Rumor Busting for Self Publishing Authors – A New Series
By: Craig | Posted on May 5, 2018
As a service that sends out thousands of free books daily across multiple genres, it’s probably no surprise to learn that Hidden Gems hears more than our fair share of self publishing industry rumors from both authors and readers alike. Most are sparked by some sort of catalyst, like a vague or misleading news story, or an industry heavyweight changing their policies. Those type come in waves, rolling in repeatedly from different sources all devouring the same misguided conclusions. Other rumors are more persistent, coming in less evenly but still consistently over time, never quite fading away completely. However, there’s a benefit to hearing all of this speculation from so many varied sources. It provides us with a unique opportunity to watch these overall issues as they develop, giving us fresh perspectives and differing viewpoints into each. When we combine that with our experience in the self publishing industry, some… Read More >
ARC Review Podcast
By: Craig | Posted on October 31, 2017
Wondering what all the fuss about reviews and ARC teams are? Got some time to listen to a podcast that breaks it all down for you? I was a recent guest on Jonny Andrews’ Author Platform Rocket podcast to talk about reviews, ARC teams, what reviews can and can’t do for your book and what Amazon does or doesn’t allow. It was a lot of fun, and if you’re an author trying to get a handle on what all this ARC review stuff is, I encourage you to give it a listen. Whether you’re building your own team or looking to hire someone like Hidden Gems to run it for you, we probably talk about something of interest. And for those of you that do run your own ARC team, there’s something of special interest you might want to hear about. A little sneak preview of an upcoming service we’re… Read More >
What Makes a Good Book Review?
By: Craig | Posted on September 15, 2017
At Hidden Gems, book reviews are what we’re all about – and although we aren’t writing them ourselves, we’ve seen enough from our readers, and heard from enough authors, to have a pretty good idea about what makes a good book review. If you’re one of our ARC reviewers, or even if you’re reviewing on your own or for someone else, here are a few ideas on what authors are looking for, how to be fair, etiquette, and just overall tips for writing a helpful review. No One-Line Book Reviews As much as an author loves to hear that you “Loved this book!”, that’s not really a review. While your opinion is important to helping support the author, it’s a lot more helpful when it is more detailed in regards to the particular book being reviewed. A one-line review might also look fake to other readers, or even Amazon. Especially… Read More >
Becoming an ARC Reader: Because who doesn’t love free books?
By: Craig | Posted on July 11, 2017
Getting free ARC books and becoming a book reviewer has never been so easy, and now you can do it for all genres and without the hassles of the past! If you scour the web in search of book reviews and becoming an ARC reader, you’ll find plenty of articles describing how you can contact publishers or authors directly, sign up for their various mailing lists, and hopefully get free books from them whenever they actually release one (usually not more than once a month or two). That was certainly the best way to go about it in the past. But things are different now, and we’d like to think we helped pave the way to change. Hidden Gems has been sending out ARC books for authors for about two years now (our first one went out in October 2015) and since then we’ve grown from 2 or 3 a… Read More >
Does Page Flip Hurt Authors and Readers?
By: Craig | Posted on October 20, 2016
Some of your favorite authors might be forced to pull out of Kindle Unlimited because they aren’t being paid for the pages you’re reading… and here’s why. Amazon considers their much ballyhooed new Page Flip feature a navigational tool, intended simply to casually browse or flip through a book. However, mounting evidence is starting to show that many readers use Page Flip to actually read parts or even entire books. They do this for a variety of reasons, including: Preference – they prefer the reading experience in Page Flip mode Ignorance – some books open into Page Flip and customers may not realize it Software issues – some are reporting bugs that force them to use Page Flip to read But whatever the reason, when Page Flip is used to read a borrowed Kindle Unlimited book, authors are not getting paid. And according to Amazon, that’s by design, because Page… Read More >
Are Amazon’s Indie Authors Earning What They Deserve?
By: Craig | Posted on September 30, 2016
Ever lowering payouts, a lack of transparency, and a history of making mistakes are leading many authors to wonder just how much longer they can continue to write for the book giant. Is it time for Amazon to allow external auditors to look into its records? Let’s look at how things got to where they are now, what some of the problems are, and then what, if anything, should be done about it. Kindle Unlimited and Exclusivity The idea of an all you can read subscription service wasn’t invented by Amazon (Oyster and Scribd did it first), but one could argue it perfected the model – at least from a retailer’s perspective. Launched in 2014, Amazon’s $10 a month Kindle Unlimited (KU) subscription service introduced the idea of exclusivity to its authors. Independent authors that wanted to participate had to pay the heavy price of pulling their novels from all… Read More >
What Makes Me Fall in Love with a Hero?
By: Samantha Westlake | Posted on September 1, 2016
Sometimes, when I pick up a romance novel by a new and unknown author, I know right away that I’ll love these characters. I can sense that I’d better clear my schedule, just so I can sit and read. Some heroes mesmerize me, so well-crafted that after just a few pages, I feel like I truly understand them, like they could step off of the page and sweep me into their arms. On the other hand, some romance books make me want to throw my Kindle across the room. If I had a girls’ brunch with the heroine of these tales, I’d just want to grab her by the shoulders, shake her to and fro, and shout, “What is wrong with you? He’s perfect! Why are you struggling with such an easy decision!?” What makes some heroes feel perfectly human, while others just seem uncannily perfect? Why do some characters… Read More >
