#bookblogger – Page 190 – Rosepoint Publishing

Gone on Sunday-A Cotton Lee Penn Mystery – a Book Review

Title: Gone on Sunday by Tower Lowe

Genre: Currently #10598 in Best Seller’s Rank in Books, Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction, Historical, Mysteries

Publisher: Create Space IPP

Publication Date: January 2017

Gone on Sunday – A Cotton Lee Penn Historical Mystery – Cover conveys mood

Gone on Sunday by Tower Lowe attempts to give us two distinct murder stories within the same book separated as has been previously noted by 40 years. Continue reading “Gone on Sunday-A Cotton Lee Penn Mystery – a Book Review”

Premade Book Covers–Your Design on Tap

With so many authors looking for a change of their covers lately, I’ve looked at my own and wondered if they should be updated as well. For the most part, I was satisfied with them, and I know that a good cover helps sell. But are these book covers eye-catching; do they invite closer inspection of the book? Continue reading “Premade Book Covers–Your Design on Tap”

Silver Cascade Secrets – a Book Review

Title: Silver Cascade Secrets by Rachelle J Christensen

Genre: Currently #1810 in Kindle Store, Kindle Short Reads, Two hours or more, Romance

Publisher: Peachwood Press

Publication Date: September 2015

Silver Cascade Secrets – Colorful cover

Yah gotta give it for short, given the (romantic suspense) novella itself was only about 60 pages of an 85-page offering.

There wasn’t a lot of suspense here, only a young woman on the rebound chasing a possible next up romance; kind of a girl gets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets him back again story.

Jillian Warren is the landscape technician of the Silver Cascade Park set in Boise, Idaho (and you have to admit that’s different for a protagonist). I did enjoy the description of the gardens, themes, and seasonal colors.

It doesn’t take long for Jillian to develop the hots for Travis when she meets him in her park and notices how nice he fills out a pair of jeans. He is looking for his keys after his sister picks up his niece and she’s glad to help.

Travis soon shares that his brother-in-law was murdered months ago and Jillian is off and running on the mystery that doesn’t take as long to solve as getting Travis to shoot doe eyes back at her.

The novella is really too short for plot development, and the protagonist, swift as she is, doesn’t garner a whole lot of interest, as she seems a bit vacuous. (I mean, come on, she is just getting over her last love and supposed to be heartbroken.) The ex does make a short appearance creating turmoil for Jillian (remember I said girl loses [current] boy?).

We are barely introduced to the antagonist or the peripheral characters, and you don’t have to worry about adult language or situations as these characters and dialogue are too juvenile for either.

Following the short story portion of the book are recipes(!), introductory chapter of a succeeding book and prologue of an additional full novel, which I found to be a bit over-the-top promotion. This story is apparently included in an older anthology, but falls a bit short to be a stand-alone novella and perhaps was the reason for the marketing offers.

I was offered a free download for an honest review, and while I thought the premise was unique, the plot and characters fall just a little short of cozy. Recommended for those looking for a light-hearted, fast, and easy read.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four of Five Stars

The Author: Rachelle is an award-winning author of twelve books, including a Kindle Scout Selection and a mystery series. She is the mother of five who writes a variety of fiction as well as nonfiction. She and her family reside on a little farm in rural Idaho. Rachelle is a graduate of Utah State University. ©2017 Virginia Williams

Which Side of the Oxford Comma War Are You On?

The Oxford University Press sparked a war back in 1892 that continues to this day with as many on both sides of the line protesting their side as the right one.

The Oxford comma (also referred to as a serial comma, or even the Harvard comma) is that “comma before the conjunction at the end of a list.” The Oxford University Press style guidelines touched off the conflict back when Horace Hart, controller of the University Press, organized a set of rules for the Oxford Press employees.

While the anti-comma faction would eliminate the second comma, the pro-comma faction would add it, sure that it provides clarity. The “pro’s” are more commonly found in the U.S. (I wouldn’t be without mine!) Only journalists forced to use the AP style generally omit it, but that was originally a bid to save space! The anti-comma people hold sovereignty in the U.K., except, of course, for Oxford University–go figure.

Why all the fuss over bell, book, and candle? Aren’t we invoking the Oxford comma for purposes of clarity? Click to Tweet

And doesn’t that really promote consistency of comma use? Apparently not in some scholars eyes. The article by Warren Clement to The Globe and Mail noted this example: “She invited her father, a tuba player and several ballerinas. It is clear that she invited her father, the musician and the ballerinas.(?Is it?) Now insert the Oxford comma: She invited her father, a tuba player, and several ballerinas. Suddenly the father has become a tuba player.” (Really?)

Hmmm…You say to-may-to and I say to-mah-to…

And we’ve been at this 125 years? So I’ll submit to you one final argument illustrated in riveting detail that you may or may not have seen before: “We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin.” I rest my case.

Illustration-Oxford comma — Illustration by AE Ferg-Offered by Stephen Tall

10 Amazing Sub-Genre’s in Historical Fiction

Historical Fiction as a literary genre is generously broad and notoriously ambiguous in that the beginning of man can be included in the same spectrum of writing as our own recent Wild West. It was bound to happen then that sooner or later sub-genres would be broken out.

What is Historical?

In that it depicts and closely associates the period’s social conditions, manners, clothing, and environmental factors, the story can capture any century or millennia from the dawn of man. Generally, “historical” refers to publications written at least 50 years after the event. Considering an extended time frame, therefore, an author would usually be assumed to be writing from research rather than from experience. (In the relatively unusual case of my grandfather’s manuscripts, however, they were written some time shortly after his “sailing, mining, prospecting, and cowpoke days,” over 90 years ago but only recently published by myself.)

