Guest Blogger Mike Saxton

My guest blogger today is Mike Saxton, author of '7 Scorpions', a sci-fi futuristic novel.  His characters come to life under his writing hand.  Mike's book is doing very well in sales, and he has acquired some followers who cannot wait for his next book.


Everyone, Mike Saxton:

1. Why do you like writing?
Kind of like reading, when I write, I feel as though I've travelled into the world of my writing. I get most of my inspiration from dreams which will rattle around in my head until I write them. So actually, it's a way to quiet the voices. Afraid yet? :-)
2. What is your favorite genre to read?
Probably no surprise, my favorite genre to read is Science Fiction. In that respect, I'm a huge Star Wars fan and have read 40 of the novels. Yes, I'm a geek.
3. You are definitely a team player. Why do you think this is important in a circle of authors?
There's a saying, I don't remember who it came from though. "We stand taller with someone on our shoulders." The fact is, individually we would drown in the sea of authors and books out there. The best way to succeed is to help others. I also figure, if I fail miserably, I can subsequently live vicariously through members of the group who do succeed. Besides, I'm usually better at helping others than helping myself.
4. '7 Scorpions' came to you as a series of dreams. How do you usually get inspiration?
Inspiration comes at random times. Actually, with  my job, I drive a lot and I get inspiration all the time while I'm behind the wheel. Fortunately, my phone has a voice recorder so I just dictate it then email the sound file to myself to transcribe later. Did I mention I'm a Geek? I also keep a pad of paper on my nightstand since so much of my writing is inspired by dreams.
5. How does your family feel about you being a successful author?
They haven't realized I'm only faking being successful. :-)
Actually, they keep asking me when I'm going to hit the mother load and share it with them. I usually laugh hysterically. I like it when they talk like that as laughter is great for your health.
Thanks Donna for inviting me to invade your blog! In the interest of helping out my fellow authors, I wanted to share a bit on reviews. Below is a list of review sites I've used and contests I've entered.
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/ Midwest Book Review actually gives preference to books from smaller presses and self-published authors. This is a free review site, they do not do expedited reviews. It can take a couple of months to receive your review but they post it all over the place, including Amazon. There are numerous, informative articles about seeking reviews and I will give you some highlights below.
http://readersfavorite.com/ Readers Favorite is a site that gives you multiple choices. You can query for a free review, enter their contest (like most contests, there is a small fee but you will also get a review out of it), or you can pay a fee for an expedited review (see below for an explanation of expedited reviews). Unlike other reviewers, they will only post your review on Amazon if it is a 4 or 5 star review. They will give you the choice if it is a 3 stars and it can be buried if it is less than that.
http://www.rebeccasreads.com/ This is another site that offers the choices of free review, expedited review, and contest entry. They actually will provide a formal tear sheet in PDF format via email. They offer publicity services for a price, it would be up to you whether or not you would like to use them.
http://www.readerviews.com/ Yet another site that offers a choice of free review, expedited review, and contest entry. Just like Rebecca's Reads, they will provide a formal tear sheet in PDF format. There are also some interesting articles posted here.
http://www.bestsellersworld.com/ This site offers either a free review or expedited review. The expedited reviews can be purchased in packages with other services for publicity. Again, this kind of thing is up to you.
http://www.featheredquill.com/ In my recent look at this site, it appears that free reviews are no longer an option and you can only sign up for an expedited review. They provide a PDF tear sheet of your review. Currently, Amazon is on a rampage with certain reviewers and deleted Feathered Quill's account. You can still quote their review in the Editorial Reviews, which can be added through Amazon's Author Central.
http://www.apexreviews.net/ This site gives you a choice between standard (free) reviews and publicity packages with expedited reviews. They provide a PDF tear sheet for your review.
http://www.indiebookawards.com/ This is a relatively well known contest: The Indie Book Awards. It is only a contest, there are no other options (unless something has changed). There is a fee for the submission, which is not unusual for contests. They will provide a review although it may take quite a while as they tend to get a substantial number of submissions.
http://internationalbookawards.com/home.html This is one that I just won 2 weeks ago. It's run out of Los Angeles. Not only can you win the contest but they tend to do early bird entries that get listed in their publications for no charge for several months. Some good exposure here.
http://www.usabooknews.com/ This is where you'll find the USA Best Book awards. It's run by the same people as the one above.
http://sacramentobookreview.com/ Decent site. They have two publications that they post in. What's good about them is that if you don't like your review, they'll bury it and give you advertising instead.
Alright, a few notes on "expedited reviews". There are multiple schools of thought in the field about such services that you should be aware of. First of all, it is a fee that you will pay to the site. In a typical review submission, your book is not guaranteed for a review. If it is approved for an expedited review, it becomes guaranteed and it also moves up in priority so you get it faster. Each of the above sites makes the claim that expedited reviews do not guarantee a positive review (and by what I have seen, they hold true to that). Some members of the industry regard any review that you pay anything for as invalid (with the possible exception of contests). Of course, plenty of industries pay reviewers. Many consumer electronics companies do this. For the most part, the fees for the reviews are small and sometimes the cost of running these sites is pretty big. One interesting thing to notice is the Kirkus Reviews, a well known reviewer, now charges a substantial fee for reviews (upwards of $400). I'm not sure how I feel about paying that much for a review.
There are sites that will give you the ability to pay for a review and will guarantee you a good review (or many). You will notice that I did not place any of these on the list. Review reliability is diminished for "set up" reviews like this. Reviews from these sites tend to be poorly written and can raise red flags with a savvy consumer. It also kills your credibility as an author.
When submitting for a free review, keep in mind that the days that reviewers tend to be the most inundated is Monday and Tuesday so timing your mailing to land in their mail room for a Thursday or Friday is helpful as there are less books coming in that yours will need to compete with. Also pay attentio to the month. September, October, and November are extremely busy as people are trying to publicize their books for the holiday season. Also, April and May are extremely busy for the Spring market which is quite big in the book industry. July and August tend to be a little more dead and January and February (and the second half of December) tend to be the deadest times for reviewers. Obviously, if you choose expedited, it moves up in priority so these dates do not matter as much except that they may have too many requests and not accept your book for review.
I hope this helps.  

Thank you so much for this information.  i'm sure many of our readers will be excited about this.
Mike, thank you for guest blogging.
Friends, if you are interested in Mike's book '7 Scorpions' it can be purchased as an e-book at Amazon for 99 cents, paperback for $17.50 and Barnes and Noble Nookbook for 99cents.


Next blog, I will be spotlighting a surprise I know many of you will love to see.


LHR