“Elderdown”, and a New Book Giveaway!

Two days ago, I finished the second draft of “Elderdown”, the fourth and final part of my Kickstarter-funded urban fantasy series. I sent it to the editor and designer. Want to be among the first to read it?

Of course you do. 🙂 Then simply write a review on Amazon for any of the previous books in the series, any time during the months of May or June.

Don’t have any of the other books in the series? No problem. If you promise to review it on Amazon, I’ll send you one. Paperback or eBook, your choice.

The complete series, as of today.

Please, if you can spare a few minutes to go to the books’ listings on Amazon or other online retailer, and write a comment, review, or kind word about your favourite book in the series, any time between now and the end of June 2015, I’ll send you a copy of book 4 when it is published this summer.

Book One: Fellwater. Book Two: Hallowstone. Book Three: Clan Fianna.

Reader reviews are essential for promoting anything in this very crowded indie publishing world. Promotion work doesn’t have to be aggressive: after all, no one who reads one book is prevented from reading another. But promotion work does have to be spirited and lively, and especially reader-driven. Many companies that offer promotion services to independent writers will not touch a book that has fewer than 20 reviews or an average rating of less than 4 out of 5 stars.

Alas, at this time, there are very few reviews of the previous books in the series up on Amazon. (For reasons I don’t understand, Amazon ported the reviews of the first edition of Hallowstone over to the second edition, but didn’t do the same to the other books in the series.)

You can also post this link to the books’ homepage to your Facebook and Twitter streams, and simply recommend them to anyone who you think might enjoy them. If you have constructively critical remarks about the books, I’d be grateful if you would email them to me– critical engagement with readers is one way writers become better, after all.

Thank you for your generosity and enthusiasm in supporting my work.

Paperback editions of the complete series, including the two spinoff novellas.

Postscript: What will I do now that Elderdown is soon to be published? I am beginning work on a nonfiction project that I’ve had on my mind for a few years. I am also going to continue the world of the Hidden Houses with short stories and novellas, featuring characters who were marginal in the main series, as well as new characters. I’m thinking of running a Kickstarter project to pay for an illustrated edition of these new stories. And I’m also thinking of a sci-fi project.

As long as I have a book to write, I have a reason to live. 🙂