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“The Janus Project” : A Saturday Self-Published Book Review

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review, courtesy of Just Reviews:

the janus project brad anderson

Janus Project

by Brad Anderson

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 978-1432753887

Synopsis*:

The Feds have a special place for marquee witnesses. It’s not a matter of where; it’s a matter of when…

Army veteran and restaurant owner John Callan was at the wrong place at absolutely the worst time. And he paid for it with the lives of his wife and daughter. His attempt at revenge on Morgan Ropp, the country’s most lethal criminal, lands him in a special, top secret section of the Federal Witness Security Program: the Janus Project.

Life under Janus is supposed to be the safest available for protected witnesses – and it is for Callan until Morgan escapes from prison and finds out where – and when – Callan is hiding.

The Janus Project reveals the struggle of survival when the need for revenge pushes us to the brink of disaster. This character-driven novel highlights the dichotomy of a man torn between the fictional life that has been implanted in his new reality and the depth of his instincts that drive him within his innermost soul.

Which reality will win? It’s a matter of time.

Critique:

Your entire family is wiped out in a flash. Your wife and daughter paid with their lives because you were at the wrong place at the wrong time. But, the person who caused this crime is one of the most dangerous criminals in the world and because of what you know and the fact you have to testify against this killer your life is about to change forever. The FEDS have created a special place for what they call marquee witnesses. Some would think it would be a witness protection program relocating you to another state and being carefully monitored. Not so. This program is unique unto itself, as each person that is a part of it is placed not where but in a different when.

John Callan is the man who is paying with more than his life to attempt revenge against Morgan Ropp, a deadly killer. Hearing her words in prison, seeing what she was able to do when attacked by inmates and threatening her lawyer with everything she’s got lets readers know that she is far from done with Callan and if released the people protecting him will have to do more than just wipe out his memories and thoughts. Trying to get her is what places him danger and in the Janus Project. But, sometimes after going through the portal, leaving yourself and your past behind, winding up years before he even met his wife, John’s thoughts cannot be completely erased and although he now works in a bank as a teller and met a lady in the past named Becky, time travel might have changed his location but not totally altered him memory and who he really is.

Ropp is dangerous and prison bars cannot hold her and she escapes and will come gunning for John. But, first a young agent working the surveillance on the night shift realizes that John/AKA/Scott Blackburne, is now remembering his past as he writes notes to himself which brings it all back and causes the alarms to go off in Deputy Wallace’s head making it necessary to take him back. What is real to him and what is imagination? Within minutes of entering his new world he encounters an older man named Larry Douglas and manages to carry him to safety. The scene with him jumping into a river and carrying this man out to safety is quite compelling and will make you wonder just who John really is and what was his training in the past. The innermost turmoil within John/Scott is evident as he fights within himself to decide which life is real the one created for him by the Feds or the one he lost when his wife and daughter died. But, he’s not the only one who has suffered and meeting Becky he learns about the death of her parents and the truth behind why she keeps her brother’s door closed as they begin to bond in the past but what about when and if he returns to the present?

The premise of this book is that the Witness Protection Program hides people in the past, “The Janus Project”. Veteran John Callan witnessed something he wished he hadn’t. It cost him the lives of his wife and daughter. He wanted revenge on Morgan Ropp, instead he was sent back in time. Ropp discovered where they were keeping Callan. She escaped prison and goes after Callan.

Robb is on a mission to get out of jail and with the help of her lawyer, Sam and another man hired to take him out she hopes that he will be eliminated very soon. But, first she has to find a way out of jail and wherever they are holding Scott/John. Learning about the Witness Protection Program and his ability to stop bank robbers, handle difficult situations and even now according to time travel and advancement living in a small town for 30 years. Yet, when we meet Sam and Jim it is the past and not that much time has passed. Although they trust him you even hear the voices of Ben, his boss and President of the bank where he worked at first, the Doc and Larry the man whose life he saved wonder and start putting together the pieces of a very unusual puzzle.

