ANDREW BISS

Well, with all of the activity surrounding the release of A Mouth Full of Ashes , I forget to mention something else quite significant that happened just recently. At long last the Audio CD edition of Schism was finally made available for purchase. It's narrated by the frighteningly talented Peter Bishop and is available on Amazon (through Audible.com), directly from Audible , as well as iTunes. Reaction to the book since its launch back in November has been interesting, to say the least. People either seem to love it or hate it. Almost nothing in between. It seems to be rather polarizing and I'm not sure why. I think part of the problem lies in the big free promotion the book had back in March, which resulted in many thousands of downloads. Free promos can be great at helping to get your work out there, but inevitably your book will fall into the hands of those who are not your target audience, and who, when/if they get around to reading it, are most likely not goin

Author Eloise J. Knapp, the niece of one of my fellow KBers, has put together a little Youtube video entitled " Author's Lament: 5 Emotional Stages of a Bad Review ". She'd asked that it be shared around and I'm more than happy to help do just that as I think it's hilarious and rather brilliant. Yes, negative reviews, 1 star reviews, they are, unfortunately a part of a writer's life. They come with the territory...that territory being the land where you'll never please everybody, no matter how much you wish that were possible. Sometimes, your work will end up in the hands of someone who is not part of your target audience (especially true when doing giveaways or low price promotions), and when that happens...well, it's often not pretty. Here's part of a 1 star review I recently read on Amazon: ""None of the characters were likable, there was no character growth, and it rambled." What was this particular critique aimed at, you ask

This coming Saturday, April 23rd, I will be a guest on Babs World of Book Reviews , so if you're interested, head on over to her terrific book review blog and take a look. And in case you need an additional incentive (but why on earth would you?), I'll also be doing a book giveaway of The End of the World . Babs gave The End of the World a lovely review on her site last week and it's been a real pleasure getting to know her a little, as she's a terrific person who truly loves books.