Ha! Fooled you, didn’t I? Since I haven’t actually gotten my hands on copies of my own book yet (iUniverse for the win!), I have decided to have a slightly different type of giveaway. And this giveaway will involve … MAGNETS!
Don’t get too excited. You haven’t even seen them yet.
Okay, you may now get excited. Ain’t they bootiful?
So here’s the deal. I’m giving away an unspecified number of magnets to an unspecified number of people who comment on this blog post in celebration of the publication of my totally rad new book, Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It. I have a sparkly bowler hat left over from New Years into which I will place the name of each person who comments on this post. You get an extra draw if you reblog/share this post (or, preferably, this post) on your own blog.
The prize?
A MAGNET!!!
Perhaps not the most exciting prize in the world, but you can always use it to … um … do whatever you do with magnets. Stick flyers to your fridge? Plus you get to boast that you own an original Imminent Danger magnet! Wow!
Anyway, here is a picture of me and the magnets to get you motivated.
The bear’s name is Tibbers. Don’t worry, he only comes alive and attempts to devour me whole every second full moon. Thus far I’ve fended him off via locking my door, but I found a lockpick set under his crown a few days ago, so I have a feeling my cunning ploy won’t work much longer.
This “contest”, so-called, is open to anyone currently living on the planet Earth. Visitors from foreign planets need not apply, as interstellar postage rates have really space-rocketed recently. (Get it? Sky-rocketed … space-rocketed … never mind.)
And your comment can be about literally anything. It can be about how beautiful the magnets are. It can be about my gigantic teddy bear. It can be about the current state of politics in South East Asia. You can even try to answer the age old question: Star Wars or Star Trek?
The contest ends when I wake up on Saturday morning and draw a name (so, probably around 9-10ish).
So I was scrolling through my “Blogs I Follow” page yesterday, and I found this post by Jason Alan. In the post, he mentions that he’s had his book of poetry, Poetry of a Madman,up on Amazon for over a year with no reviews. And I thought to myself, “I can review things”. Hence this post. Oh, and check out that link, because he’s offering the kindle edition for free (for a limited time), so snap up a copy before it’s too late!
The Book
Poetry of a Madman
The Genre
Poetry
The Author
I don’t know much about Jason, so instead I will quote the blurb on his WordPress blog: “Short stories, rants, poetry, unfinished novels, and look! Cows!”
The Plot
It’s a book of poetry. It doesn’t have a plot. Sheesh.
Basically, it’s a collection of poems, most of them by Jason, with the first section devoted to guest poets.
The Review
Poetry of a Madman was a very interesting read. My experience with poetry is mostly limited to what I read in English class, so I didn’t have any expectations going in. And I was quite impressed with what I found.
Many of the poems are about serious topics — current issues, the human state, etc. — but there are also a selection of more light-hearted pieces that really drew me in. One of my favourite poems was “i am, part one”, which Jason wrote years ago, lost, and is now trying to recreate. I loved the cadence of the poem and the imagery he used — when I read it, I found myself kind of singing along in my head. I think this poem would make an excellent song.
Another favourite was “digital heartache”. I don’t want to give away too much, but to give you a taste of the awesome:
“my farmville crop is sprouting weeds
these angry birds have too many needs
my mafia family has ceased to get paid
and my warcraft warrior never gets laid”
The book has a lovely blend of poetry. There are sad poems, happy poems, quirky poems, funny poems, and thought-provoking poems. I’m a bubbly person by nature, so I enjoyed the funny/quirky ones the most. But overall I thought Poetry of a Madman was a great poetry collection, and I definitely recommend it to all you poetry lovers out there.
So fellow author and blogger Tania L Ramos has cordially invited me to participate in her upcoming blog tour. Woot!
The blog tour is to promote her recently self-published novel Be Still, which you can find out more about via her website. Here’s the lovely image of her cover:
I read it, and despite it being the polar opposite of the genres I usually read, I really enjoyed it. It’s a modern, romantic adult drama about a man slowly dying who wants to join his wife and daughter in the afterlife, but can’t die peacefully until he’s resolved his issues with his living son.
For people who don’t know, a blog tour is basically the internet version of a book tour. Instead of flying all around the country doing interviews and promoting their book, the author does it online instead. So at each of the stops along the blog tour, Tania will be doing an interview, or the blog’s author will post their review of the book (which is what I will likely be doing), or there might be an “interview” with one of the book’s characters, etc. Sounds cool, right?
