Last week I finished my second book review on Goodreads (Nightshade Academy by Mel Torrefranca). My main motivation for doing so—as I wrote in the review itself—was to "expand my focus beyond my usual genres (in this case, into that of YA fantasy-thriller) and the tendency I have to avoid reading anything but standalone novels."

I'd like to think I was fairly successful in writing the review, although the expansion part of my overall focus is yet to be seen.

Part of my difficulty with continuing to read & review other independent authors comes down to time restraints. My personal experience drives home the impact of reviews—or lack thereof. But the bottom line is I don't read as widely as I have in the past since I currently have more plates in the air than I can comfortably spin (see my earlier post "Spinning Plates").

Then there's the issue of actually receiving ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) since I prefer ebooks over hard copies. Torrefranca uses Bookfunnel, a platform I'm familiar with, so that was easy, but I'm not sure how many other authors might follow suit.

For the past year, I've been nudging myself toward getting more involved in the self-publishing community in general. But since I haven't gained much traction on the social media front, I wonder how involved I can honestly expect myself to get in the book review world.

Of course, this is all food for thought since I'm still running full throttle with my serialization project & don't have any candidates in my TBR stack shouting my name.

Keep you posted.
Drew

Drew Faraday
Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown