Pat Morgan Shines through ForeWord Reviews
Last year, I had Victoria Sutherland and her team as guests on Author U- Your Guide to Book Publishing radio show. The topic was book reviews. Victoria is the Publisher of ForeWord Reviews, the only magazine dedicated to the independent press. As a savvy author, you will want to listen to the replay of the podcast –plenty of insight, ahas and what to do in securing a review. 
Warning: getting a review doesn’t mean that it will be fabulous, so it’s an author beware. There are no guarantees here.
Its quarterly edition is sent to 350 Barnes & Noble stores along with thousands of librarians and features 150 in-depth reviews. ForeWord Reviews annual Indie/FAB Awards is presented at the Summer American Library Association’s meeting and proudly announces Book of the Year winners in several categories.
I was honored with the Silver Book of the Year in the Writing/Publishing category this year for Author YOU: Creating and Building the Author and Book Platforms in 2014. Earlier, I had gotten a 5-star review and as the IndieFab awards deadline approached, the staff at ForeWord reached out and encourage me to enter the competition. I did, and glad I did. What will I do when we go to reprint on Author YOU? Why add the many images of multiple awards my book has won to back cover PLUS reference to the Book of the Year to the front. WOW!
To learn how to submit to ForeWord Reviews, here’s the link: https://publishers.forewordreviews.com/reviews/
Several of my clients have been reviewed in ForeWord Reviews. The latest is Pat Morgan, author of The Concrete Killing Fields, earning a 5 Star review. Here’s the shout-out she and her book got:
“The blend of memoir and case study balances well and provides a striking portrait of both sides of a homeless shelter.
A blend of memoir, social advocacy, and stories about homeless men in Memphis, Tennessee, The Concrete Killing Fields is at once deeply personal and broadly drawn. By delving into the reasons behind homelessness of the individuals she meets, Pat Morgan presents intriguing conclusions about issues related to mental health, government policy, and our social safety net.
A political insider who once interned for Senator Al Gore and worked on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, Morgan settled in Memphis in a bid to save her second marriage and soon found herself volunteering at her church, helping homeless men find shelter and other resources. She soon found the experience to be life-changing and started documenting their stories as a way toward understanding their situations. 
As Morgan recollects on her decision to become involved with the homeless, she begins to muse on her upbringing in the South, as the daughter of a police officer and a resident of a very small town. She’s able to draw a number of parallels between what she experienced as a child—the support of the community, the nascent understanding of alcoholism, the excitement of sitting in her father’s police car as he waited for trouble—and the paths that later drew her into social work. She weaves in her later difficulties (divorce and raising children as a single mother), providing a unique perspective on how the events of her past brought her to working with the homeless.
Perhaps most compelling, Morgan doesn’t hold back about the frustrations of working not just with the system, but with the homeless themselves. Although she’s always respectful in her descriptions of their mental issues and addictions, she is transformed from a wide-eyed volunteer to an advocate who sees far more shades of gray in the “concrete killing fields” around her.
The author even proposes a “Twelve Steps for Do-Gooders” based on the model followed by Alcoholics Anonymous. This powerful document, delivered with concision, artfully describes the difficult balance that many advocates and social workers must strike in order to be truly helpful. In step four, for example, she writes, “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself and the ‘help’ I was trying to provide to others, often rendered unrecognizable because of my frustration and anger at the very people I wanted so much to help.”
Where the book shines the brightest is in Morgan’s descriptions of those very individuals. Her writing style is straightforward and conversational, as if she’s telling each story to a rapt audience.”
Note : You can get a copy of Pat’s book at your favorite book store, request it from library, or order through Amazon
What’s a review do for you? Plenty. Start with getting the attention of book buyers with book stores. Librarians. The public. Use them in your marketing. On your website. Post on Amazon and Goodreads. In other words, shout it out everywhere. A terrific review, like Pat Morgan’s, is a credential you don’t want to walk away from.
Judith Briles is known as The Book Shepherd a book publishing expert and coach. She is the Founder of Author U, a membership organization created for the serious author who wants to be seriously successful. She’s been writing about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. Judith is the author of 31 books including Author YOU: Creating and Building Your Author and Book Platforms (ForeWord Indie/Fab Book of the Year), Snappy Sassy Salty: Wise Words for Authors and Writers and a speaker at publishing conferences.
Become part of her inner circle by joining the Author’s Ark and exclusive monthly webinar and coaching event. Each summer, she holds Judith Briles Unplugged, a two and 1/2 day intensive limited to a small group of authors who want to be seriously successful. In 2015, the dates are August 27-29th. Her audio and workbook series, Creating Your Book and Author Platform is now available. Join Judith live on Thursdays at 6 p.m. EST for Author U – Your Guide to Book Publishing on the Toginet Network at http://tinyurl.com/AuthorURoadio. Follow @AuthorU and @MyBookShepherd on Twitter and do a “Like” at AuthorU and Judith Briles – TheBookShepherd on Facebook. If you want to create a book that has no regrets, contact Judith at Judith@Briles.com.