Great piece of news today – IndieReader.com has posted a review of Seeing by Moonlight, and it’s glowingly positive. 4.5 stars out of 5, even:
SEEING BY MOONLIGHT is a thoughtful and intricate story, with enough food for thought to keep the reader’s brain and heart engaged from beginning to end.
We are also entitled to post this awesome sticker anywhere we promote the book:
It’s a clean, general, spoiler-free review. Doesn’t delve into the weeds or engage in heavy criticism, but it’s accurate to the story and our intent. It’s always the first piece of good news that a reader understands what the hell we wanted them to understand.
Now, full disclosure, we paid for this review. Services like this are out there for independent direct publishers, and IndieReader is one of the most high-profile. Obviously services like these are open to the criticism that the money we pay puts pressure on them to keep us, the “customer”, happy with positive reviews. But on the flip side, a site like this only lasts as long as its credibility, so it can’t be ubiquitous. I took a scan through their review archives and maybe 40% or less of the books reviewed get a 4-star or above review that earns the sticker. Maybe that skews on the friendly side, maybe they just had a good month.
We’re also out to Kirkus, which is the AAA version of the same sort of service; very highly-regarded, and also very much more expensive. Publishing a book – if you want to go about it the polished way – is not a free undertaking. We’re still awaiting their verdict, my guess is that it’s likely to be stricter, but well-argued.
But I know that a review like this was not guaranteed, and it gives us hope that our gamble will drive a little business.
Also – I am totally at peace with not getting 5/5 stars, because neither of us is named “Raymond Chandler”. So I’m just going to stare at my new virtual sticker happily: