Review Copies and Other Headaches for New Authors

Your article on reviewing made me laugh. Why? Because I’ve had the same problem. I’ve given away books to family which was my goal. To have something that my neices and nephews to read. Now I’m happy to report that they are readers.

Back to the article, I’ve had many friends who said they are going to purchase a copy of my books. After I gave them the purchasing information, only a few actually purchase a copy.

I try to keep a stock of my books handy so people can purchase copies directly from me. I purchase my copies at cost, so when friends purchase copies from me I sell them at a slightly lower price than my publisher will sell them.

So far, I’ve had two books reviewed. Not bad reviews.

Thanks
Larry Sells
https://www.ljsbooksandthings.com

Children

Hi Angela,

Whenever I read your weekly updates about life with your children, I not only smile and commiserate, but say “Thank God” to myself that there really are still parents in this world who care. Parents with parental instincts.

The latest appalling news story was of a father & step-mother leaving his 9 year old son home alone with his 5 tear old autistic sibling, while they–the parents–ran off to Vegas to gamble. Luckily the maternal grandmother caught on and called the police. (I don’t know if their real mother is dead or not…the story I saw didn’t say.)

There are genes for everything…genes that tell your eye color, genes for right-handedness, genes for alcohol and drug tendencies.Surely there must be a way to tell if someone who wants to be a parent has the gene for “parental instincts”. If you have a baby you get tested for the gene. If at least one parent doesn’t have it, your family gets checked periodically. If you divorce, the parent without the gene doesn’t get custody. Sounds real sci-fi, I know, but I get so sick of hearing of kids being left for days and weeks at a time…kids in cages..and much much worse.

So whenever I read about you guys and your kids and the obvious loving atmosphere, it jolts me back into reality. I once again remember the number of good parents overwhelms the number of bad. And it makes my day much brighter. So thank you for all the kids, pets, driving you nuts life stories. Hopefully someday you’ll sift through them all to combine and have a copy bound for each child. What a great gift of love. And yes, I’m certain you get a few grumbles from people who don’t enjoy them. It’s easy to tell who they are…those without “parental instincts!”

Karen
Lawrence, KS