Even Becky, now listed as his wife thinks that certain things about him just don’t fit and when she questions Ben, things start to come a little clearer but they have yet to figure out why and how he arrived there. His mind flashes back and forth and he seems to be fighting his own demons at times yet not trying to understand everything but wanting to know more. Remembering his past life in some respects yet moving on in the present. How do you erase who you really are? Can you ever really disappear within your own body and have a different mind set and forget your past and your entire life? There are people monitoring him every minute of every day yet does he realize that? When will it all come to blows and when will John/Scott have to come back to the present and face it all? But, in the end where will his loyalties lie? With time periods switching back and forth and now Morgan on the loose things are about to heat up in both dimensions. As Morgan plans her revenge and those in the past realize what exactly happened and we meet the man who decided to help her, the author leaves Becky and us wondering just what the fate of John/Scott will be too. There are two worlds that are affected and too many with the power to alter time and create these wormholes. The ending is terrifying and will keep you on edge until the final scene is revealed.

Which world will John choose and which lives are real? When the ending comes to light he has to make a decision that will either cause his memories to come back from both worlds or lose them completely. When dealing with the doctors and people in charge of the Janus project their reasons for wanting him out of the way might make sense to them but what about John? Deputy Wallace is standing in front of him and John has decided where he belongs. You the reader will have to learn that for yourself and decide just how far would you go to save those you care about the most? What about the technology that was created and allowed as the doctor states: The God Factor and whatever is meant to be will be. You decide if you agree when you read this thought provoking book by author Brad Anderson and wonder what he has in store for us next.

[ reviewed by Fran Lewis at Just Reviews ]

Here’s what other reviewers are saying:

The Janus Project grabbed my attention from the first paragraph and didn’t let go until the last page, which came way too soon. It’s a taut thriller in the spirit of Baldacci and Iles, with well-developed characters that draw you in and make you care about them even as you’re eagerly turning the page to keep up with the action.

I’ve always been fascinated by time travel, so the concept of the Witness Protection Program using the past to hide a witness caught my attention right away, and the book delivers everything the idea promises and then some.

Great read…I highly recommend it.

– Amazon Reviewer Lisa J. Blackerby

Three people’s lives collide in a past that isn’t so past. Brad Anderson’s The Janus Project tells the story of three people in extraordinary circumstances. John Callan loses everything he holds dear to the beautiful sociopathic criminal, Morgan Ropp. The Janus Project gives Callan the chance he needs to hide, stay alive and exact his revenge. What better place to hide than in another time scape, that is until Ropp suddenly disappears from her high security prison cell. Callan realizes that the same technology that saved him has trapped him. Anderson hits five stars with The Janus Project. If you would lay down your life for those you love, or fight when there is no hope of winning then you know a little bit about John Callan.

– Amazon Reviewer r richard maxwell   

Book Trailer:

* = courtesy of the book’s Amazon book page.

saturday self-published book review

Thanks for reading!  Keep up with the latest in the world of indie and self-published books by watching this space every Saturday!

Self Publishing Advisor

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amazon, elizabeth speaks, in your corner, search engine optimization, Uncategorized

In Your Corner: Optimize your Amazon presence!

Amazon is, for all intents and purposes, the powerhouse when it comes to the book distribution process.  It doesn’t seem to be a temporary thing, either; authors and publishers alike simply must acclimate to the fact that to sell a lot of books, they first must tailor their Amazon presence to be an attractive one.  And Amazon seems to have good intentions insofar as providing resources goes: its architects have dedicated incredible resources to creating better ways to connect authors with their readers.

There are a lot of ways to promote your book on Amazon, and since sales through this website may very well account for a large percentage of your overall book sales, it’s worth making sure you’re aware of all of the options!

amazon warehouse

The first step, of course, is to figure out what you’re doing right.

To do this, locate your book listing on Amazon by searching the title or ISBN.  Once your book listing is fully loaded, make sure your cover is showing.  If it isn’t there yet, make sure to upload a quality image for your readers to view–preferably at a high resolution.  Double-check that all of the information on display is accurate, and check back every few weeks to make sure it stays up-to-date and glitch-free.  This all is predicated on the assumption, of course, that you already have your book for sale on Amazon … but what if you don’t?

Create an Author Central account.

This account differs from the normal customer account you may already have on Amazon as a result of buying something (or many things).  An Author Central account allows you to better manage your books, and the process is free, so there are zero reasons not to create one.  To begin, navigate to authorcentral.amazon.com and register your profile, following the on-screen prompts to add your books to your bibliography, create a blog, edit or revise your online descriptions, and use a number of other tools on offer.

Returning to your book listing page, it’s vital that you include only relevant and compelling sales information with a positive marketing slant that will increase both your exposure and the number of people who actually buy your book.  That’s money in the bank!  Streamline your page to avoid the clutter of white noise (information that distracts from what’s really important) and reassess regularly.

Go for those reviews.  Go for them.

Amazon rewards activity on your Author Central profile page and on your book page listings, to the more reviews you have–the more people who will be directed to your book via Amazon’s search algorithms, and the more people who will buy and review your book.  Interesting Factoid Alert: This is the definition of a positive feedback loop!  You want your book’s activity to outweigh the activity on all other books of comparable genre, content, and publication date–so in a sense, it is a bit of race to rack up the reviews.  To get these reviews, it’s a good plan to:

  1. Write online reviews for other books.  This gets your name out there, establishing you as an authority, and will occasionally be reciprocated by those authors you review.
  2. Entice people you know to review your book.  And if you don’t yet know a host of eager reviewers, consider hosting giveaways or offering discounts to potential reviewers.
  3. Mark positive reviews of your book as ‘helpful.’  There’s a link attached to each review on your book that allows other viewers to gauge the review’s usefulness (and accuracy).  You can ask your other friends and followers to do this, too.

Books without reviews are like books no one is buying–Amazon’s algorithms tend to leave them out of search engine results and “If you like this, you might also like this” recommendations.  It’s unethical (and fairly easy for others to spot) to give your own book a five-star review, but you shouldn’t shy from asking others to.  The worst they can say is ‘no,’ and there are plenty who will say ‘yes.’

Share your book using Amazon’s built-in features.

Picture this: sending an Amazon-branded email to all of your friends and acquaintances.  Imagine that the email contains a large image of your book cover along with its retail price, star rating, and an enormous inviting button saying “Learn More”!  Well, this option exists, is free, and is almost ridiculously easy to use.  All you have to do is locate your book on Amazon, look at your sales detail page, find the “Share” button (usually on the right-hand column).  Click “Share” and crack open your list of email contacts.  You can enter the email addresses for anyone you know who might like to know about your book, following the on-screen prompts to enter up to four hundred people at a time.

Amazon also makes it easy to share your book listing on social media.  You don’t have to copy the link manually; just click the Twitter, Facebook, and other social media icons on your book listing page–and again, just follow the prompts to log in and post the link to your followers.  Easy peasy!  And the best part is … every ‘hit’ on your book listing page boosts your online presence and optimizes your Amazon page within their complicated system.  Give yourself a leg up and explore all of your options!

amazon warehouse

You are not alone. ♣︎

Elizabeth

ABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 18 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Manager of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, pre-production specialists, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.

 

Book Design, Cover Design, Kelly Speaks, Uncategorized

The Book Beautiful: The Cover

While the old adage “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” is one all too oft repeated, we all know that we’ve been in a bookstore and picked up a book with an author and title we weren’t familiar with simply because the cover appealed to our senses in some way. That’s not to say that the heart of the matter isn’t what happens to be inside the book; I can just as easily recall how many times I’ve put down that same book with the interesting cover after scanning a few pages and deciding it wasn’t for me.

When you’ve completed a book that you’ve poured your heart, your soul, and countless hours into, it’s important that your piece physically reflects how beautiful of an accomplishment self-publishing can be. While the traditional means for designing a book cover happened to be very time consuming and left a lot of authors underwhelmed with the result, luckily for today’s authors, we live in a digital age which makes designing a book cover more exciting and involved (especially for a self-publishing author)!

Nowadays, you can ‘pin’, ‘Like’, and ‘Share’ graphics; better yet, you can share your potential book cover ideas on social media and get feedback from potential readers. You can get readers involved and have them vote on their favorite cover, or even host a contest that allows readers to submit cover ideas of their own! But perhaps we should backpedal before we get ahead of ourselves and ask what message do want your book cover to send?

As the author, you of all people know best what audience it is you are trying to target and the essential theme your book most embodies, be it: inspiration, achievement, mystery, romance, revenge, etc. etc. Once you’ve nailed down your audience and theme, the visual metaphors that you have to work with will become more obvious.

