MSI Press Blog

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about reviews. How do you get reviews?  How should you interpret them? How should you handle bad reviews? So, let's take each question separately. How do you get reviews? There are professional reviewers. Some will review before the book is published -- they want a 3-4 month heads-up (i.e. book in hand, with a later release date). These are highly desirable. Examples are Library Journal , School Library Journal , Foreword Reviews (the free version), and Publishers Weekly . All of them accept submissions sent directly to them. (There are also otherLs; Google them.) You can put your book up on Net

  It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  Today's topic is giveaways. Do they really help in obtaining book reviews and promoting your book? Let's take each question separately. Do book giveaways really help in getting book reviews? Once upon a time they did. Today is seemingly a different story. Library Thing was and likely still is a popular place for giveaways. After all, it is a beehive of book review postings. We used to give away a couple dozen copies each time a book was released. We do not do that anymore. In the past, when Tim (last name forgotten) was the head of Library Thing, a book given away was tracked; it resulted in a review, typically on LT, Amazon, and B&a

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about the unpleasant situation where someone tries to undermine your book. That someone can be a person you know or a complete stranger. They usually have a reason. Often, it is not a good one. And, gee whiz, it is hard enough to garner book sales without having an enemy out there working against you. That said, let's look at what these evil souls do to authors and why and what you can do about it. Some ways that "enemies" can undermine your book and its sales: They write a really bad review, totally panning the book, condemning it in unfounded ways, sometimes outright lying about it, an

It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  Today's post discusses the difficulties in getting book reviews -- from the publisher perspective and the author perspective. Sometimes, those perspectives are the same. Reference here is not to paid reviews; those are pretty easy to get -- put up your money, and back comes a review. Reference here is to unpaid, professional reviews, what every publisher wants and expects and what every author should, too. Lost in the Haystack of Pre-Publication Reviews Pre-publication reviews are hard to get because there are very few reviewers out there, and they are overwhelmed with books being sent to them. One reviewer who wanted to review one of our

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic addresses the bug-a-bear of every author: the negative review. Some negative reviews are, of course, fair; some point to helpful things for revision; some may not reflect objective reality but honest opinion, and others are just plain mean. So, how should an author react? First, analyze the review -- is it honest or dishonest? (If you cannot make an objective analysis, ask a friend or colleague to analyze the review.) Then, determine a course of action, one course, of course, being to take no action at all.  The honest negative review: Are the points made valid or at least valid within an honest mindset

                   What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Starting in August, we will share near-daily, as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  From Deep Within  by  Susan Lewis, Ph.D., J.D.  From Bjasinski on Amazon:  A compelling book that reveals the challenging and demanding life of a therapist. Dr. Lewis’ compassion and heartfelt dedication to her job and her patients is clearly evident. A fascinating book and one that would make a great Book Club read and discussion. See more reviews at: Amazon MidWest Book Review Readers' Favorite All reviews have been 5 stars! For more posts

                                     What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Starting in August, we will share near-daily, as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  From Deep Within  by  Susan Lewis, Ph.D., J.D.  From Colette McNeil on Amazon: This book was both gut wrenching in its brutal honesty of the ugliest side of humanity and heart warming to know there are brave souls among us who willingly walk into an insurmountable situation with little to no support and strive to bring goodness into this world. Thank you for your stories. May society learn from your words. See more reviews at: