My Novel FIX Is Out Today! Here's How You Can Help Me… Or Any Author You Like!
Hey, my novel Fix is out today! You can all now all begin hating me for the horrible things I do to characters you have come to love! Here’s all the wonderful places you can buy the final book in the ‘Mancer series:
North American Print & Ebook
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | BarnesandNoble.com | IndieBound.org
UK Print & Ebook
Amazon.co.uk | Book Depository | Waterstones | WHSmith
Global DRM-Free Epub & Mobi Ebook
The Robot Trading Company
But that’s irrelevant, believe it or not! I figure if you’re interested in buying the sucker and you read this blog, you already have decided to buy Fix (or not!) by now. So let’s talk about what you can do to help an author’s book, if you’re so inclined:
1. Talking About The Book To Your Friends Helps.
One notable couple loved Flex so much, they bought copies of Flex for all their friends at Christmas. You do not have to go this far. But still, the fundamental truth of books is that publishers can pour millions of dollars into ads and endcap buys, and every book’s success comes down to one conversation:
“Hey, did you read Ferrett’s book? It’s pretty good.”
Without that conversation, books die. Which is why I talk about books I love on Twitter and my blog – partially it’s just that I tend to squee about things I adore, but it’s also that discussing books helps them.
Which leads me to my next point…
2. Mentioning The Book On Social Media Helps.
I woke this morning to lots of wonderful people who’d mentioned how excited they were that Fix was out. And thank every one of you who did that. Mentioning it on your Twitter or Facebook or Instasnap or Kik or Pokemon Go or whatever you crazy kids are using these days to talk? It helps people be aware the book exists. And in a cold callous universe packed tight with entertaining books, anything you do to shine the spotlight on a specific book helps.
3. Writing Reviews Of The Book Helps.
Even if they’re tiny reviews like “I liked it, four stars,” putting information into Big Data’s hopper helps the massive computers feel better about recommending that book to other people. Amazon’s far more likely to display and/or promote a book if it has lots of reviews behind it. Publishers notice the number of reviews.
So review a book from an author you’d like to support, even if you don’t like it. It’s far better for authors to have lots of honest reviews – that allows their recommendation engines to know who not to recommend the book to. And honestly? I don’t want people to buy any book they’re unlikely to enjoy.
(Though, you know, I hope you do enjoy it!)
4. Seeing The Author When They Come To Town Helps.
Remember, I’m doing another crazy book tour, hitting up Cleveland (obvs), San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, and Seattle. Showing up at the book store helps pump the book store’s sales, convinces local booksellers I might be worth reading, and helps an author feel like Not A Loser.
I mean, look at all these wonderful people who showed up in Boston! THANK YOU, PEOPLE!
And yes. My book is out today. But always remember that these steps are comparatively trivial bits you can do to help out any author you’d like to support. Write reviews, talk about them, see the author when they’re around. That helps anyone in publishing, and publishing is hard, yo.
Anyway. I’m going to delve into work today and emerge at my Cleveland release party. Some of you will be reading what happens to Paul, Valentine, Aliyah, and the rest in Fix.
I hope y’all love the ending as much as I do.