It remains a crapshoot - Part 1.

The path to the finals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards continues.

The next phase of the competition started rolling out today with the release of the industry-based "Publisher's Weekly" reviews being added to pool of reviews that will be considered for judging purposes.



Rather than bog people down with the why's and wherefore's of the review, I have added my response to the competitor's forum as a separate post - uninspiringly called "It remains a crapshoot - Part 2" and containing the guts of the review and my response to it.

To summarise though, and to mirror the feelings on the competitors boards, the reviewing process was obviously rushed.

I am open to criticism. I have to be, it comes with the territory when a writer sends something out into the wild to be critiqued. The problem with the PW review is that it is clear that, under enormous pressure to get a lot of reviews done for the competition, the reviewer simply didn't read all of Erasure.

For those interested, head over the to the aforementioned "Part two" post for a blow by blow - I'll not bore you with it again here.

I am concerned that if the rest of the competition is based entirely on the PW review, Erasure's run might be at an end.

There is still hope, however.

The decision for the next round will be based on a combination of the PW review AND public reviews.
This is where you come in.

I need you to review the competition excerpt.
I am a fair fighter - it is against the rules to ask you to leave specific feedback.
It is against the rules for me to offer any incentive whatsoever.

So to be clear, I am offering nothing; CAN offer nothing, in return for maybe 5 minutes of your time...
...apart from my gratitude.

I don't mind being beat. I don't mind being outgunned in the presence of such competition.

Right now, though, it isn't a fair fight.

I am usually the champion of other people's causes, so this request for your consideration is not part of my usual makeup.

I can't tell you to do anything. You must decide whether to be involved or not.

Your involvement might create a more even playing field. Your contribution might demonstrate to the judging panel that Erasure, and by proxy, me as an author has a solid social media presence.

If you've got the time, I'd be grateful for it.

Erasure Excerpt link: Click here for the US Amazon site. Where you can download the excerpt free AND/OR leave your feedback simply by clicking the ""x" Customer reviews" then clicking "Create your own review."

OR go to your favourite Amazon site and search for "Webber Erasure ABNA" to get to the excerpt on your local site.

Lastly - your involvement could make a difference, even if you do nothing more than leave your own review.
What might help tip the scales is if you share the link on your own social media feeds and ask your friends to consider helping out a writer-type friend of yours.

The unmasked link to the excerpt for copy/pasting to your news feeds is :  http://www.amazon.com/Erasure-2014-Entry-A-T-H-Webber-ebook/dp/B00JOU30AY/

Alternately you can just share this post with your request for assistance.

Thanks, just... thanks.