June Reader Reviews

I've been very happy with the reviews from readers that my books have received on the Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Goodreads website in June.

I'm thrilled that my new release, Fatal Descent, the third book in my RM Outdoor Adventures series, received four 5-star reviews on Amazon in June! Also, it has received two 5-star reviews from Barnes and Noble readers in June. Last but not least, Goodreads readers gave it three 5-star reviews and one 4-star review. And that's it, there are no lower-rated reviews. I'd like to see more reviews on all three sites for the book, but I sure can't complain about the average ranking of the reviews it has gotten so far!

And that's not all.

My other mysteries have received some great reviews in June, too. Deadly Currents, the first book in my RM Outdoor Adventures series, received a 4-star review on Amazon in June.  It also received a 4-star review from a Goodreads reader in June.

A Real Basket Case, the first book in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer series, was given two 4-star reviews by Amazon readers in June. It's average ranking is now 4.2 stars out of 5, with 24 reviews total. It also received a 4-star review from a Goodreads reader in June.

I can add all of these lovely reader reviews to the good reviews that my books have received from professional reviewers. Many readers, myself included, look not just at the professional reviews for books, but also at the informal impressions of books shared by readers on various reading social networks. I'd love to have more, of course. So, if you've read and liked my books and "hang out" at a reading social network on-line, please state your impressions in a review. Not only does it stroke my ego (!), but it helps other readers find and enjoy my mystery novels.

Review for A Real Basket Case

I just ran across a lovely review from a mystery reader/reviewer for the first book in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer series, A Real Basket Case. Read it HERE. Amazon and Barnes & Noble have both books in the series on sale for 21-33% off list price, depending on format. Got any cozy mystery readers on your holiday gift list?

Sale! Sale! Sale!

Great news! Amazon has put the Kindle version of both books in my RM Outdoor Adventures mystery series starring whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner on sale from August 11 - 23 as part of its "August Big Deal" promotion. You can get Deadly Currents and Wicked Eddies for just $1.99 each. Move fast to take advantage of this special promotion, and please spread the word to all of your mystery reading friends!

SALE! SALE! SALE!

I have big news to announce! The Kindle ebook edition of my mystery, Deadly Currents, the first book in my RM Outdoor Adventures series, went on sale June 15th at Amazon for the amazingly cheap price of $1.99. The sale only lasts two weeks, so hurry over to HERE to buy yours! I hope you'll consider picking up a copy of the second book in the series, Wicked Eddies, at the same time.

And, here's some more late-breaking news! Wicked Eddies is now available for the Nook. If you have a Nook, go HERE to buy your copy.

Wicked Eddies available for Kindle preorder!

I'm pleased to say that Wicked Eddies, the second book in my RM Outdoor Adventures series starring whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner, is available for preorder on the Kindle now. You can preorder it at Amazon HERE. As soon as I see the listing for the Nook version on the Barnes & Noble website, I'll post the link here, too.

A Wild Ride!

Today I'm over at Inkspot, the blog for Midnight Ink authors, talking about the wild ride I took when Amazon picked Deadly Currents for their Kindle Daily Deal on January 6th. Read all about it, and let me know what you think!

Deadly Currents Daily Deal!!!

I want to share some exciting news. Amazon has selected Deadly Currents, the first book in my RM Outdoor Adventures mystery series, for its Kindle Daily Deal today!! It's for sale at somewhere between $2.99 and 99 cents, which is much, much less than its list price of $14.95 and the standard Amazon discount price of $9.99.

You can find the deal HERE.

If you received a Kindle for the holidays, here's a great chance to load one of my mysteries on your new device for a song! But, you don't need to have a Kindle to read Kindle formats. Many other electronic devices will accept Kindle ebook formats. So I hope everyone who hasn't had a chance to buy a copy of Deadly Currents yet will take advantage of this special offer.

And please mark your calendars for May 8th, the official release date for the second book in the series, Wicked Eddies. You'll find the Amazon page for it HERE.

A Bargain!

I want to alert my blog readers to bargain prices for those who pre-order the trade paperback re-release of the first book in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series, A Real Basket Case. Its release date will be November 8th, and its list price will be $14.96. However, both Barnes & Noble and Amazon have it priced at just over $10 for pre-orders. I have no control over these sale prices, and I don't know how long they'll last. So, if you want one, I suggest you order now!

A Break in the VBT for Announcements!

First announcement is that I need a Wikipedia editor. My Wikipedia entry, which was composed by someone else, is hopelessly outdated, and I don't have the time to learn how to make Wikipedia edits to fix it. If anyone who reads this IS knowledgeable about how to edit Wikipedia pages and is willing to update the page by mining my website, contact me there. For doing the update, you'll get a free autographed copy of Deadly Currents, and maybe some more books, depending on the effort you put into it.

Second announcement is that enough new subscribers have signed up for my email newsletter that I awarded another prize! Courtney from Ashburn, Virginia received an autographed copy of Deadly Currents as well as a mystery book written by another author I admire. I award a prize of one of my mystery books and 1-2 books by other mystery authors every time a hundred more subscribers sign up for my email newsletter. Those are great odds, so please sign up and encourage your friends to do so!

Third announcement is that Deadly Currents has received its first customer review on Amazon, and it's five stars! You can read it HERE. I couldn't be more pleased. What would REALLY please me is more people adding their reviews after they read Deadly Currents, so I hope you'll consider doing so!

Fourth announcement is that the new Winter Issue of Mystery Scene magazine, which should be hitting newsstands and mailboxes early next week, includes a New Books essay titled "Deadly Rsearch" written by me. Please pick up a copy and read about the research that went into the writing of Deadly Currents. A bonus is that handsome Robert Crais graces the cover. ;-)

Fifth announcement is that it's only THREE DAYS until the official release date of Deadly Currents!!! Are you excited? ... I am!

