I’m not talking about authors writing to fulfill the need in a genre, or to satisfy the popularity of what’s driving the market in hopes of getting attention and gaining sales. Case in point: How many vampire or werewolf books have been self published ever since Twilight first came out?

Take into consideration Amazon’s KDP Select program that went into effect in December. Amazon dedicated $6 million dollars to the program for 2012, enticing authors to make their books available to Prime Members in the Lending Library which allows those members to check out books for free each month.  Obviously, authors gained no commission from the lending of their books prior to this, which meant authors probably weren’t making their books available.

But, with the Select program, money allotted to each month is divided up by how many ever books were lent that month.  December’s pot was $500,000 which equated to $1.70 in commission every time your book was lent.  Yep, do the math and that’s just over 294,000 books that were lent. The program was apparently so popular that Amazon increased January’s pot to $700,000. February was announced a few days ago as being $600,000.

So, readers enjoy the perks of their Prime membership by having a large array of free books to choose from, and authors benefit by still earning some amount of commission from those free downloads. Everybody’s happy!

Amazon also threw in another perk for authors by giving them the option to promote their book by making it available to everyone – not just Prime members - for free for up to 5 days.  Within a 90 day time period, you can divide up the days however you like or run all 5 days consecutively.

I decided to take advantage of the 5 day free promotion with my second book, Stealing Wishes, by making it free from January 29th to February 2nd. Regular visitors to LLBR might remember this is the book I chronicled in my POD Diary back in 2009. The book was a semi-finalist in the very first Amazon ABNA contest in 2008 and also a semi-finalist for a Lambda Literary award in 2009.

While the book has enjoyed very minor success, I still see a handful of sales each month at the current Kindle price of $2.99.  It had earned 14 reviews at Amazon, but with the last one being posted 14 months ago, prior to the promotion.  Since it was the one book of my three with the most reviews,  it was an easy choice for the 5 day promo.  It’s also been labeled a “light romantic comedy” so I thought kicking off February with the promotion would be a nice touch.

Last week, I decided to visit the Amazon Forums in hopes of doing some light promotion and to spark interest in the book.  I first started participating in the forums in 2008 because the ABNA contest was very forum driven (and it still is), and it’s a nice way to connect with authors and readers.  Over the years, as the forums grew in various subjects, self-promotion was quickly frowned upon and Amazon created a MOA (Meet Our Authors) forum that is more open to self-promotion.

Though you have the option to opt out of following a discussion, anyone who has followed a thread in one of the forums knows that it can get pretty lively, and Amazon will email you every time someone replies.  So, unfortunately, your in-box can feel up quickly with LOL’s and smiley faces, leaving you searching for a needle in a haystack.  It often reminds me of the ole AOL chatrooms I use to troll back in the day.

While reacquainting myself with the forums and searching out the best places to plant a promo seed, I came across this forum about authors replying to one star reviews. It started from someone pointing out how author Ken Foster had replied to some of his negative reviews on his book, The Dogs Who Found Me. He apparently felt the need to defend himself against the reviewers who didn’t like the book, and he even points out some of their errors in the way they interpreted his book.

While I don’t condone Mr. Foster’s behavior, I chimed in and pointed out that I thought it was okay to comment on “good” reviews and mentioned that I had thanked reviewers for their reviews before.  A barrage of comments came in from forum followers, checking my facts by looking up my own books, who mostly disagreed with me and even said “authors should keep their mouths shut” and that “reviews were for readers.”  While I quickly stumbled to the old windmill to avoid the angry mob, I bowed out and immediately stopped following the forum.

Later this same day, I received an email from a fellow author who had just finished reading my 3rd book.  She asked if I was okay with her posting a review of it at Amazon.  She then pointed out that she only asked this because apparently “review swapping” amongst authors was frowned upon in the forums and would get you a lynching for sure! I told her I didn’t care what the forums said and if she wanted to post a review of my book at Amazon, I’d be happy to have it.  In the meantime, this just added more fuel to my fire which is the main reason I’m writing this post. But more about that later.

