No matter how much time we spend living inside our own heads, no matter how hard we work to develop thick skin, no matter how dedicated we are to our own artistic vision…the most important thing in the world to a professional writer is someone else’s opinion.
I’ve recently published an incomplete list of the ways you can support your favorite writer, but the most important far are the three I mention at the top of my Books page here:
If you’ve enjoyed any of my books, please leave a review. It makes more of a difference than you might imagine. One of the biggest things you can do to support me as a writer (right after “Buying my books” and “Recommending them to your friends”) is leaving a review at Amazon.com.
Published book reviews are a phenomenally powerful marketing tool whether they’re in a national paper, a book review blog, or just customer comments at Amazon. And reader recommendations (also known as “word of mouth”) are an even more powerful force.
Harnessing those forces can be a huge challenge. I’ve tried to spark a fire with my recent offer of Advance Reading Copies for my upcoming novel, and as you can see I’ve now blogged on two separate sites and posted a personal plea on one my Books page begging readers for review.
At my publisher’s site, we’ve just posted a standing request for reliable book reviews. That’s right: Consortium Books is willing to give away free copies of every book they publish to any applicants who can prove themselves to be reliable reviewers. That’s how important reviews are.
And today I want to share one with you. It’s for an upcoming novel by my friend and fellow Consortium Writer, Courtney Cantrell. Next Tuesday, the same day we’re releasing The Dragonprince’s Heir, Consortium Books will also be releasing the first book in Courtney’s epic fantasy series, Schism’s Daughter (Legends of the Light-Walkers, #1).
Schism’s Daughter is incredible. You’re going to love it. I read the book years ago, and it was a lot of the reason I came back to fantasy writing. If it hadn’t been for Courtney showing me what real fantasy could be like–rich, grown-up, exciting, and moving–the Dragonprince Trilogy might never have seen the light of day.
If you like epic fantasy, you will love this book. If you like anything you’ve read by me, this book is even better. Courtney Cantrell has a special kind of magic when it comes to high fantasy, and she has worked wonders here.
Read this book. You’ll be glad you did.
I love this book, and I want to see it succeed. I also love my fans who showed up in such great numbers to request a review copy of The Dragonprince’s Heir, so I told Courtney I’d send you guys her way if she would share a copy of Schism’s Daughter with you.
She agreed, and it’s the same offer I made: The first 100 people to leave a comment with a valid email address get free ARCs. So pop over to Courtney’s blog before the end of the day today and get a sneak peek at the next great epic fantasy from Consortium Books.
Hi Aaron, My 14 year old son Alex and I love your books, I have been checking every week just to see when the Dragon prince heir would be released. My son loves dragons, we both have kindles, and we love to chat about the books after we have read them. 6 years ago Alex could not read well, he was in remedial reading classes, but due to the love of dragons I have managed to get him hooked on reading, he now reads at least a book a week (not just dragons now), and I think he read your first one in two days, would not put it down. We will certainly be buying this through amazon next week. cheers Sharon
Thank you so much for your comment, Sharon! I have a nephew a little younger than your son who went through something very similar, although the dragon books that woke his love of reading were the “How to Tame Your Dragon” series. I remember well how excited my sister was to see that transformation, and it warms my heart to think I might have shared that experience with someone else.
And only because I’m thinking of my sister (who is a careful steward of her children’s media consumption), I will extend a very mild caution about Courtney’s book. There is more than a little romance to it. It’s nothing dirty or obscene, but it’s not targeted directly at young readers. (Then again, I’d say the same for the Dragonprince books, between the violence and themes.)
I’m by no means warning you away from Courtney’s book, but I am sensitive to some parents’ concerns so I thought I might at least mention: This is a kissing book.
Here it says that Schism’s Daughter (i dunno how much i can say about the email i got. 😀 ) is the first book in the series. but in the email i received with the ARC, it says that it is #3. after reading the email, i didn’t want to start reading the arc if it was #3 without reading the first 2. but i can’t find the first 2. so is this book #1 or #3? lol
it is the first book it was misrepresented in the email…. but you should have been updated.