Review Copies Available - Rumbling Heart...and a Few Tips on How to Properly Review

I have decided to make a few review copies of Rumbling Heart available to those interested. All I ask is that once you've read the book that you post an honest review on Amazon.com. If you choose to post the review on other sites such as BN.com, Good Reads, etc., that's completely up to you. For those who've already reviewed for me, I thank you very much and as thanks for your honesty, I am offering you a free copy of the follow up Recorded Butterflies once it hits Amazon.

To get your gift copy through Amazon, simply email me at richardwrites@live.com or send me a tweet (@RichardAllenRH) with the email address you use for Amazon and I will get it to you. The book is a little long so I am not expecting you to post immediately, but a timely manner is appreciated. If you are new to reviewing, have a look at B.S. Meyers's review here. 

As you can see there are no spoilers and he sticks to main points. As I mentioned, this is a request for honest reviews. I cannot and will not offer payment or additional merchandise of any sort just to get a good review. I will also not fault anyone for giving a review that's less than stellar as long as it's honest and points out the faults of the story properly. I'm not setting a length requirement as long as the review gets it's point across. That being said, a review that is really, really short isn't very helpful so feel free to write a bit if you like. Keep in mind I am also using these reviews to improve my writing so if you find a fault, feel free to mention it. Pointing out grammar errors (which do happen on occasion) is not helpful.

To give you an idea of what a bad review is, please click here.

As you can see, the reviewing doesn't give examples as to why she felt the book was bad. All she did was spout nonsense and never once mentioned why she felt the book wasn't worth it. This review is in no way helpful to the writer or anyone else looking to purchase the work because it gives no solid clue to anything having to do with any faults.

As I mentioned, I do not consider only positive reviews to be good reviews. Take this review about Fifty Shades of Grey for example. While I admit the reviewer does go a little overboard on listing actual numbers concerning the repetition she sees in the book, she does make her point. Her first paragraph is especially helpful as she points out that the author may not be very familiar with American English based on her use of the language, noting that many of her uses are more closely associated with British English. The review was a one star. Not a good rating for the book, but a decent review all the same. If the author had seen this, they may have tried to brush up on their American use of the language a little more and also work on different ways to implement character expression.

I don't have an unlimited number of free copies, but I will try to get out as many as possible. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments section as I do check those daily.

Is Smashwords Even Worth the Trouble?

I've been using Smashwords for about a year now and I have to say, they suck...for sales. I've sold plenty of books on Amazon. They're the biggest for ebooks so it makes sense. I've sold a few on Barnes and Noble as well. On Smashwords...zero.

For those not familiar with Smashwords.com, they are another place to upload and self publish your work. The site is relatively easy to navigate and their uploader is decent. The only problem is they don't give me any sales whatsoever. That along with the fact that you have to format your work a certain way and also add a Smashwords.com disclaimer in your book to be considered "eligible" for their premium catalog makes it very hard to like them. In most ebooks, we already place a little copyright message letting people know it's against the law to redistribute our work without our permission. Smashwords takes it even further, making you practically use the disclaimer they have or no premium catalog for you. With all the hoops I;ve had to jump through with Smashwords, it hardly seems worth the effort. Even with entry into their premium catalog, I've recorded exactly no sales from any of my works so why do I keep using it?

I really can't tell you.

It seems kind of pointless to keep up with it. I do it right now so I can know I have the most exposure for my work, but with no sales generation I am about ready to dump them and just go with Amazon. If anyone can think of a good reason to stick with them, let me know. At this point, I am on my way to pulling all my works from them and just doing Prime Service with Amazon so I can get some free sale days out of them for exposure.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="250"] Image via CrunchBase[/caption]

Related articles

• How to Get a Cheap Book Cover... UPDATED! (selfpubauthors.com)

It's Live

Rumbling Heart is now live on three major book outlets. Go pick it up if you like! I am sure you all will enjoy it!

Getting Ready

Just a few more weeks till Rumbling Heart reemerges as a lighter and better book. I was considering only having it on Amazon, but have decided to make it available on Amazon, BN.com, Smashwords, and I am also working on getting it on the Apple store as well. They will all be the same price and considering the almost 2 years of work I've put into it, I am not gonna sell it for a scrawny price like $.99 like so many other authors do. I am still looking at the numbers, but when it gets settled, I will post about it. Also, you'd previously purchased the old version, I will be more than happy to provide a copy of the new one free.

