Adara Anderson's Blog

Hello!

Well, life has been interesting lately, and by ‘interesting’, I mean ‘determined to drive me nuts’. I had all these really cool plans for writing. Extra series I wanted to work on and lots of plans for the series already on the go. Then the Universe noticed that things were going too well and laughed like an evil villain. Cue lots of unexpected stuff. Lots of family drama and illnesses. I haven’t had as much time as I’d like for the million projects I wanted to do. Still, I’ve been working away and I am getting somewhere. Where I’m not entirely sure, but it’s somewhere

The online e-book retailer All Romance Ebooks is closing down. The news was rather sudden. Right before Christmas, I received an e-mail about booking advertising slots with them throughout 2017. Then yesterday I received an e-mail informing me that they are going out of business at midnight on 31st December 2016.

How does this affect you? If you don’t shop on ARe, it doesn’t affect you at all. If you do shop with them, you should back up your e-books as you won’t be able to download them again once the site closes. If you have credit with them (for instance if you bought from them during one of their “rebate” sales and got store credit) then you should redeem it as soon as possible. You have until midnight on 31st December 2016, but most authors are removing their books from the site, so you should use your credit quickly.

ARe are apparently unable to pay authors what they are owed. Authors will either receive a tiny fraction of the money they are due for book sales or else will receive nothing at all. As a result, I (like many authors) have removed my books from sale on their site. My books remain available on other sites, mainly Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

It is incredibly disappointing. Not only will I not be getting paid, but I have also lost a sales channel which was fairly promising. It is also a shame that one more retailer has been driven out of business, thereby narrowing our choice of where to shop.

It is a difficult time to run a business. Even more so when you are a writer.

So, it’s been another few busy months, but I’m finishing off the year with two new releases. Honestly, it’s been crazy. Between trying to finish off these two books and deal with everyday life, there hasn’t been much time left over. Life has a sneaky habit of unexpectedly filling up any spare time I had plans for!

Today sees the release of “Polar Opposites (Bearbank, book 3)” under my other personality, Ariana McGregor. Yay! For those reading the series, this book is the story of Sara (that we met in book 2) and also Felix. You know, the one with THE hair.

So, not an awful lot of news right now. Mostly because I’ve been throwing myself into writing. Yay! I’ve been working on Book 3 of The Host series. This one will be Nero’s story. I’ve had several people saying that Nero really grabbed their attention and they really want his book. I have to admit, Nero is one of my favourites too, so I’m really excited to be writing his book now.

It’s always the same with these Paranormal Romance books that are set up where you meet several of the characters and you know they’ll be getting their own book. Even as a reader, I always find that there are one or two of the characters who really stand out and I’m desperate to reach their stories. I’ve found that even though I’m writing these ones, there are still a couple of the guys that I’m particularly fond of. I love all my guys, but a few of them are just extra special

So, it’s been a busy month here. June saw me releasing two books, “Bearly a Squeak” under my pen name of Ariana McGregor, and “Anders” under Adara Anderson. Why do I use different names? Well, although both sets of books are paranormal romance, I felt that the style was very different and I wanted everyone to be clear about what they were getting. The straight paranormal romance comes under Adara Anderson. The lighter paranormal romance with humour comes under Ariana McGregor. Although some people like both styles of paranormal romance (I definitely do!), not everyone does, and that’s fine. The lovely messages I’ve received from readers have generally been about one series or the other. I’ve yet to find anyone saying they liked both, so I think I made the right decision in keeping them separate

So, yesterday’s migraine is finally gone. Yay! That means I can get back to work today. So much to do and so little time.

I’m in the process of uploading books to Google Play for anyone who prefers to shop there. Still waiting for them to appear in the Google store. It can take a couple of days, so I’m hoping they’ll be up either today or tomorrow. I’m having some issues with pricing, so apologies if the prices are different than elsewhere. I’m doing my best but it’s complicated. Google won’t let me upload directly, so I have to go through a distributor. I set the price, the distributor changes it, and then Google change it again! In the end, it bears no resemblance to the price I actually set. In the interests of fairness, I try to make the prices roughly the same across all the stores (although there may be a small difference occasionally, due to exchange rates, etc.). I’m now playing a guessing game, trying to work out what price I need to charge in order to have the price appear as I want it! Once the books are up on Google Play, I will update my site with the buy links.

I’m also re-reading “Anders” for the last time, checking for any last-minute changes or formatting issues. I’ll be releasing it at the end of this month. Yay! Again, the website will be updated when I have a specific date for release.

I also have proof copies of paperbacks for “Markus” and “Don’t Moose With Her” to check over and make changes. I’m not entirely happy with the covers, so they will need some adjusting, and then I can have these two books available in paperback. Yay!

I have a few tweaks to make to my website. It’s up, it works… but I’m a perfectionist.

And, as always, I have writing to do. A certain vampiric nephil is waiting for me to write his story. Then there’s the polar bear and lion also waiting patiently. Not to mention several other ideas that need fleshed out a little and their stories written.

So, that’s what I’m up to at the moment. I have more to do than I have time for. At least I won’t get bored

I’ve been a busy little bee lately. Today was spent editing “Anders”, book two of The Host. It’s getting there and I’m fairly happy with it, but it does still need more work and a little more polishing. Editing is nowhere near as much fun as writing but it’s a necessary evil, so I just have to put on my big girl pants and get on with it. Even if I do have a squillion ideas I’d prefer to be writing about. Pout. Once I’m done with “Anders”, I still have more editing to do on “Bearly A Squeak”. I should probably have timed this better!

