Did You Know? A Cup Of Tea, A Cozy Mystery And Food For Thought

I read this on Facebook recently and it spoke to me. Most people have no idea what it is like to be an author and or how much they make. I was curious myself. After a few years of reading, reviewing and connecting with many authors, I always wondered why they all seemed to have day jobs, burned the midnight oil on Facebook and still managed to turn out their stories and series.  I know that so many of these authors give their hearts and souls to their writing and when you look at this meme you realize just how little of the "pie" authors really get.

How can you help an author? 

Order, Read, Review, Repeat.

Ordering or requesting a book for borrowing from your library is great but if you really want to help an author I can not stress enough about how important it is to review each book. Your review can be a few short words, such as "loved it" or "can't wait to read the next one" or even longer and more thoughtfully written. Each review counts and really does help make a series succeed.

Do you pay for your own books?

I have been getting this question a lot lately so I want to clear things up. I buy almost all of my books. Except for 5 books on this table and 6 others not shown I have bought every one of these books.
I have been writing and reviewing books for a while now because I love it. I do not expect anything for free. Recently I have been very lucky to have been selected to read advanced reading copies of books, all of which I have pre ordered. That means yes for some of these I will have duplicate books, which I will donate to my local library or save for my own Tiny Library when it is finally built and installed. My wonderful uncle has said he is making me one but he lives 3,000 miles away and we see each other if I am lucky once a year. I still am hopeful my own library will come to fruition and I will stack it with these books. I don't cancel the pre ordered books even if something has been sent to me to review.
Why don't you do give away's of your extra copies of your books?
 Honestly the cost of mailing one paper back book from Canada even with in Canada is $9.99 currently. This is the main reason I use the Book Depository, shipping is free. It costs more then the cover price of the book to mail a book with in Canada at the moment.

Other questions I often get asked are Do you get paid to review books?  The answer is no, I don't.

Did you get paid to write for Kathi Daley, Amanda Cooper or Terrie Farley Moran's books?
I have recently had some success having things I have written published in a few series. No I did not get paid for my contribution. Yes I ordered my own copies of the books that have items I wrote published in them. I feel it is an honor to have been included. I am touched by the friendships I have made through my work with cozy authors street teams, Facebook groups and my own reviews and photos.

I welcome all your questions even this one I get more often then you would think.
If you don't get paid for it, why do you do it?
 The answer is because I enjoy it, the reading, the connecting and the joy of doing it makes me want to continue.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com