Since LLBR started in 2008, we’ve reviewed almost 300 books.  We’ve probably rejected more than that. Sadly, we can’t read them all.  But we can give you a chance to promote your book even if we don’t review it.  And indie authors love free promotion, right?  Well, here’s your chance.

We’re starting a new project on the site this year called “Spotlight On…The Story Behind Your Story!”

We want to hear why you wrote and self-published your book.  We’re not talking about soap box stories of how you always wanted to write a book and see it in print.  We want to read stories about you writing a book for a sick or dying loved one, you did it to make money to build a college fund for your kids, you wrote it because your ex husband said you’d never finish it, you wrote it for your sick grandmother because she encouraged you to, and so on.

Real heart felt feel good stories!  The story behind your story!

So, in 1,500 words or less, email us at llbookreview@gmail.com with your story.  Also, include a jpg picture of you with your book.  And if your story involves someone else, put them in the photo with you and your book too!  We’ll post your stories here on our site for everyone to read and enjoy.  So, the spotlight’s on you!  We want to read your story behind the story!

Feel free to email us with any questions.  Otherwise, send us your spotlight stories today!

Last week, I posted an inquiry on Facebook asking other authors if they knew yet how much our books were worth for the first month of Amazon’s new lending library fund.  I expected to get a bunch of “Duh!” comments, but thankfully didn’t get a one.  I guess no one else knew either, or they were avoiding the chance to shame me and just didn’t answer.

For those that don’t know, as an incentive to get you to make your books available for free on Kindle so that they can be “lent” to Prime members, Amazon set up a fund which sets aside so much money per month to be divided up by how many books were lent that month.  December’s fund was $500,000 dollars.  $6 million is the total dedicated to this project for all of 2012.  There’s more information available about it here.

Well, Jeff Bezos or some other Amazon behind-the-scenes person must have heard my cry.  An email went out yesterday announcing the results of December:

Hello from KDP!

We are excited to share with you that the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) is off to a great start! Customers borrowed 295,000 KDP Select titles in December alone, and with the $500,000 December fund, you have earned $1.70 per borrow.

Enrolled authors and publishers, such as yourself, on average received 26% more money in December for their KDP-Select enrolled titles on top of their royalties from paid sales for the same titles. Also, our early results show that paid sales of enrolled titles are growing even faster than other KDP titles.

After reading this, of course, I immediately went to my dashboard to see how many times my books had been borrowed, did the math, and figured out how much I had earned total for December. Not too shabby!  Then the email went on to say this:

It gets better – because of the popularity of KOLL, fueled by seasonal use of new Kindles, and your strong participation in KDP Select to date, we are adding a $200,000 bonus to the January fund, raising the total from $500,000 to $700,000! See the press release for this here:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1647593&highlight

As a reminder, your KDP Select December royalty information will be available on your December royalty report in mid-January.

That’s right!  They raised the fund total for January!

I usually have a pretty good idea of how much I’m making per month by Kindle sales.  I check my dashboard almost everyday and record each week’s total on my calendar.  I wish there was something on the dashboard showing us a daily total of what our “lending” titles are worth, like a large jackpot sign representing that month’s fund that constantly changes with each book lent.  Somehow, I don’t see that happening.  Unless, of course… Mr. Bezos, sir, are you out there reading this?

I asked C.V. if she’d be interested in having some of her reviews featured on our site this month since it’s that time of year for Horror and Supernatural reads, and she gladly accepted.  C.V. is a fast reader, so I offered her a few books in those genres that had been sent to us requesting reviews and she agreed to read those as well.

So, we are pleased to welcome C.V. as a new reviewer to the LLBR team.  She’ll be focusing on the horror, thriller, and supernatural genres. Welcome C.V.! In celebration of the season, look for several supernatural reviews from C.V. throughout the rest of this month!

C.V. Hunt is truly fascinated with all aspects of the horror/supernatural genre. She is the author of the Endlessly series, with the first two books available now. C.V. lives in a small town in Ohio with her husband. In her spare time she likes to read, write, paint, listen to music, go hiking, ride her 4-wheeler, and – if there is time left over – watch horror movies. If you would like to get to know her better, check out her blog, www.authorcvhunt.com.

