NEW Books! GOODREADS Giveaways for US Readers

100 COPIES to be won AHEAD of Publication Day!

The antidote to Valentine's Day if you like your reading sharp, not sickly sweet. 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

With Double Blade

by Jean Gill

Giveaway ends February 12, 2018.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Goodreads kindle giveaways are US only but if you live elsewhere - or if you're not lucky in the giveaway there's a **SPECIAL PRE-ORDER 0.99** (Publication price 3.99)

You CAN read kindles on other ereaders. Get the FREE APP from amazon and follow these instructions. If you use a different amazon, search for 'kindle app' on your local one.

'Jean Gill’s spiky humour makes you feel as if she’s caught you on barbed wire and yet makes you smile about it'– Mike Sharpe, Haverfordwest Journalist 

Strong, fresh, vivid poems from award-winning author Jean Gill, on an astounding range of subjects including adultery, AIDS and the Mexican Earthquake. If you crossed Wendy Cope’s work with Sylvia Plath’s, Jean Gill’s poetry might be the result.

‘You’re starting to smother me, darling,

 you’re faded and boring, my dear.

 It’s my turn to play with another

 and your turn alone with your fear.’ 
Divided into two parts, this new edition includes the stories behind the poetry, some personal and some about world events; always surprising.
'Moving and varied '– Dorothy Tutin
'Jean Gill brings off the rare feat of looking life squarely in the eye without descending into dreary cynicism.' – HS Milford Haven, Journalist
'The author is particularly gifted with poetry.' The Wishing Shelf Award

                                    

                                              Add With Double Blade to your goodreads shelf

Want to pre-order now? At SPECIAL 99c/99p price?

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Your chance to win a copy of the historical novel everybody's talking about. Like #GOT with real history! 100 copies!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Song Hereafter

by Jean Gill

Giveaway ends February 17, 2018.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Thrilling conclusion to an award-winning epic series. Can be read as a stand-alone.

Add Song Hereafter to your goodreads shelf

Amazon 5* review 

Perfect!
"I looked forward to this publication knowing it was the last book in a wonderful series and then put off actually reading it. I so loved the characters that I couldn't bear for it to end. And then I realized that enough time had passed and I could start over with the first book to live it all again. I've never been so pleased with the final chapter in any series as this. The story is so engaging, one almost doesn’t realize the lessons in history, poetry, music and medicine are being taught. The relationships between characters are enchanting, intriguing, and sometimes frightening. And the dog! You will recognize your own special dog in this hero, no matter the size or breed. Bravo!"

Want to buy now?

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Democracy and book reviews - yours matter

Are you more likely to buy a book if it is recommended by

a) a household name superstar?
b) a well-known author/journalist?
c) your friend?
d) an unknown online reviewer/Blogger?
e) a lot of people online?

I have only just realised how my own habits as a reader are changing, so of course I am thinking about what this means for me as a writer.

In life before computers, I used to read book reviews in newspapers, and I also used to notice the quotations on a book's cover. If I liked Writer X and Writer X said 'The best historical novel this year' I'd give the book a try. I would also share book recommendations with friends who had similar reading tastes. So that puts the former me firmly in b) and c)

I'm still a c) person but I've ditched b) not just because I no longer read newspapers, not just because I'm cynical about the small mutual appreciation societies of the successful, but because I read reviews online, wherever they catch my eye. The big sites for me are amazon and goodreads but I also read reviews on smashwords and on online journals. Surely online journals are just a modern version of those newspapers of the past? Not so. There were perhaps a dozen newspapers for sale and not all of those had book reviews. Even if you add magazines, the number of publications was tiny compared with the explosion of online material. More publications and more reviewers, destroying that little clique of the past - or creating a million new little cliques, depending how you see things.

If I read a well-written review that tells me something about the book and gives a judgement on it that makes sense, I am definitely influenced. If I see ten such reviews, the book stays in my mind as one to read. d) and e) are becoming far more important and the only criterion for me is that the review itself tells me what I need to know. I don't care who the reviewer is, where he lives, how successful she is at her job - all I care about is the information on a book I might want to read. All that matters in a reviewer is the reading, and the reviewing. Democracy at work!

I know that authors are supposed to 'persuade' friends and family to write reviews, or sign up under pseudonyms and write their own. Apart from the difficulties thrown in their way by the book sites, this strategy has another disadvantage - you can tell if a review is phony. I can certainly tell. So as far as I'm concerned, if the review does its job I don't care whether it's written by the author or his granny, it's telling me what I want to know about the book. Comparing two reviews will usually show up a phony one.

Although I'm very grateful when friends or family like one of my books and post a review, I don't ask. I prefer to keep my friends and family rather than have them avoid me because a) I'll expect them to buy my latest book - 14 books cost a lot of money b) I'll want them to do homework on it after reading it.

I find myself writing more and more reviews because I know how much it matters, to the writer and to other readers. If I buy something on ebay, I leave feedback. It keeps ebay safe. If I read a book and take 2 minutes to star-rate it on goodreads, it keeps the book industry democratic. I have the right to vote; I should use it. Gone are the days when some white man in a public-school tie praised the work of some other white man in a public-school tie (or of course, trashed it, because that too can be part of the review game)

If you've read something you loved, say so and why. If you've read something you hated, say so and why. Your vote counts.

goodreads giveaway for 'Song at Dawn'

Published two weeks ago and 3 copies are in the goodreads giveaway - random draw open to anyone. 13 days left to go so put your name in now.

1150 in Provence where love and marriage are as divided as Muslim and Christian

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Song at Dawn

by Jean Gill

Giveaway ends November 13, 2011.



See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

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