What shall we read for NOVEMBER? - RUN-OFF POLL

[Jemima]

I'm going to experiment this month. If it goes horribly wrong I'll step in and do a random draw rather than a poll, but hopefully it won't get hijacked by spammers and people of evil intent. (This is Halloween month, Jemima, what do you expect to happen?)

I'm going to ask for nominations for an indie book. And despite our carefully constructed rules which we worked on a couple of years back, and have used three times, I think, I'm going to suggest:
* you can nominate your own book, but only one
* you can vote for your own book
* you can nominate someone else's book if you know it's indie published (small publishing house or self-published), and you can nominate up to two books not by you.
* ONLY ebooks
* authors/publishers must be willing to provide free ecopies, in mobi, epub and pdf formats as requested. We can check that as we go along.

IF WE GET A FLOOD OF NOMINATIONS, I'LL LIST THEM AND REQUIRE THAT THEY BE SECONDED BEFORE THE POLL GOES UP.

I'm going further. I'm not going to message the entire membership about the poll. That means only active members will be voting, but that makes it a much smaller number. In the event of a tie I'll draw the winner by lot from those within 1 vote of the top, judging from the poll last time.

If any member attempts to fix this poll, they will be banned from the group. I have ways of spotting fixing, since it's happened once before. >:) Telling your friends there's a poll is fine, asking them to vote for a particular book is not.

So, let's have a good clean fight nominations procedure, and spend November enjoying one of the many excellent books our author-members have written.

I must be mad.

[Carmel]

😊

[Jemima]

I'm going to kick off by nominating a book by someone I've got to know over the years, who has just won an honourable mention or better in the Readers Choice awards, after several other awards this year. Wendy Leighton-Porter writes a fantastic time travel series starring Max the Cat and twins Joe & Jemima (I feel funny every time I read that) and their friend Charlie.

The first in her Shadows from the Past series is The Shadow of Atlantis

[Manybooks]

Jemima wrote: "I'm going to kick off by nominating a book by someone I've got to know over the years, who has just won an honourable mention or better in the Readers Choice awards, after several other awards this..."

Are we allowed to nominate books that also appear in traditional book form? I am confused, as when I clicked on the book link you have provided, it said it is paperback and above you were mentioning only ebooks as being acceptable. I am asking because I want to nominate an indie book by a GR friend I have been meaning to read but it is available in both paperback and kindle.

[Rosie]

Hello! I would like to nominate my middle grade fantasy The Snow Witch which is self-published through KDP (formerly Createspace).

[Jemima]

Manybooks wrote: "Are we allowed to nominate books that also appear in traditional book form? I am confused, as when I clicked on the book link you have provided, it said it is paperback and above you were mentioning only ebooks as being acceptable. "

Sorry to confuse you. As long as the nomination has an ebook form it's okay, as I expect whoever we nominate to at least do us a deal on the ebook. Less than 0.01% of indie published books get into libraries, which is usually our criterion for being readily available, hence the reliance on ebooks this time around.

The Goodreads link probably defaults to paperback. If in doubt, flag it up to me and I'll check.

[Ben]

I imagine Clean Reads probably fits the 'small publisher' definition, so I'd like to nominate my lower middle grade troll fantasy, Danger Tastes Dreadful. It has an ebook which is normally $3.99, but I am sure I can get that down lower if the book is chosen. It is aimed at 7-12 year olds.

[Manybooks]

Jemima wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "Are we allowed to nominate books that also appear in traditional book form? I am confused, as when I clicked on the book link you have provided, it said it is paperback and above ..."

Oh good, as the author definitely is promoting her kindle books, but I just wanted to make sure.

So I am nominating Mandrake's Plot by Helen Laycock, which looks great and has been on my to read shelf for a while.

[Ben]

I'd also like to nominate Thomas Templeton and the Whispers of Branson Manor by Emily Steward, which I have not read but have heard great things about. On the somewhat scarier side of middle grade, I've seen this compared to A Series of Unfortunate Events, and think it would make a good indie read.

[Louie]

I would like to nominate
Song of the Moon by Helen Laycock and
Betwixters: Once Upon a Time by Laura C. Cantu.

[J.S.]

I'll nominate Acea And The Animal Kingdom by Kyle Shoop.

[Jemima]

After some thought I'm going to nominate my own Willoughby the Narrator, since it has the advantage of being a suitable jumping in point in the middle of a series (Princelings of the East #7), although you'll miss some of the subtleties.
I'm beginning to think of this fantasy series as Wind in the Willows meets Game of Thrones.

[Rebecca]

Jemima, love your description of the Princelings series! (I also love the series, and was going to nominate the first book, but I won't since you've got one in there).

You also got the other one I was going to nominate. I'll have to think some more about other books. Meanwhile, I'm going to nominate one of my own, though maybe I shouldn't since we read one of mine last year. If you want to bump it, go ahead. Halitor the Hero

[Jemima]

That's ten so far, although I was wondering whether we should only put one in for Helen Laycock (Mandrake's Plot and Song of the Moon both nominated.)

Are you happy for me to close the nominations yet?

[Rebecca]

Jemima wrote: "That's ten so far, although I was wondering whether we should only put one in for Helen Laycock (Mandrake's Plot and Song of the Moon both nominated.)

Are you happy for me to close the nominations..."

Go ahead if you haven't already.

[Jemima]

Okay, nominations are now closed.

You can find the poll here:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...
as well as on the Group's home page (right at the bottom) :)

Poll ends at 11.59 pm Sunday 21st October, to give me time to make contact with the author about copies. If the author isn't amenable, I'll try the second placed author.

[Rosie]

Thanks for all the work you put into this, Jemima.

[Rebecca]

Rosie wrote: "Thanks for all the work you put into this, Jemima."
Amen to that!

[MasterReader]

I'm new to the group and it's my first vote and I found it actually quite difficult, as there are quite a few tempting titles listed.
Lots of good inspirations what to read next and also a few available on kindle unlimited, which is fine by me. :0)
Thank you and now fingers crossed for the favourite. (not telling :0)

[Jemima]

I generally find the indie pick is the most difficult to vote for. Maybe the indies are out of mainstream, which is why we're indies :)

[MasterReader]

I fully agree. Big publishers like Rodent House and Co., they just want something that sells for big bucks, which is usually "same old, same old", depending from what's popular at the moment.
The indie market is the readers opportunity to read a wide variety.
I love the moment when the Big Bucks get it wrong and an indie title hits the bestseller ranks. :0)

[Rebecca]

BTW, did we check that authors are willing to donate copies? Or will we confirm that when the results come in?

[Jemima]

We have a run-off poll, as I expected :)

Please vote for the one you want to read here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

All these authors have been active here recently, so I think we're okay on getting a deal on copies.

Poll closes Sunday 28th.

[MasterReader]

Difficult decision, all 3 books are interesting. Thank you Jemima.

[Jemima]

And the winner is... Mandrake's Plot



I'm in touch with Helen Laycock and she'll be giving me the information on an offer for you soon.

Have you any questions to ask her in an interview thread?

[Helen]

Thank you so much for voting for Mandrake's Plot! I am thrilled and hope that you enjoy it.

From tomorrow, 31st October, the Kindle edition of Mandrake's Plot will be FREE on Amazon for five days, ending on November 4th.
(It is available worldwide)

Unfortunately, the paperback price has been set by Amazon, albeit to a minimum of £5 in the UK and $8.50 in the US.

However, if you would like me to send an electronic copy, I'd be delighted to oblige. I currently have a PDF of the book, but if this isn't a format you like, I will seek some technological help from my husband(!) to see if it's possible to create the file that you'd prefer.

In order for me to get this to you, would you like to leave me a private message with your email details?

In the meantime, if you'd like to know a little more about the book, here is its website page:

https://helenlaycock.wixsite.com/hele...



If you have any questions about this, or any other of my Middle Grade fiction, please do ask. I have a Goodreads Author Page where (if you look very carefully) there are chapter samples from each book.

Thanks again, everyone - and happy reading!

Helen

[Louie]

I just downloaded Mandrake's Plot! I can't wait to read it!

[Jemima]

Me too!