An Appeal to Authors on Behalf of Reviewers
Recently, in a LinkedIn Group, I was answering a thread. It raised something that I felt needed addressing. I did what I could in a few words, but I’d like to spell it out more fully here.
We all need feedback, and it’s a subject that I’ve already covered, to some degree. However, there’s an aspect of it that I missed entirely! We authors have certain duties to those we ask to provide us with feedback. The obvious one is to offer a product worth their time, of course. Or, at least, to genuinely believe that we are doing so! But how many of us take the trouble to offer review copies in more than one format? As far as this is concerned, authors using Kindle direct, and especially Kindle Select, are perhaps the guiltiest, I’m afraid. We must not fall into the trap of believing that we need only concern ourselves with one ebook format! I have experienced the problem myself – where I’ve been asked to review books but been offered ‘Kindle or nothing’. That’s really not good! Of course, it’s possible to convert ebooks to other formats, but if you have elected to employ DRM, then conversion is impossible! So, I appeal to all authors: produce your books in as many formats as possible! I’m not saying you have to offer them all for sale. If you want to stick with, for example, Kindle – then by all means do so! Just make it easier for potential reviewers!
News On Shade of Evil
I am currently working towards making the paperback version of my novelette, Shade of Evil (Being Part 1 of G1: The Guardians), available through CreateSpace and, therefore, Amazon. I only submitted it yesterday, but I was amazed to find that it is now available from CreateSpace and will be available from Amazon.com and Amazon’s European stores within about a week! The links will be added to the book’s page on the blog. it should, I hope, be easier for some to buy a copy. If things go well enough, then I’ll be inclined to make my other books available through the same channels.
This does not signal an abandonment of skoobebooks! Far from it! I couldn’t be happier with the help and service that I’ve had from them, and I suspect that it is far superior to what I could expect from CreateSpace! It is simply a reluctant acceptance of an unavoidable fact – more people shop through Amazon, especially internationally! It is also a reflection of the fact that, sadly, I can’t afford the extra fee for wider distribution (including through Amazon), imposed by skoobebooks.
One last word on skoobebooks! If you live in the United Kingdom, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend your use of skoobebooks. Having used both them and UK-based FeedARead, I am very happy to say that skoobebooks win hands down on service! From the very first book that I submitted to them, I have been constantly impressed by the help provided, and the fact that they work so hard to get your precious creation printed in the way you want! Working with Keith at skoobebooks has taught me a great deal, and I can only publicly express my gratitude to him, and his colleagues. Without them, I doubt that there would have been a printed option for any of my books!
~ Steve
