March 2021 News & Wrap-Up

Well, March certainly was a busy month. I made a strong effort to review a boatload of indie books. I had a blast coming back to reviewing on a frequent basis.

My goal is to continue reviewing regularly, with a focus on indie speculative fiction. This, truthfully, is where my roots are. Reviewing is how all of my other ventures (editing, author-ing) began. In a lot of ways, reviewing again feels like I’m coming home.

More than that, it feels good. I recently did a foray into advertising for my books and it was one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever done. I decided that’s not something I am cut out for. I’d much rather spend the energy I’d put into advertising into building up an interactive community of authors and readers who can boost each other and support each other’s work. Basically, I want to focus on self-published speculative fiction books because I want to put into the genre world what I’d like to get out of it.

What I really want, is someone to take me seriously, and to give my books a bit of the spotlight. I have the platform where I can do that for others, so that is what I intend to do. Give other indie authors what I would like to get. Put some good into the world.

That being said, a few things will be different. I will only review books I would rank 4 or 5 stars. The reason for this is because I am so busy, I honestly just don’t have time to read books I don’t completely enjoy. I also don’t want to talk down books. I want to built books and their authors up.

Secondly, while my focus will be on self-published indie fantasy and SciFi, I will occasionally review books I pick up at the library (so trad books as well).

I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I realized I got burned out on reviewing before because the number of ARCs I was getting from publishers was overwhelming, and reading started feeling like a job I wasn’t getting paid for. I would go to the library, and I would think, “I really wish I could read these books but I can’t because I’ve got this pile of books at home…” It started to bother me that I couldn’t read whatever I wanted.

So, I’m not really going to accept ARCs. Mostly because I don’t want to get overwhelmed with them. I have a Netgalley account, and I go in there once a month and pick some stuff up that looks good. Otherwise, I’m getting all my trad review books from the library, and they’ll be whatever I want to read, whenever I want to read it.

For the Indie stuff, again, I know how hard it is to be an indie author and in my effort to put into the world what I want to get out of it, I want to support Indie authors in every way I can. I have a Kindle Unlimited subscription which I am using to read most of these books (so authors get paid for page reads) and those not on KU, I’m buying (so authors get paid).

Another goal I have is to review at least 60% self-published books, or more. I do crosspost all my reviews to Goodreads and Amazon, and I do use affiliate links on all my reviews because the extra change I make there is what keeps this website running.

I also want to start getting my Indie Author Interviews off the ground again. I want them to drop every Friday, so if you’re an indie author who would like to be interviewed, please let me know and I’ll shoot you my interview sheet.

So, now that that’s out of the way, here’s what I reviewed in March, and some books I’m looking forward to in April.

Reviews

The Lost War – Justin Lee Anderson
Kingshold – D.P. Woolliscroft
The Lion of Al-Rassan – Guy Gavriel Kay
The Poison Thread – Laura Purcell
The Forever King – Ben Galley
The Lord of Stariel – A.J. Lancaster
Subversive – Colleen Cowley
Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
Gunmetal Gods – Zamil Akhtar
Windborn – Alex S. Bradshaw
Liefdom – Jesse Teller
The Wolf in the Whale – Jordanna Max Brodsky
Radio – J. Rushing
The Magpie Lord – K.J. Charles

Other Content

5 Formative Female Authors
Indie Author Interview – Matt Larkin

Anticipated April Reads

The Mark of Unwanted Things – Alex Clifford
Witchmark – C.L. Polk
A Sea of Pearls & Leaves – Rosalyn Briar
Under Ordshaw – Phil Williams
Red in Tooth and Claw – Ryan Howse
Peacemaker – E.M. Hamill
Master of Sorrows – Justin T. Call
Swordheart – T. Kingfisher
Voice of War – Zack Argyle
Vultures – Luke Tarzian

I’ve also got some *amazing* books I’m editing, but I can’t tell you about those yet. I’m getting Glass Rhapsody ready for publication, which is looking to be in late June. I should be hooking up a cover art reveal soon. More info on that when I have it. If you haven’t read Of Honey and Wildfires yet, or Oh, That Shotgun Sky, and you want to, now would be a good time to start so you can be all caught up when the series conclusion drops in June.

See you next week!