The Valley of the Shadow Dec. 11th

Carola Dunn

The Valley of the Shadow, my third Cornish Mystery, comes out on December 11th from Minotaur, in hardcover, e-book (Kindle, Nook, and others), and Mystery Guild--large print and UK editions to come. 

 Reviews:

 Dunn lives up to her reputation for cozies that take on serious stuff, allowing her ragtag bunch of investigators to unearth a story with roots deep in international politics...
 Publishers Weekly
 

http://news.bookweb.org/news/december-2012-indie-next-list-preview

 “The sights and sounds of the coast of Cornwall come alive in The Valley of the Shadow.
 The rescue of a drowning Indian man leads to a race against time to 
rescue his family, trapped in the smugglers’ caves on the rocky shore. 
Feisty retiree Eleanor Trewynn enlists her fellow villagers in tracking 
down those responsible for abandoning the refugees — but will the 
smugglers find her first? Dunn gives us a thoroughly enjoyable, cozy 
suspense novel — one with a social conscience.” —Carol Schneck Varner, 
Schuler Books & Music, Okemos, MI

     ...the author introduces several village characters and draws the reader 
into the small, cozy world of Cornwall. The action moves in a leisurely manner but it 
kept me turning the pages. As the police-procedural aspect of the story kicks in, Eleanor 
and Megan make a good mother-daughter team.
      The denouement is both wild and funny, and the author ties up all the threads in a 
surprising but satisfactory ending.
      I loved this Author’s Note: “Port Mabyn is a fictional village in a fictional world 
lurking somewhere in the 1960s and ‘70s, between my childhood memories of Cornwall and 
the present reality. <snip> For information about the real Cornwall, I refer the 
reader to countless works of nonfiction, or, better still, I suggest a visit.”
Pat Browning

 You can see pictures of the setting here:
http://murderousmusings.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-valley-of-shadow.html

and read an excerpt here:
http://historicalfictionexcerpts.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-valley-of-shadow.html

Return of the Sock Puppets

by Jaden Terrell

There's been quite the uproar of late about authors using "sock puppet" accounts to review their own books and, in some cases, to trash the books of their competitors. Other bestselling authors paid for positive reviews to raise their visibility on online bookstores, particularly Amazon. Both practices seem to me like clear violations of a reader's trust, though some might say it's a tough world out there, and that whatever an author can do to call attention to his or her work is A-okay. "It's just the way things are," they say, and "Everybody does it," and "All's fair in love an publishing."

Some have suggested that the recent scandals call the entire review process into question. I don't know. While it certainly makes me think a little homework might be necessary before I take a review at face value, I like to think the number (or at least the percentage) of people who post dishonest reviews is fairly small, and I would hope the number who would post negative reviews of competing titles is smaller still.

The discussion spread all over the internet, bringing out a number of responses criticizing authors for other behaviors like trading blurbs or reviews, and reviewing books by friends or books published by their own agents or publishers. For me, those lines are a lot grayer. After all, while I consider Tim Hallinan a friend, I was a fan of his books months before I met him. Does our current friendship negate the fact that I adore his books--and would adore them even if I'd never laid eyes on or exchanged an email with the man? How about Chester's books? I have always enjoyed them, so much so that I always buy three copies, one for myself, one for my mom, and one for my mother-in-law. Should I refuse to review a book I enjoy just because I happen to know the author?

What about author collectives, in which members of the collective like each others' books and collaborate to promote each others' work?

What are your thoughts on sock puppets? Buying reviews? How about reviewing books by people you know?

Title? Cover Art? What makes you buy?

Carola Dunn

I expect some of you know that before I started writing mysteries, I wrote Regencies--32 full length novels and a bunch of novellas. (Many have mystery and suspense elements, smugglers, spies, attempted murders, impersonations, etc.) They have all been available as e-books for several years, but it's only since they became available on Amazon that I've been getting a monthly list of all titles and how many of each sold.

It's been interesting. For some reason the same titles tend to have the highest sales numbers month after month. Lavender Lady is almost always at the top.

Ginnie Come Lately also does well, as does A Poor Relation.

At the bottom are the collections of novellas. I can understand that. Some people just don't particularly like novellas. Somewhat above them are my ghost and time travel Regencies, The Actress and the Rake and Byron's Child. OK, so some people don't like ghosts or time travel.

But why are Angel and The Fortune Hunters so often near the bottom? 

 



















Is it the picture? Is it the title? It doesn't seem to be the number of stars or reviews on Amazon that makes the difference. It's all a mystery to me.





Especially as Smugglers' Summer has such wonderful cover art, the title seems to me as intriguing as any of the rest, and it has 5 stars, yet it's near the bottom in sales!














What do you think? Is there anything I can do to level the playing field?

Available in multiple formats at RegencyReads.com or for Kindle at Amazon.com/carola+dunn+regency

PS. Just after I finished this and turned off my computer, I went out to get the mail. Nice surprise arrived: The trade paperback large print edition of My Lord Winter, first published in 1992. I take it this means the hard cover large print sold well enough to justify bringing it out in paper. The work that keeps on paying!

Those Elusive Reviews

By Beth Terrell

Awhile back, Jean mentioned a famous author who sent out 50 review books. He attributed much of his book's success to this. Then Chester, one of my heroes, told me he'd done the same. Thus armed with advice from Those Who Are In the Know, I obtained 50 review copies and proceeded to search for 50 places to send them.

It's not as easy as it sounds. I got off to a quick start, because Chester kindly gave me a few names and addresses, and as always, I shamelessly dropped his name. Then I added to my list by Googling "mystery reviews" and "mystery reviewers" and also by offering ARCs (Advance Review Copies) to the first five people on the DorothyL list who emailed me asking for one. One, Theresa de Valence, wrote a lovely review and posted it to the listserve. Our own Pat Browning was kind enough to read a copy and give a review. My list grew, then shrunk as I went to review sites only discover that some were defunct, some only reviewed books by the BIG SIX, some only reviewed books published by Lulu or Createspace, some had long lists of reviews but no discernible way of submitting books, and so on. I searched for more, and my list grew again. I sent emails to some Amazon reviewers and one to a reviewer I found on Books'n'Bytes. All of them bounced, sending me scrambling for more recent email addresses. Many of the sites and reviewers I queried simply never replied. Maybe they have a backlog and will get to me eventually.

On the other hand, I checked back on the Thrilling Detective site and found my protagonist, Jared McKean, listed under "Detectives M-Z." That was a serious thrill, especially when I clicked on the link and read, a very nice review that began, "This Nashville cat just may be worth watching." Sending a thank-you note to the reviewer immediately went on my to-do list.

By the way, Chester's Greg and Jill McKenzie are there too, but Sid Chance isn't on the list yet.

Within a few weeks, I'm sure I'll have sent out 50 or more review copies. Will it make a difference? Well, it certainly couldn't hurt. With each online review, my search engine stock goes up. It's even better if I link to the reviews, and better still if I can find some kindly folks to link back to me. My husband thinks I'll be lucky if I ever reach a point where I make as much from my books as I spend trying to promote them. He may be right. Personally, I'd love to move comfortably into the black. But the only way to get there will be to build a readership one Tweet, one Facebook post, one review, one precious reader at a time.