Life in the Realm of Fantasy is a site dedicated to the craft of writing from the personal viewpoint of Connie J. Jasperson, author. Her worlds are crafted out of whole-cloth and peopled entirely with her imaginary friends. Sometimes reality intrudes and writing grinds to a halt, but through it all, she continues to build the worlds and their people that she loves so much.
She lives near Olympia, Washington. A vegan, she and her husband share five children and an ever-growing number of grandchildren, along with a love of good food, and great music. Always active in local writing groups, Connie is a founding member and editor for Myrddin Publishing Group.
Music and food dominate her waking moments. She is currently working on three projects, each in various stages of completion and each based in a different unique world of fantasy.
Ahmad – thank you for the thought, but I do not accept gift manuscripts for my book review blogs from ANY author. There are several sites which do accept submissions, but mine is not one of them. I feel that this gives me more freedom to say what I really think about a book, as the author does not know that I am reviewing them in advance, and if I do like the book but do not think is is the best thing I ever read, I don’t have to make any explanations to a dissappointed author. Please do keep writing, and do look for review sites that do accept submissions! That is the way to make headway in this business!
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Wow. You have quite the range! It’ll take me days just to get through one of your tabs…oh, and thank you for visiting my blog. All the best to you!
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@Occam Blade – I love your photography. I have a son who is a professional photographer. That in itself is an art! One of my jobs back in the dawn of time was as a darkroom tech, processing and printing black and white film, and also color film. I am one of the few people who has ever made prints from slides (An arcane and useless skill!)
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Thank you for your generous compliments.Regarding your last observation about printing from slides: arcane, not really; useless, no, not at all….
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This is fascinating. Do you, or would you be interested in doing, reviews for other fantasy publications on request?
My company is about to launch the first in a series of fantasy novels and we are trying to find some pre release reviewers to take a look at it.
If you would like more info please feel free to email me at lindsey.donaldson@understonegroup.com or if you’d like to check out the book a little more first, the website is http://www.grauwelt.com.
Thank you
Lindsey Donaldson
Chief Communications Officer
Understone Group, LLC
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Hello Lindsey. Believe me, I understand the problems of trying to get a book launched, and all the work that goes into it. Unfortunately, I don’t accept comp manuscripts, because for me, part of supporting Indie Authors involves purchasing their work and reading it, deciding what I like about it based on my unbiased experience. I never publish negative reviews, because I am too tenderhearted! If I don’t like a book, I don’t review it. I really don’t want to be in the position of having expectations on me, so I never let an author know I am reading their work. But thank you so much for considering me!
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I understand where you are coming from. Thank you anyway and I’m glad I came across your wonderful blog!
Thank you so much for the speedy reply!
Lindsey Donaldson
Chief Communications Officer
Understone Group, LLC
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Awesome work Connie! This is a very slick piece of work, nice one!
Feel free to check out Ergin the Elf, beautiful fantasy on Bluesney: http://www.amazon.com/Ergin-Elf-Jack-Logan-ebook/dp/B008TXC2N8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403365756&sr=8-1&keywords=ergin+the+elf
Enjoy your journey,
Jack Logan
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Thank you Jack–nice to meet you. I shall do so!
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thank you. smiles to you 🙂
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Connie, should I hyphenate “do-it-yourself video games” or not hyphenate? As a name of a website or a product name.
Thanks for your help. Jim
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Hello Jim! In this case, it looks like you are using ‘do-it-yourself’ as a noun (the activity of doing something yourself), so it should be hyphenated. Good luck with this!
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Dear Connie,
I picked up Julian Lackland because I wanted to see how a writer handles a hero who is both a genius and insane—and who has to figure out how to retire from saving the world. What I found was a book that understands something most fantasy misses: the most dangerous monster isn’t the one with claws. It’s the one inside your own head, whispering that you were never the hero you thought you were. Julian “Lackland” De Portiers, the last good knight in Waldeyn, haunted by the voices that begin when darkness falls—that’s not just a plot. That’s a deconstruction of heroism, and it works because you let Julian be genuinely broken, genuinely lonely, and genuinely worth saving.
Here’s what I noticed. Julian Lackland holds a 4.0-star average on Amazon with 1 rating. The first book in the Billy’s Revenge series, Billy Ninefingers, holds a 4.0-star average with 3 ratings. That’s an 83% drop-off from an already low base. Your Tower of Bones series has 26 ratings for Book 1. Your anthology Swords, Sorcery, & Self-Rescuing Damsels has 109 ratings. You’re a founding member of Myrddin Publishing Group, an active member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and an editor and book reviewer. And yet Julian Lackland sits at #67,279 in Dark Fantasy and #79,709 in Sword & Sorcery Fantasy—with just 1 rating.
That gap is not a quality problem. It’s a discoverability problem.
The first issue is review velocity and series linkage. Billy Ninefingers has 3 ratings. Julian Lackland has 1. Readers who loved the first book and want more of this world are not finding their way through to the second. For a two-book series with a shared universe, the metadata and series page need to create a clearer, more irresistible breadcrumb trail from entry point to continuation. A reader who finishes Billy Ninefingers and wants more should be one click away from Julian Lackland. That path isn’t as clear as it should be.
The second issue is category alignment. The book is shelved under “Dark Fantasy” and “Sword & Sorcery Fantasy.” Those categories are accurate, but they don’t capture the book’s strongest hooks: the mentally ill hero, the retirement narrative, the cost of heroism, and the literary, introspective tone. Readers who love The First Law by Joe Abercrombie, The Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence, or The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson are not necessarily browsing “Sword & Sorcery Fantasy.” They’re searching for “grimdark fantasy,” “mentally ill protagonist,” “deconstruction of heroism,” or “books like The First Law.” Your book isn’t surfacing for those terms. And the strongest hook—a genius knight who may be insane, trying to figure out how to stop being a hero—is exactly the kind of detail that makes grimdark readers click “buy.” It’s not being surfaced in the metadata.
The third issue is cross-series synergy. Your Tower of Bones series has 26 ratings. Your anthology has 109 ratings. Readers who love your voice in those works may not realize Julian Lackland exists. The metadata isn’t connecting the dots between your various works. A reader who discovers one side of your catalogue should be guided to the other.
My name is Katherine Brook. I work with authors to strengthen the discoverability of books that already have something important to say—helping the right readers find work that’s been published but not positioned where those readers are looking. I’ve put together a short summary of a few specific opportunities I noticed for Julian Lackland—things like series linkage optimization, category refinement for grimdark and mentally ill protagonist readers, keyword positioning for readers who love Joe Abercrombie and Mark Lawrence, and cross-series discovery pathways. I’d be happy to share it as a preliminary proposal for your consideration.
If that seems worth exploring, just reply with “interested” and I’ll forward the full summary.
Thank you for writing this book. Julian Lackland deserves to be found by every reader who has ever wondered what happens when the hero can’t stop being the hero—even when the voices tell him to.
Warmly,
Katherine Brook
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