Open Letter to Readers

Guest Blogger: Lucienne Diver

I’m doing a crazy-obsessive amount of promo…or, at least, guest blogs…for my new novel BAD BLOOD.

Why?

I love these characters.  I love this story.  I want people to buy a lot of e-books (and later print) so that I can justify continuing to spend so much of my time with the characters I adore.  Oh sure, I could write their stories anyway, simply for myself, but writing is art.  Maybe I entered too many science fairs in my youth, but I think of it kind of like a circuit, which isn’t complete until it reaches the target audience and meets their interpretations and perceptions.  The success of a piece is in the connection an artist is able to make with her viewer (reader).  Your mileage may vary.

I guess, in a way, this blog is a love note to readers and reviewers—to everyone, really, who not only reads books but takes the time to recommend them to friends, write to the authors, post reviews on blogs, websites, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc.  Thank you!  You’re the only way we have of knowing whether we’ve accomplished what we set out to do.

Good reviews are gold.  Bad reviews…tarnished gold.  If they’re valid and thoughtful, writers can learn from what readers didn’t respond to and use critiques to improve and grow.  Because most readers and reviewers do critique from a place of love.  They want to be swept away by a work.  That’s really the contract an author makes with a reader.  When you publish your work and someone slaps a price on it, you’re promising that the book will be worth the cost.  If you exceed expectations, your gleeful fans will help spread the word of your supreme awesomeness.  If not, like any consumer, readers might very well express their disappointment.  Will there be differing opinions?  Of course.  Art is subjective.  My father is my own flesh and blood (or I’m his), and I think we’ve yet to agree on a single thing.

My point here is that readers, bloggers and other reviewers  are an integral part of the process.  Without you, we’re like trees falling in the forest with no one to hear them.  So, this is my love note to you all.  THANK YOU to those who care and who support the industry and their favorite authors in wonderfully visible and vocal ways.

To quote Dr. Evil, “You complete me.”

Lucienne Diver does not actually come from circus folk, though you’d never know it to meet her family. She is, however, in no particular order, a wife, mother, book addict, sun-worshipper, mythology enthusiast, beader, travel-junkie, clothes horse and crazy person. She writes the VAMPED series of young adult novels for Flux Books, which School Library Journal calls, “a lighthearted, action-packed, vampire romance story following in the vein of Julie Kenner’s GOOD GHOULS (Berkley), Marlene Perez’s DEAD (Harcourt), and Rachel Caine’s THE MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES (Signet) series.” Her short stories have been included in the STRIP-MAULED and FANGS FOR THE MAMMARIES anthologies edited by Esther Friesner, and her essay “Pulling Your Swing” is included in the 2011 anthology DEAR BULLY. BAD BLOOD marks her first urban fantasy and fourth published novel. Long and Short Reviews gave it her favorite pull-quote of all times, BAD BLOOD is a delightful urban fantasy, a clever mix of Janet Evanovich and Rick Riordan, and a true Lucienne Diver original.”

 

 

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  1. Pingback: Book Birthdays « Lucienne Diver's Drivel

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