Isa Maxwell’s second adventure proves to be even more entertaining than the first and decidedly more dangerous. This time, the dippy but well-intentioned blonde, having made oodles of money from writing a book, embarks on a trip to India to use some of her wealth to help the poor and dispossessed, plus a supposedly down-on-his-luck prince.
On her flight out to India, Isa meets the glamorous and bejewelled Vivian, who seems like best-friend material at first acquaintance. [Anything further about this relationship would be a spoiler, so my lips are sealed.]
Isa’s arrival in Delhi is a total culture shock. Noise, fumes, chaos, locals haggling for business, police corruption, Indian mafia activities, you name it, Isa finds it, or it finds her. It’s as if her naïvety, combined with good-heartedness, acts as a magnet to those looking for easy pickings. But to underestimate Isa’s ability to pull out all the stops (albeit with plentiful blunders on the way), is to assume that she isn’t capable of great ingenuity when it comes to survival.
Shizzle, Inc (Isa Maxwell Escapades Book 1) was primarily comedy chic-lit, but Indiot is a thriller with OTT elements that amount to comedy of the variety that makes you cover your face or clutch your head as you wonder if things can get any worse for Isa. It would make a great comedy thriller movie, and the fact that I kept seeing it as such, says a great deal about Ana Spoke’s ability to paint an extremely vivid picture of India as seen very much through her central protagonist’s eyes: the idealistic outsider learning the hard way about an alien culture.
Ana Spoke gave me an advance copy of Indiot in exchange for an honest review, although my apologies to the author for not making it until nearly a week after publication day. I actually read the novel in two sittings, which says much about its ability to grip the reader’s attention.The only negative to me–and it’s only something small–was that I felt that there could be a little more about Isa’s relationship with Mr Hue and with her friend Harden in Book 1. This was necessary both as a recap for those who read the previous novel soon after it came out (about 9 months ago), as well as to anyone who picked up Book 2 first and read it as a standalone. So, everybody, read both novels, and read them in the right order.
And when you reach the end of Indiot, I can pretty much guarantee that Ana Spoke will have left you dying to read Isa Maxwell’s Escapade Book 3.
This is an author whose writing gets better and better…
Almost six months have passed since my launch into the world of indie publishing with Desiccation. Have I enjoyed the experience? Yes and No. It has been a huge learning curve and there are things I wish I’d known before.
One tip, to those thinking of going down the same route as me, trial and error learning is all very well, but it’s best not to obsess over your Amazon stats on a daily basis if you’re not to give yourself a nervous breakdown. It’s better to focus on something less volatile and more positive, such as the amazing amount of publishing knowledge you’ve accrued along the way that you can apply to your next project and retrospectively to your first novel when you have your second one out there. But more about that over the next few months.
So here’s my latest book description for Desiccation. This is the one I’ll keep (“Phew, at long last,” I hear you all say!).
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Janet Beckett is a science scholarship girl who believes there’s a rational explanation for all paranormal phenomena. There is, if you happen to meet a know-it-all hippie pixie who lives in a dimensional transcendental toadstool.
Samantha Hamilton-Brown thinks she’s Queen of the Universe and can do as she pleases in her role as new head girl of Toffdene boarding school. She can, until aliens cut her reign short and screw with the minds of almost every student and teacher in the establishment.
Joe Buckell is leader of a delinquent mod gang and fancies getting his end away with some hoity-toity daughters of the élite. He does, but not in the way he hopes.
When desiccation threatens, you’ll do anything to survive.
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This week there’s a Kindle Countdown Deal that runs from today until 27th May, with Desiccation for sale on Amazon (UK) and Amazon (US) at the discounted price of £0.99 and $1.43 respectively.
I’m always a bit shy in coming forward, but I’ve got to learn the art of more proactive marketing. What’s the saying, “If you don’t ask you don’t get”? Or “What is there to lose? The worst that can happen is for people to say no”.
So here goes…
If you haven’t already read my book, please buy the Kindle version of my book while it’s going cheap.
If you have already read my book and enjoyed it, please tell your friends about my Countdown Deal.
Please, everyone, share about my Countdown Deal on social media.
Question: What does an author do when all the advice about writing a book description for Amazon is contradictory?
Answer: She slowly goes mad.
I have a big problem. My family is sick of me footling around with the words that might make or break a book sale, quite apart from the possibility that Amazon will get cheesed off with me revising my book description every other day.
Here is some of the advice out there, all of it from proclaimed experts.
If you don’t write a description of at least 500 words the search engine algorithms won’t pick it up
Use all 4000 characters allocated to you by Amazon
Keep it under 150 words
You have a few seconds to grab a buyer’s attention, so do it in two sentences
Put all of your keywords in the Amazon description for SEO optimisation
Putting your keywords in the description serves no purpose and irritates Amazon
Add snippets of reviews at the foot of your description
Amazon does not allow snippets of reviews in the description
I could give many more examples, but will stop there.
