Rebecca A. Demarest's Blog, page 12
March 10, 2014
First Vlog Review!
March 9, 2014
Two More Reviewers Loved Undeliverable!
So, a while back you heard me crowing about my excellent Kirkus review, but now I have two more people who loved my book! I can’t tell you how excited I am to keep hearing this kind of feedback…
Portland Book Review:
“Demarest’s writing is sharp and witty. Her book is a great read with a bit of social conscience. While I was reading, I felt as if Demarest was taking me on a wild ride, a ride that I enjoyed and met a bunch of cool people along the way. From Gertrude to Sylvia – the characters are a great group of people. Benjamin faces struggles throughout the investigation, but in the end…well, read it and I think that you will enjoy it as much as I did.” (Full Text Here)
San Francisco Book Review:
“This is a well-plotted, well-written story — its central metaphor of lost mail for a lost child creative and poignant. Ben channels his frustration with his inability to find his child to reconnecting mail to its intended recipient — efforts often similarly futile. The details of the “mail recovery system” and history of the mail service, in general, are actually interesting. Most topics are inherently interesting, when gone into with enough depth and clarity. The details of the detective work that Ben does in his search are actually more thorough and systematic than that of the professional police detectives. Riveting. There is peace, if no real happy endings, at the resolution of the story for both Ben and Sylvia, both tragic figures who have experienced loss.” (Full Text will be online by April)
March 7, 2014
Writing Prompt!
Today I am spending the day celebrating the fruition of many years of labor and several months of intensive learning and marketing. How does your character’s society celebrate the end of things? Graduations, coming of age, etc, give us a party!
March 6, 2014
And Undeliverable is live!!
Hello all! Undeliverable launched today! Its everywhere! Well…except Kindle cause Amazon is being difficult, but it should be there within the next couple days. Spread the word!
March 3, 2014
Oh the Irony…
It is almost time for the launch of Undeliverable! And in preparation of this, I have been sending copies of the book hither and yon in an effort to cultivate reviews, and, as is expected when one has sent over 200 packages in the last three months, a few of them have gone astray. One was even gutted by a piece of machinery and the envelope returned to me sans contents. Two weeks later, what should arrive, but the contents! (Ms. Vejo, your book is back in the mail now!)
The irony of the fact that my book passed through the very center it takes place in, but no one appears to have even cracked it open is almost too much to bear. I think this means I must send a copy to them directly to read, what do you think folks?
February 28, 2014
Writing Prompt!
In honor of my book launching next week, what is the one thing you never thought you’d be able to do? Or what is the one thing your character thought they would never be able to do? Now, how do they do it?
February 27, 2014
RED ALERT! ACX is Getting Ready to Gouge Content Creators
Red alert, everyone to battle stations! If you have been contemplating putting your work up through Amazon’s ACX for audiobooks, I’d start rethinking that plan or securing a contract IMMEDIATELY as their terms are changing.
Previously, content producers were offered a sliding scale of 50-90% of the royalties of their audiobooks, depending on how many sold. Starting in early March, that changes to a FLAT 40%. Period. To be split between you and your producer. Oh, and if you choose a non-exclusive contract so that you’re not locked into only being sold on Amazon, iTunes and Audible? You are only entitled to 25% royalties.
I personally find this entirely unacceptable and have already voiced my opinion to the company. I encourage you to do the same. They are a distribution company and have done absolutely nothing to help develop the content they are selling. We have spent YEARS writing the content and the producers we partner with spend MONTHS creating the recordings. They have no right to take that much of the royalty. I might have been okay if they had announced that it was going to a simple flat royalty of 70% or possibly even 60%. But to take a majority, and a massive majority at that, of the royalty is absurd.
Here is the official announcement.
Here is where you should send your complaint: support@acx.com
Join me in showing Amazon that we will not go quietly into the night. Then join me in trying to secure distribution for audiobooks through an independent platform.
February 21, 2014
Pages are Live, Time to Review!
Hey, all you wonderful party people who have been reading Undeliverable: If you have made it through the book, would you be kind enough to leave a review at one of these three sites, or, better yet, all the ones you have an account on? The more people we get talking about this book the better!
The print books are live now to purchase, the large-print will be available in a couple days, and the ebooks will be live on the 6th! We’ll get this party started right! You guys are amazing!
Writing Prompt!
This week we celebrated President’s Day with a day off of work and lots of lovely sales. I want you to write a story about the leader of a country in turmoil. Real or imagined, what kind of choices to they face and how do they hold up? Do they succeed? Or do they fail?
February 18, 2014
Taking a short break…
Hey guys, I’ve got two weeks before Undeliverable launches, which means I’m working my fingers to the bone networking and creating marketing campaigns, so I haven’t had time to read lately, which means I have no books to review at the moment. I’ll make sure you always have writing prompts on Friday though! I’ll be back to the regularly scheduled reviews after things calm down a bit.
