# Out of the blue: Really Big Name Writer lets me know he loved my book



## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I'd been feeling pretty down this month. The Kobo debacle robbed me of most of my sales because Kobo is where I sell a few hundred $$$ every month. I sell like crap on Amazon at the best of times (my report looks like a binary file, seriously), despite two new releases recently.

And then, I get an out-of-the-blue comment from Kevin Anderson (the Dune novels) that he loved my freebie Fire & Ice!

OMG I am so going to ask him for a blurb!


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Seriously, THAT'S AMAZING! CONGRATS!! Did he send you an email or comment on your blog? Blurb it, blurb it, blurb it!


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## K.R. Harris (Jan 25, 2012)

That is awesome! congrats!


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Truly awesome! Congratulations.


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## TiffanyNicole (Jul 28, 2013)

That's so awesome! Congrats!


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## Writerly Writer (Jul 19, 2012)

Patty Jansen said:


> I'd been feeling pretty down this month. The Kobo debacle robbed me of most of my sales because Kobo is where I sell a few hundred $$$ every month. I sell like crap on Amazon at the best of times (my report looks like a binary file, seriously), despite two new releases recently.
> 
> And then, I get an out-of-the-blue comment from Kevin Anderson (the Dune novels) that he loved my freebie Fire & Ice!
> 
> OMG I am so going to ask him for a blurb!


Holy Crap!! Do it!


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Glad you've had some good news for a change. Savor it.


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## Shayne Parkinson (Mar 19, 2010)

Wow, Patty, that's great! I'm hugely pleased for you.


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## Joseph Turkot (Nov 9, 2012)

That's awesome. Congrats!


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## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Holy shit, I'd lose my mind over that. I adored his work on Young Jedi Knights when I was a kid. CONGRATS.

I agree with the others when they say BLURB!


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

Wow! Get a quote! Get a quote!


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Very cool!


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Congrats, Patty. That's awesome.


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## Zoe York (May 12, 2013)

That's amazing!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

It's what we live for even vicariously! YAY!!


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## Lionel&#039;s Mom (Aug 22, 2013)

Wow, how cool! You're living everyone's secret (or not so secret) dream to have a favorite author say they like your work. Congrats, and sorry about Kobo.


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

I think I'd be stopping strangers and telling them.  So so so cool.  Congrats!


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## Janet Michelson (Jun 20, 2012)

YEAH! That'll keep you going for a while!


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## Kenosha Kid (Jun 23, 2011)

Whaaa?!?    That's big time!


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## AgnesWebb (Jan 13, 2013)

Whoa!!! That is HUGE.


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## Heather Walsh (Jan 22, 2013)

Congrats! That's really great for you.


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

How exciting. Congrats.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

WOW!!!! This calls for party Meerkats!


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## Sandra K. Williams (Jun 15, 2013)

That's wonderful. You've got to be thrilled.


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## mariehallwrites (Mar 14, 2013)

Eeeps that's exciting! Blurb the heck out of it. I loved his dune novels!


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## Lyoung (Oct 21, 2013)

WOW. What everyone else said!!!


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## Hugh Howey (Feb 11, 2012)

How freakin' cool is that?!    

More details, please!


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

that is awesome. That has got to make you feel like you are on cloud 9


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

Whoa! I think I could die happy if that ever happened to me. Dune? Impressive to say the least! Congrats!


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## trublue (Jul 7, 2012)

That's great!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

OK, this is what I think happened.

I've recently decided to concentrate on the genre crowd rather than the mass-ebook-buyer crowd. There was a website from someone I know and who is well-known in the genre world that wanted to advertise free stories.

I submitted my story.

I have met him on a few occasions, but never mentioned my fiction in particular (even if I had, back then I was writing hard SF stories, and this is a fantasy novel). I'm reasonably sure that this is where he got my short story and novel (since book 1 is also free at the moment)


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Patty Jansen said:


> I'd been feeling pretty down this month. The Kobo debacle robbed me of most of my sales because Kobo is where I sell a few hundred $$$ every month. I sell like crap on Amazon at the best of times (my report looks like a binary file, seriously), despite two new releases recently.
> 
> And then, I get an out-of-the-blue comment from Kevin Anderson (the Dune novels) that he loved my freebie Fire & Ice!
> 
> OMG I am so going to ask him for a blurb!


   

He's only like my childhood hero since I was like the biggest Star Wars nerd ever.

I only read his Young Jedi Knight series like a thousand billion times.

No big.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Wow, that's so exciting! Milk it, milk it!


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

And we knew her when ...

CONGRATS!!!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Hahaha. Now if I could only get 1000 times more sales, I'd still sell less than half of what you do. *sigh* Yeah. It's NOT been a good month. At. All.


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## Writer1000 (Jul 28, 2013)

That's really cool, Patty. Congrats!


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## sarahdalton (Mar 15, 2011)

That's really awesome. I think we all fantasise these moments in our head and never expect them to come true!


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## Selina Fenech (Jul 20, 2011)

That it too cool. Well done!


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## Annette_g (Nov 27, 2012)

That's fantastic  I have some of his books on  my bookshelf!


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## Zelah Meyer (Jun 15, 2011)

Congratulations!  That's great news.


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## Willo (May 10, 2013)

Congrats <3


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## NoCat (Aug 5, 2010)

That's awesome!  


But yeah, alas, having bestselling authors say nice things about your writing doesn't sell books in my experience. Still, it's a nice thing to hear, for sure.


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## FrankZubek (Aug 31, 2010)

Not to drop names but I have talked to him over the years though I fumbled the ball and went out of touch but he seems to be pretty open if you don't get all fanboy on him.

I have one or two friends who are authors I talk to once a month. They are open to fan mail- some are just busy and haven't the time and others can tend to be open to a regular email exchange over the years.

It just takes a little effort to shoot an email. If you nurse it along they become friends. Or not. Just remember how you would like to be treated by a fan.

Anyway yeah- congrats. Email him and ask if he might be interested in a blurb. (He works for a trad publisher though so by contract he might be obligated to a few rules and might not be able to do it but it never hurts to ask)


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Patty Jansen said:


> And then, I get an out-of-the-blue comment from Kevin Anderson (the Dune novels) that he loved my freebie Fire & Ice!
> 
> OMG I am so going to ask him for a blurb!


Here's how out of it I am: I thought Frank Herbert was still writing all the Dune stuff.

Here's a link to his impressive bibliography:

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?82


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## pwtucker (Feb 12, 2011)

Wow. It's an old dream of mine to one day rub elbows with my favorite authors, or heck, even have one of them read my work. It seems so utterly impossible until it actually happens. Congrats!


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## Sharon Cummin (Mar 19, 2013)

That is very cool! Congrats!


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## minxmalone (Oct 28, 2012)

That's amazing!! Congrats. Definitely ask for a blurb!


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

Huzzah!


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

That is so cool, Patti! I'm glad for you.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

OMG, he's agreed to write a blurb. I still can't believe this.

I just got a beautifully new formatted version back yesterday (grew sick of trying to figure out formatting myself) and sent him a copy.

I'm so excited!


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Patty Jansen said:


> OMG, he's agreed to write a blurb. I still can't believe this.
> 
> I just got a beautifully new formatted version back yesterday (grew sick of trying to figure out formatting myself) and sent him a copy.
> 
> I'm so excited!


So happy for you and so excited he agreed! Many congrats Patty!


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Congrats, Patty. That's wonderful.


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## SarahCarter (Nov 8, 2012)

Congrats! That must be so awesome. Hmm...maybe that could be a new marketing strategy. Sending freebies to well known authors! Or not...


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I didn't send it at first and didn't solicit. What I did was submit a freebie short story to an author asking to display freebie stories on her website. The trilogy later grew out of that particular story. He made an unsolicited comment. I would never condone spamming well-known authors for blurbs, unless you're already quite chummy with the author and he/she is familiar with your work.


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## Shayne Parkinson (Mar 19, 2010)

Patty Jansen said:


> OMG, he's agreed to write a blurb. I still can't believe this.
> 
> I just got a beautifully new formatted version back yesterday (grew sick of trying to figure out formatting myself) and sent him a copy.
> 
> I'm so excited!


Wow, wow, wow! Even more exciting!

Great news, Patty.


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## SarahCarter (Nov 8, 2012)

Patty Jansen said:


> I didn't send it at first and didn't solicit. What I did was submit a freebie short story to an author asking to display freebie stories on her website. The trilogy later grew out of that particular story. He made an unsolicited comment. I would never condone spamming well-known authors for blurbs, unless you're already quite chummy with the author and he/she is familiar with your work.


Oh, I know. I read your other post about how it came about. I was just kidding


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

That is awesome. Well done!


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Patty Jansen said:


> OMG, he's agreed to write a blurb. I still can't believe this.
> 
> I just got a beautifully new formatted version back yesterday (grew sick of trying to figure out formatting myself) and sent him a copy.
> 
> I'm so excited!


   

WOW! You go!! Yay!!! Please share the blurb here when you get it!


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## Rachel Macwhirter (May 29, 2013)

Woahhhh, congratulations! That's fantastic news.


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## Just Browsing (Sep 26, 2012)

Wow. Good for you! And you know he wouldn't have agreed if he didn't seriously like your book.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

SarahCarter said:


> Congrats! That must be so awesome. Hmm...maybe that could be a new marketing strategy. Sending freebies to well known authors! Or not...


Nooo - we'd get such a bad rep. I know plenty of well-known authors who are overwhelmed w/ blurb requests from friends. Strangers would be even worse.


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## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

Wow! Congratulations!


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## Joseph J Bailey (Jun 28, 2013)

Woot woot!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Wansit said:


> Nooo - we'd get such a bad rep. I know plenty of well-known authors who are overwhelmed w/ blurb requests from friends. Strangers would be even worse.


I know she was only joking, but I can just about imagine the crap "name" writers have to put up with.

Personally, I have a reply-or-ignore policy. I try to reply, except when I have a feeling that replying may end up getting a defensive counter-reply. It's quite sad that there is a very, very small percentage of self-published authors who give us a bad name.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Congrats, Patty. Well-earned.


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## shel (May 14, 2011)

Congrats, Patty -- on all of it! The compliment and the blurb--really nice to hear it!


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## Writer1000 (Jul 28, 2013)

That's great, Patty. Congrats!


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## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

SHUUUUUUUUUUUT

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP

KEVIN ANDERSON, DUUUUUUUUUUUUUNE!

I'm green with envy.

That is too cool...congratulations!


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## Riley Graham (Sep 1, 2013)

Congratulations, Patty. That's so exciting!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Thanks for all the replies.



ElHawk said:


> SHUUUUUUUUUUUT
> 
> UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP
> 
> ...


*pokes eye*

You can poke me with your sales figures. I will poke back with my cover blurb. Maybe not entirely the same.


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