Hookline Books


Showing Tag: "netgalley" (Show all posts)

The window on a novel

Posted by Yvonne Barlow on Monday, January 4, 2016,
Covers are the windows to a book. A bad cover can cost a publisher readers. But who decides what makes a good cover?
Authors often have a cover in mind when writing a book. When considering the cover, editors look at demographics and who are the likely readers of a manuscript. Designers, well, they want to make a mark, and good designers like to make a profound mark.
In reality, it is readers who decide a good cover - if it turns them away, it's a bad cover.
So, we've decided our original cover ...
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Read and review - free

Posted by Yvonne Barlow on Friday, December 11, 2015,
We're running our own version of Netgalley. We'll provide the PDF of a title if you agree to review it on Goodreads, Amazon or your very own blog. If you hate the book, tell people. If it leaves you cold, fine. But if you love it, and we hope you do, then ring out the praises.
For the uninitiated, Netgalley is a review site that provides ebooks to booksellers, reviewers, librarians and keen readers. It's a fairly expensive venture for small publishers, however it does raise awareness of titles...
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Independent reviews of an unusual debut crime novel

Posted by Yvonne Barlow on Thursday, November 19, 2015,
"Crime doesn't pay," goes the maxim. However, an unusual debut crime novel from CM Thompson has proven a success with independent Netgalley reviewers who, it seems, love What Lies in the Dark.
And we're immensely proud and keen to share - especially as Amazon have discounted the ebook to 99p.
Here are just some of the reviews:

“This is a debut novel that deserves to be read.”

“CM Thompson has perfectly captured human nature - our pettiness and rivalries; our emotions of apathy and anger, ...

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The Secret Mother is a Netgalley success

Posted by Yvonne Barlow on Monday, November 2, 2015,
Our time at Netgalley is at an end, and we are no longer offering reviewers and readers free access to our novels.
It's been an interesting experiment, and one that has been affirming - readers who don't know us seemed to have enjoyed the Hookline novels. Last week I detailed the feedback on our crime novel, What Lies in the Dark.
Today, we'll look at the response to The Secret Mother by Victoria Delderfield.
Out of 11 reviews, five gave the novel 5 stars, with seven offering 3 or 4 stars and on...
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Throwing open the pages for reviews

Posted by Yvonne Barlow on Friday, October 30, 2015,
It's scary for an author (and a publisher) when a novel is thrown open for review. What if everyone hates it? What if we are the only people who see merit in the work?
Well, we did something scary earlier this year, something we've never done before, and threw all of this year's publications open to review by all Netgalley subscribers. Netgalley, is a book discovery site for booksellers, reviewers, bloggers, librarians and those who love books - even if all they do is read.
Well, the first titl...
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Hookline and Netgalley, we need your help

Posted by Yvonne Barlow on Wednesday, August 26, 2015,
We are Netgalley virgins - have never used the review system before.
So we paid our money and uploaded Ben Lyle's debut novel Terms to their system. 
So far, so slow - only one review.

To refresh your memory, Terms tells of t
welve-year-old James who hates life at his hippy boarding school where lessons are optional and homework forbidden. All he wants is an academic education with proper exams. When a strict new maths teacher strides into his world of peace, love and fringed ponchos, James latch...
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About Me


Yvonne Barlow Editor at Hookline Books - where book clubs and readers choose the novels that go to print.

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