Two days later, Stealing Wishes goes Free on Kindle as planned. I sent out some Tweets and some Facebook posts.  I announced it on my author website,  and that was about it for day one. To my surprise, the book was downloaded over 400 times just the first day! Mostly thanks to a website called Kinlib.com that I had never heard of before. According to the forums, it’s a website that automatically highlights all the Kindle freebies each day.  I checked it, and indeed my book was there.  (Authors, no need to worry about getting your book on Kinlib if you do the free promotion – it should happen automatically.)

But I had not given up on those forums just yet.  With a quick search I found the MOA forums where self-promotion smoking was allowed. I put on my kids’ mittens and replied to a few, specifically this one about the KDP Free Promotion where other authors were sharing their success stories.  This led me to another forum devoted each day to FREE books that become available on that day.  After a bit of friendly post swapping with a few folks, I ended Monday with downloads almost doubled from the first day.

I decided to keep quiet on Day 3 (the day I’m actually writing most of this article.) but downloads still reached 957 in the U.S.  and I picked up almost another 79 downloads from the UK and Amazon’s other international sites. I started Day 4 by checking out the UK Forums, the only international site with forums available.  I posted in a couple of the MOA discussions there and then returned to the U.S. forums to hit a few of the MOA forums again to remind readers they still had two days left to get my book for free.  Let’s not forget Tweets and Facebook posts again.

I also greeted Day 4 with 2 new reviews.  Both were brief. One was a 5 star and the other was a 3 star.  I frowned at first at the 3 star review, but the more I thought about it, I was happy to even get it.  It meant that people were actually reading my book and not just being one of those free loaders filling up their Kindle device with freebies they will probably never get around to reading.

On Day 4, my author friend that I mentioned earlier also emailed to inform me she’d posted her review over at Amazon of my 3rd book. She mentioned that she too once liked to say thanks to reviewers, but the angry mobsters forced her to delete her thank you notes and choose never to do it again.  Another poster also didn’t approve of a self-promotion post she made about her first book, but chose to review it anyway and gave her a somewhat negative review.  The same poster went on to review her second book and made personal, somewhat attacking, comments about her and even questioned her expertise on the subject matter of her book (of which she had 20 years experience)!

I was honestly appalled by this!  Would a forum ogre really buy and read your book and purposely give you a negative review just because they disapproved of a comment you made in the forums to promote your book? Apparently there are such vindictive minds out there! And they stalk you, waiting on your next book, just so they can attack again.

But as Day 4 came to a close for me, I had only 1 dismal download in the UK despite a few last minute plees I posted in the (proper) forums.  I hit the forums again early on Day 5 announcing that it was the last day.  Tweeted it. Facebooked it. And quickly saw my downloads rise above 50 in the U.S. with only a handful in the UK.  And my 3 star review that I mentioned earlier mysteriously disappeared, but not before I noticed three people had “disliked” it and marked it as not helpful. I’m not pointing fingers here, but it wasn’t me.

Going back to the subject of authors keeping their mouths shut, I really thought that forum comment was a bit harsh. Would you not ogle at the chance to meet your favorite best selling author face to face?  Let’s say Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer, J.K. Rowling…just to name a few.  And what if, as you stood there getting a copy of their latest book signed while clamoring over yourself with slobber and admiration, they simply looked at you with a cold eye (two cold eyes even) and never said a word – all because they knew you were the one behind the forum comment that said authors should shut up?

Sure, if you don’t want us playing Big Brother by commenting on your reviews, that’s fine.  I can respect that. There are plenty of other opportunities for me to thank my readers and reviewers by tweeting about it or posting it on my own website.  I’m guilty of that and will continue to do it off in my own little authordom. But don’t expect me to “like” your comments over on Facebook when you post how much you liked the book.  Like, like, like…look at me and like what I’m doing, like what I’m reading, like me!  Oh, and don’t even think we are going to be friends on Facebook! N’uh! And if you comment on a post on my website, don’t be surprised if I don’t approve it.  How do you like them apples now you, you, you forum muggle!

As for Day 5 of my Free Promo, I tweeted.  I Facebooked.  I hit just a few forums on Amazon for a last call.  And it paid off.  I got 117 downloads in the U.S. on the last day, and 7 in the U.K.  And even though that 3 star review disappeared, another 4 star review was posted on the last day.  So, 2 new reviews during the 5 day promo! And that brings my grand total of downloads over the 5 free days to 1,074 in the U.S. and 86 in the U.K. and other international Amazon sites.  More than I would have ever imagined, so I would call this promotion a success!

What do I hope to gain from it now?  Well, here’s hoping all the free loaders might read and review the book.  I’d love to gain just even another 3 reviews, maybe even a new review in the U.K. But most of all, I’d love for sales of my other 2 books to pick up.  But if not, I’m still already contemplating another free promo later in the year for one of them.

As for the forum fodder and angry authors and no thank you notes on reviews… Readers, you need authors to write more books!  Authors, we need readers to buy them! Can’t we all just get along?

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!

Through the years, PJ would contact me and ask for advice on things. When we first corresponded, she was over the moon because someone thought her “little scribblings” had value. Then as time went on, she became frustrated because sales weren’t happening. Her frustration didn’t stem from the lack of monetary gain, but because she simply wanted to get her books into the hands of readers. She suffered a huge disappointment when she tried to give her books to schools and they wouldn’t accept them. So I asked, if she was willing to give them away, why she didn’t give them to shelters?

When she said she didn’t know where to start, I put her in contact with another friend, Linda Welch, author of the successful paranormal mystery Whisperings series, who was able to get her started and give her some pointers on how to proceed. She was ecstatic and the children loved her stories. But the next time I heard from PJ, she was distraught. Her husband had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and PJ herself has a degenerative eye condition which is causing her to go blind. She thought she’d have to give up her writing altogether, which saddened her, but her husband had to be her first priority.

Shortly after, I was delighted to hear that she decided she needed the creative outlet and she wanted to give away as many books as she could before she completely lost her vision. She proceeded to build up her list of shelters for donations to twenty. To assist her sight, she bought a 40-inch monitor and uses a magnifying glass to help her see, and hired an assistant to help with some of the things she cannot do.

Shortly before the holidays, I received an email from PJ — and she had been on my mind, isn’t that usually how things work? The email was to advise me that her husband’s condition was worsening at a rapid rate, and she needed to give him her attention and love. And her eyesight was also failing at a more rapid rate, and she would now have to give up writing. She was going to send a last batch of books to the shelters on her list, and would be moving to assisted living to ensure appropriate care for both her and her husband. Her one regret? To not be able to give more book donations.

And that’s when it hit me … this is somewhere I can help… and so can you. I’d like to issue a challenge to all: Purchase one or two of PJ’s books and send them to a women’s shelter or a children’s shelter. Give the gift of books to children without, and make an author, who can no longer follow her passion, happy. Let’s carry on PJ’s legacy… It’s not about the money — it’s about the children.

If you’re interested in reading my reviews of PJ’s work, they are:

• Michael O’Brien and the Magic Hat
• Tilbee Toadlet’s Trip to Town
• Giggle Grump Gurgle

The delightful illustrations are done based on PJ’s concept by Mike Motz.

PS – My niece and nephew LOVE PJ’s books and David’s favorite books right now are the dragons because he gets to Rawr!

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?

1. For today’s prize of a paperback copy of Misfit McCabe along with Mayan December by Brenda Cooper AND an ARC of Tattered, simply comment on this post.
2. To get a free ebook copy of Misfit McCabe:
• Put together the puzzle and write down the code. Each day will give another part of the coupon code. Please note at the top whether it is for eBook or Print.
• Once you have collected the entire code, go to Smashwords and purchase Misfit McCabe input the code and download whichever ebook version you need for free.
3. To get 50% off the print version of Misfit McCabe:
• Put together the puzzle and write down the code. Each day will give another part of the coupon code. Please note at the top whether it is for eBook or Print.
• Once you have collected the entire code, go to Griffie World Store and purchase Misfit McCabe input the code and receive 50% off the purchase price.
4. To win the KINDLE FIRE
• Support this tour by commenting on each of the daily stops — It’s only 11 days, not even as long as the 12 days of Christmas.
• And either Tweet the following exactly: YA ALERT! Check out @lkgg’s new release #TATTERED at @LLBR’s site http://bit.ly/uQLiIN and your chance to win a #KINDLE!
• OR on Facebook post exactly: YA Alert! Win a Kindle! Check out LK Gardner-Griffie’s new release Tattered! Today’s clue is on the LL Book Review http://bit.ly/uQLiIN
• And if you’re under 18 and would like to enter, but don’t have Facebook or Twitter, etc. if you have a friend comment on the posts saying that you sent them, we’ll consider that your entry for the Grand Prize. One friend for each stop (and they can enter too and bring all of their friends to the party).

Tattered is the third novel in the heartwarming young adult series, Misfit McCabe. A little about the book:

What do Sunday afternoon court proceedings, cheerleader tryouts, and a book burning have in common? Katie McCabe is back in action.

After her nemesis Harvey is found guilty and sentenced to community service, Katie wants to believe her troubles are over, but Harvey won’t rest until he gets revenge. When blackmail rears its ugly head, she’s caught between friends and enemies putting her growing relationship with Tom at stake. Books go up in flames and Katie’s world rains down in tatters.

I know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking that I’m going to say that I got involved with LLBR through Twitter. Wrong. In August of 2008, Shannon Yarbrough, the founder of LLBR, reviewed Misfit McCabe, then by October I had come onboard as the second reviewer. I don’t get to review as many these days as I’d like to, but LLBR has grown and now has several people to help get the reviews out there. And it was LLBR who introduced me to Twitter (you knew I had to bring Twitter into it somehow). Now I’ll turn things over to Katie McCabe, the fourteen-year-old main character of Tattered.

Katie: Hi LLBR peeps! Thanks for having me today. Today I get to talk about two of my cousins, Uncle Charley’s sons, Matt and Mark. Matt is the oldest, then Mark, then Sarah, then Tim and me. Before I moved to town, I’d never met my cousins, or at least I didn’t think I had. When Matt picked me up at the bus stop I was floored. When he stepped on the bus and called my name it was like looking at an old picture of Daddy come to life. Tall, Blonde, and those clear blue eyes. In some ways it makes me feel better just to look at Matt, but then sometimes looking at him makes me miss Daddy more. Matt’s kinda quiet and he works hard. In fact, lately I hardly ever see him because he’s been working on building a house so when his girlfriend (who I haven’t met) comes back from her trip, he can propose to her.

Mark on the other hand, is noisy. He bursts through the door, his boots clomping on the floor. He has dark hair and eyes like Uncle Charley and a wickedly mischievous grin. Sarah warned me about how overprotective he can be, but I didn’t listen very well. She said that he won’t think any guy is good enough for me, so that’s one of the reasons I don’t talk about Tom being my boyfriend at home. Well, that and Uncle Charley won’t let me date. And Mark calls me Kit-Kat instead of Katie and has since the very first day after I arrived. It had something to do with the fit I threw during supper the first night…Mark thought it was funny. It was embarrassing.

LK: Put the puzzle below together for part of the code to receive a free Misfit McCabe ebook. And make sure you visit Carolina Valdez Miller on tomorrow’s stop on the tour. And for all details on the tour, the prizes, and the stops, please visit Griffie World.

If the puzzle does not load correctly, please refresh your browser and it should display correctly. And if for some reason it still does not display correctly, click this link to open the puzzle in a new browser window.

This information was collected from Amazon’s website, and is offered to help review the new Kindle Fire.

Connectivity: Wi-Fi Supports public and private Wi-Fi networks or hotspots that use 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, or enterprise networks with support for WEP, WPA and WPA2 security using password authentication; does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks.

