while, and I believe I have only finished about 3 short stories (5 if you count the 2True Confessions stories I wrote, of which one was published much to my embarrassment--- but I did get about $90 bucks for it.) But that is certainly more than the number of novels I've finished.

The advantage is that I can use the short stories to build my writing career and to prepare the way for my novel (assuming I finish one.)

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