No matter who your audience is, you want them to be excited when they see the cover of your book. You want to stop people walking by the bookstore, or walking by the bookshelf, and you want to evoke their curiosity and pique their interest. If we take a look at the covers below we will see captivating images that begin to non-verbally communicate the scope of the story the author has also artfully fabricated:

When a book cover is able to explain the scope of a book, it allows the reader to save precious time wading through the myriad of titles in libraries and bookstores.

Remember when designing a book cover that sometimes less is more. The title, your name, and a striking image are often enough. Don’t feel the need to crowd the space with over-thought or crowded typography and definitely avoid stock images that could hurt your book’s credibility.  Need I give examples of cheesy, godawful book covers? No, but I will anyway.

I won’t annotate any further, as a picture is worth a million words.

Make sure the cover of your book, no matter how many words are inside of it, has a picture that is worth all the hard work you put into it. Remember that human beings are visual creatures and that the cover of your book is an important marketing tool. Be professional, be thoughtful, but also be bold!

 

Thank you for reading!  If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com.  And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠

Kelly

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com
from the archives, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Uncategorized

From the Archives: “The Importance of Genre”

Welcome back to our Tuesday segment, where we’ll be revisiting some of our most popular posts from the last few years.  What’s stayed the same?  And what’s changed?  We’ll be updating you on the facts, and taking a new (and hopefully refreshing) angle on a few timeless classics of Self Publishing Advisor.

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[ Originally posted: March 27th, 2012 ]

The genre of your book is one of the most important decisions you will make when self-publishing. It will impact who buys and reads your book as well as how reads it.

The most important to thing to remember when choosing a genre is to not pick a genre too soon. Too often, authors set out thinking “I want to write children’s books” or “I want to write adult mystery novels,” but writing often takes on a life of its own and your book may not best fit in the genre you originally intended.

Once the book is finished, it is important to consider the audience you hope to reach. Are children your target audience? Are professionals in a certain field your audience, or do you want your book to appeal to a wide, general audience? A narrow genre can limit the readers who find your book. This is one of the few cases where general can be better.

Finally, think about how readers will find your book. Will they primarily search online, or will they visit a  bookstore? If your readers will be searching online, consider keywords when choosing a genre. This will ensure that your book shows up in the search results.

If you are still unsure about the genre of your book, talk to other writers and people who work in the publishing and book distribution industry. Visit your local bookstores to look at the titles in your genre and talk to the sales people. Seeing and hearing what other writers are doing and what readers are buying can help make this difficult decision easier.

– by Cheri Breeding

Genre is an important element of your book, before and during and after the publication process–but I must (politely) take a different tack from the one that Cheri Breeding took back in 2012.  In my personal (and somewhat expert) opinion, an author–particularly a self-publishing author–shouldn’t think about genre at all until after the manuscript is completely written.  I’m not saying that if you have a project underway you should intentionally scrub all thought of genre from your mind, but I am saying that your novel or book of poems or illustrated children’s book should be written the way it demands to be written, and those demands evolve over time as the characters and plot take on life of their own.  A book should not be written as a slave to notions of genre and all the expectations that go along with those notions.

genre book covers

The true importance of genre comes into play after the manuscript is written.  At that point, yes, you can take genre under consideration in reshaping whatever needs to be reshaped in order to reach masterful perfection–if you want, if that proves helpful to you–and you can take notes from the authors you admire whose works exert influence upon your source of inspiration.  But the best part is when the manuscript is done being a manuscript and has become a book you’re willing to send out into the world, because the best part happens when you start crafting something else entirely: your marketing strategy.

Genre is one of the most important discovery tools out there for authors of all stripes and colors.  In terms of importance, it’s right up there with personal recommendations and an attractive book cover–and even the most attractive of book covers doesn’t do much for sales if it doesn’t represent the tone and content of the book, giving hints and clues as to what the reader will find there.  And that’s … kind of the same wheelhouse as genre, isn’t it?   Genre is so fundamental to book discoverability that booksellers and watchdogs don’t just break down how many people buy books because of genre, but how many people buy books because of a highly specific genre–whether that’s science fiction, fantasy, romance, nonfiction, crime fiction, or any other of a number of genres available for discussion.

