Curating the Curators

At first, there was whatever a select group of publishers deemed worthy. Then, because of Amazon, a flood of books of varying quality swamped readers. Who could tell which books were worth a person’s hard-earned money? And among the hordes of new offerings, how could authors connect to readers who wanted to read their genre? Curation became a popular word, and hence Bookbub was born. Now, hundreds of websites are jumping on the lucrative bandwagon to unite reader and authors.

Some are great; some are a waste of money.

Which means, any author wanting to forego the wear and tear of cross country book signings, or who just doesn’t have the name or money for it, can advertise on one of these sites and get out to readers. For a fee. Rates vary.

But to entice the buying reader to allow his e-mailed to be invaded, the author has to offer his book free or severely discounted. It takes a lot of sales for a $.35 royalty or a free first in a series. Readers are loading up and getting used to lower prices and free fare. A bit dangerous for authors who work long and hard on a story.

But some ads sites are worth it. What else can an author do? Tweet for all your worth? And what does that accomplish for actual sales?

So now we have Jason B. Ladd, who writes a blog that encourages authors to share their ad buying experiences. http://www.IndieListers.com Very interesting. I found it a great help.

We’re curating the curators because ad buying is ridiculously expensive and indie authors are using the term roi (return on investment) more and more frequently.

What’s next in this reading evolution? An inquiring mind wants to know.

While I have decided not to take review requests any more, I recently was asked to review a new Indie author whose book sounded like one I might enjoy. Okay, yell at me, but put down that tomato.

Beyond Cloud Nine (book 1)and Beyond the Horizon (book 2) by Greg Spry were pitched as starship adventures. Since I’m currently writing a starship space adventure (Worlds too Far), and one of my titles is Past the Event Horizon (see at right),I was intrigued. I also want to promote good indie writing, but too often it is riddled with format, story or grammar errors. Writing isn’t as easy as you might imagine.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised, and this first book in the series, Beyond Cloud Nine, is worth recommending. You have Brooke, a kickass female pilot with a drug addiction and guilt issues, her twin sister who is a reporter, and a series of exciting space battles with a mysterious English speaking alien. Life gets complicated when Brooke discovers a human conspiracy at the highest levels within her own government that puts her life at risk. The story moves along well with some nice plot twists, and very few distracting grammar or spelling errors. I got lost in the story.

Greg Spry nicely balances action with character. Not only does Brooke ferociously battle aliens physically in warships and fights against a conspiracy, but also emotionally battles her twin sister and an addiction to a drug that amps up her ability to fly. She needs the drug to fly her best and win that first FTL pilot slot that she badly wants. That experience reminded me of Star Wars and the space jump to FTL. There is also some nice interaction with an A1 implant in her brain that works with her and has a cute personality. I could use one like “Bob.”

All in all Beyond Cloud Nine is a really fun book for science fiction enthusiasts. The second in the series, Beyond the Horizon is on a stacked reading desk that I plan to read in the near future.

Enjoy spring.