Broken Promises: Does Your Book Fail to Deliver on Its Blurb?

My process for picking books I review is simple -- it has to attract my attention. Yeah, the whole traditional structure -- cover art, blurb and first chapter. And yeah, I realize a whole bunch of gatekeepers impede the process for would-be authors. Including me. But they are necessary I think if you are interested in reading an interesting, well-crafted story. In Harm's Way by Ridley Pearson is a great case in point.

I bought the book with great anticipation. Almost to the point of mentally salivating as I thought of the book waiting on the little to-read  pile by my elbow. 

The blurb that caught my attention: a romance goes a-kilter when Fiona picture appears in the papers after she rescues a kid from drowning, and Walt Fleming, the detective in series, doesn't keep it out. ... Seems our lady has an undisclosed past ... which Pearson waits way toooooooooo loooooong to reveal.

In Harm's Way has a credible mystery weighted down by the weight of the handling of Fiona's problems. As I read, I found that I breezed through the mystery ... but put the book down when Fiona came on front and center even though she was the reason I bought the book.

Maybe I shouldn't hit Fiona over the head quite so hard. I did skim the first chapter about the rescue in the store, and it lured me into laying my money down. Devoured the first few chapters. Then, I found I was putting the book down before midnight. Why did I keep reading it? None of the other partially read books at my elbow called me to their pages, but In Harm's Way couldn't keep my attention. High disappointing because I thought I ad discovered me a new author.


Now it's time for the pip squeak writer to give a rating to a New York Times bestselling author. Must say: good, but not good enough to live up to its promise. 3***

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So what have I been doing ... besides marketing? Still slogging away on paper edits for Crossings. With luck my critique group will meet this week, and I'll get motivated again.

Have the first scene of The Ghost Crow, a Dumdie Swartz story, down but after Monday have done nothing new on the first draft. *shrug*

In a phrase" not doing much.

One thing I decided. Am going to try a couple blog tours: one for The Ghost in the Closet and the other for Taking Vengeance, Maybe I can goose some sales for them, but I'm not holding my breath.

Still, my marketing isn't doing too badly. Last time I looked on GoodReads, The Ghost in the Closet rated 4.1. The sales are doing too badly either ... for me. If I was a good marketer, I would give you buy page links. If you're interested, you can find the info on my website.

Think I need the vacation that's looming in my future. I keep liking and 1+ing pictures of the open road. 

I did buy a little laptop to take on the trip ... with Windows 8.1. Surprised I'm going to keep it since I don't seem to mind the icons. Now if I can get Spider Solitaire and Mahjong out of the games without a lot of rigamarole. 

You can see where my priorities are.

Anyone out there big fans of Windows 8?