Interview with the Author

Janet Elaine Smith

Janet Elaine Smith is the most experienced POD author I have ever encountered in my vast exploration of the Internet wasteland over the past eight years. You can visit her blog or see her personal marketing plan or even read another interview with Janet before you continue reading this one. I cannot even remember on which message board I first discovered Ms. Smith. What I do remember is that among all the disparagement of each other as real or unreal authors, she was out there meeting booksellers, readers, and even POD company founders through her marketing quest. When the going gets tough, many people want to just stand around and argue about whom to blame for their problems, but Janet is one of those tough-get-going people. Including the reissues with different publishers, Janet’s eighteen books have been published forty-three times! Her entire published catalog is listed at the end of this interview.

PODBRAM: I understand that your first four books were self-published in the ‘90’s, before POD was even invented. Tell us how your long writing career began.

Janet: My husband and I were missionaries in Venezuela for nine years. When we came back to the US, I wanted to write down the experiences we had had there. By the time I finished that, I was "hooked" on writing, and I began my first novel, which started out to be a "simple little regency romance," but which grew into my first published novel, Dunnottar. It only took about twenty years for it to get published. Meanwhile, I kept writing more books and I stumbled into some pretty good magazine gigs. I knew that as long as I could keep writing, I hoped that one day I would succeed. I have never run away from a challenge.

PODBRAM: When you stated self-published for certain early books, did you mean the stacks of thousands in your garage type of deal? Do you still have them available for purchase?

Janet: The first book I "published" was The Hallett Family History. My dad asked me to put all the data and stories I had found on The Halletts for him for Christmas. I managed to get the book finished, and one day I was talking to the editor of Heritage Quest Magazine (now merged with Genealogical Helper) where I was a contributing editor and had a regular column as well as many feature articles. Now I never planned for this book to go anywhere except to my dad, but the editor wanted to feature it in the magazine. I took the original manuscript over to Kinko's and had a copy printed and put a black plastic spiral binding on it. He liked it and did a book review of it, and the next thing I knew I was getting orders from Halletts all across the country, as well as from quite a few libraries that wanted to add it to their genealogy section. I sold over a hundred copies that way, running them off one at a time when somebody ordered one. About six months ago the Hallett History showed up as a listing on Amazon. I have no idea how they found it. It never even had an ISBN!

A little publisher in Michigan, Kinseeker Publishing, sent me a contract for two genealogy books I had done and was using in my genealogy classes, which I had taught for sixteen years. I was ecstatic! There was no advance, and I never got any royalties, and they soon went out of business. I did get a few copies of the books, and I have one of them left. There are a couple of copies here at our public library. When I got the books, they looked exactly the same as my Hallett History that I had done at Kinko's. I think that's probably all they were doing, too. They are listed on Amazon (I have no idea where they found them, either) and once in awhile there is a used copy available. I think right now there is a copy of Tickling Your Ancestral Funnybone that was in some library and it is listed at almost $60! I wrote these books (as well as the Hallett History) before I had a computer, and I can't even find a copy of Digging in the Dirt: A Guide to Digging Up Your Family Roots to retype it onto a disk. Maybe one day...

The next one was The Flood of the Millennium. When we had our horrible flood in 1997 in Grand Forks, North Dakota, everybody heard about it. My husband and I had run a charitable organization here for about twenty-five years when the flood hit, and we were evacuated to the Grand Forks Air Force Base. When we went into the office to find out where to go or what to do, the colonel in charge asked us what we did in Grand Forks. I told him we had already been heavily involved in dealing with people from the moment the possibility of a flood was announced. The colonel told me to record the medical history of the nearly one-thousand evacuees! As I recorded their medical histories, I also heard how each one of them had gotten out of Grand Forks. I kept detailed notes of their stories during the nearly six weeks that we were all refugees on the base twenty miles from home, and then I compiled the book from these notes. My editor of the regional magazine Memories & Mysteries, where I'm the associate editor, heard about it, and he put a big write-up in the magazine about my flood book. I started getting orders from all over the country, as people were watching our experiences on Good Morning America, Today, CNN, Schuler's Hour of Power, etc., and many newspapers picked up on the fact that the book was available. I got a call from The Weather Channel in Atlanta and they asked me to send a copy of it to them. They announced it on the air whenever they ran footage on our flood. Again, I made one copy at a time at Kinko's when I got an order for a book. It got to the point where they just kept the manuscript there and called me in the morning to see how many books I needed. I would tell them, and by noon I would take the addressed manila envelopes over there, stuff them, then head to the post office to mail them. I sold books to people in every one of the states, as well as to Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the UK. That book sold over 3,000 copies, all printed and bound at Kinko's, in probably about six months. And then it pretty much died.

PODBRAM: I know you must be having a hissy fit to tell us about your Promo Paks, so go ahead and tell us about your latest release, the one so obviously published to aid other POD authors in their marketing efforts.

Janet: When my first book came out, I had no idea that an author had to market her own book. I had no background or training in marketing or sales. Maybe that was an advantage. By that time I had a computer, so I tried finding ways to let people know about my book. The things I did were very simple. I think that was a big key as to why they worked. I was too stupid to know they shouldn't work, and amazingly, they did. In fact, it worked well enough that in just a couple of months, Dunnottar was the No. 1 best-selling Scottish book on Amazon, out of over 8000 competitors. It stayed there for almost three months, and it got up to a sales ranking of 90 on the overall Amazon list. As these things were successful, including my being able to eventually get my POD books into the bookstores (another thing people said you can't do, but I have always loved a challenge!), people began to ask me how I had done it. That's when I decided to do my Promo Paks: Nearly Free Marketing for Authors. It was available for quite awhile just as an e-book, but I am thrilled that it is now out in print as well. They are very simple, mostly free things that authors can do, even if they are physically handicapped or relatively "financially challenged."

PODBRAM: Few authors have had the varied experience with several different POD companies that you have had. Which companies have you had experience with?

Janet: As I mentioned before, my first books were completely self-published. Then I had the genealogy books from Kinseeker Publishing. After that, I had five books that were published by FirstPublish, a POD publisher. Even though they went bankrupt in less than a year and I have my own suppositions (sheer guesses) as to why, they gave me my first real break, and for that I owe them a lot. Dunnottar was not only accepted for publication, but it was the book that they used to launch their entire company. I even ended up with some full back cover ads on magazines like Writers' Digest and The Writer. By the time they fell apart, I had five books out with them. The last one ended up with somebody else's name on the promo materials they sent me! Then I went with PageFree Publishing. Again, they were very good to me, and vice versa. It was great at the start, but I began to hear from other authors who were with them that they were having problems getting in touch with them, as well as some other problems. I was never an employee at PageFree. I got royalties the same as all their other authors. One day an employee that I had never heard of publicly attacked me on one of the writers' groups (one we both belong to, I think). I have no idea where that came from. I had considered the owner of PageFree much more than a business relationship. We were very good friends, or at least so I thought. I have no idea what happened. I hate losing a good publisher, but I hate losing a good friend even more.

Kristie Leigh Maguire and I had been friends for several years. She had asked me numerous times to work with her in marketing the books published by Star Publish LLC. I had been completely loyal to PageFree, sending many authors to them. But the time was right, and I have been delighted to work with Star. In my book, they are at the top of the heap. For one thing, I really appreciate the fact that they don't publish everything that comes along just because an author has some money. They choose their books very carefully. It is a joy, as their Marketing Director, to call bookstores every week to tell them about their many fine books. I now have seventeen books out with Star.

PODBRAM: Have you created any or all of your own cover designs?

Janet: I don't do my own covers. My artistic talent is non-existent. I realized that when our oldest son, now forty, was about three years old. I drew a cute little bunny with big ears sticking up. He turned it every which way but loose and finally put it upside down and said, "Mommy, that is the dumbest looking cow I've ever seen." I haven't drawn anything since. I have had a wonderful local friend who did the original cover art for some of my books. My youngest son did two of them. The others were created by Kristie at Star Publish. She does a fantastic job and has just started a subsidiary business of doing covers and video trailers. You can find the information at Kristie Leigh Maguire. I think a cover is one of the most important components of a book. I had one book that was out for a short time by a small traditional publisher. I had no idea what the cover was like until it was up on their website for sale. I hated that cover! I want some input into what my covers look like.

PODBRAM: Have you attended any writers’ classes or workshops? Have you taught any?

Janet: Unfortunately, living in North Dakota makes the availability of such things almost impossible. My husband recently passed away, but he was in a wheelchair and that made it impossible for us to do any traveling. I have been involved in the Muse Online Conference (both as an instructor and a participant), and it is a wonderful opportunity for people to attend a conference who have similar problems or who have jobs they can't leave, family responsibilities, lack of income, etc. I have taught Creative Writing classes at our local Adult Education Center. Some of them have been for fiction writing and others for magazine writing. Also, I cannot stress the importance of belonging to a local writers' group. If nothing else, it keeps you writing. If you don't have one where you live, start one yourself. There are writer wannabes everywhere these days.

PODBRAM: Which POD publishers have you considered for one or more of your books, but not selected?

Janet: Before I decided on PageFree, after being burned by First Publish, I did a lot of research on many POD publishers. I don't know that I seriously considered any others. I did learn one thing: the best place to find out the true story of what a POD publisher is like is to talk to their authors. That's where you'll find the truth.

PODBRAM: What was your experience as an editor for iUniverse like?

Janet: As I mentioned earlier, the biggest problem I had was with the content of some of the books. I found a few real gems that I would highly recommend to anyone. One of my favorites was The Mozart Forgeries, by Daniel N. Leeson, which is a brilliant book! (Editor’s Note: we have a review of The Mozart Forgeries coming soon at iUBR.) Some of the others, however, were so violent that I had nightmares for weeks after I finished editing them. Others were just plain smut! No, I don't mean because they were erotic; they were just filthy language with no rhyme nor reason to their existence. I think that is the one biggest problem we, as POD authors, have to overcome. That is one of the reasons I am so proud of being affiliated with Star Publish. They are very careful about what they publish. Of course that is not exclusive to POD publishing. I have seen some books from big traditional publishers that I don't think belong in the public domain either.

PODBRAM: How satisfying has your experience with iUniverse been?

Janet: The people I worked with at iUniverse were wonderful to work with. I not only have my flood book published by them (at their request), but I also edited for them for some time. The final quality of the books is fine. The people I worked with (most of them are no longer there, especially since their merger with AuthorHouse) were great. The problems I had was that as I mentioned before, they publish anything that comes in, as long as there is an exchange of money. I argued with the powers that be about some of the books I edited, but I always lost. I have no idea how many times I had the amendment rights a person has quoted to me. The other problem I have with my one iU title is that their discounts to stores are so low and their books are not returnable, which makes it nearly impossible to get them into the brick and mortar bookstores.

PODBRAM: What is the most significant thing you have learned as a POD author? Do you have any advice to offer to new or prospective POD authors?

Janet: The most important thing I have learned applies to all authors. Writing the book is the easy part. Getting it noticed and selling is the hard work. I think it is also important to note that POD publishing is beginning to come into its own. It doesn't have quite as much of a stigma of being "a loser's way out" that it used to have. My advice is to believe in your book and in yourself. If you want to try the traditional route first, go for it, but don't spend years chasing a dream when people could be reading your words. Also, there are a lot of advantages to POD publishing over traditional publishing. You can write the book the way you think it should be done instead of bowing to somebody else's ideas; the royalties are usually higher with POD publishers; you have input into your covers; it is released much faster than with a traditional publisher; and finally (and most important to me), the book stays "in print" as long as you want it to. The thought of a book having a shelf life of less than three months scares the bejabbers out of me. I want my books to be around at least as long as Gone With the Wind has been out there. I used to have my sights set on the Bible, but I realized that was pretty unrealistic, even for me!

PODBRAM: What has been your single most successful marketing tool or tactic?

Janet: Oh, my. I have tried so many things, and many of them have worked quite well, but I think without a doubt it has been my actually getting phone numbers of bookstores nationwide and calling the managers to let them know about my books. Now that I am the Marketing Director for Star Publish, I do that for their other books at the same time. I call the big chain stores as well as the independent stores. I am very seldom met with a negative attitude. There were something like 300,000 new titles published last year, and the poor managers have no idea which books are good and which ones will work in their stores. I always ask them what type of books sell best in their area so I know which ones to "pitch" to them. I also have a lot of the managers who ask me if we have any authors in their area for book signings. Our in-store sales are, except for a few titles where the authors themselves do heavy online marketing, much higher than our online sales, as far as we can tell. Still, you know that such actual figures are about as secret as the combination to get inside the front doors at Fort Knox.

PODBRAM: What has been your least successful marketing method? What do you think most POD authors try that is rarely successful?

Janet: The biggest complaint I hear from authors (both POD and traditional) is how disappointed they are in the actual sales when they do a book signing, especially in bookstores. They go in expecting to sell dozens of books, and they might sell one or two, but sometimes none. I guess I look at it differently. I see it as not so much an opportunity to sell books as a way to let people know who you are and what you write so when they see your book on the shelf the next time they are in, something clicks and they pick it up and buy it. Also, a lot of the success of a book signing depends on the store, and the authors themselves. It's like anything else in this business; you have to let people know about the event before it happens. Walk-in traffic is not always that good on any certain day, but if your friends and relatives come to support you, other people will see them talking to you and their curiosity is aroused.

When you have a book signing coming up, contact the newspaper and radio stations in the area to help you spread the word. Make up a nice poster and take it to the bookstore at least a week ahead of time so they can put it up in the window. (VistaPrint does awesome brochures, posters, etc.) Make sure you have a good supply of promotional materials to take with you so people can remember your name. Not everybody has a name as simple as Janet Smith!

PODBRAM: Let’s take a little trip down memory lane. I discovered your exceptional self-publishing success by reading several writers’ message boards. I began communicating via the POD boards in early 2001, and yours was one of the first voices that caught my attention with your positive attitude and common-sense approach to marketing. There are a few other significant names you may remember from that era: Sarah Mankowski, Susan James, Robin Westmiller, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, and, of course, Kristie Leigh Maguire. Would you like to comment on the efforts of these other POD marketing pioneers?

Janet: Networking on the Internet is one of the biggest advantages to the writing world. Gone are the days when a writer was shut in a little office, completely isolated from the rest of the world. I have many fellow writers who have become very dear friends who are all over the world. I think the support that authors give to each other is amazing. For the most part, they are willing to share what they have learned with other writers. It is rare that jealousy shows its ugly head when one has a success. Instead, it provides encouragement for others to strive to reach higher goals themselves. Every author, even if you don't agree with everything they have to say, has something we can all learn from them.

PODBRAM: I understand you have published many articles in well-known magazines. Can you list some of those articles and publications for us?

Janet: I guess the biggest magazine I have been published in was Ladies' Home Journal several years ago; it was a short piece on our flood, probably in mid-1997. I don't remember what month it would have been. I also had one later that year in Woman's World, but I didn't get a by-line for that one. I have a regular column on marketing in every issue of Writers Journal. I had a column in Heritage Quest Magazine for about fifteen or sixteen years. A lot of libraries carry it, so it is fairly easy to track them down. I have had a couple of articles in Genealogical Helper since they merged with Heritage Quest. The editor wants me to do more, but I need more hours in my days! I think there is an article online on The Writer, too. It is about the proper use of names in historical writing. I am listed with both Genealogical Helper and Writers Journal as a contributing editor, too. I was a contributing editor for BBW: Big Beautiful Woman for several years, but they are gone now. I have had hundreds of articles in various religious magazines. I am the Associate Editor for a regional magazine called Memories & Mysteries. I have also done columns for our local newspaper on genealogy, as well as a column called "Folksy Folks" in some of those freebie little papers they give out at restaurants, etc. Altogether, I have had over 3000 articles published in the 30+ years I've been writing. It isn't always the "fun" stuff of fiction, but it pays better!

PODBRAM: In what timeframe were your magazine articles published? Can you give us some idea how they might have facilitated your POD or self-publishing success? Are there tie-ins between the subject matter of your books and these articles?

Janet: Oh, yes, my flood book is a perfect example. If it hadn't been for that, I doubt that I would have been contacted by either Ladies' Home Journal or Woman's World. BBW and Writers' Journal both came looking for me. In the case of BBW, it was because of a little letter to the editor I sent to them. And my genealogy articles, which include several hundred articles over the years just in Heritage Quest Magazine alone, are for the most part what I call my "recycle bin." Several of my books are outgrowths of fun things I find in my genealogical searches, and the things that I had to know about certain families or eras don't quite "fit" in the book, so I use that information for the genealogy articles. In addition, it gives you a built-in readership once your book is published, as you have already established a fan base.

PODBRAM: Have you expended much effort seeking out an agent, and have you had much success in that regard?

Janet: Before I went the POD route I had contracts with eight separate agents, each one with different agencies, all reputable. They say seeing is believing, and I never saw any results (i.e. publishing contracts) from any of them. I hear there is such a thing as a good agent, and I know some writers who swear by their agents, but I never stumbled across them. Playing the agent vs. publisher game is like a game of Ring-Around-the-Rosie. The agent says "Show me your publishing history and I'll consider it," and the publisher says "Get an agent and I'll consider it." Thankfully, POD publishing cuts out the middleman.

PODBRAM: I understand that you have been featured on NPR’s Hear It Now more than once. Could you tell us how you managed to get on nationally broadcast radio?

Janet: I called them up and asked them. A good website is critical for you to try this. They went to my website and were impressed and they have asked me back several times. The same is true with Brain Brew, which is a very popular NPR program run by two brothers from Ohio who are a delight. I sent them an e-mail through the "contact" spot on their website, and they replied, "What do you hope to gain for your business by being on Brain Brew?" I wrote back to them and said, "I am already a little bit famous, and I want you guys to help me get a little bit rich." The whole idea behind that program is for them to give entrepreneurs ideas on how to make their business expand and succeed. I had a call back from them in about five minutes. They said they loved my answer to that question. They also told me they had never had a novelist on before, although they had had many guests who had written non-fiction. And they did have some great ideas that have worked quite well.

PODBRAM: Have you ever considered starting your own small publishing house, as so many other POD and self-published authors have done?

Janet: Absolutely not! I don't know how to do all that formatting or book covers, etc., and I have no desire to learn it. I am very happy leaving all of that to somebody else. Besides, the only bookkeeping/accounting I want to do is for my own royalties. I used to be a secretary/bookkeeper and it's just not my cup of tea!

PODBRAM: Did you submit your manuscripts to traditional publishers in the beginning, before deciding to join the ranks of self-publishers?

Janet: Oh, yes. I'm old enough that I was trying to get my books published for over twenty years before POD publishing even existed. I have some of the best rejection letters you have ever seen, including an eight-page one from an editor of Leisure, which praised the details of Dunnottar, but which ended with, "Unfortunately, historicals aren't selling well these days."

PODBRAM: Have you submitted any of your more recent books to traditional publishers, either before or after they were released as POD books? Have you ever landed a contract with a traditional publisher for one of your books? Could you tell us how you accomplished this highly prized milestone in your career as a writer?

Janet: I have been offered a contract from two major NY publishers for two of my POD books. As to how it came about, in one case an editor at a major NY publisher that had heard about A Christmas Dream offered me a contract for that book. In the other case, it was by winning a contest by a writer from a certain publisher. I wrote the winning paragraph for how to open a book where a fellow was watching a football game and his wife was supposed to figure out a way to distract him. I know a lot of people will think I have a few screws loose because I turned them both down. Why? It goes back to the main issue of the shelf life of the books. They wouldn't be around long enough for them to even make it to the stores in North Dakota! (Things are so slow here that even our river runs backward and ends up in Winnipeg!) There would be no way I could do anything to put them out as a POD book until the rights were returned to me: with one of them it was a seven-year contract and with the other one a ten-year contract. The royalties were also a whole lot lower. The only advantage that I could find was the offer of a modest advance, and to me, that wasn't enough to outweigh the advantages of doing it "my way." Still, there was a certain sense of accomplishment in knowing that I had finally been "accepted" by the big boys, even if I turned them down.

PODBRAM: Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What genres do you like to read?

Janet: I like to read a lot of different genres. I guess that's why I write in so many of them. To me, writing the same thing all the time would be as boring as reading the same thing over and over again. The only ones I don't like are horror/thriller books, police procedural, and (strict) science fiction. There are so many authors I enjoy reading. John Grisham, both Mary and Carol Higgins Clark, Debbie Macomber, Deb Stover, Julie Kenner, LaVyrle Spencer (I hated it when she quit writing), and there are so many great new ones coming on the scene because of POD publishing: Billie Williams, Kristie Leigh Maguire, S.K. Hamilton, and Joyce Anthony, etc. Every time I turn around I am discovering some great new author, and thank goodness for the fact that they have found a way to get those books "out there" for all of us to enjoy.

PODBRAM: What have you been reading lately?

Janet: Actually, I am reading a book called Neither World: Book One, Akiiwan by Scott Baker. I learned about the book when Scott contacted Internet Voices Radio, looking for an interview on my radio program, "Marketing for Fun and Profit”. I called to discuss the book with him, and it completely blew me away. I grew up in a very tiny town (Spring Lake, MN, population 50, if you count the dogs and cats). That was the place where Scott had set the book. He described the places I knew like the back of my hand, yet he had never been there. He is a psychologist in New York City. It is really eerie, because it is like reading about my own back yard. His details are extremely accurate, and he says many of them were things his wife dreamed about. I love it when things like that happen.

PODBRAM: What sort of educational experience do you have, and is it relevant to your writing or the subject matter you have chosen?

Janet: Actually, that is kind of funny. I have a dual major in music and social work. I have used a lot of the things I have seen as a social worker and missionary in my books. I also was very good in English, which led me to a job as an editor for Bethany House Publishing (I graduated from Bethany Bible College, the parent of Bethany House Publishing) while I was a student. I have been writing and editing ever since, in one form or another. I think no matter what your education or your experience, the best "teacher" for a writer is to carefully observe daily life around you. Everything you see and hear is open fodder for some book one day.

PODBRAM: What about your work career? Has your choice of profession influenced your writing?

Janet: I have worked as a missionary/social worker ever since I graduated from college. The best thing I have learned about that is that every single person has a story to tell. It is up to us, as writers, to convey those stories to our readers. I love it when people tell me "I can so relate to…." I want my characters to be so real that people think they are them!

PODBRAM: Do you have any further books in the pipeline?

Janet: Oh, goodness, yes! I have about a hundred of them in my brain. Every time I think that's it, I see something else that sparks a new story. I also hear from a lot of readers who want to know when I am going to tell the story of some minor character in one of my books. I am working on Tuesday Nolan now, the 2nd book in the Women of the Week Series. (Monday Knight is the first book.) I would like to have four new books out this year, but I need more hours in my days, and more stamina to stay awake!

PODBRAM: What’s next for Janet Elaine Smith?

Janet: As I said, Tuesday Nolan is the next book. As for me, the author, I will be moving to Wisconsin shortly and will be living next door to one of my best friends, fellow writer Billie Williams. We have a lot of fun things planned. It is basically the same as it was when I started writing: to entertain people. If I can make somebody laugh a little, I've succeeded. So far, what I've been doing seems to be working, so I will just keep on doing what I'm doing. I'm having the time of my life. I fully believe that life begins at 50!

PODBRAM: Do you have any final remarks to address to your readers or our audience?

Janet: If you think you can write, just do it! Once you start, believe in yourself. If you don't believe you can succeed, nobody else will either. And don't get so bogged down in the whole writing process that you forget to have fun. Life is short. As for to the readers, if you find an author you really enjoy, make sure to watch for future books. Most writers today are multi-titled authors, and if you enjoy their books, make sure you let them know. There is nothing more meaningful to a writer than to hear from readers that the words she has put on paper have in some way reached down into their hearts and changed their lives, even a little bit.

Janet Elaine Smith Bibliography
(Organized by Publisher for iUBR)

Kinko’s (1994-1997)

The Hallett History: Being a Genealogical Compilation of Facts, Fables & History of the Halletts from 1635-1994 (Self-published 1994)
Digging in the Dirt: A Simple Guide on Getting Your Hands Into Genealogy (Kinseeker Publishing, October 1996)
Tickling Your Ancestral Funnybone (Kinseeker Publishing, November 1996)
The Flood of the Millennium: The Real Story: The Survivors (Self-published 1997)

First Publish Group (2000-2001)

Dunnottar (June 2000)
In St. Patrick's Custody (September 2000)
A Christmas Dream (November 2000)
House Call to the Past (2001)
Recipe for Murder (2001)
Marylebone (September 2001)

PageFree Publishing Group (2001-2006)

My Dear Phebe (October 2001)
Recipe for Murder (December 2001 Reissue)
In St. Patrick's Custody (February 2002 Reissue)
Monday Knight (February 2002)
Marylebone (May 2002 Reissue)
Dunnottar (June 2002 Reissue)
House Call to the Past (September 2002 Reissue)
Par for the Course (March 2003)
A Christmas Dream (November 2003 Reissue)
Dakota Printer (June 2004)
A Lumberjack Christmas (October 2004 Reissue)
Pampas (March 2005)
Old Habits Die Hard (April 2006)
And We'll Call Her General Leigh (June 2006 Reissue)

Echelon Publishing (2003)

A Lumberjack Christmas (September 2003 Reissue)

iUniverse (2003-2004)

And We'll Call Her General Leigh (July 2003 Reissue)
The Flood of the Millennium: The Real Story: The Survivors (January 2004 Reissue)

Star Publish Group (2006-2007)

In St. Patrick's Custody (August 2006 Version 3)
Recipe for Murder (August 2006 Version 3)
Old Habits Die Hard (August 2006 Reissue)
Dunnottar (August 2006 Version 3)
Marylebone (September 2006 Version 3)
Par for the Course (September 2006 Reissue)
A Christmas Dream (October 2006 Version 3)
A Lumberjack Christmas (October 2006 Version 3)
Pampas (November 2006 Reissue)
Monday Knight (January 2007 Reissue)
My Dear Phebe (January 2007 Reissue)
And They'll Call Her General Leigh (February 2007 Version 3)
Dakota Printer (February 2007 Reissue)
Bank Roll: A Max Stryker Mystery (April 2007)
A Christmas Dream: A 3-Act Play Scripted by Billie A. Williams (June 2007)
Promo Paks: Nearly Free Marketing Tips for Authors (December 2007)

Making Dead Ends Meet

Making Dead Ends Meet
by Jen LiMarzi (iUniverse / 0-595-49618-1 / March 2008 / 164 pages / $12.95)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM

Cara Peroni is a Gen-X single woman not long out of college, living uncomfortably and unconfidently in Queens, at the scary point where she hopes her early life of dependence and safety will segue into a successful career, a happy marriage, and all the rest. But that isn't happening.

Instead she finds herself in a mind-bending parallel universe when she takes a job as a medical writer with the Ion Group, a mismanaged collection of oddballs whose purpose it takes her months to unravel, and whose politics she only learns to live with after an even longer time. The maneuvering starts at the top, with Pierre O’Connell, who looks like a movie star and considers himself a gifted executive. The truth, Cara finds, is that he hasn’t a clue. He elevates his quirks into virtues, confuses and frustrates the rest of the staff, and creates a virtual hell for everyone. He chooses his division heads, as far as anyone can determine, by picking the best toadies, including, at one time, a woman who has an inordinate fondness for corduroy. The noise it makes as she walks serves as early warning to employees to look busy.

Cara’s frustrations are compounded outside of work by a succession of disillusioning dates resulting from an Internet matching site, as well as by her parents, especially her mother, who tries desperately to rule her daughter’s life over the phone. The nightmare is relieved only by the electronic lifeline provided by several friends, including a dear friend from college on the other side of the country. A gay man with his own problems, his sage advice at regular intervals helps keep Cara sane enough to meet the next day.

There are enough amusing incidents to keep one chuckling, as, for example, when Cara is on a preposterous group morale-building retreat and lures her boss into range to be ‘killed’ during a paintball exercise. Anyone with typical experience in the workplace will find plenty to shake his or her head over. Will Cara survive her enervating depression? Will she ever be able to move on to satisfying work with reasonably sane colleagues? Will she waste her last “silver bullet” at the matchmaking site and find a true companion to share her thoughts and feelings with? If you read Making Dead Ends Meet you will find out.

Jen LiMarzi’s first novel reads well, by and large, mostly smoothly and with few proofing errors. Gen-Xers who would like a fellow’s take on their occasional plight or those considerably older who would like a feel for what the world looks like to one such will find Making Dead Ends Meet an enjoyable read.

See Also: Dr. Past's B&N Review
Fingers Crossed, Legs Uncrossed by Jen LiMarzi
Jen LiMarzi's website

The Wolf's Torment

The Wolf's Torment
by S. G. Cardin
(iUniverse / 0-595-41733-7 / June 2007 / 370 pages / $20.95)

This is the only book review at iUBR that was not requested by the author. I specifically asked the author if she wanted a review after I discovered The Wolf's Torment and researched both the author and the book. I did this simply because I am always looking for a good werewolf book, and this one looked promising. I had an intuitive feeling about the book and I was not at all disappointed. This is Miss Stephanie's fifth book, and you can view the others at her website. Her unusual variety of subject matter among the five releases reminds me a little of someone known as Tabitha.

The Wolf's Torment is a soap opera full of romance set in Moldavia during the mid-1860's. A young prince is just graduating from college in London when he is called back home by his father to prepare to rule the kingdom. His father is dying of syphilis he had contracted through a life full of mistresses and affairs. The young Prince Mihai has been betrothed since he was a boy to a princess from a neighboring kingdom. The first of Mihai's problems is that he is bringing his pregnant mistress with him to Moldavia. He had become best friends with a classmate in London, so he is taking Viktor with him to be his close aide and confidant. Prince Mihai marries Princess Theresa as planned, and Viktor marries a servant girl who works at the castle. Both couples go off on their separate honeymoons and excitement begins to happen. The understatement here is quite intentional, since I don't care to give away plot details in my reviews.

Ms. Cardin is a big soap opera fan, and the bubbles just keep on poppin' throughout The Wolf's Torment. Mihai's mom was a witch, as is all of Theresa's family. Viktor is more in love with Theresa than he is with his own wife, Sonia. Mihai cannot make up his mind what to do with his mistress on the side, and of course, Theresa loves Mihai's side order who never seems to vanish from their lives. Everybody wants a baby, so everybody works really hard at making babies. Did I mention the wolf pack? Did you know that werewolves smoked pot after coming down from an excursion under the full moon? A few vampires even make cameo appearances, but it's the werewolves and their witch mistresses who steal the show. This is not your traditional gothic horror story. There is some real innovation in the many subplots of S. G. Cardin's book, in which the reader becomes more entangled and fascinated than frightened by nightmares.

There are a few issues clawing the exquisite furniture of The Wolf's Torment. The error count is a little high, and these are nearly all the obvious result of incomplete proofing of the text, with misplaced and missing common words being the prevalent infraction. Most of the dialogue is a bit too simple and stilted, but I wonder if the author was simply trying to imitate the formal speech of the era. There are far too many short, declarative sentences, the overall effect of which is an amateurish compositional style. These issues taken together keep The Wolf's Torment from being declared as top dog, meaning that it is a four-star book and barely misses the brass ring as the best werewolf book I have ever read. The cover is outstanding, and even the laminated bookmarks Stephanie uses are the best example of the standard template supplied by iU that I have yet seen. She even uses printed ballpoint pens in her promotion, as I do. She has included a Prologue, Epilogue, and Question and Answer section in the book, too, adding to its complete, professional look. A six-page Deleted Scene has been tacked onto the end, too. Although this is an innovative idea, I would much rather the author had simply included it within the text. When I reach the end of a good novel with a surprising, striking ending such as the one in The Wolf's Torment, the reading of a tacked-on, mundane passage dulls the shock.

Stephanie Cardin has created a romance full of werewolves and witchcraft that excels with its plot twists and unusual storyline. I cannot say definitively that it is the best werewolf book I have ever read, but it is bitingly close. The story develops slowly. If you read only the opening chapters and do not continue, you will never know what a mistake you made. The Wolf's Torment is a tale of lust and deceit that you won't soon forget. Keep your silver bullets handy.
See Also: The B&N Review
The Authors Den Review
Stephanie Cardin's Website

The Court-Martial of Charlie Newell

The Court-Martial of Charlie Newell
by Gerard Shirar
(iUniverse / 0-595-44491-5 / January 2008 / 326 pages / $19.95)

Reviewed by Celia Hayes for PODBRAM

This is a meticulous and carefully researched novel of a very specific time, place and circumstances, of belief and prejudice and conflicting obedience to conscience and the law. It follows in plain and unvarnished prose, the journey of an innocent and honest young man of strong ethical purpose, wandering Candide-like through an often violent, sometimes unjust and frequently inexplicable world. This is a world that is just now barely within living memory, the United States during the last year of World War One and the half-dozen years thereafter. We would recognize many aspects of that world; there was electricity in houses, cars in the streets, movies in the picture palace and recorded music on the record player. Women came to wear short dresses and hair in those years, and got the vote, too.

But there was one element of this world which would immediately strike most Americans under the age of about fifty or so as totally alien, and that would be the display of racial hostility, of segregation, Jim Crow laws and freelance and organized racial violence by adherents of the KKK. We know ‘of’ these matters, because we have been taught in school, and listened to our elders’ recollections… but they have not been things that we witnessed first-hand. But to the credit of author Gerard Shirar, this is not one of these angry polemics shouted from the pulpit. This is a careful and evenhanded reconstruction of a time not so long past. Characters – black and white – are finely observed by the author, and even permitted to be ambiguous. Some of them are even as principled and ethical as the times allowed, as regards racial matters generally, and specifically in the case of Charlie Newell.

The case is based on that of a real court-martial, of a Negro draftee in 1918, who was a member of a small sect who observed Saturday as their Sabbath, their holy day, on which no work was to be done. The soldier was charged with disobeying a direct order to work on that day, an order motivated at least as much by racial prejudice as it was by the demand of a military martinet that rules and orders be obeyed, no exceptions, exemptions or questions allowed. This is what befalls Charlie Newell, a young sharecropper with a wife and child, and an unshakeable devotion to the word of God. He will not work on the Sabbath, and so winds his way through the slow-working wheels of military justice and imprisonment, through the military prisons of Fort Jay, and Fort Leavenworth, through hearings that he knows nothing about and understands even less, gaining several kinds of freedom, the affection of friends – black and white alike - who come to know and value him, as well as motiveless rancor of enemies – also black and white - who see only the color of his skin. Charlie is tried severely, has doubts; he even wavers once or twice. But although the ending of the book is ambiguous, Charlie is not; he remains principled and in command of himself to the very end. This is a tightly focused and gripping read, at a time not long gone, at once quite strange and yet strangely familiar.

See Also: Celia's Blogger News Network Review & Celia's B&N Review
Note: Charlie Newell is Girard Shirar's third book. His first two are Nantucket Summer and The Many Indiscretions of Arty Boyle (both released in 2006).

No April Fool

I am reminded of the first movie date I had with my wife, Miss Pamela. We went to see the latest Paul Newman movie of the time, entitled Nobody's Fool. This was a high-quality film that has always had a low profile. The title is so generic that I often forget it, even though it should have been emblazoned into my memory bank. The plot was a slice of life of ordinary folks with little flash and lots of character. Victoria Strauss has stated on her blog that she thinks the latest threat to POD authors posed by Amazon is very real and here to stay. She also says she thinks few will remember all the uproar a year from now. Like the good movie with the generic title, the significance of the issue may have been substantial, but it may nevertheless slide from our memories. Knowing rabid corporate greed as well as I do, I have to think Ms. Strauss is probably correct in her summation of the issue. I would not want to have my books published with PublishAmerica or some of the smaller POD companies today.

This April Fools Day is also the day that iUniverse officially, physically, and completely becomes integrated with AuthorHouse. We have all known since last September that this day was coming, so this change should be no surprise. What we do not yet know is if the corporate leaders of iU have known of Amazon's plans long before now, or have they been surprised, too? One thing is for certain: if iU was the 800-pound gorilla of POD, they are certainly the one-ton gorilla now! Has Author Solutions cut any sort of deal with Amazon? Will their books disappear from the Free Shipping Department? Will the books stay at Amazon while the printing quality slides downhill or the prices or fees climb upward? Will the company tell Amazon where to shove it as they reignite their legendary ties to Barnes & Noble? Susan Driscoll probably knows the answers to these questions, but I don't, at least for now.

As stated in The Latest News of March 21st, iUBR is now open to submissions from some POD publishers outside the iUniverse or Writers Club Press imprints. As of this date, most, but not all brands will be accepted. The accepted imprints definitely include: AuthorHouse, Booklocker, Dog Ear, Infinity, Llumina, Outskirts, PublishAmerica, Tate, Trafford, Virtual Bookworm, Xlibris, and Xulon. I am sure there are many, especially smaller, brands that I cannot recall to mention at this point, too. Lulu is not one of them. No Lulu books will be accepted, at least as long as Shannon's Lulu Review site is in business. All Lulu requests will be forwarded to that site. Will CreateSpace and BookSurge be accepted? That's the question of the day, isn't it? For the moment, I do not, as you certainly may understand, wish to commit one way or the other. Will I still compose individual Amazon reviews? Will copy-and-paste Amazon reviews still be done by the iUBR team? At this point, we shall just have to see where it all goes.

The Rat's Derriere

Stuart W. Mirsky at the Amazon Discussion Board, Adventure Genre, POD Books Department, asked me a few questions about the operations at iUBR. After composing a somewhat detailed reply on that board, I thought I should post a variant here. The subjects of Stuart's questions should be obvious from these statements.

From its inception in July 2006 until about a year later, I don't think I refused to review a single book. (I cannot be sure my memory is correct on this issue.) As the second half of 2007 brought more and more attention to iUBR, this situation had to rapidly change, much as I had always known it would. At some point, any venture has to either grow or die, and I was soon swamped in the morass of too many books to read and review. I began keeping more accurate records of the whole procedure and made plans to slowly expand the operation. Once the announcement arrived of the impending merger with AuthorHouse, I planned to glow with the flow and expand iUBR at least to all the AH publications. The addition of many of the smaller POD firms to the submissions list was not much of a stretch once I had corralled a cadre of reviewers.

If you look at my own books and scan through the whole package of iUBR, you will see that I am not your typical genre fiction author, but the great majority of POD authors are in that group. The point of the reviews at iUBR is not to please individual genre obsessors with the rating of plotlines, but to separate the quality POD books from the junk. This idea is based more on presentation, grammar, editing, niche marketing, and, the bane of POD, proofreading, than it is storyline satisfaction for readers of particular genres. The Amazon review system is actually more foe than friend in this scenario, since most Amazon reviews are posted either by non-legitimate sources or for non-legitimate reasons; i.e., paid reviewers, authors' acquaintances, or particular genre obsessors raving about the doo-dahs they love. Few of these charlatans give a rat's derriere about editing, proofreading, or any other such boring, technical issues.

Unfortunately, most POD authors only want to be rich and famous, and they don't care how or why. That's where I come in, and yes, I have made a few authors mad at me. It's a dirty job, and somebody's got to do it, or else POD will never shake the stigma of publishing bad books by not-real authors. There are mainly two reasons why I have always in the past reviewed only iU books. The first is to write what you know and the second is that the submission pool has to be limited somehow. The number of submissions refused at iUBR has been gradually increasing, and I expect that trend to continue. When a request has been received, I have a pattern of criteria I look for in my research of the author and his or her book. I take into account the following issues, as well as many more: the age and experience of the author, many variables within the scope of the present reviews at Amazon, B&N, and other sites, the genre of the book (unusual is better), and the sales rankings (good is a demerit and bad is a plus). By encouraging all prospective submitters to read some of the more critical posts at iUBR, I feel that many of the get-famous-quick monkeys are discouraged from submitting to iUBR in the first place.

Once an author has passed the submissions screening, they are given the most personal service on the web. All authors receive an e-mail message from me at the conclusion of the review process, stating that they may use any part of the reviews in any manner they wish, allowing even a scathing review to be excerpted to the author's best advantage, making any trip to the dunking tank at least survivable. Those few authors who snap back at me like smart-mouth teenagers are the ones who ultimately prove to be butts. The ones who have professional attitudes and act like adults can at least expect to be treated with respect at iUBR in a manner they will never receive anywhere else. I don't claim to be perfect, and yes, I do tend to be harder on those who have achieved more success in the rich-and-famous manner than those who have not. I consider myself to be like a grumpy old college professor who is harder on his smart students than on his average ones. As a book critic, I want all my authors to do their very best work and be appreciated for it.

The Latest News

Big changes are on the way at iUBR! As I am sure you are aware, iUniverse officially merges with AuthorHouse on April Fool's Day of 2008. On that date, iUBR will be opening its submissions to most POD imprints, including of course, AuthorHouse. Obviously this will mean much stiffer competition for books to be accepted for review; therefore, iU authors are being offered one last call for submissions prior to the opening of the floodgates of what Dr. Al Past has so eloquently named the dunking tank. Whether you call it an impromptu bath or a thorough strip-search, we at iUBR read and review POD books as if they were simply books. The object of our game is to read and review those POD books that can hold their own while sitting next to books published by big names the old fashioned way. The only powder puff pieces found near this joint purr and meow. You won't get a glowing review from us because we know you, or we traded reviews with you, or we are offering marketing blurbs for free, or even because you paid us! The only way to receive a glowing review at iUBR is to earn it. Our reputation is at stake.

We now have six reviewers at iUBR, and all six are especially well qualified for the job. The worst level of education we have is my own. I have a BA in Psychology, but all the others have Masters and Doctorates in Education, Journalism, and other language arts. All of us have published POD books and at least something traditionally. The satellite reviewers and their professional biographies will continue to be featured in posts here at iUBR. Each of us is somewhat distinguished from the others in certain ways. We always try to post a review at iUBR, Amazon, and B&N, but other sites are often included as well. No, there may not be a lot of readers who will see your review at iUBR, but the numbers are most certainly higher at the other sites where iUBR reviewers post your reviews. iUBR will continue to be mostly a site for POD authors and future authors to learn about marketing techniques and avenues open to them, and to read true, legitimate critiques of their own works, as well as those by other novice writers. We shall continue to expand our reach into other websites open to reviews and networking options for POD authors. The more widespread our reach, the stronger our reputation grows. We want to be the premiere website for reviews of quality POD books and the most trusted source of information on marketing for POD books. We don't blow smoke up your tushy at iUBR.

High Spirits

High Spirits:  
A Tale of Ghostly Rapping and Romance by Dianne K. Salerni
(iUniverse / 0-595-42350-7 / May 2007 / 366 pages / $20.95)

Sometimes I wonder why I have spent so much time developing this stupid blog that so few people actually read! Then along comes a book like Dianne Salerni's High Spirits and I remember why: no matter what the fatheaded, disparaging naysayers say about iUniverse books, there are some iU books out there that cannot be discerned from traditionally published books. There are dedicated POD authors who have produced quality, professional products, and Ms. Salerni is certainly one of them. Although not her first book, this is her first novel. Dianne has previously published three short, academic books pertinent to the elementary school teaching profession, and both her previously, traditionally published books and her current profession have obviously influenced the professionalism of High Spirits.

The story is based on the real lives of the three young ladies known in Nineteenth Century spiritualism circles as The Fox Sisters. Maggie, Kate, and Leah Fox found themselves embroiled in controversy after they began running a small business affair in the years prior to The Civil War. The problem was that their little business of holding spirit circles for profit had become a publicly acclaimed entertainment act, and the whole idea had been borne from the two younger, teenaged sisters doing nothing more than trying to frighten a superstitious cousin by holding what later became known as a seance. This historical fiction novel traces the girls' adventure from its dubious inception until its entanglement in the love life of Maggie, the middle sister, with a celebrity Arctic explorer threatens to bring the house down.

Dianne Salerni's writing style is very fluid and polished. The minimal typos do little to diminish the power of the author's compositional and editing qualities. This is a book most readers will enjoy from the first page to the last. Who says an iUniverse author is not a real author? Get real.
See Also: Floyd M. Orr's B&N Review
Dianne K. Salerni's website
The Fox Sisters at Wikipedia

The Protected Will Never Know

The Protected Will Never Know
by Don Meyer
(iUniverse / 0-595-30406-0 / November 2003 / 174 pages / $15.95)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM
 

At first I thought the title of this book was strange, but the more pages I read the more I realized it was perfect. The author was a “grunt” during the late unpleasantness in Vietnam. No disrespect is intended by that term: the kids who did the fighting (and they were kids) had few illusions about what they were doing and precious little knowledge of why. Yet they did what they were told to do for the most part, risked their lives, all too often lost their lives or were wounded, and received little or no thanks for it from a “grateful” nation, irony intended, to this day. The protected indeed did not know much about their valor, still do not know, and, we now know, were probably not even protected, nor needed protecting. It's time for that nation to look back on the event and ponder it, high time.

The author, prompted by a post-service GI Bill English class, compiled the material from a journal he had kept at the time and letters to folks back home and created a narrative of his experiences in Vietnam. Uncertain what to do with it, he set it aside for more than 20 years. He credits his daughter for motivating him to do something with it. He published it, and we should all be thankful.

The book is a fresh and riveting account of what it was like to actually be on the front lines of that sad episode in our history, told by one who was there and in the style of one who was there at the time. This is not polished prose but it is highly readable prose. I actually hated to put it down when I had to. There is no plot. Instead, the events flow in the random, chaotic order of someone caught up in a perplexing war: periods of seemingly endless boredom interrupted abruptly by terror, mortal danger, agony and slaughter, to be followed in turn by more tedium and all that over again. That grunt, or front line soldier, had little knowledge of the historical context, the strategic situation, or the winds of politics and diplomacy. His world was right around him. His job was to do what he was told and survive, if he possibly could. That's the picture this book conveys.

We follow him from his arrival in the country, a green, just-out-of-bootcamp “cherry,” the rawest of raw recruits, to a battle-hardened bemedaled veteran soldier in less than a year. His progress is conveyed in wonderful detail, with the earthy, profane, frank cynicism characteristic of those who must inure themselves to the incomprehensible and unspeakable or go insane. We follow him on patrols with his platoon. We learn their tactics and procedures, we learn their weapons, we see their courage and that of the helicopter pilots who brought them supplies and provided fire support and evacuation when necessary. We share their endless problems, their clever adaptations, and their forms of relaxation and restoration. Nothing seems omitted. I found myself chuckling in sympathy as the all-too-common observation popped up time after time: “Will the real enemy please stand up?”

In many ways the book reminds me of other unforgettable memoirs of young men on their own for the first time, of people caught up in events over which they have no control. For that reason alone it is worth buying. But stir in the fact that the action happens in our own time and it resonates today and you not only have a fine, entertaining reading experience in your hands: you have something that could change the way you think about current events.

See Also: Don Meyer's Website
Other Books by Don Meyer - And More
Dr. Past's B&N Review - Note the special low price!
Review of Don Meyer's Winter Ghost
Review of Don Meyer's McKenzie Affair

Memoirs of a Middle-aged Hummingbird

Memoirs of a Middle-aged Hummingbird by Suellen Zima
(iUniverse / 0-595-39460-4 / June 2006 / 436 pages / $27.95)

Reviewed by Celia Hayes for iUBR

In 1983 a middle-aged divorced social worker emigrated to Israel, and began a twenty-year eccentric odyssey of travel and work; first in Israel, and then into the Far East – China mostly, with frequent ventures into Bali, South Korea, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia. She taught English, mostly – and traveled widely to all sorts of obscure corners, usually on the economy and accompanied by an assortment of friends. Throughout all this, she kept a diary and wrote letters to her family, telling them of the people and the cultures she met, and of her mostly affectionate but occasionally complicated reactions to them. She made close and dear friends among her co-workers and her students in Israel and China; so close and so dear that she regards and writes of many of them as her children, and their children as her grandchildren… and yet, as she admitted and described herself as a hummingbird; “we plant our feet firmly in mid-air, hover, drink deeply and then flit away…if someone tries to hold us, we will die. But we can fly backwards as well as forwards at will.” And so, during two tumultuous decades, she hovered in mid-air, sucking up the nectar of a particular place; never staying long enough to be firmly, finally and exclusively committed to any of them, but loving them all and being tormented by various catastrophic events which changed them and affected her friends.

This book is described as a memoir, but it is not quite that: it is her diary, letters to family, and as such, it would have value to anyone writing a social history of any of the places where Ms. Zima lit down for a brief interlude. She has a discerning eye and a gift for describing the passing scene: funky small apartments, the beauty (or lack of same) in places as far apart as Iceland and Bali, the taste in the air, oddities in methods of transportation, and interesting people such as the toothless woman working her away around the far corners of the world as a ship’s engineer. There are also heartbreaking accounts of the Israeli boarding-school director who ‘disappeared’ her pet dog, of accompanying a Chinese friend to an abortion clinic, and of the experience of walking into an American mall or grocery store after a long time living in a foreign country with rather more limited options available to the shopper and being totally freaked by the sheer lavish variety of goods and choices available. There is a wealth of observations and experiences in this book, as well as some curious omissions, notably an entry mentioning her sons’ presumably terminal illness, about which there is never another word. Since much of it is a personal diary, these entries are a day-to-day notation of experiences, of names and places with no need for explanation or background, but some of those cry out for expansion, or at least a fuller explanation. A number of long essays sprinkled in among the comparatively terse diary entries hint at the memoir that this book could have been, with a little editing of some parts and a disciplined expansion of others; something along the lines of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water. Very little in this account explains why the author embarked upon this odyssey, the qualifications and other qualities she possessed which enabled her to travel so far a-field. As a memoir it is disconcertingly opaque in some aspects, while being perfectly transparent concerning others, especially the ways in which China has changed and developed over the last thirty years, and in one American woman’s reaction to those changes.
See Also: Suellen Zima's Website
Celia's Review at Blogger News Network

The Turquoise Dagger

The Turquoise Dagger
by Donald J. Carpenter
(iUniverse / 0-595-43735-1 / July 2007 / 181 pages/ $13.95)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for iUBR

I have always been a fan of books set in the American southwest. I grew up there, I live there, and the open skies and colorful history gracefully accommodate all types of stories. One of my favorite choices of diversion are the mysteries, police procedurals, and thrillers set in this area. For that reason alone I looked forward to reading The Turquoise Dagger, by Donald J. Carpenter.

It's a clever story, the basic village mystery transmogrified for our area's particular blend of cultures, architecture, and scenery. Derek and Camellia Collins own the mystery bookstore (of the title) in a small Arizona town, not a major city. This enables the protagonists to know personally many of their fellow citizens, law enforcement personnel, newspaper people, and so forth, and allows them to occasionally take part in their investigations and research. The "private eye against the world" that is a staple of big-city mysteries is not a factor here, and that lets the story to develop as it must. 

The story is a good one: a big-time television show that focuses on mysteries comes to town to investigate a cold case, a decade-old double homicide. A large reward is offered to help crack the case (and generate viewership) and the bookstore owner and his graphic designer wife find themselves drawn in as a publicity stunt. As those familiar with the genre would expect, fresh homicides begin piling up, everyone suspects everyone else, and only Derek, the redoubtable mystery bookstore owner, is able to sort out the confusing clues to head the case toward the solution. The story builds to a satisfying climax and concludes with the obligatory unraveling. References to existing authors and mysteries will gratify fans of the genre, though the story is not as densely textured as, for example, John Dunning's Bookman tales, which also are built around bookstores and books. Still, as an example of its type, The Turquoise Dagger is a nicely plotted tale.

It is also, unfortunately, an example of the results of relying on a spell-checker for one's editing. That's a guess, but many inappropriate homophones sneak into the text, and punctuation and stylistic stumbles abound, sometimes in bunches, on every page. Those derailed this reader time after time, making the pleasure of immersing oneself in a fine, puzzling yarn difficult at best. Other readers might sail over these, and if so, they should thoroughly enjoy The Turquoise Dagger.

See Also: Dr. Past's B&N Review

Open for Submissions

iUBR (PODBRAM) is now Open for Submissions!
Recent events and changes at iUniverse Book Reviews have allowed us to reopen submissions, effective immediately. At least for now, we still only accept paper copies of iUniverse books. Note: All self-published POD imprints (except Lulu) are accepted as of 4/1/08. Most genres will be considered; however, we do have one particular restriction for the moment. Floyd (Tabitha) cannot accept any books personally for the standard, four-part, strip-search review mode probably until sometime in April. Dr. Al Past and Ms. Celia Hayes currently have a small number of openings available. We hope to be adding more reviewers soon, but for now, the queue is limited, so get your requests in early.

Dr. Past and Ms. Hayes have considerable qualifications, so I would not let that stop you from applying for a review. In fact, you may even get a better deal from one of them than you would with me. After all, I am the official curmudgeon and the Chief of the Proofreading Police! Any reviews composed by either of our new reviewers is quite likely to be posted at other websites, especially at Amazon, B&N, and others. They may not write four separate reviews of your book, but they aren't as likely to put you through the wringer over your error count, either. Give them a chance. You'll be glad you did!

As always, review requests can be made as a comment on any post or send a message to ice9 at e-tabitha dot com. All requests will be examined, probed, and researched before acceptance, but this is usually handled quite promptly.

The Year of the Monkey

The Year of the Monkey

by William W. Lewis
(iUniverse.com / 0-595-47584-1 / January, 2008 / 286 pages / $17.95)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for iUBR

Full disclosure: I am a Viet Nam-era veteran (Navy), but beyond seeing Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter, I have been content to put the whole unpleasantness of that time out of my mind. Evidently, the great majority of my fellow Americans feel the same way. That's more than a shame: in view of current events, it's a tragedy. Now more than ever we need to be reminded of how important it is we know where we've been as a nation, where we've gone wrong, and, if we can only gain a few glimmerings of wisdom, where not to go in the future. Some think democracy is the great wave of the future. There's probably a better argument to be made that stupidity is the wave of the future.

That's why The Year of the Monkey, by William W. Lewis, is most timely. For me, it brings back memories long forgotten, and in sharp detail. It rings true. The story is set at the time of the Tet Offensive, when Communist forces mounted a surprise counterattack against Hue, a supposedly safe city in South Vietnam. The attack failed in the short run, but the political ramifications it caused are viewed by many historians as the beginning of the end of our ill-advised and bungled adventure in Indochina. To tell his story Lewis interweaves the lives of four characters: a Marine Sergeant, a CIA operative, a journalist, and a seemingly humble Vietnamese barber, who is really a double agent and a devoted patriot. These threads are brought together with great skill and grace in cleanly written, convincingly detailed prose. The resulting tale is one in which the reader cares for the characters, imperfect though they all are. At the end one can only shake one's head at the waste, the stupidity, and the cruelty that make savages of us all, including the ignorant and uncaring back home.

That sounds terribly somber, but the book is not, really. The editing is nearly immaculate. It's a page-turner in the good sense: fun to read despite its serious subject matter. For those with super-delicate sensibilities, I should mention that the language of most of the characters is rough indeed. It is also accurate: I know! See the first sentence, above.

The Year of the Monkey is a terrific example of an independently published book that is outside the norm, not below it! If Mr. Lewis has any more books in him, I want to hear about them.
See Also: Dr. Past's B&N Review
William W. Lewis' Website

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I want to welcome Celia Hayes to our team of honest, legitimate reviewers at PODBRAM. Some of you may recognize Celia's work from other review sites, where she is best known as Sgt. Mom. After earning a BA in English, Celia began a twenty-year career in the USAF. She has written two books, both published by Booklocker, which of course, does give her genuine POD experience. Not only do we welcome Celia to our little team, but we encourage her to cross-post any of her iUBR reviews at any of her other review sites. You can read more details about Ms. Hayes and her ample qualifications as a reviewer at her website. You will see that she is one talented and accomplished lady!

Yesterday PODdy Mouth posted a link to one hell of an article about the accountability of POD companies and, I might add, a detailed account of this accountability, as accounted wholly within the minds of many POD authors. Considering what I have learned about iUniverse, both the company and their authors, I think this story is probably quite true.

I am very pleased to announce that a brave soul has taken on the daunting task of founding a site similar to iUBR for (drum roll, please) Lulu authors and their books! This has been a long time coming and I want to wish Shannon Yarbrough the very best of luck with his new Lulu Book Review at WordPress. You can click the link in the left column of this page at any time to visit Shannon's site. If you are a Lulu author seeking a review, go to the Pick Me page on the site or click the link in The POD Ring Chart at iUBR to go directly to Shannon's review request page after reading the submission guidelines listed in the chart.

Some of you may have noticed that I have dared to put my ugly face and name more prominently on this blog and elsewhere. I am slowly phasing out the Tabitha name. My Nonfiction in a Fictional Style website will remain under the name e-tabitha.com for at least a while longer. I suppose that's what I get for purchasing the name for ten years! I originally wanted to buy a name I could share with my wife for a long time, so we chose the name of one of our cats. Little did I realize in my early days of computer naivete that the name would constantly bring up little witch actresses and porn stars through search engines forever! I have started another blog under my own name to which I can post all the miscellaneous articles and commentary not applicable to iUBR in the future. No, all this fascination with the sound of my own name has not exploded the size of my head. I am just evolving into a more traditional web presence with it all.

Changes will be coming to iUBR over the coming months, one way or the other. I have not said much about the AuthorHouse buyout. For now, I am taking a wait and see attitude. As you might imagine, the composition of four separate reviews for each book accepted has been slowly eroding my creative timeclock, not to mention the quantity of ordinary time involved. I certainly cannot expect my satellite reviewers to participate in this sort of operation, either. We shall just have to take this issue as it comes. I expect to totally remove any ties from Authors Den by the end of the year. This is not to imply any negative connotation toward AD at all. It's just that once I saw that my name in Google would pull up seven solid pages of me, I decided it was time to cut the cord. As I have stated in the past, a deft use of AD is the best way I have found to get your name out there as an author. I have been spreading myself far too thinly lately, and I have been virtually ignoring my own e-Tabitha website for the past couple of years. It's basically time for me to get my act together. I am still looking to expand the cadre of reviewers here at iUBR. Nothing would make me happier than to be so busy handling the technical, promotional, and organizational sides of iUBR that I had no time left to actually read and review books. So many quality iU books deserve my attention, but I have limited time to give. I would love to leave that to a cadre of honest, legitimate, satellite reviewers!

Exciting new developments are coming soon to iUBR! Dr. Al Past's glowing (but deservedly so) review of William W. Lewis' The Year of the Monkey, a book about Vietnam, will be the next post. I am working up an interview for Nathan Bransford, the noted San Francisco agent. This will be my first interview not with an author whose book has already been featured at iUBR. Believe me, you guys will love this interview! There are a couple of other subjects I would like to interview, but I am keeping mum as to their identities for now. I am currently reading Dianne K. Salerni's High Spirits and Dr. Past is reading The Turquoise Dagger, by Donald J. Carpenter. Three additional books previously accepted for review on The Waiting List supposedly are on the way to the three of us. Ya'll have already mailed your books haven't you?

Did I leave out something? Oh yeah, the thing ya'll probably want to know most of all: when will submissions be reopened at iUBR? I'm afraid I cannot answer that question yet, at least not precisely. Believe me when I say I would love to open the floodgates right now, but I don't want to get swamped overboard the way I was late last year. If you want to see the submissions open soon, and stay open, volunteer to become a satellite reviewer, or encourage one of your fellow authors to do so. I can guarantee you that you will learn a lot about POD books very quickly. If every POD author was required to review at least a few books before releasing their own, the whole industry would wise up in a hurry! If not a single one of you is willing to spend a little time straining your brain, then I shall say that submissions should be reopened sometime this spring, but no later than 4/30/08. Please volunteer! Let's get these floodgates ready before you Yankees thaw out this winter. All the current iUBR reviewers are probably wearing shorts now, but that's only because we are all smart enough to live in Central and South Texas. Come on! Let's make iUBR an interstate operation!

See Also: Celia's POD Experience

Second Chance

Second Chance by Joy Collins
(iUniverse.com / 0-595-45602-4 / September 2007 / 252 pages / $16.95)

Joy Collins used imaging software to create the cover of her first novel, and the meticulous attention to detail continues to the end of Second Chance. Although iUniverse labels the book as being in the romance genre, I am not sure I agree with that. The storyline is more akin to the script of one of those rare television movies made for the women's channel that are not predictable from beginning to end. Second Chance is most assuredly a book for women, although I would classify it more as a family psychodrama than a romance. There are a few tearjerker elements present, too, but these are not so overbearing that no man would enjoy the book. I certainly appreciated its tight editing, show-don't-tell writing style, and realistic plotline. All the characters and subplots are well constructed, too.

The premise of the story is that several lead characters are in the midst of turmoil over the inter-family relationships of divorced and remarried couples. Sara Weber tells the story from her viewpoint as her husband's ex-wife has wreaked emotional havoc over Sara's relationship with her husband since they married a decade earlier. The ex-wife's spiteful jealousy had long ago sent Sara and Paul packing for Arizona, leaving their previous and current families back in the Northeast, hopefully some distance in the past. The plotline grows as Sara's mom is nearing the point of no return and must be placed in a nursing care facility by Sara's sister, Angela, who has her own personal problems to present to the reader. Paul's vengeful ex-wife wants their teenaged daughter to move to Arizona and attend college there while living with Paul and Sara. The whole soap opera moves at a sharp clip, with the emotional twists and turns aptly displayed through poignant dialogue.

Joy Collins is the sort of author we seek out here at iUBR. Although Second Chance is her first novel, the maturity of plot development and compositional style is exemplary, and you'll need your special Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass to spot the few, minimal typos and technical glitches. As a nurse born a Yankee and now living in Arizona, Ms. Collins has written what and where she knows, and the appropriate details add color and legitimacy to the story. For example, she incorporates the notion of quickly emerging flash floods indigenous to the desert cities into her plot, and yes, I know it's true because I have been there and seen it for myself. It never occurs to outsiders to consider the dangerous situation that can result, and Joy includes this into her storyline. Good show, Ms. Collins! Keep up the good work!

See Also: Tabitha's B&N Review
Tabitha's Authors Den Review
The Author's Website

The Big Picture

I am not sure that I have been communicating to my readers as accurately as I would like what iUBR is all about. I have always been a big picture kind of guy. I see books as things we all read, and POD books as those things we may wish to read that maybe only a small number of other people wish to read, too. I would always hope that this small cadre of readers for a particular POD book is the only reason the major publishers are not interested in it. I am not one to seek out my entertainment within narrowly defined genres. If you ask me what kind of music I like, I might answer that the more difficult it is to classify, the better I like it. I am always looking for the new niche. I don't want to discover how much a book so closely fits within a popular genre. I'm looking for square pegs that are good because the author has created a quality package, and not because the book slips silently into a well-worn groove.

This is not a genre review site. I don't even select books for review based on genre or my personal taste in subject matter. I want everyone to know right now that I have never agreed with the concept of a reviewer of any sort of work reviewing a piece and panning it simply because he does not care for that particular genre of book, album, or movie, etc. I find that sort of review entirely despicable. Even if a highly paid, name-recognized critic has been ordered by his editor to review something he doesn't like, if he cannot duck the assignment, it is his responsibility to give it his best shot and describe the work in a manner that will be useful to his readers who do enjoy that genre. The books selected for review at iUBR are chosen because, from the result of my research of the book and the author in question, it appears that the book may deserve my attention and the attention of readers. My personal choices of non-POD reading material have very little influence on my choices of books to read and review at iUBR. I know this may seem a little wacko, but remember, I am fascinated by the big picture. In this case, the big picture is the world of POD and its new role in the larger world of publishing.

We all know that Print On Demand is an all-new animal in the jungle. This technology has allowed many thousands of writers who want the center-stage limelight shone on them to step into the light at a reasonable cost. Unfortunately, we have all met at least a few vampires who should never have been brought out into the light! There are many slap-fighters out there who love to scream at the top of their lungs that all the POD authors are vampires! According to them, if the writers cannot stand the sun, they should just go back where they came from and let only real writers stand in the spotlight. I love to speak in analogies, and here is one for you. I read certain housing bubble blogs daily, and they have a refrain they have run in the ground since the issue came to light. Most of the people who post and comment on these blogs want housing prices to crash and teach all the people who are crashing with these prices a lesson they won't forget! Do you see a similarity there to the POD slap-fighters? Neither group is actually wrong. Many of their positions on the issues are correct. The problem is simply that they are so busy insisting their correctness that they never see the many shades of grey inherent in both issues. Some foreclosures are sad stories of collateral damage, although the bulk of the problem was begun by selfish, greedy, arrogant investors. Many quality POD books have been created for a market ignored by the mega-publishers, although the technology has clearly opened the gate to the barnyard.

There are many ways in which a POD book and a traditionally published book are not synonymous. One of the most significant issues is editing and another one is proofreading. POD authors have to create or approve a cover design and write a cover blurb. Even if they do not do all this personally, they must participate considerably in the process. There are no teams of editors, proofreaders, cover designers, or marketers available to do these tasks for the authors. There is no one to say, I don't think I would do that, if I were you. There is only the author and his computer. Of course some writers have friends available for help or advice, and some writers pay certain professionals for their manuscript or cover design expertise, but the final product is mostly the result of the writer's brain and his symbiotic relationship with his computer.

I had once hoped that I would discover more active participation in this honorable, but time consuming, project called iUBR. I can personally read and review so few of the massive number of iUniverse books continually being published. I had hoped for a more organized effort from other POD review bloggers and other websites with intentions similar to mine. There are so many deserving POD authors out there who will never have a chance to connect with their readers. Hold onto your knees because here comes the part that is so difficult for many of you to swallow. Those books that do not meet iUBR standards drag us all down into the muck. We must face this fact. We cannot hide from it and hope it goes away. Believe me, it won't. I have been reading the posts of the past twenty-four hours at the IAG Yahoo Group, and yes, the subject being discussed has spurred me onward with this article. This matter is at the very heart of my first post introducing IAG to the world. There is no easy answer. I said that then and I am still saying it. I support IAG, as well as all the other websites and blogs trying to do the right thing for the good guys among the multitude of POD authors. I realize we are a herd of rabid egos on acid. I realize we are the cats when you hear how difficult it is to herd cats. The problem is that the dogs will always win if we do not organize ourselves better and defend our hard-won territory. We shall never succeed in that endeavor while participating in a never ending succession of catfights.

My assessment is that there is absolutely no correlation in the world of POD books between quality of composition and book sales. There is no correlation between awards and quality or awards and sales. There is no correlation between cover design or cover blurbs and sales. There is no correlation between editing or proofreading quality and sales. There is very little correlation between promotional effort in the form of time or money and sales. There is very little correlation between five-star reviews at Amazon and editing, proofreading, or sales.

There is a moderate correlation between book quality and the age and maturity of authors. There is a moderate correlation between the percentage of quality versus non-quality books according to the publisher; i.e., Lulu prints more trash than iU. There is a moderate correlation between the professional attitude of the authors and the age of the authors. There is a moderate correlation between the success of the authors and the authors' bad attitudes, particularly if the perceived success of the author is due to the wrong reasons; i.e., when the author's success is greater than deserved, either because of the book's length or quality or the ease with which the author has exploited a niche. There is a moderate correlation between the success of a book and its online searchability.

There is a high correlation between a book's subject matter and the quantity of obsessors for that subject matter. There is a high correlation between a book's sales and its obsessors when the title or subtitle is highly searchable. There is a high correlation between the name of any famous person, either alive or dead, and the success of a POD book about that person. Finally, there is a high correlation with the success of any POD book that has been effectively tied into a connection with some other entity. I have seen successful POD books connected with video games, movies, places, comedy acts, musical acts, journalistic columns, and probably a few things I cannot recall right now.

Here is an example of just one little clarification of the IAG dilemma. Someone at IAG has suggested reading only the first chapter or selectively reading individual pages scattered throughout the text to get a synopsis of the quality of a POD book. The problem with this is that many POD books get increasingly worse in their error count as the story progresses. I assume this is because the author is getting increasingly bored and impatient with what is surely the most tedious element of publishing. Awards and reviews have also been mentioned within the context of vetting a POD book, but this field has already been heavily compromised by many unscrupulous paid review sites and paid award scams. As you know, I can tell you a thing or two about the legitimacy of these things, too! We need to rise above these issues. We must take the high road if we truly wish to succeed in the big picture, but there are members of IAG who clearly wish to support these scams. The end does not justify the means when the barnyard starts mooing and braying, making each of us look like just another chicken looking for a worm. Welcome to the catfight.

Chewy Moon

Chewy Moon by Paige Shelton
(iUniverse.com / 0-595-44431-8 / August 2007 / 90 pages / $9.95)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM
 

Josie Abernathy is eleven and lives with her grandmother in a small house in Averine, Georgia. Josie is a tomboy, a devoted baseball player, and afraid to leave the house unless her grandmother goes with her, perhaps because she has lost her parents in an accident years earlier. One night after her grandmother has gone to sleep, she is beckoned outside by a strange, but appealing, girl her own age, oddly named Sanana. The girl is friendly, has some highly unusual powers, and gradually convinces Josie to accompany her on a series of increasingly challenging missions. As the night wears on, Josie confronts her fears, makes new friends, and comes to learn some important lessons about the adult world and her own character.

This slight novel, the author's first, reads smoothly and cleanly. My only quibble is with the cover, which, while quite appropriate to the story, is too subtle to grab the eye of the casual browser.

The back cover bears the words "Juvenile Fiction," (Ages 9-12, according to Amazon) and I agree. I would think the book would most appeal to young people perhaps ten to fifteen. That said, it was an intriguing enough a story as to keep this reader, many times that age, interested all the way to the end.

See Also: Paige Shelton's Website
Dr. Al Past's B&N Review

Bound

Bound by Amy Lane

The Third Book in the Little Goddess Series

(iUniverse.com / 0-595-42423-6 / February 2007 / 494 pages / $25.95)

Amy Lane has attained a level of success with her Little Goddess Series that few POD authors reach. She states on her website that 1100 copies of Vulnerable, her first book, have been sold. Bound is probably the best of the bunch. As with the first two Little Goddess books, the reader is required to ignore literally hundreds of typos and punctuation errors throughout the book. These have obviously not stopped Amy's horde of obsessive readers from buying her books, but a demerit is certainly in order for any author who so blatantly refuses to correctly proofread her books prior to publication. This particular issue certainly lessens the image of all POD books in the eyes of the reading public, bringing harm to all those who diligently do their editing and proofreading duties. Speaking in her favor, Amy has assured me that a professional proofreader has worked over her latest book (see link below). That said, on with the show.

Cory Kirkpatrick continues her adventures as the Queen of the Vampires who sleeps with her three boyfriends simultaneously, cusses like a sailor, and prays to The Goddess. She is just a mortal girl of twenty who was a goth-chick-loser in high school. She was just another one of those misfits lost in the ozone until the night she discovered the fact that most of the night people she met at the all-night convenience store where she worked were actually vampires, elves, and something Amy has named werekitties. Cory's life entered this brave new world in the first chapter of the first Little Goddess book, and the adventure began. Most of the magic of Bound derives from the interaction of such a lovable, wild bunch of characters. As a critic, I have always said that if an author can make me care about flawed or otherwise unappealing characters, I am usually impressed with the work. In this case, The Little Goddess series falls neatly between two of my favorite sets of characters of all time: the heterosexual, but not monogamous, young adults created by Robert Rimmer in his social science novels of The Sixties that began with The Harrad Experiment, and the more contemporary Vampire Chronicles of Anne Rice.

Like the works of Rice and Rimmer, Amy Lane's books create a lovely fantasy world that is both real and unreal. The characters and storylines are made believable by the careful crafting done by the authors. In other words, the authors are really good at what they do. The supernatural, fantasy characters interact somewhat realistically with modern, human culture. Yes, Cory is married to three men, but the storyline develops in a manner in which that situation seems rational. The fictional area Ms. Lane created, which she calls Green's Hill, is unknown to the local residents, yet the setting is as real as the Sacramento and Bay Areas she describes. In Cory and Amy's world, the characters made from myth and fantasy interact with humans, yet the humans never know who or what they are dealing with from Green's Hill.

Bound and the other Little Goddess books are stuffed to the gunwales with allegory and allusion. Ms. Lane is obviously no more a fan of our country's current national, evangelical madness than I am. The reader can easily see the parallels between gay bashing, reproductive issues, and other battles with those of an authoritarian bent in Ms. Lane's entertaining plots. The creatures on Green's Hill live in a manner not unlike that of the communal hippies of The Sixties, and they have to defend their rights and abilities to do so, or face dire consequences for any lack of vigilance.

If I wanted to be brash in my analysis of Bound (and Vulnerable and Wounded) I would call The Little Goddess Series an unpopular high school girl's fantasy. There have been several other successful books and movies mining similar territory, but this series has been fully baked in its completeness of the theme. In one of my earlier reviews, I referred to Amy as a Punk Anne Rice, or something to that effect. Amy lane is a helluva writer. I'm sticking with that story.

See Also: Interview with Amy Lane
Bitter Moon I (Amy's fourth & newest book)

Texas Monthly

This informative article about the current state of reading and publishing has just appeared at Texas Monthly online. Here is the link to the comment to the article. (You could easily miss it on the page.)