Reviews
A great way to promote a book (or just about anything) is through the
time-honored and ever-popular review . . . a good set of reviews can push
something into the stratosphere, while universal panning can flush it all down
the crapper; whoever said that the pen is mightier than the sword was dead
on! I know not all of you are writers for magazines or newspapers, but I
also know there are a good number of you who are not only literate and eloquent,
but also very opinionated and love to share your views with the world . . . and
there are ways that you can make your opinions on Unholy War known
without having to be part of a publication staff. The wondrous (and
sometimes downright horrifying) technological conglomeration known as the
internet has made it possible for anybody with a computer (or access to one) to
make their voice heard (or read, as it were) worldwide, and many online
retailers have given their patrons (and visitors) the option of writing reviews
and giving ratings to the products they offer . . . and this includes online
bookstores! If you currently have an account at Amazon,
Barnes
& Noble, or Borders
online bookstores, you can write a review of Unholy War which will be
posted on the book's ordering page, so that other customers (and potential
customers) can see what other readers have thought of the book . . . and if it's
positive, it might just help sell a few copies, eh? If you're interested,
just click on one of the links I've provided for the bookstore of your choice,
which will take you straight to that site's Unholy War page, and scroll
down until you find a link that offers you the option of writing a review; while
you're there, you can also check out what other people have written about the
book, too . . . it's all there. If you don't have an account for one of
the bookstores listed above, it's easy enough to sign up for one, and you're not
required to order anything from them, give your credit card number, or anything
like that . . . at least at last count. And remember, be honest with your
reviews . . . I'm not the least bit afraid of criticism, as everybody's got
their own opinions and I know damned well that not everybody's going to gush
over the book or universally agree upon it. Criticism's only a bad thing
if you let it be, and I don't let it be! If anything, I try to learn from
criticism and see the angle the person's coming from . . . more often than not,
it's instructive or at least interesting, so have at it, folks!
Along with online bookstores, there are also plenty of other online outlets for opinion and critiques . . . there are a lot of vampire and book-oriented sites that are always open for submissions to add to their content, so look around and see what you can find. One of my readers, a talented young fellow from England, is currently looking into getting a review of the book published on a British vampire website, and he might even be getting paid for it, so there might even be a little bit of profit for you in it. He was even nice enough to ask me in advance if I minded if he was paid by the site for doing a review of my book, and of course, I didn't (and don't) mind at all . . . I say if you can get some cash out of doing a review of Unholy War, then by all means, have a drink on me! Check around and see what you can find . . . there are so many sites out there nowadays that it's hard to keep track of them all. There are also plenty of small-press paper publications (or 'zines, if you will) out there that are always looking for contributors, and many college papers are open for contributions as well, so sniff around long enough, and you're bound to find something sooner or later . . . good luck!
Just as I'm open to taking fan photos and fan-created flyers, if any of you write a review for a magazine or newspaper (doesn't matter how big or small the publication is, either) and would like to see it posted here to show the world, send it in with your name, the name of the publication it was in and the date it was published on, and I'll be more than happy to put it up here. It doesn't matter if the review's good, bad, or in-between . . . I'll still post it if you want, no malice or disgust if it's not what I'd like to hear. I used to write editorial columns for a community-distributed school newspaper called the Pennant (in Canton, Illinois, in case you're wondering), and every time the paper went out, my opinions and ideas were subject to public scrutiny and criticism, and I got my fair share of dissenters and hate-mail, so I'm no stranger to criticism . . . hell, my favorite part was the hate mail! If a person doesn't have the balls to take some criticism, slings, and arrows, then they shouldn't present their ideas and opinions to the world, I say . . . I think Jesse Ventura said it best with 'I'm loved by some, I'm hated by others, but what the hell--they all know who I am.' I couldn't have said it better myself.
For starters, here's a review originally done for the now-defunct Coma e-zine, which never got a chance to see the light of the moon on that site, but appeared at Slashgoth not too long afterwards, where it currently resides . . . this little review, done by Trinity, the British Vampire, has the distinction of being the first review of Unholy War ever published in any form (that I know of). It was done when the entire novel was still available for reading on the site, before I was published by 1stBooks, so it's got a wee bit of history on it! Read, enjoy, and thank you very much, Trinity . . . rock on!