Clip Clip

Just a quick note.

Slowly but surely version 2.0 of Rumbling Heart is getting smaller and although last night saw it only shrink by 37 words, today should hopefully see it go down by at least another thousand words. As I've said before I hope to clip a good 20-30k words from it altogether. If I can get it down to 475 pages, I would really find that to be a major achievement. Anything less would be even better. Well, I am back to work on it, but not before I leave you with a copy of something I work up last night. Not sure if I will use it, but it maybe the cover for version 2.0

Last Night is Free via Amazon Prime Lending

I've decided to give Amazon Prime lending a try to see how it all works out. So far in just one day, I've already got sales which is nice. The Prime lending, in case you are not familiar with it, basically means you can "borrow" a book from Amazon with no due date. They have a program where members pay a set amount to be a prime member which is about $78 a year and you get all sorts of benefits. Honestly, I'm not too into that sort of thing, but I know some people are doing it and if you happen to be one of those people, feel free to have as look at Last Night. If not, no worries. It's still just $.99 so not like it's a massive amount of money to check out what I consider to be one of the best things I've ever written.

You can check out the book on Amazon here.

Last Night - Version 2.0

There seems to be a resurgence of interest in my short story Last Night so I went ahead and reposted links to it on the books page and redid a couple of edits in it as well as reformatted it. Since it's a short, it's available for just $.99 from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. Interestingly enough this book was the target of a troll attack on Amazon which is kind of what is stirring up the interest. I guess people actually read the troll reviews and realized the reviews themselves are so terrible written that they couldn't possibly be true.

I stuck a +13 rating on it because there are some undertones to the story that most younger readers simply will not pick up on so they won't fully grasp the message. Other than that, it's actually work and school safe. It's a work I am especially proud of because I initially did it as a dare when I said I could write and edit a short story in less than 2 hours. Needless to say I was able to do it. Enjoy.

EDIT - As of last night (ironically) this title is now available on Amazon Prime Lending so if you are a Prime member, you can borrow it for no charge!

On Amazon. 

Shelfari Link

[caption id="attachment_1093" align="aligncenter" width="215" caption="Cover of Last Night"][/caption]

Rewriting

Through the past year, I've learned a lot about myself and about writing. I've learned that there are times when I need to dive into a little more detail and there are also times where I can be long winded. I've slashed thousands of words out of my work since I began, but sometimes thousands just isn't enough. I also believe I've found my place in the writing world. On more than a handful of occasions, I've been told I tend to write more as a story teller. That may seem like a general term for a writer, but I believe it's not. Sometimes people write simply to inform you on certain events so that you know what happened. Other writers, story tellers, take you by the hand and let you walk with them as they lead you down the very same road it feel that they once took. So often I am asked if the events in my book are real because of the way I've written them. For many, it feels to them as if I am presenting to them a glorified anecdote and calling it a book chapter. I am ok with that.

It is for that reason that I am going through my previously released works and rewriting certain portions of them. Obviously, even after going over them countless times, there are still a few piece of the books that simply do not flow as well as I want them to and even a handful of grammatical errors. From my very first serious work to Rumbling Heart to my latest release Emily Martin, my style has morphed and become something very different that how it originally started. I've discovered my shortcomings and taken hold of my strengths. For this reason, I have decided to take on a simpler, story telling approach to my work from here going forward. In the first book, there is quite a bit of story telling, but I believe I made certain instances far more complex than they needed to be from a grammatical perspective. For this reason, I am sure that RH will go from about 220k words to something a little smaller; maybe about 210k. Still quite large, but smaller and still telling the exact same story. At one time I was going for more of a Hemingway type approach and style, but it seems that many of her techniques died with him all those years ago as some of my critics are calling portions of the work "old" when it comes to style. It was for this reason that I tried what I did with Recorded Butterflies. I took on a very different perspective with this work and I think i did alright. It still wasn't exactly what I was wanting to do, but I did it.

