Okay, I am still talking about reviews. Here is yet another horrow story involving reviews. I'm passing this on from another person.  It seems this person was just launched their free days on kindle and the very first thing they noticed is that someone had put a one star review on their book the night before. Prior to this, she had recieved only 5 stars.  When the author looked up the reviewer, there were no other reviews listed for that person and there was no picture or name. It seems this person just popped up to damage this author's reputation. Since then there has been no other activity on the reviewers account.  I have heard rumors of people out there doing that kind of nonsense, but have never actually seen it until now.  The sad part is that sometimes it is fellow authors doing it. 
      Most other authors or serious readers would not even notice such a review, but the genral public just assumes that all reviews are on the up and up. It is useless to say this review didn't do some damage to the author, but I don't think it was significant.  it really should not have happened at all, but that is one of the pitfalls of the great internet., people can hide and comment. I call these cowards, but obviously they don't care what I or anyone else thinks or they wouldn't be doing these things.
      I would much rather make it or not on my own merits, and not have to slam or put anyone else down to gain ground. I was always afraid to step on people on the way up the ladder, they have a funny way of getting up and knocking you off the ladder.  I guess that is just my firm belief in Karma. We can only hope that when they get their payback they will understand the infraction that they committed in order to recieve such a slam from fate.   ( The bad thing about Karma is most of the time we are not around to see the awesom 

      Here's a little story for you.  I have a friend that wrote a book. She asked another friend to review it for her. She really wanted an honest review.  What she got was a big suprise. It seems after she gave her friend the book to review, her friend got angry with her about something that had nothing to do with teh book. So  the friend who was reviewing the book decided to really let her have it.  She gave her a one star on Amazon and posted it everywhere else. Prior to that review she had gotten all 5 star reviews. So that was a definate OUCH!  I guess there is no way to prevent this other than just be careful not to tick off the people reviewing your book! 

      I was told at the very beginning  of this journey that I needed to pay careful attention to amazon reviews.  I had no idea what that meant, but it sounded good at the time.  I was very careful about everything I posted on Amazon, so I guess I did something right. It seems I have achieved the rank of Top Reviewer.
That is not much considering all of their big time reviewers,but it is an accomplishment for me.  It is about time I did something right for a change.

      Okay, so I was going to post something earth shattering yesterday and of course I can't because I have no internet connection.  I got my first clue when the laptop wouldn't connect. The second clue was when I hear my husband fussing because he can't get on the internet  on our laptop.  So we suck it up and do without.
     So this morning I pull out the trusty lap top and guess what?  When I try to connect I get the lovely gray screen with the spinning thing on it.  So I go to the desk top and get the same result. The husband calls and he gets a recording that service has been knocked out in our area and will be back up in three hours.
     Now my question is, how do they know it will be back up in three hours? Did they just pick that number out of a hat or do they actually know it will be three hours because they planned it?  If that is the case, why don't they just say so?
Walking through the room I saw on the news that internet service was out in several areas around us. That kind of makes me wonder if this was actually planned to slow down our social networking. Don't they know they can cause someone severe damage to their psyche preventing them from posting online all their life relevant comments?  Have they not heard of cyber

     Well, you have heard the old saying that if it wasn't for bad luck we would have no luck at all?  That is about where we are in this promoting thing. I told you yesterday that I really messed up my submission to Book Daily. Apparenty, they agreed. They featured my book yesterday and I opened the attachement to see just how bad it looked and imagine my suprise when i  saw a really nice ad for a horse book. There was one problem, it was not my book!  So now my book is being promoted on Book Daily with someone else's book description!  Wow,  this is starting to get humerous.  I guess it is better to laugh than to cry!  I emailed Book Daily and advised them of the problem. We will see if they answer this

  Well this is probably the worst thing I have done. It is really embarassing to admit. I listed my book with Book Daily. The only problem is that I listed the wrong copy. I accidently put in one of my proof copies. It has some mistakes in it.  I have tried to get Book Daily to let me correct it, but they will not even answer my emails. I explained that i was a new author that had made a mistake, but ithey don't seem to care.  I have still gotten no answer to my emails asking for help. I understand that it was my mistake, but you would think they would let me fix it. Ah well, I guess that is one to chalk up to experience. I have even tried to remove my book, but to no avail. Can we say, what a big dummy? 

