Publish Day!

March 1 has arrived. Running From Herself is now live, both in Kindle format and paperback. I think the most exciting part is that I am now able to purchase an author copy of the paperback with the correct back cover matter (after I fixed what was wrong with the first one). Kind of a silly thing to be excited about, granted, but the bad copy I received the first time has been bothering me.

I also have promotions running today on BookRaid, eReaderIQ, and It's Write Now. Obviously not top of the line sites (although I do like BookRaid), but one has to start somewhere. 

On to my review (which I posted on this blog) ~ To say it was a surprise is an understatement. I am puzzled that the site didn't let me know about it, and that I only found it by accident when I googled the title of my novel. Maybe it's their intent to stay objective, but since the review was already published, they could have given me a heads-up. It wasn't as if I was going to demand changes. And the review would have been helpful advertising for me, had I been aware of it.

But that's nitpicking, I guess. The first thing I noticed is that the reviewer clearly read the book. That's not always the case. One can find "reviews" that are simply rewordings of the blurb. The reviewer noted a multitude of plot points that she could only know from reading it. I appreciate that. I also like (and this may sound odd) that she noted the story's flaws. An over-hyped review reads as disingenuous. She removed half a star for those flaws, and I can't disagree. The things she criticized are the same things I criticized: the story bogs down once Leah arrives in Nashville. I made an effort to fix that, but my dilemma was that the situations I wrote about needed to remain in the story, and I couldn't come up with a way to make them "pop". The reviewer was nice about it, though. She wrote that "in some ways, this actually serves to reinforce the protagonist's sense of displacement and uncertainty". Her other quibble was that some of the supporting characters were underdeveloped and that the internal monologues were occasionally repetitive. Guilty. But the thing about those underdeveloped supporting characters was that I needed to pick and choose. No, they didn't have fully formed personalities like Paula and Burt and Paul Gables, but they are incidental to the narrative. And yes, Leah's inner monologues seem to dwell on the same issues a lot; I could have done better.

What warmed my heart about the review was that it noted that I have "a keen ear for dialogue". Thank you! 'bout time someone noticed! Also, that my characters aren't cookie-cutter. Really, I could go through and point out every bit of the review I love, but that could go on forever. She was extremely generous, and she found things to like that even I didn't recognize. 

Apparently, I'm a "promising voice in contemporary fiction". Cool, except my promising days are over. Running From Herself is my last book (alas). Kind of late to become promising.

Oh, one more thing ~ she likened the book to Daisy Jones & The Six, which is kind of eerie. When I wrote my singular LinkedIn post as I was in the midst of writing the novel, I said (by way of explanation) that it was "sort of" like Daisy Jones & The Six, even though it's not, except in its theme. Maybe there just aren't many novels about the music business.  

I'll never forget this. Never. It's likely the best affirmation of my work I'll ever get. It also eased my insecurity. If someone buys the book and hates it, well, I still have that 4 1/2-star review. 

This was just the balm I needed as I "celebrate" publish day.