Obviously, this saying pertains more to people than it actually does to books. However, in the day and age when your only option for buying a book was to walk into a bookstore and peruse the shelves, what options did a person really have, but to judge a book by its cover. In fact, I may write a post sometime soon about the significance of a book's cover and what it tells the reader about the book. But, that is not the intent of this blog.

Rather, I want to look briefly at how people really do "judge" a book these days. With many of the books being purchased these days coming from electronic shelves filled with millions, rather than hundreds, of books. Is it really practical to look through the covers anyway? While it is certainly possible for a book's cover to cause someone not to buy it, the single most important factor in someone's book buying decision (or any online purchase for that matter) is the reviews and ratings.

I'm sure that everyone of you has looked at the reviews for a book or some other item and said, "wow, most people have liked this so I am willing to take a chance on it, or vice-versa"  I've included a capture of the ratings and reviews summary from Amazon for In The Image of Man. This basically says two things to prospective buyers.

First, those who have read the book enjoyed it. Or perhaps, knew the author and were biased.

Second, not very many people have read the book, or at least liked it well enough to rate and review it.

It is certainly possible that the actual text content of the reviews will help sway someone to try the book anyway. However, this isn't as likely as if a hundred people reviewed it and had positive things to say.

This is why I am running a book giveaway over the next week where someone will win a free signed copy of the newly edited version of In The Image of Man simply by writing a review and dropping me a note so I know about it. Now it might seem odd, to offer a book to someone who has read it, but many people have only read the ebook and could still use a physical copy. Also, as of yet, no one has a signed copy of the new version.

If you've read a book, not just mine, and enjoyed it, let others know. We authors, and prospective readers, need your feedback.

'Til next time!

This was an exciting, and at times exhausting, week for me. If you follow my #WritingExcerpts feed on Twitter, you would have noticed that there were no excerpts posted this week. While it is sometimes true that I simply forget to post an excerpt from my writing for a day, this week no excerpts indeed means no writing. To those of you waiting patiently, or perhaps not so patiently, for the sequel to In The Image of Man, not to worry.

One of my key accomplishments this week was the determination of the series name for In The Image of Man and the following books. As you can probably guess from the blog title, the series name is Unseen Dominion. One of the reasons, I felt it would be important to get a series name is to be able to promote Image as part of a series. This will help assure readers that their time investment getting to know the characters of Arrow Springs in Book One will reap future rewards as well. So, I spent some time this week updating the book descriptions and the book cover (as seen in this image) to reflect In The Image of Man as an Unseen Dominion novel.

The second, and even more necessary, activity this week included significant editing of both the e-book and physical edition of In The Image of Man to clean up many items that you, my great readers, have pointed out. If you've already read the book, fear not, none of the fixes change the storylines of the book. However, given the focus of Hearts of Compassion Publishing on providing "high quality" books while allowing the maximum impact for those in need, I felt it was important to clean up the issues in an effort to help the book match the quality of a professionally edited book. I will be the first to admit that I am learning the crafts of writing, promoting, and yes editing, thus everything won't be perfect the first time around.

As a result of these new edits, the physical book will be unavailable for purchase until later in the week. However, the e-book is already available with all the improvements. If you've already purchased the e-book and would like to receive the new and improved version, you'll need to contact Amazon's support chat and request that they push the new version to you.

Aside from proofing the physical copy for any issues, this week will be back to writing Book Two of Unseen Dominion.

'Til next time!

I just received notification that the next round of royalties are on their way. As I will likely miss a couple weeks' posts soon, I thought I'd get this to you and let you celebrate with me.

You can see from the graphic we are making slow but steady progress toward our goal of raising enough funds to provide a complete well through Living Water International. We are now at 4.5% of our goal. But even more importantly, we've already helped over ten families have clean water to drink for a year.

This adventure would not be possible with out YOU! Whether you have purchased an ebook, a physical copy, or even if you are supporting us by spreading the word about the book, you are helping us make a difference for men, women, and children that would not have clean water to drink without you. If you want to read more about what your assistance means to those in need of clean water, click on the Compassion tab at the top of the page.

Remember, there are many ways to help and I listed them a few blogs ago. Without the vast promotional power of a major publisher or the big name recognition of a well established author, we can't make this happen without your help.

Working together to meet the needs of "the least of these."

Thanks until next time.

It's here! Hearts of Compassion Publishing has teamed with Goodreads to run our first ever Book Giveaway.

Enter between June 22 and July 22, and you will be in the drawing, to be conducted by Goodreads, to win one of five copies of In The Image of Man, signed by ME. How weird is that?

But even if you enter, you don't have to wait to win to start reading, you can swing by Amazon and pick up the e-book. And don't worry, if you're name isn't drawn, you can still get the book at Amazon or CreateSpace. :) Don't forget proceeds are going to provide clean drinking water through Living Water International.

Stay tuned for more great news next week!

Okay, as you might guess from the picture on the left, we're not talking about Times Best Seller type sales. But royalties are royalties. And more importantly, we are now able to pass along our first support to Living Water International.

Now you might be asking, "Didn't In The Image of Man come out a couple months ago?" To which I say, "Yep, welcome to the world of publishing and passing along of profits." And these first royalties are not even for a full month. So, ultimately, yes I'm excited to finally see the many-many hours of writing, rewriting, editing, and publishing going toward a worthwhile ministry.

While we will not wait to pass along proceeds to LWI, the graphic on the left will be used going forward to indicate how we are doing toward raising the funds necessary to provide an entire well for an area in need of clean drinking water. This is our  God-sized goal for In The Image of Man. So, you might be asking, "How can I help?"

1. Buy In The Image of Man. Yeah, I know. That one's a bit obvious.

2. Read the book and talk about it with others. Good old fashioned word-of-mouth.

3. Write a review on Amazon. Think about it, this is the first thing you look at when you are shopping online.

4. Write a Goodreads review, vote for Image on Goodreads lists, and recommend to friends on Goodreads.

5. If you're a blogger, spread the word.

6. Share links on Facebook. For each new share of a post on Facebook, roughly 100 extra people see a post.

Most importantly, PRAY that God would do something special with this book!

'Till next time.

This has been an encouraging week in regards to my first book In The Image of Man. First, I received an e-mail from blogger, femmeflashpoint, informing me that they would be running a review of the book. This provided my first review from someone who was neither friend nor family. Though, through several communications over the week, I certainly consider the blogger a friend at this point. If you haven't read her review of the book at this point, I suggest stopping by to check it out. She writes an impressive review. And I don't just say so because the review was very positive on Image.

Second, a longtime friend who has spent considerable time in the bookstore industry wrote a review on Goodreads. While I believe it is impossible for any person to be completely unbiased in their review when they know the author, this is a person whose opinion and expertise in this field I greatly respect. This review was also quite positive on Image.

Finally, after many positive discussions, great reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and this blog post, I had a thought provoking discussion with my story advisor (my wife). And we came to the conclusion that while the story I was currently working on conveys a much needed message, it would not be fair to my readers to come out next with a book that was not the anticipated sequel to Image. I also believe that from a purely business perspective, it really makes the most sense to follow up the well received story of Image with its sequel.

So, I have set aside my current Work In Progress (WIP) to start work on the sequel. I'm excited to say that this weekend allowed me to get a great start on the next book in the Image series. As always, you can see some snippets from my writing at #WritingExcerpts on Twitter, or in the feed to the right of this blog.

Have you read In The Image of Man? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Also, please stop by Amazon and write a review. Basically, say what you liked, or didn't, about the book. Good reviews really can help the sales of a book, especially for a new author like myself.

'Till next time!

Have you found Goodreads?

I have to admit, until a few days ago, I had never seen this site. Whether you are an author or a reader, I highly suggest heading over there. As its name would imply, this is a site aimed at connecting readers with books they would enjoy reading. The approach is not new. Online merchandisers often use similar techniques to suggest items you might like to purchase based on prior purchases and ratings. Also video subscription companies, such as Netflix, use the same technique to suggest movies you should watch.

In order to use Goodreads you do have to create an account. However, this is quite easy as you can use your Facebook account to sign in. You can choose whether or not you want information about the books you rate and read fed to Facebook. Once you have an account, the best way to get started is by rating books you have read. This is done using the typical click-how-many-stars rating system. As you rate books, Goodreads will begin to suggest other books that you might like to read. I think this is a great way to find new authors or books that you have not tried. If you're like me, you don't have unlimited time to read books. Therefore, you often find yourself only reading authors you are certain will provide a story (or content if non-fiction) you will enjoy.

So head on over to Goodreads and get to rating and finding some good books. I can suggest at least one book you might want to either read, rate, or review. :)

Seriously though, if you enjoyed reading In The Image of Man, I would greatly appreciate your ratings and reviews. Ratings, and even more so reviews, on sites like Goodreads and Amazon are the single best way for readers to find new authors, like myself. Well actually, that's not true. The best way is word of mouth. However, most of you probably aren't going to meet hundreds of readers who like books similar to Image, such as Peretti's Darkness books. So, don't just rate my book. Rate others you've read too. This will create associations to Image that will cause it to be suggested to other readers.

Thanks all, 'till next time!