Now I’m going to ask my family of bloggers to imagine they’ve never heard of me and they’re looking to buy a book on Amazon.
Then I would like them to tell me which of the book descriptions below (if any) would grab them enough to commit to buying a copy of my novel. If you don’t like science fiction and fantasy, you’ll need to imagine that you love this combination of genres, just for the purpose of this exercise.
The numbered examples are in the order they were created, beginning with the one based on the blurb on the back of my book (which I no longer thinks passes muster).
Beneath the last example is a poll for you to complete. Any further feedback much appreciated.
Example 1
Autumn Term 1967, Samantha, the new head girl, intends to reign supreme and exploit every loophole in the system to her advantage. This includes running an illicit nocturnal business in the gymnasium and conducting midnight seances in the library, but she hasn’t bargained on rough London mod, Joe, entering the equation.
Scholarship girl Janet senses a disruption to the natural order, impossible to explain away with science. Soon, the teachers and pupils start to exhibit multiple personality changes and develop a hive mentality, with Janet the despised outsider.
And now a hippie pixie who claims he’s an expert in repairing dimensions wants Janet’s help to mend what Samantha has broken before it’s too late…
Example 2
St Trinian’s meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Autumn Term 1967, mayhem breaks out at an élite British boarding school on the south coast of England. Samantha, the new head girl, intends to reign supreme and exploit every loophole in the system to her advantage. This includes running an illicit nocturnal business in the gymnasium and conducting midnight seances in the library, but she hasn’t bargained on London mod, Joe, entering the equation. Leader of a gang on probation for petty crimes, Joe has suffered a lifetime of bombardment by malign spirits. Now, thanks to the head girl’s flirtation with the occult, he has become the conduit for something that pales these spirits into insignificance.
Haunted by the mysterious death of the school caretaker the previous term, scholarship girl Janet senses a disruption to the natural order, impossible to explain away with science. When teachers and students start to exhibit multiple personality changes and develop a hive mentality, Janet becomes the despised outsider. Can she trust, as her protector, a hippie pixie who claims he’s an expert in repairing dimensions? And will she muster the courage to help him reverse a catastrophe that could destroy humankind?
Huddled in a corner, watching, loathing, their world lost to them. A human had dragged them here, away from their own kind. Alone, abandoned, drifting in a world in between.
Example 3
When mayhem erupts at a British boarding school, scholarship pupil Janet discovers the narrow dividing line between magic and science. It’s 1967 and the new head girl Samantha intends to play the system for all its worth, but this backfires [on her]* big time after she invites some delinquent mods to a seance and their gang leader causes an interdimensional rift. With bodysnatching aliens on the rampage, the pupils and teachers develop a hive mentality determined to ensnare Janet into its collective consciousness. Can she entrust herself to the protection of a hippie pixie who claims he’s an expert in repairing dimensions, and will she muster the courage to help him reverse a catastrophe that could destroy humankind?
[* I’m not sure if the words “on her” are necessary]
Example 4
Huddled in a corner, watching, loathing, their world lost to them. A human had dragged them here, away from their own kind. Alone, abandoned, drifting in a world in between.
When mayhem erupts at a British boarding school, scholarship pupil Janet discovers the narrow dividing line between magic and science. It’s 1967 and the new head girl, Samantha, intends to play the system for all its worth, but this backfires big time after she invites some delinquent mods to a seance and their gang leader causes an interdimensional rift.
With bodysnatching aliens on the rampage, the pupils and teachers develop a hive mentality determined to ensnare Janet into its collective consciousness. Can she entrust herself to the protection of a hippie pixie who claims he’s an expert in repairing dimensions, and will she muster the courage to help him reverse a catastrophe that could destroy humankind?
Thank you for taking the time to read my post and complete this poll 🙂
Yay! It’s sale time, starting tomorrow. And I’m going for one increment, which means that for six days, from March 2 – 8. the Kindle version of my YA science fiction/urban fantasy novel, Desiccation, will be on sale on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk at $1.37/£0.99.
Its usual price is $2.99/£1.99, so if you’re a reader who prefers to buy a début author’s novel at a bargain price, here’s your chance. Of course, once you’ve read this novel, I hope you’ll become loyal fans itching to buy my next book at its full price when it comes out 😉
Whilst posting, I’d like to say a huge thank you to those of you who entered the recent Goodreads Giveaway to win a paperback copy of Desiccation. A whopping 1,005 people entered this draw, about 380 added it to their too-read shelves, and the lucky winner came from the US.
Sarah Potter Writes 