Love this idea.

Voting is such an important privilege. I remember seeing how excited the Iraqis were to vote for the first time and how much they risked to do so. It made me realize how we sometimes take it for granted.

I love the idea of making your children sit on the couch and hold hands! What a simple thing! Never heard of that before! 😍 Always learning!

@Fred Oliver Yes, that's me. I started with historical fiction, then changed genres to military thrillers. I also have a holiday sweet romance and a couple of other genres, which makes marketing efforts even more scattered. (Definitely like sailing against the wind). If you just started writing in the last few years you have it even harder than I did, because the market is so saturated.

@Fred Oliver When I was starting out, I remember getting the same advice about not putting the author's name at the top -- but that's why I do it. I've always done it, and I guess it works if you think I'm a big author. Truthfully, I don't like it as a reader... I want to see the title. But putting your name out there makes a reader think that maybe they just haven't heard of you. My advice -- put your name loud and proud! (Let me say that again. My opinion is, don't put your name small and at the bottom. It's telling readers your new and unsure). For the second part, yes I think reviews are one of the most important things to concentrate on. For my book that's coming out in April, I started pitching for reviews in November -- and I only have 2 early reviews at the moment! A lot of work for 2 reviews, but hopefully more will start coming in. As for the best way to get reviews, it's always changing. It used to be you could go through book communities on Facebook, but there doesn't seem to be much engagement there anymore. I started with review magazines that are free but now have a couple of things booked with bloggers that will hopefully bring reviews in around launch day. It's very expensive to go down the rabbit hole of paying for reviews, and I don't think authors should have to pay hundreds of dollars for reviews. (I guess if I had the money I might pay for one big one, but I don't). Your romance question is an interesting one. My books usually have a love story in them, but I don't push the romance aspect at all because I have a lot of male readers and I don't feel like that's a selling point. Romance is definitely a big genre with lots of hungry readers, but sometimes writing for a smaller niche makes it easier to connect. You definitely have to think outside the box these days. I spent the early part of my career always following what everyone else was doing and I was always too late to catch wave the success. Find a way to connect with the readers who would be interested in YOUR book.

This was great. Thank you!