OnelineBookclub:
Hunting for reviewers for one of my books I found myself on onlinebookclub. Opening a free account was simple. It was awkward finding the proper page to submit my ebook but I got through it. I had to send an email with the following information.
• Your Name and Title : John Stilwell
• Email Address:
• Book Title: Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful
• Author: John Stilwell
• Format' mobi
• Publish Date: May 10, 2013
• Series (if any)
• Series Number
• Publisher: Kindle, Smashwords, CreateSpace
• Genre: Sci Fi
• Book Description:
What if everybody has time travel?
Giving an serving of humor and action, the three stories deal with the same event. One morning everybody wakes up to find a new internet service. One that lets you send an email to yourself exactly one month into the future or into the past.
The first story is about the average person's experience. The second is about a criminal coming to grips with his life in chaos. The third is the government's reaction to the situation. Just trying to keep up, the situation quickly turns into an arms race that threatens nuclear holocaust.
• Author Links (Website, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
It took two weeks to get accepted and a couple more for the giveaway and a couple of reviews to be posted. The reviews were good except for pointing out my ebook (just three short stories long) had a lot of typos. It was my first clue that proofreader wasn't as good as I had believed. I did get a couple of sales and found I a new proofreader. With my book cleaned up, or so I thought, I moved on to the next website.
GoodReads
GoodReads.com manages paperback give-aways from authors. The typical contest lasts about a month and picks five or more winners. The website recommended 10 copies but I, the author decided how many would be given away. There are as many as fifty or more contests going on at any moment. It cost me nothing other than the cost of buying and shipping the promised books.
What does the author get out of it? The author hopes that the winner's will like the book and then write a good review on GoodReads.com. It is not required but polite to post one's opinion.
Where are the contests on the website? On the home page, click on Explore (top middle) then select Giveaways to see the active contests.
When I decided to give away one of my books, it took two days to get approved. I ran the contest for one month. In the end giving I gave away ten paperbacks. Goodreads supplied a list of addresses. To read it, I had to log into goodreads.com I went to Amazon and ordered a paperback for each person.
Within two of weeks, the reviews started being posted. There were some glowing reviews but to my horror, the book had a lot of typos which was pointed out. I had run it through not one but two proof readers!(a topic for another posting). In the end, I made a couple more sales and found the next proofreader to run my stories through.
