The Shopkeeper is Reviewed by Book Eats

Books Eats is a unique blog. It combines literary review with food talk. Two things that belong together. Whenever I travel in time or place, I'm always curious about what people eat. I recently returned from Turkey and Spain and spent most of my time in markets and restaurants. To me, they seem more interesting than another cathedral. (Although the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi changed my mind a bit.) Likewise, when I write about another time, I'm curious about what my characters might eat.

 Book Eats is fun and they like The Shopkeeper, so that makes them all good. You can read

Melanie's review by following this link.

Number 1 Rule of Marketing

I've been gone for a month, plus I let things slide for a couple weeks before I left for Europe. I just finished looking at my recent sales and it confirmed the ironclad rule of marketing:

If you do nothing, nothing will happen.

Books don't sell themselves. At least they don't build increasing sales without a boost. Actually, my sales held up remarkably well, but a slight downward trend was obvious when the numbers were examined carefully. It didn't surprise me, but many writers think they only have to shove a book out onto the marketplace and hoards of readers will gobble them up. Here's the problem: Amazon lists over 30 million books and released over 128,000 in the last 30 days. That's a pretty crowded field. An author has to do something to get noticed. So ... I'm scheduling events, dedicating a couple hours a day to social network marketing, and running an advertisement in True West. I'm confident I'll have things moving pretty good by the holiday buying season.

Home again, home again, dancing a jig

I love to travel, but it's always good to get home again. We attended a wedding in Istanbul, and then spent a few weeks in Spain. We visited Barcelona, San Sebastian, Madrid, Toledo, Seville, and Granada. Fun trip. Steve Dancy didn't fare well. I had intentions of working on the fourth in the series, but fatigue after a day traipsing around a new and fascinating city left little time or energy for writing.

On my return, I found two new blog reviews for my books and a host of new Amazon Customer Reviews. You can follow the links below if you're interested in reading them.

Thanks to all of my readers for continuing to buy my books while I'm off gallivanting in some foreign land ... and thanks for your kind words in reviews.

Murder at Thumb Butte Reviewed at The American Culture

The Shut Mouth Society reviewed at Enough With It

Amazon Customer Reviews