C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

See all my books at AllThatChazz.com.

07/07/2011 • 10:29 AM 2

Book Review Circle: Growing ideas (& an announcement about great things to come)

Salient points:

1. You won’t review the same author who reviewed you. That’s why we need a big circle. That’s one way to getting solid reviews, too.

2. This is a give-to-get situation where you will only review one or two books a year. Once it’s posted on this site, you can repost your review elsewhere.

3. Check the post below for details on the information you need to send. This helps me match you up with a genre that interests you.

4. Send said information to: expartepress@gmail.com

Ah, and here’s another grand pronoucement:

I’ll be posting the book circle reviews on the new website (coming this fall.)

This blog will continue, but Chazz Writes is primarily a place for writers interested in indie publishing.

The new site will run concurrently, like sentences for both stealing fireworks and accidentally lighting your school on fire with those fireworks.

The new site will be a place for readers.

Book Reviews: A Very Decent Proposal (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)

Book Review: Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris (fightlikegirls.wordpress.com)
Who’s in your Circle of Influence & Virtual Boardroom? [Tom Evans] (ecademy.com)

Filed under: authors, book reviews, Books, DIY, ebooks, getting it done, web reviews, What about Chazz?, Writers, book, book review, Literature, review, Reviews and Criticism, writer

07/04/2011 • 1:14 AM 4

Book Reviews: A Very Decent Proposal

The magnificent Kim Nayyer sent me a very interesting idea

**that the self-published among you might just love.**

“Magnificent?” you say, skeptically.

Me? I don’t say anything. Instead I whap you on the nose with Kim’s rolled up bio: Peter Parker and Marian the librarian’s love child. Selects and edits creative non-fiction submissions to Victoria’s Island Writer magazine. Writes book reviews, mainly of children’s literature and adult legal texts, to the extent those genres are distinct. News and information junkie. Proved her good citizenship by writing a blog for Canada’s public broadcaster during the recent Canadian federal election. Her website is http://www.kimnayyer.com.

Here’s the email Kim sent:

What a coincidence that I spotted your video book review today (nice!). Coincidence because a couple of days ago I was going to suggest to you a book review corner on your site, a corner restricted to reviews of self-published or e-only or e-first books, something along those lines to give a platform to the non-traditional market.

Recently a twitter contact asked me whether I was able to review his book. I checked with a couple of my outlets. One only does Canadian books (and the guy’s in Portland) and the other only does pre-release publishing house books (and he’s self-published and the book came out earlier this year).I thought of you and your forthcoming books, and I thought of a couple of local self-published authors I know and how hard one of them works to sell her book.

My idea is not that you do all the reviews yourself (unless you want to, say in videos), but that you get a roster of a handful of decent writers/vloggers, perhaps other self-published authors, to do them as guest posts or to commit to doing one or two a year each, or perhaps in exchange for reviews of their books. The authors of course would send you or the reviewer free review copies of their books.

Think it’s workable?

I love that idea! How about it, self-published party people?

If you’re a self-published author and want:

1. Your book to be reviewed, and

2. to review a couple of books a year

then, 3. Email Chazz at expartepress@gmail.com with:

your name, book title, genre, book length and what genres interest you for writing book reviews. I shall attempt to match up the compatible submissions and we’ll take it from there. Also, if you have suggestions, let me know. I do love the idea. I just haven’t thought much about what the protocol should be.

The self-published can support each other. As it stands, The System and The Man wants to keep you down. Let’s subvert The System, kick The Man in the crotch and spread the word about our books.

Yes, Kim the Magnificent. I think it’s workable!

GO INDIE!

Filed under: authors, reviews, self-publishing, web reviews, Writers, Author, book, book review, indie reviews, indie writers, Literature, review, self-publishing, writer

07/03/2011 • 9:25 AM 0

Book recommendations & VIDEO: People, nature and killer robots are out to get you

What an amazing book this is! It’s terrifying and very funny at the same time. Written by Cracked writer Robert Brockway, this book lays out everything that should terrify you to hide under your bed. Some of the stuff I write is really about scary what if scenaria. But Everything is Going to Kill Everybody isn’t so theoretical and fictional. For instance, there are autonomous killer robots in Korea right now…that can decide on their own to kill you…from two miles away…in the goddamn dark! In a few years, one-third of US ground forces will be drones and robots! (That’s ground forces! Not just the flying killer robots they have now that can kill anyone anywhere with the pilots sitting safely in a bunker n Nevada.)

(MORE TEXT AFTER THE VIDEO)

But that’s just one Skynet scenario. There are all kinds of things that could wipe out humans everywhere: hypercanes (instead of hurricanes), manufactured mega-tornadoes on a fragile leash, energy device plots that could fry us all, asteroid strikes, Mother Nature bludgeoning you over and over, microscopic robots, huge military robots designed to eat the fresh kills for energy (no, I’m not kidding!) and biotech wonders that could wipe us out with horrible plagues. In other words, you’ve got to buy this book, because, as deep as it goes, it’s also hilarious. The writer realizes that at some point he’s going to make you may lose all bowel control, so there are lots of comedic opportunities there. This is the scariest book you’ll ever laugh at.

(If you care to order immediately, just click the image for the Amazon link. If you’d prefer to live in sad denial, I understand, but you’ll miss a lot of fascinating, scary science and a lot of chuckles.)