In other news, I received the proof copy of the paperback version of “Markus”. I may have been slightly overexcited by this. By “may have been” you should read “absolutely was”. By “slightly overexcited”, you should read “stroking it while muttering ‘my precious’ over and over”. I have been informed that this is somewhat creepy. Everything is not completely as I’d like it, which is the whole point of proof copies. I need to tweak it a little and also check the inside of the book for anything that needs changed. Still, it looks awesome and I’m really happy. As much as I love my e-books, there is something incredibly special about holding a physical copy of my own book. The book is currently resting on a satin pillow

I know writers are always going on and on about reviews, but that’s because they’re important. They only take a few minutes and they make an enormous difference. Many people look at reviews before deciding whether or not to buy a book, particularly when the book is written by an author they haven’t tried before. Yet most people don’t review the books they read. See how this can be a problem? I used to be guilty of not reviewing. Then several years ago, I started reading several independent authors and following them on social media. That’s when I realized how important reviews were to them. I now make sure I review every book I read. Book reviews lead to more people taking a chance on an author they haven’t read before, which means lots of potential new readers, which means more success, which makes it easier to keep writing and producing more books. Now that I’ve started writing, I’m even more aware of how important they are!

I recently saw a review (for someone else’s book, not mine) where the reviewer said that even though they had thousands of books, they never review but made an exception this time because they hated the book so much. Reading that made me pretty sad. They’ll take time out of their day to complain about a book (I actually loved the book, by the way!) but won’t take five minutes to review a good book and help out the author who wrote it?

What if you want to review a book but don’t know what to write? It’s actually very simple.

Actually, the most important thing is the star rating. Some sites will allow you to do this without writing anything at all. Others insist that you write a few words. The thing is, it really does just need to be a few words. No one is asking you to write a book report (unless you really want to!)

For the star rating, if you liked the book, consider a 4 or 5 star review. If you loved it, go with 5 stars. If you liked it, but you felt something was missing, or there was something about it that you found annoying, give it 4 stars. Both are good, positive ratings and the author will be deliriously happy. Three stars is a bit of a wishy-washy rating. Use that if you thought the book was okay but nothing special. Three stars is fairly neutral.

One or two stars is a negative rating. Please be careful with those. Stop and think if the book truly deserves it. If the book was well written but just wasn’t your cup of tea, consider going with three stars. If it really does deserve only one or two stars, please say why. We all have different tastes, so someone else might not have a problem with whatever you found annoying.

You don’t have to write much for the review. If you liked the book, all you have to do is say so. That’s all. Four or five stars and “liked it” or “loved it”. If you want to say more, feel free (although you should always try to avoid writing anything that gives away the plot to someone who hasn’t read the book.  For example, if it’s a murder mystery, don’t give away the murderer’s identity).

If you didn’t like the book and you’re giving a negative review, try to say why. Again, you don’t have to write a thesis. Just a few words saying why you disliked the book.

These are examples of simple but perfectly acceptable reviews:

5 stars – Loved it!

4 stars – I enjoyed this book.

4 stars – Liked this book but the heroine could be a bit annoying at times.

3 stars – It was okay but there were too many typos.

3 stars – The book was well-written but it just wasn’t my thing and I couldn’t get into it.

2 stars – It was an interesting idea for a book but there were far too many mistakes. Plus, it was really very short and then ended on a cliffhanger.

1 star – This book was supposed to be about vampires but it had aliens instead! It’s full of spelling mistakes and the plot makes no sense.

You get the idea!

People reading the reviews want to know whether or not the book is full of typos (one or two isn’t a huge deal, but if the whole book is littered with them, then people want to know that), if it has a cliffhanger (where the story ends abruptly and you have to buy the next book to find out what happens), and whether or not the story is enjoyable.

That’s really all there is to it. Reviews can be left on the online store where you bought the ebook (e.g. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, etc.). They can also be left on sites like Goodreads.

So, on behalf of writers everywhere, thank you for reviewing! You totally rock

Yay! The new site is now working properly. Ya know, until the next time I touch something I shouldn’t and break it again. I give it ten minutes. Maybe five. I’ve lost this blog three times today. I don’t just mean this post. I mean the entire blog. I am just that special!

I really shouldn’t touch computers without adult supervision.

This book is part of the Southern Shifter Kindle World. I have only read one other book from this series and none from the original series that spawned this. Luckily, it didn’t hinder me at all as previous information wasn’t really required. Yay!

I really enjoyed this book. I absolutely adored Sully. He was the perfect shifter male – big and tough with a gooey soppy centre. Beth was a complicated woman but very easy to like. An awesome heroine, more than capable of looking after herself. The book is hot and steamy but there is much more to it. There was a connection between the main characters, plenty of back story, and lots of exciting plot. I did find myself caught up in the story and unwilling to put the book down. Also, the book is well-written and free of typos/spelling issues. It’s not a particularly long book but it’s a reasonable length. The style of writing is engaging with some humour.

If you like shifter books, you’ll most likely enjoy this one.

*** I do not know the authors I review here. I receive nothing in exchange – no money, no reviews, no books. These are simply books that I have enjoyed as a reader and want to share. ***