So if it’s all historical fiction, what are the ten sub-genres? Continue reading “10 Amazing Sub-Genre’s in Historical Fiction”

Is It Time To Dump Smashwords For Kindle?

I gave up on Smashwords this week.

Their Wide Variety of Formats

I’ve monitored my stats almost every day since I downloaded the first manuscript for my grandfather back in 2012–and the stats are dismal. At the time, Smashwords seemed like a good addition to my marketing plan when I published with Amazon and their Kindle site. If you aren’t already aware of Smashwords, they publish and make available ebooks bestowing freedom to authors to set their own prices. Smashwords further makes available your digital downloads to Nook (Barnes & Noble), Apple IBooks, Scribd, Oyster, and Kobo, and allows downloads in EPUB, PDF, and MOBI formats.

It’s not as if they aren’t busy trying to help promote their authors and introduce them to new readers. When writing this post, they were currently running (July 1 – July 31) their annual Summer/Winter Sale. In view of the complete lack of activity (probably not their fault) on any of my listings, I declined to join the sale. They keep up dialog in their “Site Updates” as well as “Press Releases” in which they recently noted Smashwords and Publishers Weekly joined to launch an ebook best seller’s list.

Free Downloads

I have to hand it to Mark Coker. It is not as if he hasn’t tried getting some of us off the sidelines. His free downloads, “Smashwords Style Guide” and “The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success” are comprehensive and indispensable for an Indie author as the publishing format on Smashwords is neither as easy nor forgiving as Kindle.

Spoiler Alert: You have to sell at least $10.00 in royalties to warrant payment. After the first blush of sales were over, I was still under that amount and will apparently carry the embarrassing sale record to infinity. This is no small entity. They are dynamic; have published over 416,638 books in all genres with over 65,000 of those books free.

So, what’s a mother to do? Guess it’s time to begin a new campaign!

Editorial Reviews

It all began this week with a review for a new author buddy of mine who introduced me to a couple nifty little Amazon website author page opt-ins I hadn’t previously noticed. Sometimes, you just have to hit me upside the head! Carlyle Clark, author of Children From Dark Houses, immediately included in his “Editorial Reviews” a couple sentences from my recent review of his book. Those Editorial Reviews show up prominently near the top of the book information. It succinctly brings to the surfer’s attention pertinent blurbs from your reviews. I loved it!

Reviewers Information

Also, I got to looking at (Amazon) Reviewers information. As I mentioned before, I’ve been receiving many requests for reviews. Therefore, the time came for me to expand my reviewer information and add a link to connect me from Amazon. Learning new stuff is exciting, isn’t it? Ah, but as seniors sometimes tend to do, I digress.

So then, what was the whole point of “unpublishing” my books from Smashwords? Have I succumbed to KDP? It’s just easier. Smashwords didn’t make sense for my little books and having that link also limited some promotional abilities from Amazon. I needed Amazon more.

Twelve Points for Review Submission

Most new Indie authors believe reviews are the make or break of a book and aggressively pursue them.

There are numerous articles on the algorithm Amazon uses to determine Best Sellers Rank. While it is generally considered to be reviews that help to get you to the top of the pack, it isn’t, according to what I’ve read. Amazon won’t disclose its algorithm, but will readily agree that good reviews do seem to help drive sales, which IS the major contributory factor in Best Sellers Rank.

I’ve written before on reviews, discussing whether or not 300 five-star ratings are really all bogus or not. Having written and posted 1,000s of reviews myself, I’ve always strived for honesty, striking a balance between what I liked about the book as well as what I didn’t. The books I review are a mix of Indie books, as well as best-selling authors, and posted those reviews whether the author needed them or not. In addition, in an effort to accommodate a larger variety of genres, I got the CE involved in reading and giving me his synopsis. That also becomes a review.

Reviews can run anywhere from a short informal paragraph or an in-depth analysis of the book of more than 500 words detailing not only the description of the plot but a critical view of how the topic was handled. Point being: Did you agree with the observations or challenge every posture? I’ve developed the following twelve points in the submission of my reviews.

My reviews include:

1 Whether or not the title reflects the topic of the book.

2 Did the cover convey the genre; show you what the book is about without your having to read the blurb?

3 Was the setting properly introduced–did you know where it was located geographically or what year it was?

4 Did the opening chapter grab your attention and did the plot hold your interest throughout the remainder of the book?

5 Is the dialogue believable, natural, or forced?

6 Are the characters properly fleshed out? Can you identify or connect with them?

7 Did the protagonist and antagonist convey a strong opposing emotion?

8 Are the same scenes repeated, albeit with slightly different wording, until you “heard it all before.”

9 Is the plot unique? Is the book outside your normal genre?

10 Did the story end with a plausible climax, wrapping up the loose ends to a satisfying degree, or suddenly end when it appears the author is over-the-top tired of the whole thing.

11 Is it full of typos, edit errors, misused words, missing words, or extra words that should have been deleted from the final edit?

12 Can you honestly recommend the book? Can the book be recommended outside the reader’s normal genre?

Review Format

Since I have been receiving review requests, I thought it was time to change the way I post the reviews. Therefore, after the blurb and review, the format will be changed to reflect additional information about the author, the genre, the publisher, and the date published, followed by the review. The review will be posted on this blog as well as on Amazon and Goodreads. Many of the books are received through NetGalley and most reviews are also shared on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Do You Know Your “Readability Stats?”

If you know your Flesch Reading Ease scores–bravo!! The concept of a readability test is new to me. Whether you had formal training and are familiar with the application or stumbled upon it yourself, the option of Flesch Readability is hidden within Word 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, and apparently the new version of Word 2016.

Very simply, the test rates text on a 100-point scale. This is important because the higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. For blog purposes, my objective is between 60 and 70. There are two readability Flesch tests: