Review: Some Good Advice, Some Advice You Should Probably Avoid
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 14, 2014
First off, this is an easy book to read in terms of tone and accessibility.  Ms. Barton writes well and conversationally and cuts right to the chase in terms of the nitty-gritty of each of her tips.  I guess the larger question this book brings up is: why did you write a book in the first place?  Obviously, many people write short how-to guides (like this) as money makers or as promotional tools for their blog or other business.  And that's fine.  I'm wondering, though, about authors who write novels or self help books. Is the point to sell the most books and, therefore, any method that increases sales is acceptable?  Or did you have some other purpose in mind? I've heard many novelists say that they write because they feel they "have" to. The characters and story are almost real to them and they feel they need to get them down on paper (or computer screen).  If that's the case, then why would you want fake (or quasi-fake) reviews at all?  It seems to me that in the rush for book sales, something has been lost: the reason you started writing in the first place.That said, I understand that Amazon is flooded with self published titles, and many authors (especially ones without major publishers promoting for them) feel that unless they really push themselves and their work, they will never get seen. And so the game of getting to the top of the list of books that comes up in a search on Amazon begins.Barton calls some of her tips  "obvious" but there were some very clever ideas in this book. Reviewing books in your own genre, for example.  Or how to contact top reviewers.  She goes through how to do this in a methodical fashion, even including screen shots from her own Kindle to make it all clear.  Some readers will find a few of the later tips unethical but you can gloss over those.Overall, this isn't a book with mind-blowing new advice that will change your book promoting habits forever, but there is some good stuff here.