Hello, friends.

It’s been a while since I’ve sent out a newsletter – and so much has happened in the past few months that my head feels like it’s still spinning.

On a personal level, our family has run the gamut of experiences, from a dicey medical problem my wife had that landed her in the hospital for a week in April, to the miraculous birth of my new grandson, Christopher Paul Lazar, to the tragic loss of a dear friend, Tom Benedetto, (who many of you may have worked with at Kodak), to a wonderful, sun-drenched vacation on Cape Cod a few weeks ago…

There’s been so much upheaval and emotional roller coaster riding that I guess it’s a good thing I have my writing to keep me grounded.

From a literary point of view, things have been crazy busy.
I published my first book by myself last fall, The Seacrest. It worked out so well that I’ve forged ahead and released 3 more LeGarde books (written long ago and recently polished): Lady Blues: forget-me-not, Spirit Me Away, and The Liar’s Gallery(former title, Virtuoso). All that’s left to release in this ten book series is Under the Ice (formerly Counterpoint) and I plan to get to this in the fall/winter.

While all this polishing and publishing was going on, however, I couldn’t help but write a new book – that’s where the fun lies!Devil’s Lake was just released, and it’s my first standalone thriller.

Next up are two brand new Tall Pines Mysteries, Sanctuary andMurder on the Sacandaga. They were written recently and are going through final checks, ready for Beta Readers. If you’ve never done a Beta Read and you would like to add your eagle eye to the team, just contact me. I always need good proof readers.

When I am caught up with the next three book releases, I plan to write a sequel to The Seacrest. Seacrest II will focus on Finn’s nephew, Cody, and a fresh, new love story with plenty of mystery folded into it, of course!
 

Secrets Revealed and a Request

I have finally discovered one path to reaching more readers. It’s through email programs such as Kindle Books & Tips and BookBub. The Seacrest was the #1 Kindle free download for fiction and nonfiction for the weekend of April 5th and 6th, 2014, thanks to the ads I placed with these two companies. We had over 59,000 (free) downloads, and earned enough “residual” sales to pay for our vacation this summer. First time that’s ever happened, and I was thrilled.

These ads are not cheap, but they do move books, and especially if the book is offered for free or seriously discounted for a short time.

The key is this – folks like BookBub only accept 30% of all submissions each day. Even if you have a professional cover, a well-edited file, an interesting synopsis, an intriguing storyline, you won’t be accepted to these promo companies unless you have a lot of good reviews as well.

So – here I am. on my knees, begging you to think about which of my books you’ve read in the past or may read in the future, and hoping you’ll consider going up to Amazon to post a short review about each one.

It doesn’t even have to be more than a sentence or two – just letting other readers know how you liked the story or how it made you feel. You don’t have to recap the story line – that’s fine, but not necessary. Anyone can read the synopsis already posted on Amazon, right?

Can you help? I know many of you are nervous about taking this step – but don’t be! If you scroll through most of the 150+ reviews for The Seacrest, you’ll see anything from “Loved it, telling all my friends,” to long analytical reviews, which are great, but you don’t have to do that much work.

Of course, if you hated the book(s), forget all about this, LOL!

I’m especially trying to grow the reviews for my brand new books, Lady Blues: forget-me-not, Spirit Me Away, The Liar’s Gallery, and most of all, for the brand new thriller, Devil’s Lake. 

Thanks in advance and hope you all have a great rest of your summer.

Warmest wishes as always,

Aaron
http://www.lazarbooks.com