Content: 18 million movies, TV shows, apps, games, songs, books, newspapers, audiobooks, magazines, and docs.

System Requirements: None, because it’s wireless and doesn’t require a computer.

Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8.

Web: Amazon Silk cloud-accelerated browser

Display: 7″ multi-touch display with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and anti-reflective treatment, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors.

Battery Life: 8 hours continuous reading or 7.5 hours video playback

Charge Time: Fully charges in approximately 4 hours via included U.S. power adapter. Also supports charging from your computer via USB.

Storage: 8GB on device for 80 apps plus either 10 movies or 800 songs or 6000 books. Plus free cloud storage for all Amazon content so you never have to worry about running out of space.

Dimensions: 7” x 4.7” x 0.45”

Weight: 14.6 ounces

Interface: multi-touch

USB Port: USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)

Audio: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, top-mounted stereo speakers.

Amazon Prime: Amazon Prime is an annual membership program that offers customers unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items, instant streaming of more than 10,000 movies and TV shows and access to borrow a Kindle book every month, including New York Times Bestsellers, with no due dates — all for just $79 a year. Eligible customers who purchase a Kindle Fire will be given a free month of Amazon Prime.

I received the Kindle Fire in the mail a couple of days ago and have been playing with it ever since. This is the first tablet that I’ve ever owned; my previous Ereader was the second edition Kindle. There was nothing wrong with current Ereader, but there were some features that the Fire owned that I could greatly benefit from. So I took the leap in technology and decided to upgrade. I’ll go through each aspect of the Fire in order from the list above that was provided from amazon.

Connectivity: The Fire fell a little short in this areaL. Amazon has dropped the 3G capability on the Fire, and only allows Wi-Fi connectivity. I understand why they did this. Wi-Fi is faster than 3G, and with their new Cloud storage, it gives you the ability to stream items from their internet-based storage. By eliminating the 3G, they also eliminated any problems of TV and movies that were streamed having poor quality, choppy reception, or frozen vids. I think that they have room for improvement here. Mainly, I believe that they could bring back the 3G, but make the items that they are worried about unavailable on the 3G network. This would enable the customer to continue to shop, browse the internet, and access apps while away from home or hotspots.

Content: There is more than enough content to keep anyone entertained and busy for hours on endJ. I will mainly use the Fire to read Ebooks, and that feature works great. I have downloaded one movie and the quality is awesome. Also I have fiddled with a few of the apps, which just like everything else, the apps are endless. I already used the Cloud for my music downloads before I purchased the Fire, so all of my music was already accessible as soon as the Fire was set up with my account information. Then there is the ability to read all kinds of docs, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

System Requirements: Amazon claims that the Fire does not require a computer. I’m sure that would be true if you didn’t need to transfer documents over to it. There is a small catch with this. Make sure that the Fire is powered on before plugging it into your computer, or your computer will not think that it exists. Also, you’re going to have to purchase the cord that connects it to your computer (not includedL).

Content Formats Supported: It speaks for itselfJ: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8. This is just awesome, and it is the #1 reason that I decided to upgrade. The ability for the Fire to read all of these documents is phenomenal for me. I write reviews, and sometimes an author doesn’t have their book available for sell yet, but they have it as a PDF or DOC. I want to read their book, but now I’m forced to sit in front of my computer to read it, and that is only when I have time. Being able to read these documents on the go now makes me give the Fire a huge thumbs up. I transferred two books that I received as PDFs, and I was really impressed. They opened and interacted no differently than any of my purchased Kindle Ebooks. This is something that I am very happy with, and also something that some of the other tablets need to work on from what I hear.

Web: Amazon invented their own web browser call the Amazon Silk cloud-accelerated browser. Although they say that it is accelerated, I really didn’t see much difference between it, and Google Chrome, which is what I use on my home computer. There is nothing wrong with it, but it is a slight disappointment after being told that it’s accelerated. It works… it’s a web browser… I’m happy with itJ.

