Dystopian authors like dystopian books! The fine folks at Shepherd, an up-and-coming competitor to Goodreads, recently asked me to write a list of five favorites from the same genre as my debut novel, We, The Watched.
For some reason, a lightning strike seemed appropriate after that title.
And no, I didn’t just list all my novels. It’s a mix of classics and some newer books. When you finish, also check out Shepherd’s dystopia bookshelf for more great reads recommended by other authors.
Please sound off in the comments if you’ve read any of my picks, or if you’d like to make some recommendations of your own. I’m always looking for my next read… After all, dystopian authors like dystopian books!
My next novel Utopia PR will be in readers’ hands in just one (hopefully short) month! Personally, I can’t wait for Feb. 22, so I’ve set up a couple ways for you to get an early copy of the eBook edition.
For Kindle owners who enjoy a good game of chance (and frankly, who doesn’t?), I present to you this Goodreads giveaway! Enter to win one of 100 free copies of the Kindle edition. The contest ends Feb. 12, meaning you’ll get the book more than a week early!
Prefer a physical book and don’t mind waiting for Feb. 22? I’m excited to announce the paperback edition is now available to pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, with more booksellers expected to add it soon. The eBook was already available for pre-order on those sites, plus Apple, Google Play and Kobo.
Utopia PR continues to garner positive early praise!
“In a tale that’s reminiscent of political farces such as the HBO TV series Veep, Bender employs a smooth, amusing, and straightforward prose style that’s briskly paced … Its tone is irreverent, and readers looking for a quick chuckle will likely enjoy Bender’s winking comedy, which is punctuated with genuinely sweet, sincere moments.” — Kirkus Reviews
I’m even more excited to hear what you think. Please leave a customer review wherever you get a copy or on Goodreads. I’m an indie author with a limited marketing budget, so your help spreading the word really makes a difference.
Book reviewers may also obtain an ARC at NetGalley. If you write a review, please contact me to let me know and I’ll be happy to feature it on my blog or via social media. I’m also available for interviews if so desired.
Authors read books? Why, yes! Here are a few good ones that raise some compelling questions about our society, with one that usefully explains how it got that way!
Swarthout is great at breaking Western genre tropes with his novels, and he doesn’t disappoint in The Homesman. Here, we learn of an untold history about the psychological costs of living on the frontier. Wolves, cold and disease take a toll on families out there. When a few wives go insane from the pressure, no one wants to take them back home to their families — except a tenacious woman named Mary Bee Cuddy. Delving into prejudice against the mentally ill, the novel moves quickly with colorful characters who stick with you long after the last page. If you like this, make sure you check out Swarthout’s The Shootist and other westerns on my list of favorites that inspired my novel, The Wanderer and the New West.
A great entry into the work of Philip K. Dick, this book collects short stories adapted for the TV show of the same name. I haven’t watched the show, but found this to be a fun group of stories with compelling sci-fi ideas. As with any short-story collection, some tales are stronger than others, but all will leave one pondering the weird ways of society. The brevity of these stories forces Dick to get quickly to the point — and should be satisfying for those who struggle to find long periods of time to read. A couple of my favorites included “Exhibit Piece,” in which a future historian decides he prefers to live in the past, and “The Hanging Stranger,” a body-snatchers type tale in which no one in a town seems to be at all worried about a dead man hanging from a light pole. Dick’s work is definitely an influence on my novels, especially We, The Watched and Divided We Fall.
If you’ve ever wondered how America got that way, this is the history book for you. Woodard challenges the notion that we’re just a bunch of blue and red states. Rather, he theorizes that distinct cultures and histories in eleven regional nations of America explain why swing states go red in certain elections but blue in others, among other intriguing insights. I’m not always excited to read a history book, but this one felt very relevant to today’s political situation. I’m sure to refer back to it in my own news reporting and fictional writing about this land we call the United States.
Enough America! Let’s talk about Canada. Roughneck is another masterpiece graphic novel by Jeff Lemire. Beautiful, expressive artwork matched with another haunting story. Reading Lemire’s books is like watching a great indie film. I also really like the Canadian framing of the story — a washed up hockey player, a run-down Canadian town, trapping and an indigenous history create a great atmosphere. Don’t miss it!
Spreading the word — it’s the hardest part of being an indie author. Writing the novel is fun and turning the manuscript into a real book is a thrill, but now you have to actually find people to give it a chance!
While I know the feeling of not wanting to spend money on marketing, I’ve come to learn it’s a key to success. The good news is you can control your costs. Before you do anything else, set yourself an annual budget and use a spreadsheet to keep track of what you’re spending. That will help you see how quickly you’re spending ad money, and can actually provide a lot of comfort when you’re thinking about spending more.
While many advertising companies will gladly accept your money, I’d recommend starting with online ad platforms that charge on a per-click basis. These will give you more transparent stats on how an ad is performing, including how many are seeing it, how many are clicking and how many are buying.
The tricky bit is deciding which online ad platforms are worth your time. A quick scan of the web likely will reveal that EVERYTHING WORKS. “Give us your money now!”
Your mileage may vary, but I’ve found that some work better than others. Google Adwords or Bing may be great for small businesses selling custom leather guitar straps, but I’ve found them to be too general-audience for selling books. Oh sure, they gave me a lot of clicks, but the traffic to my website didn’t seem to result in many sales. For example, I found a lot of people clicking my “western” keyword ads for The Wanderer and the New West actually desired clothes or strange pornography.
Those platforms can also feel a little intimidating to use if you’re not a web expert. It’s very possible that an advanced Adwords user could produce better results for me, but as a writer I found it difficult to get the results I wanted.
What I’ve found is that the ad platforms that work best are the ones that specifically target readers.
A sponsored ad on Amazon
My books are available on Amazon, so advertising them through Amazon Marketing has by far been the best use of my money. Amazon is a little picky about the ad copy but if you can write a message that’s clean and compelling without seeming too shameless, Amazon pretty much handles the rest. You can make sponsored ads that appear next to search results and product display ads that show up on users’ Kindles. I’ve had slightly more success with the sponsored ads, perhaps because those are seen by people actively searching for books to buy. However, definitely run both and see what works for you. As with all these ad platforms, you can set the ads up for a limited time, check your results, and edit ads accordingly.
OK, so what about other stores besides Amazon? The easiest, most successful way I’ve reached those readers is with BookBub. This is a popular e-newsletter that’s known for its selectivity about books it features. But the platform also accepts ads, so even if you don’t have enough customer reviews to be featured in a particular newsletter, you can still get your book in front of readers. It’s super easy to create an ad on BookBub–all you need is a cover and some short, snappy copy. Better yet, you can add links to your book in every store it’s available. BookBub knows the preferred store of its readers — whether its Google, Apple or Barnes & Noble — and automatically will serve them the correct link! Reedsy says not knowing BookBub allows ads is one of 12 common book marketing mistakes. I’d have to agree!
BookBub ads are great for targeting readers on multiple stores.
The third ad platform I use is Goodreads, though to be honest I’ve had mixed results. I do think it’s very important for authors to be on Goodreads–which happens to be owned by Amazon. However, while giveaways can be valuable, I’m not totally convinced by the platform’s self-serve ads. These seem to work best in conjunction with giveaways, as readers just seem more likely to click ads if they think they can get the book for free. But I’ve found that I have to pay more per click than on other services just to get my ads seen. When readers do click, they don’t always add my book to their to-read shelf. And while getting on that shelf does flag intention to buy for many readers, I’ve seen many others who have shelves with hundreds or thousands of books. It could take them years to get to my novel! On the other hand, not getting a lot of clicks means you’re not spending that much money. I find it pretty difficult to get through my ad budget on Goodreads, so this may be a situation where it doesn’t hurt to try.
Goodreads ads have been great for me.
