Even if the techniques suggested here don't really work, you can bet such a popular book will be believed by many of your novel's readers. 

Take a good look at this book.

Oh, and wouldn't it be a wonderful present??  Imagine -- would a real liar give his new best friend such a book? 

If you want to create a character who shows how Moslems can be good neighbors, read a book like this.  Click the link

And remember not to judge people by what other members of their group have done or not done. 

Click the title under the book cover and read some of the reviews - search through some of the related Lists and Guides.  It doesn't cost anything and you could learn a lot. 

List Price:

$17.95

This book is usually discounted.  Just read the customer reviews if nothing else.  People who have been there think this book is great.  

Here is a top-rated travel guide that can give you the information you need to make your characters seem to have been there themselves.  If you want to write the whole story in a region, you must go there yourself.  BUT if you want your characters to be "well traveled" -- read guides of this calibre.  

"This jam-packed how-to by a former Marvel Comics cartoonist offers everything a budding artist needs. Written and illustrated by a former Marvel Comics' artist with brilliant hand-done images throughout, this graphic handbook of cartooning is without equal."   more

List Price:

$7.99

I've only read a few scattered examples of this series but it's consistent and well worth studying for the mixture of mystery, steamy romance, grit, and a mostly unrealized futuristic setting.  This is #16 in the series, but I've been able to read them non-consecutively.  

If you're a professional writer, you know you must read outside your "favorites" area.  If you are not used to reading mysteries at all, start on our Mysteries Shelf where you will find books chosen for their value to writers as well as readers.  Books in Keybooks are not chosen because I like them -- but because they have value for students of the writing craft.  Being a writer, I tend to like books that have value for the craft.  

List Price:

$25.95

This is such a popular book they give it a steep discount.  

See my detailed review on amazon and in my column.

List Price:

$6.99

One of the fastest growing fields producing soaring sales figures, the cross-genre and genre-mixing field that defies categorization.  Look at the bottom of this page for how amazon struggles to find a niche for this kind of book -- where it says look for similar books.  

To be successful at selling your books, you need to study these marketing trends.  Besides, Sizemore is a great writer.  Check out any of her titles.  

Those of My Blood

by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Killed in a car crash and buried by his fiancé 20 years before Those of My Blood, Titus Shiddehara has been forbidden by his Vampire father to reveal his existence to his human love, the woman he was to marry when he died.
 
On a mission to prevent a signal from Earth reaching an interstellar enemy, he meets her by accident. She recognizes her dead fiancé in the presence of his father, who now feels obligated to destroy her, or them both. 
Can their love become trust and save Earth from certain invasion while fighting a more powerful Vampire for their lives? 
Read 4 chapters free. Or

The original hardcover of this novel sells for $80 and up on amazon and at other collectors' sites.  

Here is the first trade paperback edition for a very reasonable price.

Or order direct from the publisher BenBella Books.   (no account needed)

Award-winning paranormal romance

In e-book form this book has won the LORIE as best paranormal romance (not e-book romance; romance) and the Lord Ruthven Assembly award as best vampire novel (not e-book vampire novel; vampire novel). It is also an EPPIE finalist (the EPPIE _is_ an e-book award). Now it becomes a trade paperback--and two months before its release it is already a Featured Book on Amazon.com.  

Buy with one-click on amazon here

Blood Will Tell

by Jean Lorrah

Brandy Mather is a small-town police detective looking for the connections among a series of deaths in which each corpse wears the same serene smile.

She enlists the aid of computer expert Dan Martin--but is he helping her to find the answer, or leading her away from it?

Even as she falls in love with Dan, Brandy learns more and more about his own dark secret.

Order direct from the publisher BenBella Books.  

Nov 2003
Dark passion, desire, maybe love -- stories by a few of the top authors of vampire romance.

You

List Price:

$6.99

Nov 2003 release

You will find many reviews of Christine Feehan's work here on simegen.com.  Put her name into the search form at the upper left corner of this page.  

I have a personal recommendation on this.  I used a different brand, had intermittent connection failure.  Switched to a pair of these and my network is smooth again and the router doesn't crash.  (Windows XP Prof on 2003 model Dell computers).  Read the reviews on amazon. 

List Price:

$6.99

Look for current discounts.  

This is the latest in one of my all-time most favorite series -- and I'm not sure if it's my all-time favorite Cherryh yet.  It'll be a close call if she ever writes more in the universe of Cuckoo's Egg.  

List Price: $19.95

But go check the discount!  

"Study the classics" they always say.  Well, here's a classic among classics - read by Theodore Bikel who has toured in the play for decades to standing ovations.  

List Price:

$16.00

15 short stories by Huff, including 4  involving her Blood series characters Vicki Nelson, Michael Celluci and the bisexual vampire Henry Fitzroy

Now, after her death, MZB's most famous best-seller The Mists of Avalon (she hated having a "The" in the title of her books) is being broadcast on television in July 2001.  Mists of Avalon is suddenly sales-ranked as a mover-and-shaker on amazon. Buy it by clicking the link to the right, and help simegen.com keep providing free writing instruction.

If you somehow missed this one, look it up at your library.  You may want to own this.  It's very re-readable.