Display: Amazon had to let go of their claim being able to read their products in the sun. The consumer wanted a touch screen LCD, and that is what they gotJ. I read some online complaints that the reaction time is slow, but personally I have not had any problems. I did buy an antiglare screen protector for it though.

Battery Life and Charge Time: My previous Ereader had a very long battery life, the Fire is only 8 hours. That is mainly due to all the features and the LCD screen. I’ve charged it since I’ve gotten it, and have been playing with it off and on, and I still have more than 50% of the battery left. I’ve never messed with any other tablets so I can’t really compare how much juice it sucks, but I’m impressed. I thought I would have to charge it every day. Apparently I don’t mess with it as much as I thought it would, or my perceptions of batteries are offJ.

Storage: 8GB would be puny in the way of storage for a tablet, if the Fire didn’t also come with the Cloud storage. The Cloud – for some of you that don’t know – is an unlimited online storage data base for all of your content. The Fire enables you to stream your downloads from the Cloud, and never even download it to your device, in return saving you that space for other items. You can also download your items from the Cloud to your Fire’s memory, so that you can view those items when you are not connected to a Wi-Fi network, delete them at any time to save internal storage, and download it again later if you want. The Cloud is a secure backup for all of your contentJ.

Dimensions, Weight, and Interface: The fire is actually smaller than my second generation Kindle. The screen is larger and it does weigh more, bit it fairly compact compared to some of the other tablets that I have seen. I guess it’s a matter of personal preference on screen size for the customer. I like it. Even with it in a case, it’s about the same size as a small bookJ.

USB Port: This was almost a show stopper at my houseL. If you buy a Fire, you will open the box and find the tablet, and the power cord… that’s it. My previous Kindle came with the adaptor cord and a nifty little attachment that plugged into the USB to convert it into a wall charger. People that own an iPhone (or other electronics) will know what I’m talking about. The Fire does not have this. If you plan on transferring docs to your Fire, you need to buy this cord; it is not included with it. Luckily my previous adapter worked. Also remember, that the Fire has to be powered on in order for your computer to recognize it when you plug it in.

Audio: I set up the Fire to play my favorite movie that I downloaded (Fight Club) in my kitchen, and then went about fixing supper. Here is another area that I think could use improvements. I found that over the noise that I was making, that I had to turn the volume all the way up. So in a noisy area, headphones might be recommended. Also, there are not external buttons to turn the volume up or down, you have to use the touch screen panel to adjust the volumeL.

Amazon Prime: Amazon gives you one month of Amazon Prime free for purchasing the Fire. At first glance, I want to jump all over this. The free 2-day shipping for one year on products purchased from them alone is enough to make me squeal, but on looking at it further, I’m not so sure if it would be worth it for me. For some people this may be a dream come true. With the Amazon Prime yearly package – which cost $79 year – you’re able to stream 10,000 TV shows and movies, and borrow one book a month for free. It sounded pretty tempting until I investigated further. The TV shows and movies that they offer for free are much older, and they only offer the free books from about 5,000 titles. That seems like a lot of books, but if you consider that Amazon boosts that they house millions of books, it’s really just a drop in the bucket. Free books, movies, and TV shows do nothing for me if they aren’t something that I want to watch and read. I’m sure that this is something that each person would have to investigate on their own to decide whether it is right for them. I personally would have to still have to pay for: Fight Club (movie), American Horror Story (TV episodes), and Frostbite by David Wellington (Ebook). And after looking at my purchase history, I would be cheaper paying the shipping charges on items that I purchased. Remember, the free shipping is for items purchased through Amazon, not the 3^rd party merchants that supply a lot of items that are sold on Amazon.

With all of these cool features, Amazon almost forgets to mention their Whispersync technology. This is the ability to drop what you are reading on one device, and pick up in the same spot on another. For someone like me – that has the Kindle app on my phone – this is great. I can read a book at home and take off for an appointment, find out that I’ll be sitting in a waiting room a while, pull out my phone and pick up exactly where I left off. Then when I get back home to my tablet, it is synced up to spot where I stopped on my phone.

