Is your novel "Etta James at Last"? I recently self-published my novel and it looks as if Kirkus may be the ONLY place to get reviewed. Any advice?

Kirkus is in my opinion the best place to get an indie book reviewed. Mine is indie and the review is fair and is given the same treatment as any book. Since the industry seems to be leery of indie books (and for good reason) because there are no gatekeepers, Kirkus and some few good indie reviewers fill that function.

PM me if you want to know the actual name of the actual book. It's doing pretty well.

but you have the ability to hide the review if you don't like it (they aren't going to give away reviews - you must earn the positive comments). A starred review is awesome - congrats!!

It costs between $500.00 (for a couple months wait) to $600.00 (for a couple of weeks) to get your indie book reviewed by them.

I haven't bothered yet because I have to wonder what value their reviews are going to be seen as having now that you can buy them.

It's treated like any other once it's done. Mine was picked up by other media sites and is in the monthly Kirkus rankings with all the others. I was also asked to do an interview for their print edition but it was given to a freelance writer and I haven't heard from them yet. So as far as I can tell the reviews are respected and they were smart enough to find a way to make a bit of money.

Congratulations.

Your book must be pretty damn good to get that. They don't hand those out like Chiclets.

Please explain how you are self-promting

I read mysteries for fun and several self-published authors (as well as those with big publishers) have set up facebook pages where they interact with fans. I've become friends with a few local authors that way and it's interesting to keep up with them and hear their thoughts. If you haven't done so you may want to consider that

Response has been very positive when folks know about it and read it, but that's the trick. I'm still working on attracting FB attention. Twitter, not so much. It's not my medium. I don't have the time.

I never thought about it... But because of the new DU3, I noticed this group.
I have a micropublishing company, www.creativedragonpress.com, and am always interested in how indie authors promote.

Not on the micropublishing, but on the promotion of indie-published books.

I've got a novel I'm thinking of going indie with. The only thing that stops that thought from becoming an action is the promotion aspects.

But then I hear traditional publishing houses aren't doing much for promotion any more either. So it's starting to sound like you're on your own more and more.

The big houses are pretty much in the same boat as everyone else. With the way the business has morphed, you can do just about everything that they can. They just know what they're doing, unlike many of us that bumble our way thru this.

The biggest problem is exposure.

I won't go into it but there are quite a few ways to get reviews, do blog tours, have giveaways, link to pages and sites, etc. I'm learning how to judiciously spend to get the most exposure.

In fact, some guy wrote a book about it, lol.

I do have one nonfiction book that sorta reached this TP. Now I sell about 100 copies a month without any promotion.