If you’re an indie author, I’m interested to hear what ad platforms have worked (or not worked) for you. Please let me know in the comments!
When Adam Bender’s not writing, he’s reading. Or doing other stuff, maybe. I mean, he can’t just be reading or writing all the time, can he?
But I digress (and switch suddenly to first person). Here is a selection of my latest book reviews on Goodreads. If you’re a Goodreads user, please follow me to keep updated on what I’m reading. You can even review my books if you want! The shoe is on the other foot now, eh?
Hm, that’s a weird expression. Oh well. Without further ado, book reviews! And today, a special SUPERHERO EDITION!
A visual feast for the eyes! This comic is all about style — almost like Kill Bill in book form. There’s a lot of action and not a huge amount of dialog, so the pages go by fast. The writer and artist were definitely in sync with this one, making the images feel like they’re in motion.
Warning: this is a dark, weird and blisteringly violent comic. If you’re into stuff by Frank Miller or Alan Moore, you’ll probably dig it. But it’s not for the faint of heart!
If you like a little humor with your superheroes, Ant-Man is the comic book for you. Nick Spencer killed it on The Superior Foes of Spider-Man and the spirit of that (sadly) canceled series lives on here! In fact, it’s actually kind of fitting, since Scott Lang (Ant-Man) used to be a criminal himself and doesn’t have problems working with other reformed criminals.
The story here takes a lot of unexpected turns, which adds a lot of originality to a genre that can at times feel stale. In that way, I think that Spencer, like Matt Fraction, are really doing a lot to reinvigorate superhero comics.
Of course, a lot of the humor would be lost without the great artwork by Ramon Rosanos. There’s something about the facial expressions and body positions he draws that really enhances the storytelling. A lot of the cleverness in the writing could easily be lost without Rosanos on-board.
For quite some time, I’ve been wanting to read the comic where Tony Stark has a drinking problem. Okay, that sounds kind of weird, but it’s true. This is the volume that includes the classic “Demon in a Bottle” comic.
What I didn’t realize is that it’s mainly the one issue (the last in this collection) that deals with it. The first seven issues show Tony having occasional drinks but he doesn’t really hit rock bottom until the issue before the eponymous #128. The storyline up to that point focuses on Justin Hammer messing with Iron Man’s suit. It’s a fun but not totally absorbing superhero adventure, and I felt a bit bored at times. So, if you’re just reading this for the drinking problem stuff, you might be better off buying digital single issues of #127 and #128.
That said, that last issue is pretty great. It’s pretty interesting to see a comic take on an issue like drinking and do it in a way that feels organic to the plot. Even more commendable is that the guy with the problem here is Iron Man himself! I’ve seen a lot of comics address addiction issues through sidekicks and friends of sidekicks, so it’s great to see Marvel had the guts to use one of their biggest stars.
Like the Batman and Joker volumes before it, this another great hardcover reproduction of classic Batman stories. Robin is a character with an interesting history, because he’s had so many different secret identities. Each of them reflect the times in which they were created.
In this volume, you get a bunch of classic tales, including “Robin Dies at Dawn” (he doesn’t really) and the “Death in the Family” issue where the Joker kills Jason Todd, the second Robin (he really does). The collection kind of loses steam as soon as Tim Drake comes onto the scene, which was a bit surprising because I always liked the character in the ’90s. Maybe it’s because his issues tend to deal with teenager life stuff and I’m no longer a teen.
It’s definitely worth reading if you like the character, and there’s plenty of Dick Grayson here, but I would recommend some supplemental reading to get a better feel for the other Robins. For example, there’s only single issues here from the larger story arcs Batman: A Death in the Family, Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying, and Batman and Son. It’s worth checking out these other books to get a better feel for Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne.
You should also check out the excellent Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn, in which Dick Grayson is Batman and Damian Wayne is Robin.
Well, that’s the end of today’s edition of Adam Bender reads … If you’ve read any of the above books, I’d love to hear your opinion in the comments below! Or let me know what books you think I should read next!