Lloyd Lofthouse earned a BA in journalism, and then a MFA in writing.  In 1999, Lloyd visited China for the first time to research his first novel, My Splendid Concubine, which eventually resulted in two historical-fiction novels known as “The Concubine Saga“.

By the time he completed the saga in late 2007, he’d visited China several times.

After the launch of the Concubine Saga in 2008, Lloyd appeared on more than 30 talk-radio shows across America as a China expert on shows such as The Dr. Pat Show, Travel Talk Radio and twice on Smith and Riley.

The Concubine Saga earned honorable mentions from the 2008 and 2009 London Book Festival, the 2009 San Francisco Book Festival, the 2009 Hollywood Book Festival, the 2009 Los Angeles Book Festival, the 2009 Nashville Book Festival, the 2009 DIY Book Festival and was a finalist of the National Best Books 2010 Awards.

His short story, A Night at the ‘Well of Purity’ was a finalist of the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards.

Lloyd Blogs at iLook China, Crazy Normal and The Soulful Veteran. In addition, he is currently editing and revising “Better a Dead Hero“, his next novel.

Watch for Lloyd’s first review tomorrow!

And what does this mean for authors, particularly those who have self-published their work only on Kindle?  Well…new readers, new exposure, and new sales we hope. But what about new reviews?

To date, my own three books have a total of 26 reviews combined.  The latest was posted 2 months ago. I’ve sold 25 books via Kindle this month, and sold a total of 78 last month. In other words, sales via Kindle have been steady so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they’ll stay that way with the release of these new models. 

However, despite the steady flow of sales via Kindle, I’m not getting any reviews.  I’ve come to accept that I just don’t think Kindle owners review books!  I wanted to write a post about this, but thought I’d do a bit of research first – starting with a poll to find out if people review books in general. 

Just check out the poll over on the right side of the site and cast your vote today!  All I want to know is if you review books you read, and if so, where do you post those reviews.  Thanks for voting!

Jaime Hypes is a freelance writer with a BA in Sociology and Anthropology, with a focus on Gender Studies.  She enjoys writing through this lens on just about any topic, and rules nothing out.  Currently living in the Kalamazoo, MI area, she keeps busy writing for a variety of sources, but has been most recently focusing on the many opportunities blogosphere has to offer.  The 29 year old lives with her partner, two cats, and many books- all of which keep her equally entertained.  Visit her blog at twistingthelens.wordpress.com.

Check out Jaime’s first review tomorrow!

Authors can start by signing up here!  It’s all powered through Twitter.  All you need to register your books is the ASIN number assigned to your Kindle version at Amazon so that the program can find your book, and an email address to which requests can be sent.

Once you register a book, you’ll immediately get an email from Evan requesting your signature so that you can take the whole program for a test run.  It’s pretty cool too.  You start my typing your message and signature. You get to see how the signature will look on the Kindle device, and you can actually choose the font type for your signature for how you’d like it to appear.

Readers can visit www.kindlegraph.com to see what books are available and with one simple click, they can request the author’s signature. Wow!  This takes virtual book tours to a whole new level.

Indie authors: This is yet another excellent way to get exposure for your book!  Watch a tutorial of the program here!  There are currently 3500+ books available now from 700 authors! And don’t forget to follow @kindlegraph on Twitter to keep informed on how this program grows!

Google has announced its plans to launch a Google eBooks-optimized e-reader on July 17.

Called the iriver Story HD, the e-book reader is designed to give users easy access to the 3 million free titles Google holds in addition to a few hundred thousand paid titles, with a price and design that is very similar to Amazon’s Kindle.

The Story HD appears to be an evolution of iriver’s Story e-reader from 2009, a model that was praised for its wide support of e-book formats.

The Story HD has a similar design that includes a QWERTY keyboard, though this edition has plated gold accents on the keys and frame.

A long, thin four-direction button centered above the keyboard appears to handle page turning, meaning the Story HD is a step behind the newest Nook’s touchscreen page-turns for the same price.

