R. Lawson Gamble's Blog: R Lawson Gamble Books, page 9
February 13, 2019
Writing Comfort
Readers look for a wide variety of benefits from books. But the same reader does not always desire the same thing every time. Non-fiction readers can address their needs topically, searching out books on sleep, or nutrition, or style. Fiction readers can also seek books to suit their desires, be it romance or fantasy or mystery.
In fiction, however, the needs and desires of the reader are complex. Topics are not so clearly defined, which is why so many books in, say, the Western genre have covers showing bare-chested men draped with attractive women. Some readers want the Old West hero, the shootout with the bad guy, but they also want romance and maybe a little bit of good old western sex.
Genres in fiction are not clearly defined and you can’t tell the book by its cover. A recent bit of advice to authors said forget about matching your cover to your story, see what is on the cover of the best selling books in your genre and copy that. Hmmm.
What is a reader to do? According to a recent survey, the number one way readers select books is choosing those by an author who is known to them. No surprise there. The safe road. Knowing what you will get. Being comfortable.
I choose non-fiction to learn and select fiction for enjoyment. Yes, I enjoy learning. But there are times I don’t want to learn, I don’t want to think, I want to enjoy. I want comfort.
I am currently reading an early Robert B Parker series of Westerns. The books are pure comfort, and I read them just before sleep when my brain has long been turned off.
There are a number of ways to present comfort in fiction. One is to keep the protagonists on familiar ground; the same town, the same eating places, the same landscape. Another is to maintain the same expected relationship between co-protagonists. Another is in the use of dialogue. Parker uses dialogue. An example:
“Got no guarantee,” Virgil said. I thought about that for a moment. “No,” I said. “I suppose you’re right about that.” Virgil shook his head slightly and turned, looking out the window. “Been enough, though,” Virgil said. “There has.” “Can’t say there might not be more.” “No, we can’t.”‘
Dialogue doesn’t get much more comfortable than this. And that’s just how I want it when I want it that way.
Craig Johnson writes his Longmire series for reader comfort using similar techniques. The relationship between his co-protagonists is just as easy going, just as unchanging, just as unreal as Parker’s. And just as comfortable.
A series of novels should offer comfort to the reader. In a series, whatever the madness and mayhem unique to each story, there will be consistent factors, a zone of safety and comfort. We know we can always rely on Poirot, or escape in the banter of Holmes and Watson. Sometimes it is simply the familiar writing style of the author that offers sanctuary.
February 4, 2019
Tolliver Tales For February
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January 26, 2019
Just $ .99!
January 15, 2019
Amazon, What Is A “Top Review?”
Is An Amazon “Top Review” Really What It Implies?
To my mind, the best portal into the mind of the reader is the review. Writing and posting a review requires an extra effort. This extra effort is often emotionally driven, whether out of enjoyment and excitement, or from distaste and disgust. It reflects the truest experience of the reader. Reviews posted by readers on platforms like Amazon and GoodReads are unique in that respect.
But reviews have another side, a darker political side.
Do reviews matter? Self-publishingschool.com says yes. According to an article by Scott Allan, published April 2, 2018, the way Amazon ranks my book is by the volume of downloads and the stack of positive reviews it accumulates.
Amazon wants to sell our books, right? So wouldn’t it profit them to put my best review forward?
But Amazon will sell books whether my books are there or not, right? Would Amazon rather sell 100 books by individual authors or 100 books from a large New York imprint? I think we know the answer, and the answer is green in color. Because it’s not just about selling books, it’s also about pleasing all the businesses that benefit from the sale––advertising firms, large brick and mortar retailers, airport stores, shippers, agents––people who draw their salaries from the copious funds a big publisher can spend. While you could argue Amazon is so huge that pleasing all these people doesn’t matter to them, the practical response is why would they pass up the opportunity to make even more money? Isn’t that what the company went into business for in the first place?
Why do reviews matter to an author? According to the Scott Allan article:
The more reviews you get, the more visibility your book gets. This means more sales and potential organic reviews.You create a stronger relationship with the reader.A boatload of reviews adds credibility to your book and brand.
So how do you get reviews? On a level playing ground, reviews come from people who read a book and are so moved by it (either pro or con) that they go to the not inconsiderable trouble to express their feelings at the book site. For that to happen, the reader must see the book, be drawn to it, purchase it, and feel something about it. On the other hand, if the reader can not see the book she/he certainly will not review it. If that review is not written, the book isn’t visible. To see a book on Amazon, it needs to be at least in the top 100 in any Amazon category.
Amazon currently has two categories of reviews available to customers in a drop-down menu: “Recent Reviews” and “Top Reviews”. If the “Top Review” on Amazon is so-so, or worse, it will not draw readers. This also adds to the decaying cycle.
