After writing six novels, I thought it was time I did something I’d seen on social media and read about in all the books/articles on advice for authors — mainly independent authors. I decided to solicit ARC readers. (No, solicit has a bad connotation); I decided to invite readers to become part of my launch team.

I prepared the Google form, sent emails to my list and also on social media. I was ecstatic when the responses began to trickle in. Two months before the release, I had secured fifteen ARC readers. Not bad for the first time. I used Book Funnel to send the manuscript to the respondents. Everyone, except three, downloaded their copy. I thanked them for taking the time from their busy schedule to help me with my launch and told them how anxious I was to read what they thought of the book. I also opened a Facebook page, posted some activities, and invited them to join in. While, I received a lot of views every day, there was no engagement, so I had no way of knowing if any of the views came from my group.

The week of the release, I sent out three mailings to my ARC readers — I didn’t want to bombard them with too many emails, everyone gets too many — reminding them of the upcoming release date and where they should post their review. To date, three days following the release, I have received just one review. Thanks to that person.

But I’m still hopeful. After all, it’s only been three days. And release day was Valentine’s Day. Who wants to write reviews on Valentine’s Day? So, I sent them another email, this time mentioning the importance of reviews, giving them a few prompts to help them get started, and I gave them the link to post the review.

I have received reviews (not a lot) on all the other books I’ve written without a launch team and without begging for reviews, and not one of my reviews is below 4 .0. I consider them all to be honest reviews from readers who purchased my books and liked what they read.

So, will I invite ARC readers for my next book? Absolutely. I understand that reading takes time, and many people sign up for more than one book. If they haven’t written their review yet, they will eventually. Are reviews important? You bet they are. I wouldn’t buy a vacuum cleaner without first reading the reviews, and while books cost a lot less than a vacuum cleaner, you do invest a lot of time reading it, time that could have been spent doing something else.

Reviews do help to sell products, so when you write a review, you are not just helping the creator of that product, you are also helping the consumer in making a buying decision. So, if you sign up to be an ARC reader or you purchase a book, please follow through and write a helpful, honest review.

Angela is the author of five Christian fiction books and two non-fiction books. Her latest release, Harmonizing Hearts is now available on Amazon for 99c. for a limited time only.

Can two hearts harmonize when fateful events threaten to tear them apart?

This is a question I posed in my last post, relating to the protagonists, Trudy and Mark, in Harmonizing Hearts. If you read the post, you would have seen some of the challenges they face, and now in just four days, you will see how they met, and overcame, those challenges.

So much for the characters. Now, what about the author’s challenges? Let me give you an honest glimpse into my life as a writer — a behind-the-scenes look, if you will. One of my flaws is comparing myself to others. Oh, I know it’s not right, but I do it all the same. When I see authors releasing a book every month, I ask myself, why can’t I release a book every three months at least, or maybe every six months?

While I don’t want to make excuses for myself, I have to admit that I face some real challenges, one of which is health issues. Over the past two years, I have been plagued by health issues, which have sapped my energy and maybe even my motivation. I ought to wake up earlier to get more writing done, read more, even exercise more to stimulate my brain cells. Time spent in doctors’ offices also took away from my writing time. I even questioned whether I was too old to be writing. I thought maybe it was time to throw in the keyboard.

Apart from these personal challenges, I sometimes had difficulty structuring the plot so it flows seamlessly. Fortunately, Word allows us to move passages around — which can sometimes be confusing — so I was able to ensure some continuity in the plot.

Keeping track of characters’ physical features, ages, family members, dates also posed a daunting task. I learned to compile each character’s profile in my Book Notes, so I could refer to them when necessary. Word’s Find and Replace feature also came to my rescue when I gave someone the wrong wife or the wrong husband.

But the biggest challenge of all were the days when the words just wouldn’t come. I don’t call it writer’s block, because I knew where I wanted the story to go, but setting the scene, expressing it creatively, and letting the ideas flow in a nice, cohesive way instead of a jumbled mess sometimes made me want to give up.

But I didn’t. I kept going. With the help of my critique group, who would fact check everything, find that missing (or wrong!) punctuation mark, or weak verb, and point them out — sometimes not so kindly —I was able to make it to The End. So now, I’m eagerly awaiting RELEASE DAY, Feb. 14th, which is also Valentine’s Day.

So, what better gift to give someone you love than a gift which was a labor of love from me to you? Harmonizing Hearts is still on preorder for 99c.