Novel 'Under 25' is gritty and delightful

BOOK REVIEW: Under 25 by Johanna Cordery

The cover of Under 25, a novel by Johanna Cordery

Starting with a forewarning of a tragic event involving a “young un”, Under 25 takes readers on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and suspense as they ponder who among the main characters might become the lost soul.

The ominous foreshadowing within the opening lines masterfully sets the scene for the engaging story that follows; a tale about the intertwined lives of a number of young people growing up in Yorkshire, England, during the 1980s.

With sensitivity, Cordery tackles the subjects of teenage love, pregnancy, dysfunctional families, betrayal and the spectre of young suicide.

At times the language is powerful, pulling no punches. And be warned that the well-crafted dialogue is written to reflect the linguistic quirks, nuances and characteristics of native Yorkshire speakers. This accent on authenticity is at the heart of Under 25’s gritty realism, which is also reflected in the descriptions of the homes and surroundings of the characters.

Ashley Shuttleworth is the key protagonist, and it is mainly through him that we see events unfold. However, Cordery’s engaging style also gives multi-person viewpoints that enlighten the story and add delightful depth along the way.

Under 25 is filled with twists and turns and unexpected developments. There are moments of humour (I laughed out loud many times), and scenes of agonising sadness.

Readers should prepare to become emotionally invested in the characters who are given space to develop and come alive.

When I first started reading Under 25, I was impressed with the realism of the settings. As the story progressed it was the suspense of wondering where everything would lead and where the answers would be found that kept me deeply engaged with this well-structured, fast-paced, dialogue-driven novel.

A refreshing new author has arrived on the scene. I look forward to reading the future works of Johanna Cordery.

Under 25 is available as a Kindle e-book from Amazon.


CLICK TO PLAY: A short promotional film for Under 25

Footnote: I attended college with author Johanna Cordery in the early to mid-1990s.

Tips for promoting an e-book

Dolphin Girl at No.9 in the literary fiction (British & Irish) sub category
 of the Amazon.com Kindle Store on September 28, 2015

One morning in September Dolphin Girl reached the top 6,000 bestsellers in Amazon.com's Kindle Store. At its peak it was briefly No.9 in the British & Irish literary fiction sub category, alongside novels by Salman Rushdie and Mark Haddon.

To date the book has collected eight reviews across the various Amazon sites, ranging from five-star to one-star. Presented here is a short road map describing what I did to initially promote Dolphin Girl. I hope these details might act as a partial resource guide for others who are looking to expand the audience for their books.

As Dolphin Girl was my first venture into the world of e-books, it took me some time to get going with promotion and marketing. I was learning all the way and soon discovered that a key requirement was to attract some reviews on Amazon.

Readers are less likely to buy a book that has no reviews. Reviews generally add a degree of legitimacy and reassurance about the quality and authenticity of a book. However, getting reviews in the first place presents a Catch-22 situation, because if people are unlikely to purchase a book with no reviews, how are you supposed to sell any copies in the hope of generating a few reviews?

If you are fortunate, one or two reviews might come through friends and acquaintances, which is a good start. Beyond that, the avenue I took was to make Dolphin Girl briefly available for download on the Story Cartel website. This is a great, free resource for authors and readers. An e-book is promoted for 21 days, allowing readers to download it for free. The only request is that the reader leave an honest review in return (on Amazon or Goodreads, etc). The review request is simply that, a request. There is no binding obligation. As a result, you might end up with only a fraction of readers following through with a review.

At the same time I ran a small, targeted ad campaign on Facebook, encouraging readers to check out Dolphin Girl on Story Cartel. This generated further downloads from potential reviewers.

Once I had five reviews on the Amazon.com website I was able to move on to paid promotional slots at a number of websites and newsletters. Most required a minimum of five Amazon reviews before they would consider listing a book in a one-day reduced price promotion. The effectiveness of these services varies, and a book's genre also plays a part in how much interest it attracts. I used a number of sites and ran a few "price pulse" promotions, spreading them across different days rather than in one big hit. By doing so I could monitor the effectiveness of the competing sites more accurately.

Most of these promotional outlets charge a fee, varying from $5 to $50. There are some that are free. The results vary from good to barely noticeable. From my experience the best were ENT & FK Books and Tips, Book Gorilla, and Book Butterfly. Others worth considering are Book Sends (with eReaderIQ) and Genre Pulse.

I should mention the "granddaddy" of these sites is BookBub. It has a colossal reach and charges hundred of dollars for a promo slot - and that's if you are lucky enough to be accepted. The current word among authors is that if you don't have at least 50 decent reviews already, you're probably going to be turned down. What BookBub also has going for it is the virtually guaranteed "positive return on investment" for an author, so the number of books they sell covers the cost of the promotional slot with a chunk of profit on top. Dolphin Girl, alas, was not featured on BookBub.

As a further aside, these sites and newsletters do a roaring trade in promoting free e-books. This was not something I did, but the theory behind making your book free, either for a limited time or permanently, is to generate more interest, more readers and more feedback.

On its promotional spotlight days, when priced at $0.99 or 99p, Dolphin Girl moved higher in both the British & Irish literary fiction and the fantasy/magical realism sub categories of Amazon's Kindle Store. It reached the top 50 in these sub categories on a number of occasions, and briefly peaked at No. 9 in the British & Irish category on September 28.

Dolphin Girl peaked in the Amazon.com Kindle Store rankings on September 28, 2015

When the book returned to its normal retail price it occasionally picked up residual sales. This was probably due to its higher sales profile during the previous promotional days. As a further benefit, Dolphin Girl is now occasionally included in the "readers of this book also bought..." section that appears below books as they are browsed by customers on Amazon.