     Don't make the same mistake I did. I had my book published by  publlisher that didn't explain anythng to me about being an Indie author. They just  kind of pushed me through publication as they took my money. I wish they had told me about the fun of a cover revieal.
     I have a friend, a fellow Indie author who has spend the last couple of weeks preparing for a cover reveal. She has been so excited. I really wish I had the same excitement level with my book. They just sent me the previews, I picked one, and that was it. A total washout from my point of view now. I had no clue then, so it didn't bother me.
     I have a really cool original cover and wish I had used it to help with the promotion of my book. Instead I did everything backwards. I am still trying to play catch up on a lot of the promotions of my book. My publisher also did not tell me that many sites will not promote a book once it is acutally published. Bummer Man! 
      So don't do what I did and rush through publication. Use your cover for publicity. Build anticipation for your book with a cover reveal. Enjoy every moment you can with your book. All this only happens once. Happy Trails To You! 

Here is a cautionary tale for all new authors using the internet. It goes like this:
I have a brand new book that I had published. I was so thrilled with myself.  It was about then the other shoe fell and I realized, no one knew I had a new book and I was going to have to promote it. Not knowing the first thing about the internet and promoting, I got started. The first thing I did was set up Google Alerts on my book title. (You can do this by going to http://www.google.com/alerts )  I know this sounds like the responsible thing to do, but I can't take the crediit, it was just the first thing I ssw to do.

I was very careful not to send out copies of my book to people who were not what I thought were responsible. So I am so happy that my book is out there and guess what?  I got an email about my book. I was thrilled someone was talking about my book. When I opened the google alert I almost died. There was my book on some advertising site.  It was being given away  in ebook form to anyone who completed their requirements.

Now I know I did not give my book to them and started to track them down. It took lots of research to even find a place to contact them on the website. It was one of those hidden contact forms. I notified them and told them they did not have my permission to use my book. After about three days they finally responded. Turns out they were based on a site in Nevade. They sent me an email saying they didn't own the site, some other advertier did. So I contacted the other site and told them they didn't have permission to use my book. It  took them a couple of days for them to contact me.

 When they finally contacted me they said they were not in charge of the site I mentioned, but would check on it. They did, it turns out they said they would have it removed.  I checked a coulple of days later and it was still there. I had to send them the exact address and wait another three days . They said they would check on it. I looked a couple of days later and it was finally gone.  It took almost two weeks to get it cleared up, but I finally did. It took lots of emails and double checking, but it was finally removed completely.   I would have been completely oblivious to this act of piracy had I not put a google alert on my book. Turns out , that was one thing I had actually done right. Morale

      Okay, I am early today. I just came back from feeding the horses and checked my email. There were at least five offers for free services. Don't fall for that.  Free is generally just the beginning. I almost made that mistake when I first started publishing my book. One site promised to promote, promote, promote for free.  I believed them until I happened to notice shading at the bottom of the post.  Being a curious person, I pulled it up and it looked like some kind of cute design. I found this strange since it didn't match the rest of the site. So I enlarged it. Guess what?  It was the fine print. Boy, did they hide it well. It was there, but I had to discover it.  Basically it said they would promote my book, but after thirty days, I had to pay them forty dollars a month and it was a contract for their services for a year. Apparently the contract would go into effect the minute I gave them permission to promote. Luckily, I saw it time. So fine print can be your friend, but I think it is one that likes to play hide and seek with you. It is definately your enemy if you don't find it.
    My suggestion, check out everything before you commit to anything. Ask other people about a service. There are plenty of bloggers who have been around awhile and they can give you some insight.  Chances are, if the deal is there today and it is legit, it will be there tomorrow.  It doesn't hurt to check them out before you commit. Remember, this is your book you are talking about. Guard it and take care of it.
     I have to look up some links, but tomorrow, I will tell you what happened to me and how I almost lost my book online.  Until then, Happy Trails To yo