And now back to the regularly scheduled program, starting tomorrow, with the next stop on my virtual book tour.

Tagging Books on Amazon

If you go to the Articles page of my website, the first article there is "How to Help the Author You Love". It lists ways in which you can help the author you love find new readers, and conversely, ways you can introduce readers you love to an author you think they'd enjoy. The article doesn't cover easy, free ways you can spread the word about your favorite author that are available in the new world of social networks (such as using the "recommend it" feature on the author's book page on Goodreads to recommend the book to your Goodreads friends).

One easy, free way to help the author you love on-line is to "tag" his/her books on Amazon. You can assign search terms called tags to the book. Then if someone uses the "Products Tagged With" option in the Amazon search window, then types in one of the tags, your favorite author's book will be included in the books shown.

Smart authors put their own suggested tags on their books, so all you need to do is to click on those tags to agree with them. For instance, I've put tags on the trade paperback and Kindle versions of my upcoming release, Deadly Currents, on Amazon. To support me, all you need to do is click on these two links, page down to where the tags are listed and click on each one. Easy peasy! The more times people click on tags such as "adventure," "mystery," "colorado," "women sleuths," or "whitewater rafting," the higher up on the list Deadly Currents will appear when someone searches for Products Tagged With one of these terms.

So, have some fun with it! Search for your favorite books on Amazon and click on their tags. Or, search for Products Tagged With a search term that best describes the kind of books you like to read. Then find books you like and click on their tags so they come up higher on the list. And, if you decide to tag my books, I'd really appreciate it!

Deadly Currents is now in the Kindle store!

The timer is counting down to the March 8th release of Deadly Currents, the first book in my new RM Outdoor Adventures mystery series featuring whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner. At least it's counting down in the Groundwater household! As part of that countdown, the e-book has just appeared in the Amazon Kindle store, and is available for preorder along with the trade paperback version of the book. You can order it HERE.

Updating My Amazon Author Profile

Amazon has sent me two notices about the updated features in their "Author Central," so I figured it was time to update my profile there. You can see the updates here. Authors can now have more than one photo on our profiles, so I added a few of me "in action" as well as my headshots. I also beefed up my bio and set up an RSS feed from here onto my Amazon page. And, I tagged Deadly Currents as "my" book, so it would show up in my Bibliography.

If you're an author, have you updated your Amazon profile lately? If you're a reader, what do you like to see on authors' profiles? And, anyone want to start a discussion on my forum? Please?

Also, while fooling around on Amazon, I discovered a few new customer reviews on my already published titles. In the reviews for A Real Basket Case, fellow mystery writer Maureen Mullis wrote a glowing review on September 29th and book blogger Giovanni Gelati wrote an enthusiastic one on June 1st. Thanks, Maureen and Giovanni! Also, in the reviews for To Hell in a Handbasket, Amazon reviewer "birchleaf" wrote a very thorough and insightful review on March 6th. Thanks, "birchleaf"! Lastly, in the reviews for my science fiction novella, The Epsilon Eridani Alternative, T.L. Cooper wrote a great review on September 1st that focuses on the social issues in the novella. Thanks, T.L.!

Hey, if you've read any of my books and liked them, would you consider posting a customer review on Amazon? A lot of people, myself included, really like to read reviews by nonprofessionals to get a feel for a book before buying it. And, who knows, you may get a shout-out here on my blog like these other reviewers did. :)

Two Tantilizing Placeholders

Every now and then, I type my name into Amazon's or Barnes and Noble's search box to see how sales are going on my existing titles (the hardcover and large-print editions of A Real Basket Case, To Hell in a Handbasket, and The Epsilon Eridani Alternative), even though they've all been out awhile and on-line sales have dropped off. I was gratified and surprised when two new listings showed up on Amazon.

The first is the large-print edition of To Hell in a Handbasket, which will be released on October 6, 2010 by Kennebec Large Print, a part of Cengage/Gale. Cengage/Gale is also the parent company of Five Star, the original hardcover publisher for the book. My author representative at Five Star had told me that she would look for a home for To Hell in a Handbasket in one of the Cengage/Gale large print lines, but she hadn't told me that she had succeeded. So, this was a really nice surprise!

The second new listing is for the first title in my new "RM Outdoor Adventures" mystery series with Midnight Ink, titled Deadly Currents, which will be released March 1, 2011. I was really surprised to see the placeholder for this title since the release date is so far off!

Now here's a special piece of trivia for my blog readers. What does the RM stand for? It stands for both "Rocky Mountain" and "Rob and Mandy." The sleuth in this series is a whitewater river ranger named Mandy Tanner, and her boyfriend is Rob. At the end of the first book, they form a joint adventure outfitting company in Salida, Colorado that will be called RM Outdoor Adventures. All of the books in the series will feature the logo for their company, designed by Midnight Ink's talented cover artists. I've seen a mock-up of the cover for Deadly Currents and am very excited about it and the logo brand for the series. I can't wait to show it to you all!

Another Sale on TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET

I just discovered that Amazon has discounted copies of my second Claire Hanover gift basket designer book, To Hell in a Handbasket, by a huge 41%, resulting in a price of $15.32 per hardcover copy. That's lower than my author discount! As I said before, I never know when they're going to put my books on sale or for how long, so please take advantage of this offer as soon as possible here. Claire's adventures in Breckenridge, Colorado, skiing, snowshoeing, and riding a snowmobile await you!

The first book in the series, set in Colorado Springs, Colorado and titled A Real Basket Case, is discounted 12% on Amazon, so you can get the two for a sweet price of $38.15 instead of for just under $52.