Oh, and did I mention there will be a free giveaway of the book at each stop on the blog tour? Now you’re interested! Mwahaha. Seriously though, it’s worth stopping by just to enter into the contest. Who doesn’t love a free book? Nobody, that’s who.
Tania is also holding a sweepstakes right now, which can be viewed on her Facebook page. Basically, for every 100 books she sells by August 30th, she will donate a copy of her book to a high school of the winner’s choice. It only works for U.S. schools (something about foreign policy), and she promises to donate a book even if she doesn’t hit the 100 books sold mark. And if you’re poor like me and don’t want to buy a copy, you can still go to the Sweepstakes tab on the Facebook page and enter anyway.
Today’s topic is a very subjective one, as everyone I’ve met seems to have different opinions on releasing free eBooks. The concept of free-publishing (as I call it) is to get your name out there as an author in a format that everyone loves – free! On the flip side, as authors publishing our intellectual property that we have slaved over for years, we rankle at the idea of giving away our babies without any form of monetary compensation. Thus the debate: is it a good idea to publish a free eBook?
Why it’s a good idea:
People like free stuff. Online piracy is through the roof, with no indication that it’s going down any time soon. Odds are that if you publish a book, a good percentage of your readership will have downloaded it for free anyway. So why not take matters into your own hands and deliver it free of charge from the very start?
No one will buy a book from an unknown author. I’m not talking about indie authors, I mean authors that nobody knows about. So, logically, you need to become a known author before you publish a book. But how do you get known as an author of awesome books if you haven’t published anything? Catch 22, baby. Unless you publish free eBooks. Then you can spread your literary wings and get your name out there. People are far more likely to download something that’s free because, as I’ve already stated, people like free stuff. You don’t even have to write original fiction – several fanfiction authors I know of have had moderate success publishing original fiction using their fanfiction fanbase as a jump off point. So it’s really all about exposure, exposure, exposure.
It’s a great way to hook an audience onto a series. My mother’s rather rich, rather market-savvy friend, suggested that I release the first book in my Imminent Danger series for free. I didn’t listen to her, although perhaps I should have. Her reasoning was that if I can get lots of people to read the first one for free, they’ll be more likely to shell out a few bucks when the sequel drops. If you look at current best-sellers, the vast majority of them are part of a series. Fifty Shades of Grey, Twilight, Harry Potter, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, etc. You lose money at the start, but theoretically you’ll make it up in the long run.
Why it’s a bad idea:
You run the risk of being seen as just another free-eBook author. I don’t know about you, but when I see something offered for free, one of the first things that pops into my head is “What kind of quality can something given away for free really have?” It could be the greatest book in the world, but many people might have a hard time overcoming those sorts of thoughts. And the thought isn’t at all unfounded. Go to a site like Wattpad, where hundreds of thousands of authors post their books for free, and you get a sense of what I’m saying. There are a few real gems hidden there, no doubt, but the vast majority isn’t the greatest literature I’ve ever seen.
You don’t make any money. That sounds kind of haughty, but it’s true. When I was struggling over whether to self-publish with iUniverse or release the book for free, this was one of the main factors in my decision. Here’s my reasoning. Your book is your intellectual property, something you’ve poured your heart and soul into, and you deserve to market and sell it just like any other product. Sell it at a discounted price, because it’s a new book from a new author? Sure. Give free copies as part of giveaways or contests? Absolutely. That’s basic marketing strategy. But give it away for free? This is the same problem that you get when you discuss whether selling an eBook for 99 cents is too cheap. Your book is valuable. It is worth something.
There are other ways to gain fans. You don’t have to give away your book for free to get fans. What about contests and giveaways? What about social media and word of mouth? There are other ways to market yourself.
It ruins your chance for traditional publishing. I don’t know for sure about this one, but logic dictates that it’s true. Self-published authors get taken on by traditional publishers all the time. But what’s the point of a traditional publisher spending all that money releasing your book if you’ve already given it away to the entire world?
Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference.
Both publishing methods have their pros and cons. I myself am considering free-publishing a book I wrote a few years ago. It’s in a completely different universe from my soon-to-be-published Imminent Danger book, and while it’s a light, fun read, I don’t know if it has the staying potential to become a best-seller. It’s tempting to give it a good proof read and release it to the world, but as should be obvious from this post, I’m not sure if that’s such a good idea.
What do you think? Is free-publishing a viable option for self-published authors? Are the pros of free-publishing worth the cons? Have you ever free-published, and if so, was it a good experience? Did it gain you followers and friends that you wouldn’t have reached otherwise?
Michelle Proulx - Author 