Google notes that in addition to reading e-books from local storage, users will be able to read books directly via the Story HD’s WiFi connection without having to download the book to the device. The Google Books API is also open to all publishers, retailers, and manufacturers, so anyone can put their content on the store.

Given that Google Books is one of the most widely accessible e-book platforms — computers, Android and iOS devices as well as Nook and Sony readers can all access the e-book content — we expect the hardware and user experience will have to deliver in order for the reader to make an impact on a market where other brands like the Nook and Kindle already have significant momentum.

The Story HD is priced at $139.99 for a WiFi-only version, available in Target stores nationwide July 17.

And look at how the industry itself has changed! We’ve witnessed the Amazon Kindle grow and change (which was first released in November 2007, sold out in 5 hours, and was out of stock till April 2008), and B&N hopped on board the Ereader train with the release of their Nook Ereader just last year. Even I’m reading books for review on my own Kindle now.

What’s next, you might ask?  I’m not sure.  For us or for the industry.  I think Ebooks will continue to grow, but I don’t see the paperback book going away anytime soon.  It’s a lot like the never ending search for cancer.  Think of how many people, not just bookstores, that would lose their job if the physical book went away – publishers, agents, artists, marketing, sales, editors, and printers to name a few.  It could happen one day, but I don’t think that’s anytime soon. As for LLBR, we’re going to keep doing what we do best too.  Review books!

My personal goal this year was to spend less time on the soap box and more time reading and reviewing.  I’m actually growing tired of being a cheerleader for the industry, and I’ve been on the playing field of it since 2003.  I love it that our blog has been an outstanding and constant resource to new authors who are considering self-publishing.  But often at times, I feel like a broken record.

But the information is out there, not just here on LLBR, to help you succeed.  You just have to find it.  It’s what I did as an indie author myself.  I learned from my mistakes and got better and better at it as time went on. But the reward in the end was totally worth it – having someone read and review my books and provide feedback.  That meant more to me than anything!

After all, a book is a waste of time and paper (or e-ink) if no one reads it, right?  And that’s where I’m going to devote my energy going forward.  I can’t speak for my fellow reviewers here, but you can expect more reviews from me than anything else going forward.  That doesn’t necessarily mean the number of books I review will increase, but you can expect the books I review to be of the utmost quality when it comes to indie books.

This is the LL Book Review, and I want to concentrate on that “book review” part of our name.  We’ve reached almost 200 reviews in just 3 years.  Wow!  Here’s to the next 200 or to the next 3 years!

And thanks to all of you – our readers, reviewers, and authors – who have been a part of it!

-Shannon Yarbrough

LLBR Founder

A common request we’ve heard from KDP authors and publishers is “talk to us!”  Starting this month, we’re doing just that.  You’re reading the first edition of what will be a regular newsletter focused on authors and publishers who use KDP to publish their books to Kindle.  The goal of this newsletter is to provide you with relevant information to make you more successful.

And, as always, we value your feedback.  If you would like to see specific features in this newsletter, write to us at kdp-newsletter@amazon.com.

–Kindle Direct Publishing

Another good move on Amazon’s part!  If you have ever visited the community forums then you know that Amazon has often been the silent big brother and left the publishing children alone in the room unattended, but other companies like B&N Nook and even Lulu.com have been known to ignore us too.

As for the rest of the newsletter, it spotlighted a few titles from some authors I’d never heard of including The Clones of Mawcett by Thomas DiPrima, currently ranked #13 in Space Operas as of this post. There were two short features offering advice on publishing from KDP authors Randolph LaLonde and B.V. Larson. Amazon also announced its 2011 Breakthrough Novel Award competition, and also that the 70% royalty option was now available for Canadian Sales. There was also a tip of the month and some featured community forum links, along with an announcement that Kindle was available for Windows 7 Phones and a mention of the added features to Author Central.

Again, huge kudos go out to Amazon and KDP for this newsletter!  What did I like best about it?  It was quick and simple and to the point.  I was able to read the entire newsletter in about 5 minutes, and I thought it contained a lot of useful information.  I look forward to the next one.