ATHOL DICKSON

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Five Minutes or Less to Posting an Amazon Review

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SO YOU READ one of my novels, and now you want to tell people about it? THANK YOU! No matter what you have to say about my novel, your review is important. It will let other visitors to Amazon know someone has read my books, which is vital in making an independently published author like myself visible to a wider audience.

Because we’re all busy, here are some tips for reviewing a book quickly:

The 5 second “Like” – If you really have no time, you can simply click the “like” button underneath the title. If you have another second or two, then you can also share the book’s Amazon page with your Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest friends.

Rate someone else’s’ review – You’ll see the “Yes” and “No” buttons for this just below the person’s comments. Reviews with the most “helpful” votes appear on the buy page. By voting for the most informative reviews, you help move them to the head of the line. Have another minute? Click the link beside the buttons to leave a quick comment about their review. If you find a thoughtful, thorough review that helps you decide whether to buy the book, the reviewer will always welcome a little praise.

Tell people what you thought about the book – If you can spend a couple of minutes more, go ahead and leave your own review. Click on the text link that tells how many reviews the book already has. You’ll see that link beside the stars. Then click on the “Create Your Own Review” button to get started. You can keep it short. One or two sentences is fine. But if you want to say a little more, keep it informal. Just talk about the things you liked or disliked as you would with a friend over coffee or tea. Almost anything you have to say about your reading experience is fine. The only thing you should NOT do when reviewing a novel is give away the ending, or any of the important plot twists.

Give it a star rating – Be honest, but do consider what the stars mean. 5 or 4 stars are a positive endorsement, which will help an author’s career. You should choose one of those if you think the book was well written and well worth your time. 3 stars is neutral, for books that you consider about average when compared to others of their kind. 2 or 1 star ratings are seen as “NOT RECOMMENDED” by Amazon, which can damage an author’s career. They should be chosen only if you think the book was very poorly written, or a waste of your time.

It’s that easy. And because writing is a lonely business, I know every author would join me in saying we appreciate you taking just a little time to give us this kind of feedback.

 

 

image image image image image Click the cover art of the novels you  have read to leave a review at Amazon.

January Justice – First Pages

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January Justice, by Athol Dickson

Here are a few paragraphs from chapter 1 of my most recent novel. I hope you enjoy…

One of the strangest things about the city was the sudden way it disappeared around the edges. One minute you were down on Sunset surrounded by glass and concrete, and the next thing you knew you were up on Mulholland, alone in the rough country. From a high window or a rooftop almost anywhere in Los Angeles you could see the mountains, and there was always a chance something hungry was up there looking down at you.

I was standing among the hungry creatures up at the edge of a cliff, with Hollywood and Santa Monica far below me in the distance. One step forward, and I would be in midair. I was looking down and wondering if Haley had considered how suddenly you could go from city to wilderness. Then I wondered if it was a distinction without a difference, if the city might be the wilderness and the wilderness the city, and maybe Los Angeles’s edges seemed to disappear so suddenly because there really were no edges, no difference between sidewalks and mountain paths, buildings and boulders. Up in the mountains or down in the city, either way the carnivores were in control.

I imagined Haley, out of her mind, running full speed off the cliff. I wondered what it had been like, that final second or two before she hit. Had she realized what was happening? Did she recognize the city lights below for what they were, or did she really think she was flying toward the stars? And did she think of me?

Stepping closer to the edge, I slid the toes of my shoes into the air. I looked down two hundred feet, toward the spot where she had broken on the rocks. I stood one inch from eternity and tried to imagine life without her. I could not summon up a single reason why I should not take that final step, except for one. I thought about the kind of animal that would drive someone to do what my wife had done. Predators like that were everywhere. I should know. I had trained for half my life to be one of them. I was hungry, looking down on the city. If I was going to live, the hunger would have to be enough, for now. I would sink my teeth into him, sooner or later. I would do that for Haley, and for myself, and then maybe it would be time to see if I could fly.

I stepped back from the edge.

READ MORE.

A Duty to Be Great

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excellence-mediocrity-sign-100816There’s a list over at over at GoodReads, called “The Worst Books of All Time.” As a novelist and as a Christian, that list saddens me. Why? Because some of those titles include To Kill a Mockingbird, Billy Budd, The Red Badge of Courage, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Forest Gump, Fahrenheit 451, Dune, Stranger in a Strange Land, and The Pearl.

While discussing it with some fellow novelists, one said many books by Christians are poorly written. She then felt the need to qualify her statement by affirming that she thinks there are lots of well-written novels by Christians. Probably she didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, and that’s laudable, but it seems to me she had it right the first time.

It’s true many novels by Christians are poorly written. That’s also true of many other kinds of novels. In fact it’s true of most novels of every kind, and readers let writers get away with it because readers too are mediocre. Most of us don’t really care about excellence in literature, or in architecture, sculpture, painting, dance, drama, government, commerce, marriage, or anything else in life that ought to matter. The list at GoodReads is just one of countless proofs of this which can be seen around us everywhere.

What interests me, is why. In our discussion about the “Worst Books” list, some of my author friends speculated that so many people dislike those novels because they were forced to read them in school and disliked them then. But these books truly are works of genius—most of them are, anyway—so why didn’t we love them in the first place?

The answer has to do with what it means to live in a fallen world. As creatures made in the Creator’s image, we were designed to use our gifts to their utmost, and to savor excellence in our neighbor’s use of their gifts. It’s impossible to imagine the words “good enough” being spoken in the Garden before the Fall. But we did fall, and one of the things we lost was our ability to throw ourselves into living with complete abandon. “Good is the enemy of great,” as Jim Collins wrote (paraphrasing Voltaire). Thus, in settling for good enough, we have rampant mediocrity in the world.

It’s impossible to imagine the words “good enough” being spoken in the Garden before the Fall.

Another thing we abandoned in the Fall was our ability to perceive the true extent of what we’ve lost. When expediency and ego dilute the full potential of even our best writers and artists, the audience, being also lost, doesn’t know enough to care. Therefore they applaud what little they can get, and their applause rewards mediocrity. This in turn inspires the production of more mediocrity, and the cycle builds more and more support for itself until mediocrity seems normal, or even (God forbid) good. Because that lie has become pervasive, the true nature of goodness is difficult for even Christians to remember. Thus we have rampant mediocrity even in the church.

The faithful Christian’s life should always include a sense of resisting mediocrity at every turn. It’s a command and a duty. “Whatever you do, do it will all your heart, as if for the Lord and not for men.” (Col 3:23) It’s no coincidence that this command includes the same requirement for wholeheartedness as the Greatest Command of all, to “love the Lord your God with all your heart….”

How can we love the Lord with all our heart? By living every part of life with all our heart. By not settling. By always striving to improve. In other words, as with all of His commands, the Creator simply wants us to live (write, marry, work, etc.) as we were originally created to live…with complete abandonment to what we truly are, which will reveal itself in the constant exercise of excellence in all our gifts.

Don’t believe the lie of “good enough.” You were created to be so much better than that. Strive for excellence in everything you do. In little things as well as big, live with all your heart.