The latest book Emily Martin is the one I am the most proud of. I found my strengths with this book and I was able to really connect with my Emily character as she tells the story. While I felt I was almost one in the same when it came to my character John, it turns out that I was more in sync with Emily and the way she saw her life and handled her station in life. It was obviously not the way she grew up or the life she lived, but it was more of the place she found herself as an adult. The feelings that she had kept pent up inside her were something very close to my own so I was able to really speak from her perspective. I will make updates to this work as well, but only for the sake of continuity. Even after the release of my final work in the series, I think I will still be most proud of Emily because of the way I was able to convey my feelings through that character.

That being said, I have work to do.

 

Visit Richard's Amazon author page here!

No Breaks

My attempt at forcing a break from writing is not working. I wanted to give myself a good month from it so I can prepare to head back to Austin and just so I can unplug, but it's not working. I cannot stop thinking about the final RH book. I know it won't stop bothering me until I just up and write the darn thing so I might as well do it in between the times where I am looking for apartments and permanent work. Unfortunately, writing isn't paying me much. That being said, I did get a royalty check the other day which was nice.

The name of the last book? Not saying, at least not now. I am just going to work on it and get it outlined and first drafted. I don't want it to exceed 450 pages, but we'll have to see how it goes. This will be the first time I've written where I am looking to keep pages to a minimum. I want over 375, but less than 450. We'll see how it all goes.

 

Last Night - The Movie

I've spoken to a director about some of my work and we are currently discussing taking one of my stories and turning it into a short feature film. While the talks have just gotten underway, it is still a very exciting idea that one of my works could be made into something more substantial that just a few words on a piece of paper. It's still very early, but we will continue our dialog as the weeks progress and hopefully, it will take us somewhere. Sometimes things like this can take a lot of time, but I am hoping we can get the ball rolling fairly quickly. With time, the two of us plan to sit down and rewrite the story into a workable script, something that can be converted into film while still getting the message across. Depending on the length of the script, we're not quite sure at this point just how long the short will be. I'm not a film director by any stretch of the imagination so I will leave those estimates up to them.

Still, the prospect that this could turn into something more is very exciting as I'd love to have one of my works expanded upon like this. While I was hoping that Rumbling Heart would be looked at, I have no problem starting small as Last Night is a much smaller, easier story to turn into a film as the production costs will be very light and workable. RH on the other hand would require possibly millions to produce.

We all have to start somewhere. I hope this pans out.

You can check out the short story for free over at Smashwords.com or by clicking here.

[caption id="attachment_1093" align="aligncenter" width="442" caption="Cover of Last Night"][/caption]

The Synopsis - Emily Martin

Emily Martin will be available Tuesday September 27th, 2011 @ Smashwords.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and Amazon.

Emily Martin Synopsis

Dreams like this must die.

After hearing some of the most shocking news of his life, John Allen is beside himself. Although his suspicions about his wife hiding something were supported, he never once thought she’d be hiding something as big as this from him.

In this installment, the third book in the Rumbling Heart series and follow up to Recorded Butterflies, the way in which our story is told shifts and looks to John’s best friend Emily as she tries her best to share her insights, telling the tale as it unfolded following the months after that fateful night in Los Angeles. As Emily escorts John through what will ultimately be the toughest time in his life, she too is forced to look within herself as she deals with the reappearance of a man she wished she’d never met. As the months go by and the day which she and John fear the most arrives, she finds her life slowly spiraling out of control all while taking on even more responsibility that she never imagined would be entrusted to her.

As she fights to maintain her poise through it all, she is constantly asked to endure more and more and before she knows it, she begins to feel as if she is carrying the world on her shoulders. Stress reaches its maximum and soon she is forced to watch her best friend’s mental state gradually devolve into deep denial all while his wife slowly slips further and further away.

As she recalls the various memories from that time, she thinks about John and about how much he’s changed her life and she soon reveals what many of us thought all along. She also thinks back to the times she spent with John’s wife Olivia, and it doesn’t take her long to come to the conclusion that she didn’t love her simply as a friend, but instead, more like a sister.

Filled with heartache, drama, surprises, laugh out loud moments, and ultimate loss, Emily Martin takes you on a journey of the world as seen through her eyes, telling the story of her best friend John and how he is forced to deal with one of the hardest situations a person could face. She also exposes you to her inner most thoughts as she explains her decent into madness due to the near constant torment from the man that took her dignity from her as he works his way back into her world. As time marches on, the subtle cracks in her character slowly begin to become evident, but that suddenly seems like a side story as you are treated to an ending so wrapped in lunacy, you may begin to question yourself. Could this be it? Could this really be the end? All dreams must come to an end, but in some cases, they die a long and painful death.

Many Thanks

I just want to take a moment to thank all of my Twitter and Facebook followers and fans. Because of your continued support, I have cracked the top 50 on Smashwords.com. Of all the authors up there, as of this moment I am currently #42 most popular / viewed which is a terrific achievement. Hopefully, we can keep it going. It would be amazing to crack not only the top 10, but maybe even become #1.

Be sure to tell all your friends about the free work I offer there which include copies of the original Rumbling Heart as well as Recorded Butterflies which is the 2nd book in the series. There is also a new short on Smashwords as well called On The Way Home which is written by one of the RH characters. Its sort of a tiny peek into what you might expect to see from the 4th and final installment in the RH series.

One additional work on there is a short called Last Night about a struggling writer and a conversation he shares with an ex athlete. While it may not seem like much in the first few pages, by the end, you will find yourself questioning not only the narrator, but also the decision that he makes regarding his friend. You will either nod your head or be completely shocked. At about 5600 words, it's a short read and it's free so be sure to give it a look.

Ty all again for the continued support and I hope to keep you all entertained.

UPDATE!

I've moved up in ranking, currently sitting pretty at #12. Top 10? Let's hope for it!

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/richardallen

 

[caption id="attachment_1083" align="aligncenter" width="466" caption="On The Way Home cover"][/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recorded Butterflies is Now Free

I've dropped the price for Recorded Butterflies to free via Smashwords.com. Currently, Rumbling Heart is also free so you can download both books for absolutely no cost to you. Head on over and check it out while you can. You can download it as a PDF or you can DL a file that will work with your Kindle, Nook, and several other popular eReaders. Thank you all again for your continued support of my work and I look forward to feedback. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @RichardAllenRH

"Emily Martin" Release Date Set

On Tuesday, September 27th, Emily Martin will be available for purchase from BN.com, Amazon, and Smashwords.com. A Facebook event has been created which is located here. Thank you all for the continued support as I look forward to getting more feedback on this next installment of the Rumbling Heart series. With just one more to go, this book will bring several things into perspective and get you all set for the final book.

 

Emily Martin switches gears a little and tells the story from the perspective of John Allen's best friend, Emily. With just one last installment to go after EM, this book gives readers an inside look into Emily's mind as she reveals what she really thinks about John, Olivia, and even the meddlesome Donna as she journeys with him through one of the most difficult times in his life. While giving her two cents on virtually every detail of John's life, Emily is also dealing with her own problems as someone from her past comes back into her life, looking only to cause major issues for her. Being the woman that she is, she finds a way to cope, albeit a questionable one, and soon that decision sees her walking down a path she never thought possible.

Full with intrigue, heartache, loss, and at times, laugh out loud humor, Emily Martin will take you by the hand and show you a side of her you never knew existed, and when the final two chapters are upon you, you will see something so unexpected, you will find yourself begging for the final book as you will not be able to wait to see how it all ends.

Final Installment of "Rumbling Heart" Series

With Emily Martin almost complete, I've decided to already begin work on the final book in the series. I already settled on a title, but I am still keeping it under wraps. The main reason I am already starting on the final book is that as with all final works, I want to make sure I tied up all the loose ends and give satisfactory endings to all the story lines. Now, keep in mind, by satisfactory I do not mean "happy." All I am inferring there is that there will be wrap ups and questions that have been sitting out there from all the way back in the original Rumbling Heart will be answered. Is it possible that some of the story lines have happy endings? Of course, but people will view them in very different ways.

One thing I've definitely done different than many of my fellow American writers is break from the norm of giving a "Disney-Like" ending to my work. Do things get worked out? Yes, they do, but not all endings are hearts and flowers  as readers of my works know. I try to keep my story lines and endings very close to the chest and very much situated in real life. Sure, sometimes it's nice for things to work out perfectly, but as with real life, not everything is perfect. All I can promise is that all the questions I've been asked about my work as far as the overall plot will be answered. Along with the answers to those story lines will also be a few curve balls that no one could have seen coming. I want the story to mesh really well and I don't want there to be any holes so for that reason, I have already managed to write about 10k words of the final book.

I am also holding off on releasing EM. I was looking at a release as soon as mid September as most of you know I like to get things done and published so my readers can get their fill. I want to enrich the overall experience for those dedicated readers that went through each and every book. I want to make sure all questions are answered and when my readers on on the last pages of the last book, they will find themselves thinking back to other parts of my previous works and either smiling, crying, or perhaps both. I already know how it's going to end. I've known for several months now. While a few things have changed with the overall plot, the ending is still the same as it was when I dreamed of it.

That being said, please forgive me for holding onto Emily Martin a little longer than I thought I would. Please believe in me. I will try my hardest to delivery two of the best works of my life for you.

Emily Martin - Cover Art

I think I am sticking with this cover I've come up with below. It's simple like the others, but with a sutble difference. Obviously, there is a reason for that which I am sure the readers of the previous works will understand. I may go bigger for the next and final installment of the series, but I am not jumping in on that cover yet.

Rumbling Heart - Garnering Attention

It's nice to see the 5 star reviews. I truly appreciate them. Seems like all that time that RH has been free on Smashwords.com is starting to pay off. I just got a new 5 star review for the book on that site which is terrific. I am glad that the book is entertaining and that people seem to like it. If you would like to secure your free copy, head on over to Smashwords and check it out.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/81600

Emily Martin will be out sooner than later so be sure to check out Rumbling Heart for free and it's follow up Recorded Butterflies for $.99 @ Smashwords, Amazon, and BN.com.



Also make sure to let Amazon low about the lower price so they can offer it for free as well. Once free on Amazon, it will almost instantly increase the exposure of the work 100 times over. The link for RH on Amazon is here. I appreciate the support and look forward to more reviews.

Rumbling Heart is Free on Smashwords

That's right. The one that started it all is now free on Smashwords.com. The direct link to the book is right here.  I would greatly appreciate it if you were to download the book for free to please also let Amazon know that my book is going for $0.00 on Smashwords so that it could possibly be lowered to Zero on their site as well. My writing pal Melissa Foster just had massive success when she offered her book for free and since then, it has hit #1 on the Kindle book lists. It would be amazing to be able to do the same thing with my work.

You may be wondering how exactly to let Amazon know that the book is free elsewhere. Here's what you do. Check out the book on Amazon here.  Scroll down to where is says Product Details and there, you will see a link that says "Tell us about a lower price." Click it. Then, just fill out the data it asks for which is not much. There small window you will see will look like this.



The Link you would want to post there is this one:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/81600

And that's it! Enjoy the book. I enjoyed writing it. Feel free to let everyone know and I look forward to seeing your reviews on Amazon. Thank you again for all the support.

Writing and Celebrity

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

This is a response to a blog post I read regarding privacy and how much of it you should keep. The blog post started out talking about sales numbers, but also dove into personal privacy as well. You can read the original post by Tamworth Grice here.

"True that some data is good to keep to yourself. One thing however that I think a lot of eBook writers are missing nowadays is that one key element still holds true to a certain degree: people want to know about the authors writing their books. I've talked to a few people and many of them have felt irked by the fact that a lot of eBook authors give little to no information about themselves so readers lose interest. It's true that you should not have to give out certain info, but you have to remember that readers will often read books and make a personal connection to them. Because of that, they feel the need to learn more about the writer. Especially in this day and age where you can essentially make up a personality on the internet and pass it off as yourself, people in general want a little honesty with their celebrities and that's how they see some of us. I in no way think of myself as a celeb, but people from other countries see me as one for some reason. It's for that reason that people search for me and want to know more about me. They want to know where the story came from, why i wrote it a certain way, and probably the most asked question i get "is this from real life?" Sure, we all want a little privacy, but as writers, we need to open ourselves up to the fact that with great success, we become celebrities and as most celebrities do, we have to give into the fact that we, in a sense, become part of the public domain where we will be discussed and talked about in various circles."

First Review of Recorded Butterflies is in.

Got a review. Here is the link. Enjoy.

You can purchase the books here.