C. M. Skiera's Blog

I'm obviously not a prolific writer, so I've always doubted the importance of a mailing list. I rarely blog, and have no idea what I would fill a newsletter with, other than book releases and sales. But, who knows, maybe there's value in that? So I've revived my mailing list (some of you may have found yourselves on it), and will be sending the occasional e-mail when I run an eBook sale, or publish another novel--nothing more than this. And I promise never to use AI-generated auto-mailings! I'm using the free version of Mailchimp, and there is an unsubscribe button on the bottom of every e-mail. I hate spam, and certainly don't want to annoy people with unwanted notifications, so if by some reason, the unsubscribe button doesn't work, let me know, and I'll personally remove you from the list.  Anyhow, I appreciate all the support I receive from readers and fellow authors, and if you are interested in staying in touch via an occasional newsletter, the sig...

Booksprout is a website that offers to get you book reviews by exposing your work to their community of over 80,000 active reviewers. The gist of Booksprout is that you pay them for access to their reviewers, to whom you provide a free copy of your work in exchange for an honest review. They have several pricing plans, and I chose $9.00 USD per month, which was the cheapest option. This was my first mistake. I found their directions and user interface unintuitive, and set up what I thought was a two-month campaign for July and August 2024, to garner advance reading copy (ARC) reviews for my fantasy novel Plea to a Frozen God . I didn't pay enough attention to Booksprout's billing details, and I paid for my carelessness. My bad, but I'm here to help you not make the same mistake. I didn't actually sign up for a two-month campaign, rather a monthly fee that would be charged until I cancelled my account. Needless to say, after my campaign ended and I was still invoiced by...

VoraciousReadersOnly.com is a website service that states it  "is dedicated to helping readers discover new authors and to help authors find readers who will love their work, write reviews, and help them build word of mouth." I tried out VoraciousReadersOnly.com with my new fantasy novel Plea to a Frozen God , and I'll provide you some data and feedback on how the experience was. VoraciousReadersOnly.com offers a free introductory book giveaway (one per author), which attempts to find you 20 new readers. The author provides an electronic copy of their book either directly to readers who sign up to read your book, or to an upload site where readers can download your eBook at their convenience. After the free 20-reader introductory offer, Voracious Readers Only provides an ongoing promotion to continue to offer your book to new readers starting at $30 USD a month. In return for offering readers your book for free, the Voracious Readers Only agreement allows authors to add ...

Why are Amazon book reviews important to writers selling on the global marketplace leader's website? Beyond the obvious answer of helping prospective buyers decide if the novel is right for them, there are several other lesser-know critical reasons. For example, many of the online promotional sites where authors advertise their books (like BookBub, etc.) require a minimum number of Amazon reviews (or star ratings) before they will accept the book. This is a tough hurdle for new releases that don’t have many (or any) Amazon reviews. This Catch-22 means you need Amazon reviews to market your books, but how do you get Amazon reviews before you are able promote your novel? In addition, Amazon’s algorithm factors in customer reviews when deciding to include a product in search results and recommendation lists. Books with more reviews are more likely to be promoted by Amazon’s algorithm, which can help the book reach a wider audience.  More reviews (even negative ones) provide the book w...