This designation of “Top Reviews” is somewhat ambiguous. Does it mean “best reviews” or “most read reviews”? In the review section for UNDER DESERT SAND, Zack Tolliver, FBI # 5, the “Recent Reviews” are accurately listed. Under “Top Reviews” the first listing is a 2017 4 star review, largely favorable but listing an editorial glitch, something that must give a potential reader pause. True, this review has five people who found it helpful. Fair enough. Yet under it are several very positive five star reviews––including one which six people found helpful. Why is that one not at the top? Isn’t that the “top” review?
Lest anyone find this complaint nit-picky, I will point out this confusing practice continues with several books in the Zack Tolliver series, to a degree seemingly beyond accident. For instance CAT (#4) under “Top Reviews” leads off with a 3 star review, unsupported. The next two are glowing five star reviews, with support. I can not think of a justification for this order. Nor is this a recent or momentary glitch; it has been this way for some time now.
Is there some reason beyond my understanding, or is this deliberate? Is it because the review points out problems? Is the analytic machine of Amazon scanning reviews looking for those that mention such errors and posting them first as warnings?
I just finished reading a very enjoyable novel by a favorite author, Elmore Leonard. The book VALDEZ IS COMING is not new, but I read it recently on my Kindle. Leonard is published by an imprint of a large publisher. Yet on one page, an entire paragraph was repeated. It was a very confusing moment. But no matter – it happens. On you go. My point? I never saw a review mentioning it for that book. And if, in fact, there is such a mention among the 360 reviews for that e-book, it certainly isn’t listed first under “Top Reviews”.
Does Amazon decide certain reviewers have more authority or expertise than others and promote their reviews over those of the average reader/reviewer? Frankly, I don’t believe any particular reviewer is more qualified than another to review my book in the simple context of enjoyment, no matter how many in my genre the expert has read and critiqued. In one case a “top thousand reviewer” apparently didn’t read very much of my book; the comments the reviewer made could be applied to any book.
This isn’t the New York Times. These are every day readers telling other readers whether they had a pleasurable experience, or not, and why.
So Amazon, get it right. These are not “Top Reviews” in the sense of most positive – these are reviews deemed by your people to be most meaningful for some reason. So call them “Reviews By People We Trust Most” or some such similar title. Truth in advertising, right?
And while I’m at it, please allow the “Most Recent” reviews to appear as the first option of the dropdown list. These are the impressions by readers of the most recent editions of the work. Why not allow the author the chance to correct mistakes, to improve, to grow? Reader reviews should be of value to authors too, shouldn’t they?
January 14, 2019
Another Free Day!
The e-book Mestaclocan from Zack Tolliver, FBI, will be free Tuesday and Wednesday January 15 & 16. Tell you friends. Get it HERE.
January 7, 2019
LAST CHANCE!
This is your last chance to preorder THE DARK ROAD and receive a great mystery with an excerpt from the next work the LAS CRUCES GHOST in the back pages. The book launches in less than 24 hours. If you enjoy the Zack Tolliver, FBI series help our author ranking and make the preorder purchase. Higher ranking means greater visibility means more people find and thus get to enjoy these books. Thank you.
January 4, 2019
A SURPRISE IN THE BACK!
IT is a whole new year, and in the first few days of 2019 we have already embraced new ideas. We have never before published a novella. Most of the novels in our Zack Tolliver, FBI series run to 250 or 300 pages. THE DARK ROAD; The Beginning checks in at less than 120 pages. Writing a shorter work requires a different mind set; plots develop more quickly, there are fewer sub plots, fewer characters. The POV tends to remain limited. It is a different perspective for the writer. I have no doubt it will be a somewhat different experience for the reader.
Another new experience for us is what I term project overlap; that is, conceiving or even beginning the next work before the first is sold, within the same series. For us, there is always a general writing overlap––far too much, in fact. But our new work in the Zack Tolliver series, THE LAS CRUCES GHOST, was begun even before we have sold THE DARK ROAD. That is new for us.
Project overlap led to our third new experience. Because a portion of THE LAS CRUCES GHOST is already written, we are able to include an excerpt of that work in the back pages of THE DARK ROAD e-book edition, now on pre-order at Amazon. It presents an interesting contrast––Zack’s first moments in Navajo Land followed by a chapter describing his very latest experiences.
We hope to pique your interest in both adventures. THE LAS CRUCES GHOST is planned for launch by the beginning of April. The prequel THE DARK ROAD might naturally lead to the first book of the series, THE OTHER (although as stand-alone novels, the order is not as important). Many who purchase the prequel may already have read the other series books.