Along the way, the book attracted further reviews. Across all Amazon platforms, Dolphin Girl currently has a total of eight reviews, of which five are 5-star, one is 4-star and two are 1-star reviews. Some people loved it, while others found it unengaging.

Whether good, bad or indifferent, reviews are useful feedback and add to a book's credibility in the eyes of potential customers weighing up whether or not to make a purchase.

All-in-all, the experience of promoting my debut e-book novel was rewarding. Although Dolphin Girl is currently not part of a promotional campaign it continues to pick up occasional online sales.

Other authors have noted that being able to promote more than one book, and ideally having four, five or more available, builds greater sales momentum than can be achieved with a single book.

I'm still learning the ropes regarding promoting and marketing an e-book. I hope this summary will assist others embarking on the same journey.

Dolphin Girl: e-book vs paperback

When Dolphin Girl was released in April it was my first foray into the world of e-books. Considering the explosion in the number of people now reading on devices such as Kindle, Kobo and other tablet apps, it made sense to bring out an e-book version alongside the paperback.

For readers and authors the cost of buying and selling e-books is far more economical in comparison with a physical book, quite apart from the instant availability and convenience of an e-book, which can be bought and downloaded in a matter of seconds from virtually anywhere in the world.

So, I decided to step into the brave new world of e-books with Dolphin Girl - albeit as a latecomer to the party.

To my surprise, all my initial sales were of physical copies of the book, even though the paperback cost three times more than the e-book. I began to wonder if I'd got the sums wrong and my readership simply preferred to have and hold a "book book".

Then, almost four months after Dolphin Girl was published it achieved its first e-book sales. It was a relief to see it finally being downloaded electronically. As a result, it briefly climbed into the top 400 in two sub-categories at the Amazon.com store twice in the space of a week. (Below is the e-book's ranking as it appeared on August 20)

It was pleasing to see Dolphin Girl attracting some attention, even though it has yet to be featured in any major advertising promotion. During the coming weeks and months I will apply some of the things I've learnt, and continue to learn, regarding e-book marketing.

A major factor to being accepted by some of the bigger book promotion outlets is the number of reviews or readers' ratings a book garners. It seems like a Catch-22 scenario - and in a way it is. But there are smaller steps that can be taken to help build momentum and with it the likelihood of a few reviews and ultimately a slot with a promotion outlet.

So I'm thankful for, and encouraged by, the words of the handful of early reviewers of Dolphin Girl.

The marketing and promotion process for Dolphin Girl is still at an early stage, although had I known what I know now it would be much further along the line. I hope to share future progress at a later date.

For now, I would like to thank all readers who have given Dolphin Girl a chance, whether as an e-book or "book book."

Dolphin Girl available here on Amazon, and also on Kobo

Bermuda Gold is a sparkling thriller

BOOK REVIEW: Bermuda Gold by Lee Slonimsky (Moonshine Cove Publishing)

When small-time private detective J E Rexroth agrees to investigate threatening calls made to the wife of a hedge fund manager it seemed like just another job that would bring in some income and help keep the wolf from the door of his downbeat office in Manhattan. But little did he know it was far from a regular case, and that the tentacles of evil reaching out for his new client were also bearing down on his world from another direction.

Rexroth is soon caught up in a murky world where big money, murders and a terrorist plot collide. As creeping paranoia takes hold, he discovers that all he values in life is on the line as he tries to unravel a sinister scheme before it is too late.

Bermuda Gold author Lee Slonimsky has drawn upon his real-life background as a New York hedge fund manager and former educator at a criminal justice college to create a compelling detective thriller that will have readers' nerves jangling as much as those of the characters caught in a web of fear, threats and deaths.

Slonimsky expertly weaves together seemingly unconnected threads as he builds suspense and ensures the reader is with Rexroth every step of the way, from New York to Bermuda and back again, as he tries to evade shadowy, menacing adversaries.

Using his knowledge of the hedge fund industry to carve out believable scenarios that could lurk in the secret world of big money investment deals, coupled with familiarity of police procedures informed from his time at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the author has created a fast-moving and compelling detective thriller.

The vulnerabilities of the characters are well observed, as are the descriptions of the streets of Manhattan, the splendor of the greater New York environs, and the beauty of the sun-kissed island of Bermuda.

Sprinkled throughout are evocative imagery and turns of phrase worthy of a poet's mind.

There are some books that you never quite get to the end of, while others so grip you set aside extra time to read them, eager to discover how they will end. Bermuda Gold falls squarely in the latter category. It is a rewarding and thrilling read.

Bermuda Gold (Moonshine Cove Publishing) is available from Amazon

The missing chapter

As I set to work on the final chapter of Dolphin Girl I noticed something about the story. When I wrote it for the original edition of Eating Clouds in 2008 I chose to tell in the present tense.

Having read parts of it again to refresh myself before creating the 'missing' last chapter, I was struck that the tense was unusual and almost jarring. It would be perfect for a film screenplay treatment, but in a book the more natural choice past tense.

Now, as I begin the writing of the last chapter (of which 250 words today), I am using the past tense and will rework the rest of the novel accordingly. Reworking also gives me an opportunity to sharpen things up.

The initial reaction I received to Dolphin Girl in 2008 and 2009 was favourable - more than I had hoped - which gives me added faith in the story and the way it is written. The abrupt ending always seemed a bit of a cop-out. The new ending will tie things together, and that is what has been taxing my mind for the past few months as I've juggled scenarios.

Once written and re-worked I shall approach suitable agencies, while also keeping an eye on the possibility of making it a trial e-book release, having read much about the success of a number of others who have blazed that particular trail.

Returning to Dolphin Girl some four years after it was completed is an interesting experience, and one where I have had to revive my knowledge of the characters and their mannerisms - in actions and words.

Two hundred and fifty words done, and there is a long weekend stretching ahead to add to that total.