Good morning. I'm pleased today to have my first ever guest post! This is an author who contacted me to see if I could host her. While I've not read her book (alas my review schedule is very full right now), I did agree to have her do a guest post.
About Emma Right -
Award Winning and Best Seller author, Emma Right, is a happy wife
and Christian homeschool mother of five living in the Pacific West Coast of the
USA. Besides running a busy home, and looking after their five pets, which
includes two cats, two bunnies and a Long-haired Dachshund, she also writes
stories for her children. When she doesn't have her nose in a book, she is
telling her kids to get theirs in one.
Emma worked as a copywriter for
two major advertising agencies and won several awards, including the
prestigious Clio Award for her ads, before she settled down to have children.
Emma Right is currently features in Authors’ Network latest book, 50 Great Authors You Should be Reading.
She can be contacted through her website at
http://www.emmaright.com/
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/user/YoungAdultAndKids
Now, here's Emma.
In
light of the recent criticisms and controversy in my book, Dead Dreams, Book 1,
(I even got a hate mail because of it, which is unbelievable!) I thought I’d be
transparent and share the difficulties authors sometimes face—at least I’d
faced it! How I handle criticism.
When I had a soft launch
for Dead Dreams in August/September 2013 I first went to the secular market
because I felt impressed to leak out some semblance of a Christian worldview to
the dark world without God, let alone Christ. (Some of the sites that featured
Dead Dreams, 1, had lewd looking covers that made me blush plastered all over
their websites and these were quite disconcerting to look at! But these types
of books are what their readers are reading and are used to.)
Through several
independently run blog tour companies some 50 secular book bloggers hosted me
and some read and reviewed Dead Dreams, Book 1. Most gave the book a four and a
five star rating on Amazon. (I believe I got only one 3 star and one 1 star
rating from the 50 bloggers who were all non-believers—which was not bad
considering that I felt I was in the lions’ den.) A couple even commented that
they had never read a book with a Christian worldview before (!) and was
pleasantly surprised. Most were gracious (even though I never had direct
contact with them) and gave the book a fair rating and comments. These are
readers who have read a lot and are able to appreciate objectively.
I am okay with criticisms
as long as it is fair. Comments like “ripped off” when a reader only paid 99c
for a nearly 300 page book which took me a year to write with two editors and
thousands of dollars to put together just doesn’t seem fair, somehow. Even a
cup of coffee costs more than my book.
Earlier this year I made
Dead Dreams, Book 1, free for 4 days and gave the eBook download away through a
secular company who gave Dead Dreams, book 1, 20,000 free downloads. A week
later a barrage of one and two star reviews came in (I am supposing mostly from
unbelievers) and they thrashed Dead Dreams for any number of reasons—poorly
edited, left them hanging since this was a cliff hanger ending and they felt
cheated and wouldn’t pay for book 2 (and they got book1 free!), too much God
talk, and most left a generic reviews which really could be for any book—which
makes me wonder if they even read the book.
Another criticism was that
the protagonist in Dead Dreams is too naïve---and this review was written by a
thirty something year old mother. I certainly hope this mature reader is not as
naïve as the eighteen year old main character in Dead Dreams, since she has to
raise up children! Perhaps it is human nature that when they get something for
free or something that is only 99c they don’t see any worth in it.
So
how do I handle criticisms?
I
don’t. I ask for prayer and leave it to my God who will supply all my needs
according to His riches to fight for me. Maybe I am naïve to expect God to
rescue me. But, if our God provided an army of angels to the Israelites when
they were under attack, surely, He will protect His own children,-- we who are
HIS children because of His Son Jesus Christ. I am relying on HIM to provide me
with protection. And like Esther told Mordecai: If I die, I die. But in my
heart I know that God will not let each of us who are His children and who
believe die. If we, who are evil, know how to give good things to our own
children, surely we can rely on our Father to help us.
What is the most
challenging part of being an indie author?
An
indie author has to prove herself/ himself so much more than a traditionally
published author. To be honest I do read
secular books from secular authors (and oh, the profanity I have go
through—ouch!)And these mainstream, well-known authors write books with
cliffhanger endings, too. (Jeffrey Archer’s Clifton series and even the last
James Patterson’s Alex Cross series.) But yet they all still sell books. These
authors have big names with big money backing them. Indie authors only have
their pens (or keyboards) and their God, if they are Christians, backing them.
But I feel this is enough. If God is for us then who can be against us.
Why
I wrote Dead Dreams.
I
wanted to write a story for young ladies –girls between 13 and 18, --on the
cusps of adulthood, but who are not quite out of the house yet. Dead Dreams is
a suspense thriller but it is so much more. Without being preachy Dead Dreams
hopes to impress upon the young readers the deceit out there in the world.
Having
homeschooled my children and being around other girls coming from a more
sheltered lifestyle I noticed that in their innocence and youth they tended to
jump onto to things that look attractive without weighing hidden consequences.
I wanted to explore possibilities that could be present in each young person as
she travels in this journey of self-discovery and finding out for herself, when
enough is enough; that limit that separates what's acceptable from too
dangerous; and the possibilities these choices could lead to.
I
have always enjoyed a good thriller mystery so I wanted to write a young adult
book that has a strong message yet is still filled with intrigue, mystery, and
suspense. Hence, Dead Dreams. It is a part of a series, and the first book
leaves questions that will be answered in book 2.
Thank you Emma.
Here is info about her book.
Book
Trailer:
Dead
Dreams, Book 1:
