ABNA discussion

Boo hoo! I didn't make it but alas, such is life. Who's in? Who's not?

I didn't make it.

Well, this just adds to all the bad news I've gotten this month. I didn't make it either. Oh well, onwards and upwards. Sorry I've kind of been ignoring goodreads lately. I'll try and get things going for the book club later, i've had some distracting personal issues.

I'm out too, what a ride huh? Glad I did it!

Well at least we are in good company. Sorry about your month, Mikhail.

K. R. wrote: "Well at least we are in good company. Sorry about your month, Mikhail."

You know the saying... When it rains it pours!

I saw that both Darlene and Naomi advanced (according to another thread last night). Congrats to both of them and to everyone else who made it to the next round.

I won't be moving on with the winners, but I wish the best of luck to all the quarter-finalists (well, maybe a little extra luck to Naomi, since we pretended to play bridge once upon a time).

Oh, my gosh. My hands are still shaking. Wow. I made it. I am so happy and humbled. So many talented writers in the pool. Best wishes to all!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos...

Thanks Mike! Three diamonds.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-who-Lit...

Studio wrote: "I saw that both Darlene and Naomi advanced (according to another thread last night). Congrats to both of them and to everyone else who made it to the next round.

I won't be moving on with the w..."

Congrats Darlene! Good luck!

Darlene wrote: "Oh, my gosh. My hands are still shaking. Wow. I made it. I am so happy and humbled. So many talented writers in the pool. Best wishes to all!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos......"

Congratulations to the winners! Well, it's get-back-to-work for me. I've been neglecting everything the last two weeks. My blog, my editing.

Me too. I couldn't sleep all night.

Darlene wrote: "Oh, my gosh. My hands are still shaking. Wow. I made it. I am so happy and humbled. So many talented writers in the pool. Best wishes to all!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos......"

Yay! Made it after all. :)
http://www.amazon.com/Emancipating-Al...

Commiserations to those out at this stage and congrats to fellow quarter finalists!

Congrats to everyone who made it. I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you. Maybe one of our group will go all the way, hope so. Mikhail and S.E. I read both of your books and really enjoyed them sorry you didn't make it to the next round.

congratulations to all who have made the quarter finals! for those of us who did not, let me share my secret coping mechanism...TACOS! made me feel tons better. ;)

Laura wrote: "Congrats to everyone who made it. I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you. Maybe one of our group will go all the way, hope so. Mikhail and S.E. I read both of your books and really enjoyed th..."

Thanks so much for reading and for your review! One of the viners loved my book, the other came right out and said "paranormal romance" was a turn off for them. I'm okay with that - I know everyone won't dig it. If anything this whole experience has toughened me up.

I'm so happy for those who did move on - congratulations!!!

Me and my bloody revenge gore-fest made it through to the quarters.

If you'd care to, you can read the excerpt here:

http://www.amazon.com/Puta-ABNA-2013-...

Or rather more of it here:

http://www.wattpad.com/story/3389034-...

I didn't advance further. But it was good to read my excerpt reviews. Congrats to those moving on!

Dwight wrote: "I didn't advance further. But it was good to read my excerpt reviews. Congrats to those moving on!"

Did they review your excerpt even though you didn't make it? Where did you see that?

Midnight Departure made it to the quarter finals and I am grateful for that. Another month of sitting on pins and needles. However it probably gets tougher for me now and maybe I just got lucky that the reviewers who passed me through didn't mind my political persuasion (conservative) that is clearly evident. The book takes a critical look at building the $100 billion bullet train in California set in the context of a fiction action thriller. Congratulations to all though for putting yourself forward and competing, its not the first nor the last competition, or last book that you will write.

Bravo Dan! Why should you be afraid of reviews just because you are conservative? All my scifi/fantasy books have a libertarian leaning and rail against big government. I guess that's okay when it's a made up planet out in space.

Dan wrote: "Midnight Departure made it to the quarter finals and I am grateful for that. Another month of sitting on pins and needles. However it probably gets tougher for me now and maybe I just got lucky tha..."

Guess we are on the same page, J. Next step is to give each other glowing reviews on our samples :)

Does anyone know if Amazon is doing anything to promote/publicize this to readers?

Unexpected Legacy

Dan wrote: "Guess we are on the same page, J. Next step is to give each other glowing reviews on our samples :)"
Will do. Here's my link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00B9N8JB4
Leave me yours.

just downloaded yours and will read today. here is link to mine. Interesting enough my second chapter ended at word # 4995 so just made it under 5000 words with a good end point.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/B00B9...

Just downloaded it. You'll find my review under my top secret pen name Beach Dog.

Kate wrote: "Anyone else cut at this stage and wondering about reviewrs? Compare reviews? I had 1 super review and one not-so-thrilling.
http://kate-mcvaugh.blogspot.com/
Not at all sure what I will do/should ..."

I would have killed for those reviews. :) Even the one that wasn't so glowing still said your story was good (aka interesting). I got, good (but not nearly stated with the same depth of what or how as yours did) and, in a word, mediocre (my word, not theirs). Not bad but not great, just "meh." (again, my words.)

I'm always saying, "I'm completely comfortable with my mediocrity." But Wow! When you hear you're mediocre (or that your work is) from other people, it's amazing how quickly the comfort level evaporates. I thought I was going to give myself whiplash. lol.

So what do I go and do? Submit my novel's excerpt with a tweaked pitch to hopefully cure some of the ills my reviewer saw and send it off to John Green's agent. Somebody please smack me in the head for my masochistic tendencies!

i made it through, but have no idea where to look for comments that reviewers made, other than what was posted with my sample, but no seven paragraphs there . . .?

Kate wrote: "K. R. wrote: "Kate wrote: "Anyone else cut at this stage and wondering about reviewrs? Compare reviews? I had 1 super review and one not-so-thrilling.
http://kate-mcvaugh.blogspot.com/
Not at all ..."

Well, yeah. It feels pretty sucky, no matter what. I didn't mean gloss over it like that. I apologize if that's how I came off. That was not my intention.

It sometimes feels exactly how you put it, "No one wants to look at a book that didn't make the 1/4 finals...." However, I you're eloquently just as dedicated to your story (and should darn well be so from what I read in between your reviews' lines) as I am. So I feel pretty darn confident that this contest isn't the last anyone's going to hear from us. :)

Dan wrote: "i made it through, but have no idea where to look for comments that reviewers made, other than what was posted with my sample, but no seven paragraphs there . . .?"

Dan, have you checked the link in your Create Space ABNA entry area? Everyone in the second round received reviews that can be viewed there. For those of us not moving on, that is the only place we can see them. I assumed that the reviews would appear on the Amazon page for each Quarter Finalist excerpt, but maybe not. Or if they are there, perhaps they are formatted more like a normal Ammy review versus the formulaic one we received. Check your CreateSpace account.

Congratulations on making it through and good luck!

Dan wrote: "i made it through, but have no idea where to look for comments that reviewers made, other than what was posted with my sample, but no seven paragraphs there . . .?"

I have no reviews posted with my sample, but I have two ABNA "expert reviews" available through my Smashwords account. Three columns appear when you hit the icon for the contest. On the far right, there's a link that says check for review. Click that and the reviews should be there. Hope that helps!

found it at create space, it is a more thorough review of what was condensed on my amazon kindle page. thanks!

Oh, good! I see I accidentally wrote Smashwords instead of Createspace!

to those who are sticking with the discussion, whether in or out, it would of course be a blessing for those of us still in to have our excerpts downloaded and reviewed by you. Not asking for the reviews to be ginned up or anything, an honest forthright review would be all we could ask for. My quarterfinalist excerpt is available at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/B00B9...

and thanks for the great review J., been working on a lease document for a property all evening but will post one for The Boy later this evening!

Just in case anyone is interested in looking at my excerpt and writing a review . . .

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos...

Thanks!

Darlene wrote: "Just in case anyone is interested in looking at my excerpt and writing a review . . .

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos...

Thanks!"

Hi Darlene,

I just downloaded it. I'll have a review up for you tomorrow.

J.

Dan wrote: "to those who are sticking with the discussion, whether in or out, it would of course be a blessing for those of us still in to have our excerpts downloaded and reviewed by you. Not asking for the r..."
Will do.

Dan wrote: "to those who are sticking with the discussion, whether in or out, it would of course be a blessing for those of us still in to have our excerpts downloaded and reviewed by you. Not asking for the r..."

Thanks Dan! Great review. I hope your lease is as nice.

J. wrote: "Darlene wrote: "Just in case anyone is interested in looking at my excerpt and writing a review . . .

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos......"

Thanks, J! I appreciate it!

K. R. wrote: "Kate wrote: "Anyone else cut at this stage and wondering about reviewrs? Compare reviews? I had 1 super review and one not-so-thrilling.
http://kate-mcvaugh.blogspot.com/
Not at all sure what I wi..."

I wouldn't take these reviews too seriously. I mean, how can you review a 5000 word excerpt? One of my reviewers wrote that they didn't like one of my main characters because they couldn't figure out if he was good or evil (in the first 5000 words.) Maybe I should have thanked the reviewer, because that's just what I wanted him to think. I don't think my second reviewer was a native English speaker, judging by the way they wrote.

Laura wrote: "K. R. wrote: "Kate wrote: "Anyone else cut at this stage and wondering about reviewrs? Compare reviews? I had 1 super review and one not-so-thrilling.
http://kate-mcvaugh.blogspot.com/
Not at all ..."

Laura, I agree. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I wouldn't take any review too seriously, good or bad. I'm not trying to dismiss anyone's reviews that were good. It's just that subjectivity is such a huge part of any creative endeavor and after a while you have to accept that while one person may LOVE your work, another is going to HATE it and maybe even for exactly the same reasons. They are opinions and as much as we don't like differing opinions, people are entitled to have them; they are *gasp* valid.

Still...good reviews rock. Bad reviews suck. And the earth still revolves around the sun so everything is fine. :)

I'm really tickled to find this thread. I'll jump in and read as many excerpts of quarterfinalists as I can and will appreciate if the others review mine as well. I think the best we can hope for at this point is to get the conversation going.
my excerpt: http://www.amazon.com/One-Shoe-Off-En...

Sue wrote: "I'm really tickled to find this thread. I'll jump in and read as many excerpts of quarterfinalists as I can and will appreciate if the others review mine as well. I think the best we can hope for a..."

Hi Sue,
I just downloaded yours and will leave you a review. Here's mine:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-who-Lit...

Cheers, J.

Thanks J. I already downloaded yours from a previous post. Love the title. Can't wait to read.

Sue wrote: "Thanks J. I already downloaded yours from a previous post. Love the title. Can't wait to read."

Thanks Sue. Your VINE reviews were incredible. I can't wait to read yours!

Where are you all seeing reviews? J -- are you talking about the judges' reviews or reviews from people who've downloaded the excerpt? I have only yours!! :-)

The VINE reviews are the judges. I don't know why they are called that.

How are you seeing the them for other author's books? I saw my own from my Createspace account, but I'm not seeing any others.

On your excerpt listing, there is a section called Editorial Reviews. These are excerpts from the VINE reviews on Createspace.

Ahhhh! Got it! Thank you! :-)
Do you happen to know if Amazon has listed the quarter-finalist anywhere? I don't see how readers are just going to stumble across them!