My Apochondria Are Tingling...

With each new release, the nausea rises.

Will I fail this time? Will I have gone somewhere my readers cannot go? Will I have taken one risk too many? Are all my ideas shit? What if Fluency was a one-hit wonder?

I've seen it happen. I've seen extremely popular authors release a book and have their most loyal fans universally pan it. There's a new SF release on Amazon right now with a less than 2-star average (though, admittedly, it's selling like gangbusters anyway.) 

Will that be me?

Well…not yet. ;D

​I got this in my inbox yesterday and I'm still in shock.

Of the thousands of science fiction novels released in 2016, my little sequel-that-could has been pointed up as one of 15 that readers loved most.

​I still can't believe it. But there it is.

CRAZY.

I'm grateful. You guys made this happen. You read my books and you talk about them around the water cooler. You tell friends and family and even strangers about them. You leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. You write blog and social media posts about them.

​And more people buy them, making it possible for me to keep writing them. Writing is my one and only job. I'm supporting my children on this income. I'm not bagging groceries or stuck in a lab without windows all day.

I have never expected external validation like this. I write popular fiction--escapist literature with some small elements of social commentary. It's supposed to be fun, not snooty or serious at all. I write space opera stories. That's it.

The other books in this category are fantastic. I'm honored to have one of mine among them.

I'm asking YOU to find a moment to do two small things for me:

1. PLEASE go to Goodreads and vote for your favorite science fiction book of 2016, whether it's mine or someone else's.
2. If you haven't yet written a review for The Druid Gene (or Remanence for that matter), please do! It doesn't have to be more than a few sentences. It doesn't have to be literary criticism. Just tell potential readers what you liked (or didn't!) about it.

Reviews are powerful social metrics for buyers and potential advertisers. The more a book has, the more confidence a potential reader has (I'm sure most of you aren't immune to this--I'm not).

The number of reviews can make or break a book. As an independent author, I don't have the big bucks marketing machine of the big five publishers behind me. Case in point--The Druid Gene was recently turned down for the biggest book promotion site out there. One promotion with that site could launch this book into the stratosphere.

The Druid Gene has everything it needs to be a success--good editing, fantastic cover art, a solid story that most readers enjoy--but it doesn't have enough reviews to make the cut yet. Help me get it there. You can make an actual difference in my career.

Thank you, gentle reader, for your support.

​Read on!