Ode to the Reviewer

September 13, 2013September 13, 2013 Monica La Portahuman rights themed series, importance of reviews, indie author life, indie author's joys and struggles, reviewers are awesome people, series about equality, the ginecean chronicles, the priest dystopian novel1 Comment

It is deeply unfortunate that responding to a review is considered poor form. I wish I could personally thank anybody who took the time to read my work and leave a comment on Amazon or Goodreads. I woke today to a shiny new review for The Priest. I hope you, dear reviewer who not only bought my book, but also wrote a thoughtful comment about it, are reading this note of mine. You made my day. To and indie author, reviews are much needed oxygen.

Sometimes, when it seems that my work is slowly sinking into a black hole, I feel like screaming underwater. And I despair, because I write the whole day, seven days a week, and I wonder if I am wrong about the whole endeavor. But then, I can’t imagine doing anything else and I just keep writing the next 1000 words.

Thank you, dear reviewer, for letting me know what you thought about my books. I know you have a busy life. I know you didn’t have to. I know that there are so many things you can do with your free time, and yet, you decided to use that precious free time to write a review for one of my works. It means the world to me.

The Priest: Third Day of Promotion

September 12, 2013 Monica La Portaamazon free books, amazon free dystopian bestsellers, book about equality, book against homophobia, book against racism, book against sexism, ENT promotion, free dystopian novel, free kdp days, free promo experiment, free promotion, indie life, indie promotion, the ginecean chronicles, the priest before wool in the free chart, the priest free book2 Comments

Still alive and reporting for duty. Today, The Priest’s promo is featured on Ereader News Today, ENT. Authors who have been picked up by ENT swear it makes a huge difference in the downloading department. I will tell you later. At noon, The Priest is still #4 in Dystopian on Amazon.co, and those are my numbers in terms of downloads:

USA 1598

England 56

Germany 37

France 0

Spain 1

Italy 15

Japan 0

India 4

Canada 10

Brazil 0

Mexico 0

The Priest: Second Day of Promotion

September 11, 2013 Monica La Porta#1 english dystopian title in Italy, free book promotion diary, free dystopian novel, free ebook, free for the first time, kdp free days, the ginecean chronicles, the priest5 Comments

Reporting live, big emphasis on the “live” part. Free promoting isn’t for everybody, but I do have a few screenshot to show for it. Bear with me, proud mothers glow.

Italy

Germany

USA

India

England

Canada

The Priest is Free!

September 10, 2013September 10, 2013 Monica La Portafree dystopian novel, free forbidden love novel, free love story, the priest is freeLeave a comment

For the very first time, for 5 days, starting today and ending Saturday, The Priest, my dystopian novel is free. Grab a copy, it’s on me. Please, share the news with anybody who would be interested in reading about alternate Earths, matriarchal societies, slavery, and a love story so pure it will start a revolution. As an indie author, word of mouth is the only means I have to make my work visible. Thank you for your consideration.

Catch of the Day

September 7, 2013 Monica La Portacolorful oil painting, colorful seascape, digital art, digital oil colors, digital painting, finger painting on touchscreen, fresh paint, inspired by another artist, whimsical landcape2 Comments

A friend of mine, C. B., is a wonderful artist. A few days ago, she posted on Facebook her latest painting, a colorful village by the sea, and I was inspired by it. Earlier this morning, still jetlagged, I opened Fresh Paint and created this piece.

End of Summer

Science Fiction is the pariah among literary genres

September 6, 2013September 8, 2013 Monica La Portabookbub and science fiction titles, indie authors struggle, indie life, indie publishing in 2013, marketing books pain, publishing in 2013, racism against science fiction genre, science fiction author growing pain, science fiction bias, science fiction is hard to market, the new publishing gatekeepers8 Comments

I have subscribed to several mailing lists to receive book deals. I only read a few genres and I like to receive offers regarding only those specific genres. One of the mailing lists I subscribed to is called Bookbub which is famous among indie authors because it has become the next gatekeeper. Bookbub is a finicky creature. It accepts books with four reviews, half of them attesting the book isn’t worth your time even if it’s free, and rejects books with thirty reviews and impeccable ratings. As a full disclosure, I was rejected by Bookbub thrice, but I can live with that. The person in charge of the new version of the publishing slush pile has decided in three different occasions my book isn’t Bookbub material. My series isn’t for everybody and I can understand an established marketing colossus doesn’t want to risk its name with a controversial title. Said so, I know I am not the only one submitting science fiction works to Bookbub, and yet I seldom see scifi titles in my daily mail. Why, I wonder? And so, I asked:

Hi, as a reader, I signed to receive deals in a few genres, among them science fiction. I understand that the largest amount of your subscribers want different genres, but days go by before I see a science fiction title among your offers. I believe that there must be dozens if not hundreds of science fiction books submitted to you every day. I find hard to believe that you can’t find a slot for at least one of them in your daily mail. I am very picky in my reading habits and only buy specific genres, science fiction being my favorite. Also, I only read historical romance, not contemporary. Since you have the two categories together, I had to change my preferences and remove romance altogether. Thank you,
Monica La Porta

Bookbub asnwered not even half an hour later:

Thanks for emailing BookBub. The selection varies from day to day depending on what publishers and authors make available, but we’re constantly expanding our selection, so stay tuned!
Please let us know if we can be of further help, and thanks again for using BookBub.
Best regards,
BookBub Support

Well, shame on you science fiction authors, start making your titles available. Must say, Bookbub does answer rather promptly, though. Now, if they could separate historical romance from the rest of romances they would make me happy.

*And no, I didn’t send them my picture.

Buon Viaggio, Mamma

August 24, 2013 Monica La Portabright colors flowers, digital painting, fresh paint digital oil, mourning, whimsical landscapeLeave a comment

Monday Drawing #19

August 5, 2013 Monica La Porta#MondayDrawing, a drawing every Monday, digital watercolors, fresh paint, fresh paint watercolors, mountains landscape, mountains red flowers dawn, new fresh paint feature, whimsical landscapeLeave a comment

I’m proud to be on time, for once. Fresh Paint watercolors rock.

Dawn Up in the Mountains

Friday Drawing #1

August 2, 2013 Monica La Portabright color painting, digital painting, digital watercolor, fresh paint windows 8.1, monday drawings on a friday deal with it, new fresh paint watercolor feature, poppies in the sky watercolor, whimsical landscapeLeave a comment

Okay, it should be Monday Drawing #18, but I’m working hard on my novels and time flies without my consent. Recently, Fresh Paint announced a new feature, watercolors! Only available for windows 8.1 preview users, I seized my hubby’s laptop and had my sweet way with the new app. This is the result of several hours of great delight.

Poppies in the Sky

Friday Snippet #49

August 2, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, a small excerpt from a NA science fiction romance novel, a snippet every friday, black and white painting of the space needle, indie author struggles and triumphsLeave a comment

An image is worth a thousand words, or something like it. Weather-wise, draw you conclusion from the picture on your left.

It’s August. Sneaky month. I didn’t see it coming.

Still working on three different projects at once, and I have a short to write within a week. I’m halfway through rewriting Elios, and almost done editing Gaia. Chapter #1 and #2 of Marie’s Journey are back in my editor’s hands.

Still painting. More on that later.

From Elios:

(Elios has just rescued two aliens.)

The male stared at me in surprise, and then looked for the woman. As their eyes met, a smile appeared on his mouth, and he chirped a long sequence of notes. At her short answer, he pushed himself up, trying to reach her, but fell on the ground.

“Easy, big fellow.” I hooked my right arm under his and helped him on his feet.

Given his size, he was surprisingly light. He gave me a thankful smile, then kneeled by the woman and rested his head on her belly, and while gently caressing it, he sung to the baby.

Feeling I was intruding in their private moment, I looked away and made to leave.

The man grabbed my hand and stopped me. “Tankiu.” He looked at the woman and then back at me. “Tankiuforsevingrea.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”

“Tankiuforsevingas.” He smiled. “Tankiu.”

I repeated what he had just said in my mind and I finally understood. His accent had tricked me, but he had spoken in Standard, a common travelers’ language.

“Thank you,” he said one more time when I smiled. “Your soul healed us back to conscious life.”

He touched me again and showed me what had happened by triggering a Share. When I had reached for the woman, for a brief moment I had imagined their story could be mine. I had felt their love and their pain in losing each other. With my empathic touch I had jumpstarted their consciousness back to life, like he had just said.

I shivered. “You looked dead.”

“We were in non-life.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Our bodies shut down. We waited for help. Your love saved us.”