Overall I’m impressed with the Fire, and the pros more than outweighed the cons for me. My main purpose was to use it as an Ereader, and with its ability to read all kinds of docs, it has surpassed my expectations. On the tablet side of the device, there are areas that could use some improvement. In another words – I don’t regret spending the money on it, and I hope that it serves its purpose well over the years, just as my old second generation Kindle has.

For those of you who missed the contest, you missed out on your chance to win it before you can buy it, but all is not lost. The Fallen Queen will be out in a mere ten days, but just so you don’t forget in the holiday hustle-bustle, you can pre-order it on Amazon now. A little holiday gift to yourself. As a reminder of what the book is about:

Heaven can go to hell.

Until her cousin slaughtered the supernal family, Anazakia’s father ruled the Heavens, governing noble Host and Fallen peasants alike. Now Anazakia is the last grand duchess of the House of Arkhangel’sk, and all she wants is to stay alive.

Hunted by Seraph assassins, Anazakia flees Heaven with two Fallen thieves–fire demon Vasily and air demon Belphagor, each with their own nefarious agenda–who hide her in the world of Man. The line between vice and virtue soon blurs, and when Belphagor is imprisoned, the unexpected passion of Vasily warms her through the Russian winter.

Heaven seems a distant dream, but when Anazakia learns the truth behind the celestial coup, she will have to return to fight for the throne–even if it means saving the man who murdered everyone she loved.

And NOW for the moment you’ve been waiting for…

* * * Drumroll Please * * *

RC MURPHY!!!!!

And below is a screen shot taken of the Random.org randomizer with all of the entrants. Congratulations to RC Murphy and to everyone else, thank you so much for your participation and don’t forget to pre-order your copy of The Fallen Queen now.

• 12 voters (55%) said they post reviews at Amazon, B&N, GoodReads, and other blogs.
• 5 voters (23%) said they post at Amazon.com only.
• 2 voters (9%) said they post at book blogs and their own personal site only.
• 2 voters (9%) said they post at GoodReads.com only.
• 1 voter said they do not post reviews at all.

Since this is a review site that supports indie authors, I can pretty much guess that the 11 voters who join me in cross posting reviews across the board are more than likely authors themselves.  I certainly wasn’t shocked to find “Amazon only” in second place.  I used to be one of those Amazon only reviewers myself.  Now, I post to Amazon, LLBR, GoodReads, and often my own personal site depending on the book. I do not post to B&N.

Why the reason for this poll anyway, you ask?

I was recently reviewing my book reviews over at Amazon.com for all three of my books, balancing out how many came from people I know vs. people I don’t know vs. reviews I solicited vs. blind reviews I didn’t expect at all.  Sounds fun, doesn’t it? Eh, it’s what indie authors do sometimes. Here’s a breakdown by book for those interested:

My 2nd book Stealing Wishes has the most reviews at 14.  Nine of those came from people I know (mostly fellow authors or from online), only one of which I’ve actually met in person. The latest review was posted November 2010.

My latest book, Are You Sitting Down?, has 7 reviews.  Six of those came from people I know, and again, only one of which I’ve actually met in person. Its latest review was posted October 7th, 2011. Before that, July 21st was the latest review.

My first book, The Other Side of What, also has 7 reviews. Five of those are people I know, and out of that two are reviewers I’ve actually met in person. Its latest review was posted October 11, 2011. Before that, July 2010 was the latest.

Going back to Stealing Wishes which has not had one review posted for it this year, I’ve sold 55 ebook copies of it via Kindle this year.  The most were in January with 12 sold and then 10 sold in May. But not one review posted! And that’s the main purpose for writing this article.  I have pretty much come to the conclusion that Kindle users don’t post reviews.

And it completely makes sense.  Have you ever used the key pad on a Kindle? Typing out a review wouldn’t be very easy, and would be very time consuming.  While I myself use the Kindle app on an iPad, I still return to the keyboard and desktop to write my reviews.  I think its safe to assume that most other ebook readers do not.

