Link: amzn.to/x7uoi1

Grade: C

L/C Ratio: 20/80
(This means I estimate the author devoted 20% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 80% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.) 

Thematic Breakdown:
50% - Detective mystery
30% - Action/Adventure
10% - Horror
10% - Romance

I don’t know what is wrong with me. This is twice in a row I’ve broken my own rule and read a book from a series. And in both cases I jumped right into the middle of the series instead of starting from the beginning like a sensible human being. Although in the case of The Snowman, I didn’t have much of a choice since not all of Jo Nesbo’s novels have been translated from Norwegian to English yet.

I was worried the whole foreign translation thing would be an issue, but the language flows relatively well throughout the book. (My one complaint regarding word choice is that it feels like the term “duvet” appears five times per chapter. Maybe people in Norway just really love their bedding.)

Look, The Snowman is a serviceable detective mystery. The serial killer plot creates some intricate puzzles and suspenseful moments, which makes certain chapters legitimate page-turners. But the characters are largely stale, and as the number of twists in the investigation grows, the outcome begins to feel less shocking and more arbitrary.

In case you haven’t heard, my debut novel is now available in paperback and on sale at Amazon. With the self-publishing community growing so feverishly, I thought I’d share the experience of printing my first book.

I released Train Wreck as an ebook in September of last year, and the question I got more than any was: “When will it be available in paperback?” I told people that it might happen someday, but at that point I was convinced that the money and time required for paperback self-publishing was outside of my budget.

While I was promoting the Kindle and Nook versions of the novel, I kept hearing good things about CreateSpace. CreateSpace uses a publishing method called on-demand printing, which means they don’t print a copy of Train Wreck until you order one on Amazon. Then when a purchase goes through, CreateSpace takes a cut for printing costs, Amazon takes a cut for vendor costs, and I get to keep the rest as royalties.

And the best part is that I paid NOTHING up front to get my book into the CreateSpace system. Don’t listen to self-published authors who try to tell you it takes thousands of dollars to print a book on your own.

I set out to create a paperback edition of Train Wreck when the calendar flipped to 2012, and now it’s just three weeks later, and my book is already on sale. Here’s a summary of the process:

Step 1 - I set up an account on createspace.com and created a new entry for my book with the same description and genre settings that I used for the Kindle edition.

Step 2 - I requested and received a free ISBN (this takes only a few seconds).

Step 3 – I took the final draft of my manuscript and converted it from a word processing document into a professional book layout PDF. This was the most time-consuming part of the process by far, but I really enjoyed having complete control over the look of every page and messing with stuff like line spacing, chapter headings and page numbering.

Step 4 - I downloaded a cover template from CreateSpace and used the cover image from the ebook edition of Train Wreck to start building the print cover. Having that graphic already available made things a lot easier for me, as I basically just had to add a spine and back cover to my design.

Step 5 - I set the list price for my book and submitted the cover and layout files. Then the CreateSpace folks did a quick human review (this took less than 48 hours) and my proof copy was en route to my doorstep.

Step 6 - I closely examined the proof copy (which CreateSpace does charge you for) and then submitted my final approval online. A couple days later, the paperback edition of Train Wreck appeared on Amazon and magically synced up with the Kindle version.

(This is a guest review by Heather. To submit your own, use the button in the column to the right.)

Link: amzn.to/wXTEMf

Grade: B-

L/C Ratio: 60/40
(This means Heather estimates the author devoted 60% of her effort to creating a literary work of art and 40% of her effort to creating a commercial bestseller.) 

Thematic Breakdown:
40% - Dysfunctional family relationships
30% - Supernatural
30% - History

Upon finishing this novel, I immediately wanted to reread the whole book – and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. The author relied on a lot of magical realism that left me both intrigued and perplexed. While the twist at the end answered some questions, it created up even more confusion about which parts of the story had been real. This made the final part of the book can’t-put-it-down compelling and led me to ponder the events long after I finished, but I’m still not sure if the sudden twist made enough sense to justify the rest of the plot.

That leads me to another criticism about the pacing of the book – I said the ending was very gripping, but the same is not true for the first third of the book. I found some sections to be rather slow and dull, and the voice of the main character was not always enjoyable to read.

One fascinating aspect of The Lace Reader was how Barry wove real historical events and places into the fictional plot. It seemed like the story would not have functioned the same without being situated in Salem, Massachusetts.

Overall, Barry’s novel was a worthwhile read despite the pacing problems. The ending will shock you and maybe even bring you to tears, although the revelations feel a little forced. At the very least, the story will make you question what, if anything, you read really happened as the narrator claimed.

I am beyond excited to announce that Train Wreck is now available IN PAPERBACK! That’s right – real, physical paper.

You can get it at Amazon right now for the low price of $12.99 – amzn.com/1468177206

And for those of you with Amazon Prime, Train Wreck can be on your bookshelf in just two days with free shipping.

If by some chance you are interested in purchasing five or more copies, contact me directly and I can give you a special deal.

(FYI, I went through CreateSpace to publish the paperback edition and will have a blog entry up soon about the process.)

Link: amzn.to/yJv3RL

Grade: A-

L/C Ratio: 50/50
(This means I estimate the author devoted 50% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 50% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.) 

Thematic Breakdown:
50% - Epic literary fantasy
30% - Detective mystery
20% - Satire of the publishing industry

As a rule, I do not dabble in book series. This is partly because they tend to exist most often in the fantasy genre (not my preferred reading area), and partly because I am afraid to get caught up in a series and not have time to get to other books I want to read.

I broke my rule by putting One of Our Thursdays Is Missing on my Kindle. I even jumped right into it without reading any of the earlier books in the series (gosh, I’m such a literary daredevil). I couldn’t help myself. Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey (not part of the Thursday Next series) blew my mind when I read it last year, and I was craving more of his creative genius.

If you consider yourself a book geek, add One of Our Thursdays Is Missing to your reading list right now (or be smart and actually start at the beginning of the series with The Eyre Affair).

What Fforde has done is created BookWorld – a place inhabited by every piece of fiction ever written. Characters exist as citizens in BookWorld, performing their literary roles whenever someone in the real world is reading their book, and interacting with each other in their downtime. Fforde explains it better than I can, so I’ll just shut up and tell you to check out his map of BookWorld to see how the genre-states are divided.

The setting kept me incredibly intrigued, but One of Our Thursdays Is Missing also features a solid detective mystery plot to keep things moving. What sealed the deal for me was Fforde’s wittiness – his frequent jabs at the book industry and his fellow authors produced chuckles throughout.