Review of 'The Troutbeck Testimony' by Rebecca Tope

The Troutbeck Testimony by Rebecca Tope




This is a pleasant cozy detective story set in the English Lake District. The 'detective' is the local florist, Simmy Brown,who with much moaning and complaining gets dragged into investigating dognapping and then murder.

Reading is so personal isn't it? The friend who recommended this novel loves the series, raves about Simmy, persuaded me to read this newest story. Alas, I found it a pleasant read but the MC, Simmy, irritated me with her whinging. So I wouldn't read another in this series but other fans of cozies might well enjoy this novel and want more.

Nothing wrong with the writing or the plot. The characters are well fleshed out and the pace is a gentle slide down the slope to the ending. Readers who enjoy cozies should certainly give the book a try.




View all my reviews

Indies and PR

If any Indie author hasn't yet found her or his way to the Author Hangout then it's about time someone gave them a helping hand.

The Author Hangout is the podcasting branch of the bookmarketingtools.com team. People who are most helpful, friendly and full of great ideas about marketing for Indie writers.

The podcasts are interviews with best selling authors, marketing gurus and others successful in the PR business. I have learnt a lot from listening to what has and has not worked as far as sales go for these successful authors. If you, like me, shrink from social media because it is one vast area of confusing interaction then go and listen to those podcasts full of helpful advice about social media.

I no longer shy away from using Twitter for discreet PR purposes and find ideas like the following a great way to mix with 'nice' people on Twitter and talk to other writers.

Seems to me that any Indie not tuning in and taking advantage of the ideas really doesn't want to sell books. And any Indie without their helpful and free list of what to do leading up to and at a book launch really needs help.

'In episode 32 of The Author Hangout, Bestselling author Leeland Artra shared a great way for authors to use Twitter:
"One of the things I do is I participate in these things called Tweet Teams. What you do in the Tweet Teams is you work with some other authors and you give them interesting things to say about you and they give you interesting things to say about them. And then, you talk on your Twitter feeds about them and they talk on their Twitter feeds about you and you mix that in with all the other stuff that you normally do. So I’m always sending out quotes and little factoids and stuff like this all day every day. In addition to that, about 20-30 additional tweets per day about other authors or stuff that’s coming, interesting things like that. In exchange, I have about 10 or 20 other authors that are every day sending 3-4 tweets about me."
This is genius! We always talk about how authors need to partner together, and this is another great way for authors to do that. People have room to read other books, so it isn't a zero-sum game. By promoting other authors who are promoting you, you are able to get a boost that other authors simply do not have.
Start finding authors in your genre who you can partner with in this way, and then start helping each other out.'