With 5% of our poll voters posting at Amazon only, you’d think that a sale of 55 ebooks over the course of 10 months would earn at least 3 reviews perhaps?  But nope.  Not a one. I am taking into consideration that maybe some of those buyers haven’t read my book yet, but I’d like to think that the majority have read it.  Or maybe all 55 buyers read the book, hated it, and are just sparing me the humiliation of a bad review?  I hope not!  Although I do tend not to post reviews of books which I’d rate two stars or less.

But still the question of “Why no reviews?” goes unanswered.

I decided to explore other “review avenues” to see if the voters hold true, mainly B&N.com and GoodReads.com. At GoodReads my first book, The Other Side of What, has only one review which was cross posted to Amazon. Stealing Wishes has three reviews, and all three were cross posted to Amazon. And lastly, Are You Sitting Down? has 9 reviews (2 more than at Amazon) and of those, six of them are cross posted to Amazon.  I’d like to point out that 3 of the reviews on GoodReads came from winners of a giveaway I held on the site in which I gave away 10 copies of the book. 900 people entered the give away, and of that, 158 people added the book to their to-read list. Of the 10 I gave away, I earned just the 3 reviews and not one of those is cross posted to Amazon.

Over at B&N.com, my first book has no reviews. Stealing Wishes has three reviews – and of those three all of them are also cross posted to Amazon and GoodReads. Are You Sitting Down? has only one review and that one is cross posted to Amazon only.  I have never really cared much about the number of reviews I have at B&N.com.  I don’t shop there, and the reviews I do have there were posted out of the kindness of the readers.

Now, I know what you are thinking.  People probably just don’t review indie books or lesser known titles, right?  That could be true.  And at 55 ebook copies sold on Kindle alone to date in 2011, I should be content with the number of reviews I do have and just move along.

Well, let’s have some fun by taking a look at the Number 1 best selling English language novel of the 21st century just to put this into some perspective.  That book being The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. According to Wikipedia, it sold 80 million copies as of 2009. Not taking into consideration that I’m sure it has sold a few more million in the past two years, as of me writing this article The Da Vinci Code has 4,009 reviews on Amazon and 3,336 on B&N.  Yep. Quite a bit.

Again, not considering any number of sales from the past two years, given its 80 million copy status as of 2009 and the current number of reviews on both sites, that means 1 review was posted for every 19,955 in sales at Amazon and 1 review for every 23,980 in sales at B&N. Since we know that it has definitely sold more since 2009, those averages are realistically quite bigger.

Now, going back to my 2nd book, Stealing Wishes, with its 14 reviews at Amazon, if we do the same math (although I have not gotten any reviews this year) with the 55 ebook sales, I’ve averaged 1 review per almost every 4 sales.

So, what have I learned from this? I need to write a book more like Dan Brown.  Sure, more sales = more reviews. That’s obvious. And while reviews might help sales, they aren’t always a direct indicator of how well a book is selling.

Reviews are also somewhat of a privilege and authors indeed have to work for them.  Thanks to the Ereader popularity, like Kindle, we might be able to earn more readers but that doesn’t always mean we can get them to review us.  And while Amazon is the industry standard of places we’d like to see reviews posted, we shouldn’t forget about all the other places (B&N, GoodReads, LLBR, etc.) where reviews can be found too.

A follow up to this argument may be, “Are reviews helpful to readers or do they even read them?”  I know I do, but I don’t always let them persuade my decision on whether or not I want to read a book, although I usually go straight to the one and two star reviews and read those first if there are any.

Earlier this year when LLBR reached its 3 year anniversary, I told our readers that we would be posting more reviews going forward, and we’ve done just that!  We also cross post our reviews to Amazon and other sites because we know how important they are to authors, because we are authors and we enjoy getting reviews just as much as the next guy.  I think we’ve even become a review site for authors, more so than for readers themselves. So, I close by asking for your opinion.  What’s an author gotta do to get a review around here?

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!