And so the new year begins with an experiment. Thanks to digital technology, if the inclusion of the excerpt proves too awkward, we are able to remove it following the pre-order and early launch period. We’ll see. If you have a thought to share with us on the matter, we are eager to hear you. (RLawsonGamble@gmail.com).
Regardless, we know you will enjoy these stories. Look for the new cover art for THE DARK ROAD to appear shortly.
(Check out RLawsonGamble.com for latest updates)
December 29, 2018
THE DARK ROAD: THE BEGINNING – A PREORDER PREQUEL
Some of you may have found this novella already published in a volume entitled WESTERN JUSTICE, an ebook anthology with two other Western/Native American authors. I hope you enjoyed it. It will continue to be free, until it is taken down by agreement among all three authors.
I have decided to publish THE DARK ROAD individually as if the anthology did not exist, for two reasons. Beyond the book’s description of Zack Tolliver’s very first moments in Navajo Land and his first impressions of Eagle Feather, who of course is to become his best friend, the book is a good mystery and should stand on its own on the e-shelf with its fellows. Second, I intend to publish the novella as a paperback book as well, to stand on the physical shelf with its fellows. And yes, it will hopefully generate income, although as a novella of 103 pages, it will never cost more than $2.99, the lowest limit allowed by Amazon for international distribution. It will often be less, on sale.
The current cover is a place holder. Kristallynn Designs is hard at work on another of her fabulous covers as I write this. It will appear next week. Look for it on my Amazon page.
The release date for this book is January 8, 2019. A great way to start the new year, I think. The release date for the paperback has not yet been set, but will follow shortly.
If you wish to purchase the THE DARK ROAD eBook, it will help the author if you do so on Pre-order, as the volume of sales on launch day determines its initial ranking. Ranking is important to visibility. I want all Zack Tolliver, FBI, fans and followers to see and read this book.
I hope your New Year is a happy and prosperous one. The author.
December 22, 2018
FREE ON CHRISTMAS DAY: ALL Zack Tolliver EBOOKS (except THE OTHER)
Why not THE OTHER? Because long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away a mighty empire called Amazon discovered that THE OTHER, the first in the Zack Tolliver, FBI series, while enrolled in KDP Select, was still on the e-book shelves of a Japanese company on some distant planet, despite the author’s request it be withdrawn. This violates the rules of the empire and THE OTHER has thenceforth been shunned. The empire’s memory is long and its nature unforgiving and in all the years since its publication THE OTHER has remained banned. But its brothers remain active in the empire’s Select Force and therefore MESTACLOCAN, ZACA, CAT, UNDER DESERT SAND, and CANAAN’S SECRET will all be free in eBook format on Christmas Day.
Hooray for the Revolution! And Happy Holidays!
December 13, 2018
Own Zack Tolliver Volume 6 CANAAN’S SECRET for FREE!
What a Holiday Season! We have so much to offer for free, a circumstance of timely productions.
OUR HOLIDAY GIFT TO YOU – LISTEN TO Zack Tolliver VOLUME 6 CANAAN’S SECRET FREE!
Below are ten codes you may use to acquire a free ZACK TOLLIVER, FBI series novel CANAAN’S SECRET from AUDIBLE.COM. Direction for downloading are given. This is a first come, first serve process. If your code does not work, try the next one. If none of the ten work for you, they may all have been used. BUT you may still acquire a free copy at RLAWSONGAMBLE.COM this month. Visit the home page and read about it.
1. Go to my book’s page on audible.com: https://www.audible.com/pd/B07L8N49RJ
2. Add the audiobook to your cart FIRST.
3. If you are prompted to sign in, please create a new Audible.com account or log in.
4. GO TO https://www.audible.com/at/redeem. Enter the promo code, and click “Redeem.”
5. Return to your cart. Be sure the button that says “1 Credit” is selected and your subtotal reads $0.00 dollars.
6. You may proceed through the checkout by clicking “Proceed to Checkout” and “Complete Purchase” on the subsequent page.
THE 10 free Audible.com download codes for CANAAN’S SECRET (Zack Tolliver, FBI Book 6):
1. 2K4MABQXT9PN3
2. USYD2Z2RD4QRH
3. C4WC42JF9ZS82
4. 5D6QMH2UDUEF2
5. YF66SAJFJRNPL
6. X9MB88FRXYUCC
7. 33RY9SJE9AZUD
8. PZAU3PGP75TRC
9. 9CEWLM8P23D59
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10. 74Q3XZA4QQWR8C
AUTHOR R Lawson Gamble
NARRATOR John McLoughlin
*Misuse of codes could lead to halt of distribution – we don’t want that.
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