Tag Archives: Book reviewers

The argument for #DNF (did not finish)

I seem to find myself embroiled in a few doozies of online chats of late. The most current one involves a bunch of reviewers and authors debating the DNF option of Netgalley and Booksprout.

I happen to do reviews for Netgalley and put my books up on both sites to garner reviews, so I know how both systems work.

Many times on Netgalley I have received a 1 star review and then the reviewer has said they did not finish the book. This seems unrealistically unfair to me.

I have no problem with a reader not finishing it. Not every book is for every reader and I do my own share of DNF’ing. What I object to is Netgalley allowing a rating on a book that was not read to completion. They have a DNF button on the site for reviewers to use. Why some people don’t is beyond me. Same thing goes for Goodreads. Why review a book you didn’t finish? Just to tell people that you didn’t like it? Again, sounds a little nasty, doesn’t it?

I sincerely don’t mind a DNF on my work. In fact, I would prefer it to an abysmal rating that destroys my ranking on Amazon and Goodreads.

I don’t think I’m the only author who feels this way, either.

 

 

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When reviews make you cry! Happy tears, though!!!

The other day I found out that two of my recent books – Dearly Beloved and Christmas and Cannolis  – were both reviewed by InD’Tail magazine – a leader in independent book reviewers. Today I’m going to share the Dearly Beloved one, tomorrow C&C. Can I just tell you how happy this makes me!!!!

Dearly Beloved

Peggy Jaeger
Genre:  Contemporary

ROMANTIC COMEDY:  Slade Harrington is big time in Manhattan, very successful and very rich. He’s also very protective of his baby sister Izzy, who is ready to marry the man of her dreams. Slade is ready to give her the wedding of her dreams, he’s paying for whatever she wants. Their father has not been the best role model, with multiple ex-wives on his resume. Slade has sworn off marriage indefinitely. Colleen O’Dowd is a wedding coordinator in Heaven, New Hampshire. Her sister runs an Inn where Izzy’s wedding is booked. When Slade accompanies his sister to check out what he’s paying for, Colleen is an added bonus. There are some undeniable sparks between them, but Colleen knows he’s a playboy and cannot mix business with pleasure.

“Dearly Beloved” will take readers on a journey of a fairytale wedding, or rather a true wedding filled with family drama start to finish! Ms. Jaeger captures a beautiful sibling relationship that flourishes when the parents are not emotionally or physically available. This story does have the stereotypical rich hero and not so rich heroine, but the added siblings and family members balance it out. There is the cheating ex that makes an appearance which is predictable in this situation, but he is the one that readers will love to hate. Overall, the push and pull of the budding romance is delightfully written, and readers will enjoy this quick read that ties up with a red-bow ending! This is the first book of a series, so readers might want to check out the others and see what feisty grandma Fiona is up to next!

~Viola Robins

Tearing up even as I read it for the gazillionth time, peeps!
Buy Links: Amazon // WRP // B&N // Kobo // Apple // Google Play // Books-a-Million

and because I’m a little nuts, here’s what the review looks like in the magazine

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My current #SocialMedia obsession…

So you can probably guess the answer to the blog title today. I discovered TRIBERR a little over a year ago when author (and good friend) Marianne Rice spoke to my NHRWA chapter about using social media to build a target audience. It was a great workshop overall, but when she told us about TRIBERR, I immediately looked into securing a spot on the media site.

So, what is Triberr and why is it such a worthwhile Social media site to be a part of? Here’s a great article on exactly what it is and does, link, but in a nutshell, Triberr hooks you up with other bloggers on  the web who will share your content to their sites, blogs, social media posts, etc. When I first joined the social media world I had a world wide web “reach” of maybe ( on a good day) 100 people. That included Twitter, FB, and Instagram.

After one week of joining Triberr, I saw a 10 percent increase in traffic across my sites and within a month, that had risen ten fold. My Triberr reach as of today is 171,ooo. I don’t even know 100 people, much less 171,000!! My Twitter followers increase daily ( this morning they number 2,220) and my FB author page is up to 1,301, up nine since  last Monday. I know those numbers may not seem impressive, but when you’re a virtual nobody like I am, getting your name out there so poeple can buy your books is hard. The fact that when I started writing for publication I had 1 follower on Twitter ( my darling daughter) and now I number 2k+ is amazeballs!

How I increased those numbers is no secret: I joined TRIBERR and then started following other TRIBES devoted to writing, marketing, and author branding. This is my own site (called a TRIBE) Strong Women. Loving Men

where my blog postings get listed daily, and where other authors/bloggers/readers ask to join my tribe. I’m a member of about a dozen other tribes where I read and post those bloggers’ content daily, thereby increasing my own web reach. It’s a win/win situation as far as I am concerned.

Since I’ve limited the type of tribes I want to be associated with – all romance writing, marketing, and review sites – I can target my reach to those individuals who read and write and review romance books. If I wanted to really expand my reach, and I probably will in the next year or so, I’d include book bloggers, readers, and reviewers of all book genres, not only romance. But even if you wanted to narrow down your scope to, say, just romance readers/bloggers/reviewers who only read/review/blog about Paranormal Romance, or historical romance, you could do that as well.

The site is free, the only cost – the time you take to share the posts you want to each day. And you don’t even have to do it every day. I do because I typically blog every day, but if you’re a once a week blogger, that’s fine. As long as you share other posts in your tribe, you’re fine.

If you’re looking to grow your on-line and social media presence, Triberr is a great way to do so with very little every and a whole lotta reach! I’ve even included it in my search engine sites.

And when I’m not on Triberr, you can usually find me here:

Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// Book Me

 

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Filed under Author, Author Branding, Contemporary Romance, Romance, Romance Books