Once upon a time I said that sending my manuscript off to agents and publishers was like sending my baby off on his first day of school. Well, now I know the real deal. Agent and publisher-shopping is like looking for the best preschool for your little tyke. Putting your novel out there for review is the first day of school. Agents and publishers might just say “No”, and plug in a canned response, and some say nothing at all if they don’t want it. Now, a reviewer–if they choose to take on your book–will tell you what’s on their mind and it might not be nice. It’s the first day of school and your baby might get picked on by the other kids :o!

So, yes, The Fourth Piece is at that point. I do have e-ARCs available to those who would like a free copy in exchange for an honest review. There are many sites and services dedicated to this purpose, and I’ve been shopping so many of them my eyeballs are swimming. I’m signed up for a blog tour in September with YA Bound Book Tours, and for a featured block on YA Books Central that starts on my release date (July 8, 2016! Save the date 😀 😀 😀 ). I’m also lining up a couple of panels, some book launch parties, some readings, a book store appearance and am about to see if Word Press has a calendar function that I can use, so I make my author engagements look pretty on the Event Page. Hah! Hear that? I have “author engagements.” Yeah, yeah, I’m a dork. I know this, but I love saying that.

I want to do everything right for this book, because it’s so special to me, but I know this is a learning opportunity. I’m going to screw things up and will end up “knowing better for next time”. I say that so calmly, but I really don’t want to mess up at all. So, anyways, I want to get into my “gathering potential reviewers” process.

My wonderful publisher gave me a list of places to try, but I also joined some other writing resources groups who list bloggers by genre, one is called: Where Writers Win. I’ve sent out individual queries and I’ve hit up some sites that have huge followings that post your book for review. Right now, The Fourth Piece is up for review on Book Review Buzz , a group that also has a deal with Net Galley.  So, my darling will get a lot of exposure, and I’m crossing my fingers that a couple of people will accept the challenge and leave me a review. And hey, if anyone reading this is a subscribing member of either of those organizations, I’d be honored if you chose to download my ARC.

I’m also extending the offer here, if anyone is a book reviewer or blogger and interested in The Fourth Piece in exchange for an honest review, please send me an e-mail at e.ardell.author@gmail.com, and we’ll talk :).

Now, if you’re wondering how I’m doing all this and still writing… Well, I am guilty of having not written for a very long time… until last Saturday. A simple deletion of yet another chapter and a POV switch flipped my muse right back on. So, now I’m going to be learning how to balance writing new stuff and promoting. Heck, that’ll probably be my next blog post. But, until next time…

Take care and thanks for reading!