You can put genre to work in the marketing process first and foremost by ensuring that your marketing strategy lines up with your book’s genre–or genres.  Hybrid and cross-genre works are gaining ground in a crowded marketplace looking for fresh approaches to literature, so don’t be afraid to embrace the multi-dimensionality of your work–you just might have to use language that touches on the buzzwords of both categories in your promotional blog posts, tweets, and metadata.  And regardless of the genre of the book you’re publishing, you need to employ the language of genre in pretty much every scrap of promotion you put together.  Whether it’s in an on-air interview or in a press release or in the description you upload with your book trailer to YouTube, genre is your ally.  The more you talk about it, the more your book will turn up in the discussions–and indexed search results on Google and Bing–and that’s good news both for you and for your readers.

Never dismiss the importance of genre!  Just … don’t let your work be defined by it.  Your book enriches its genre, and informed the dimensions of what its genre or genres will be defined by in the future.

Thanks for reading.  If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.  Drop me a line in the comments section below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.  ♠

Kelly

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com

 

Kelly Speaks, news from the self publishing world, self publishing news, Uncategorized

Self-Publishing News: 8.8.2016

And now for the news!

This week in the world of self-publishing:

The title really says it all, in this case: says Alison Flood in The Guardian on August 5th, “A father who tried self-publishing the bedtime story he made up for his daughters has landed a surprise order of 2,000 copies from Virgin Atlantic to help children sleep on night flights.”  The book in question, Stephen Holmes’ The Great Hot Air Balloon Adventure (illustrated by Kev Payne), was inspired by a bedtime story Holmes had been telling his daughters for years–and he never had the intent to publish or sell until Madison, age seven, requested it. The story of how his book connected with Virgin Atlantic is an interesting one: having ordered an intial print run of 1000 copies and having sold roughly half that number, Holmes decided to send a copy to an airline executive via LinkedIn as a spur-of-the-moment inspiration–and the airline enjoyed it so much they decided to order an additional print run of 2000 in order to distribute copies on their night flights. The book, according to Flood, “tells of best friends Tom and Jessica–the names chosen by his daughters – who are taken on a night balloon ride by a ‘very well spoken’ rabbit. They drink hot chocolate and bounce on clouds, before meeting a friendly owl and flying home to bed.”  The icing on the cake?  Flood gives a brief run-down at the end of her article on the progress self-publishing has made in recent years.

“It’s the best choice for self publishers to publish their magazines easily and quickly without any delay,” writes Veronica Linn in this August 5th piece for WhaTech.  FlipHTML5, once voted the “best magazine newsstand app maker by users around the world,” gives publishers “the chance to create realistic CSS3, jQuery and HTML E-magazines from PDF versions instantly which they are distribute through online or offline outlets.” This is good news for self-publishing authors, who often need to capitalize upon timeliness in order to turn a profit.  Says Linn, “All one has to do is to upload the input material, insert personal logo and multimedia content and change themes and backgrounds to achieve the look they want.”  It’s worth noting that Linn, who as an employee of FlipHTML5, is not exactly unbiased in the service of self-publishing–but in many ways her piece hits all of the right notes.  To read the full release, click here!

“More than half of all science fiction magazines failed to publish fiction from black authors in 2015,” writes Andrew Liptak for The Verge on August 4th: “Speculative fiction magazine Fireside Fiction has commissioned and released a report detailing an unwelcome revelation: speculative fiction magazines and online fiction sites are failing to publish stories by black writers.”  Liptak reports on the report, calling it “damning” and that “of the 2,039 short stories published last year across 63 magazines, only 38 were published by black authors.”  These stats are fairly self-evident, indeed, but what do they have to do with self-publishing?  It all has to do with the part short stories have to play in boosting the science fiction genre.  Says Liptak, “Short fiction also allows authors to experiment with form, style, and narratives which can have great impact on the field as a whole. Barriers for specific groups of people hurts the field as a whole by blocking new voices and styles from reaching a wider audience.”  Liptak excerpts an interview with author N.K. Jemisin (author of The Fifth Season and Obelisk Gate), who “noted that some authors that might have otherwise published through traditional markets have found other outlets for their work.”  Says Jemisin (through Liptak), “There’s a gigantic market of self-published and small press published black fiction that kind of eschews the whole traditional published market simply because back in the nineties when all of this really kind of kicked off … the traditional publishing industry basically treated black writers as if they were anomalies.”  So in other words, self-publishing is promoting diversity in a highly structured and often exclusionary genre.  That’s good work, self-publishers!  To read the full Verge article, follow the link.

spa-news

As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry. This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog every Monday to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.

Kelly

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com

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