Ruth Writes Stories

Phew. I’d heard that NetGalley reviews could be rough, but figured it was worth it to get some eyeballs on my manuscript, and y’all didn’t let me down. Netgalley reviewers can post to Amazon, Goodreads, Fable, PageBound, and other sites, often mentioning that they received an ARC (advanced reader copy) of a book.

Right now EVOLVE has an average rating between 4 to 5 out of 5 stars on some of those sites. Considering the number of reviews is tiny right now, that can change at any moment as each review bumps the star rating around.

One reviewer chose not to leave a star rating, but did leave a review. She mentioned that she liked the writing, but the changes in POV (point of view) for five different characters was confusing. And she’s right, it can be hard to track. I’m fairly certain that’s why a lot of agents passed on the manuscript. “Multi-POV” is kind of a red flag in publishing, and I knew that when I started pitching to agents. Some readers seem happy with it, and I’m glad they followed the story to the end and left a nice review. For those who hit that first change of character and feel discombobulated, it’s okay. It’s really, really difficult to write multi-POV and hard to follow, too.

This review just made me laugh (in a good way). The average number of agents an author pitches before they get a nibble is something like 40, I think? I gave up at 26 pitches and decided I could just do it myself. Good idea? Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see.

“I was shocked when I found out this is an independently published debut novel. It doesn’t have any classic first book pitfalls or common self published problems. I really wish a large publisher had picked it up and was giving it the full publicity roll out. Mainly because I KNOW so many people would love it. Not only will I be reading the rest of the series when it comes out but I’ll be stalking the poor author to stay updated.”

I’ve done zero publicity on this book, aside from NetGalley, an Instagram that I rarely use, and setting up profiles on every book review site I can find. And this blog. And Substack. Yikes. Not enough hours in the day while I’m still working, teaching, lecturing, and researching for non-fiction projects.

So of course I launched my own publishing house, Manzanita Wordworks. ADHD FTW! More on that later, it’s still in its infancy, but I have a few other authors lined up.

In the meantime, I hope to keep hearing from readers who have something to say about EVOLVE. I’m several chapters deep on book 2 and will add more beta readers onto my team when the time is right. If you’re interested in joining, let me know!