Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Author tools

Last Chance: Chanticleer Book Sticker Sale Ends May 31st!
That flash of gold catches their eye.

The gleaming silver seal stops them in their tracks.

Standing out on a crowded bookshelf is what every author wants for their book covers. Great cover art and clear fonts help, but what makes a reader walk across a busy store to pick up your book? Professional recognition they can see at a glance.

Why Stickers Work

Promotional book stickers are your book’s instant credibility. In a bookstore filled with hundreds of novels, all with covers designed to get noticed, stickers deliver that important third-party endorsement clearly and immediately. “Grand Prize Winner,” “Bestseller,” “Editorial Choice” – these messages tell browsing readers that your book has been professionally recognized as outstanding storytelling worth their time.

Chanticleer’s Foil Advantage

Of course, it’s not all about flash. It’s also about a message that tells the bookstore customer why they should stop and consider your book. This is your turn to crow! Get stickers that will tell the reader why they should buy your book. Awards and recognition, such as “Grand Prize Winner” or “Bestseller!” lets people know that your book has been put to the test and come out with a good review or even won a contest! It’s one more push to get them to pick your book over the others.

Of course, not all stickers are the same. At Chanticleer, we believe our foil adhesive stickers give authors an extra boost of promotional power with their built-in ability to catch the light and clear message. With the seal of approval from a respected industry partner, you’ll be making a clear statement about the quality of your storytelling. A shiny foil sticker on your book cover can make all the difference in hand sales, whether at bookstores, conferences, or local events. We’ve seen it work time and time again for our authors!

Final Hours: 10% Off Through Saturday!

Sticker Sale ends May 31st at midnight!

Whether you’re preparing for summer book events, conference season, or just want professional promotional materials on hand, this is your last chance to stock up and save.

New Pricing with Your 10% Memorial Day Discount:
- 100 stickers: ~~$49~~ $44.10
- 200 stickers: ~~$79~~ $71.10
- 300 stickers: ~~$99~~ $89.10
- 400 stickers: ~~$119~~ $107.10
Use code SPRINGSTICKERSALE at checkout – Order your stickers here!

Those small professional touches are part of what helps Today’s Best Books get discovered. Don’t let this opportunity slip away!
May 28, 2025
On the 10th Day of Christmas, Chanticleer Brings to me Marketing Tips! | 12 Days of Christmas 2024

Celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas! – One Day at a Time

The Tenth Day of Christmas gift of Ten Lords a’Leaping represents the 10 Commandments of the Old Testament that guide the faithful. We could use a lot of rules of ten for different writing practices!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, Chanticleer brings to me…

Best Practices for Marketing your Book by Maximizing your Services!

On the 11th Day of Christmas, we’re focusing on how you can get your book the recognition it deserves in 2025. Whether you’re an indie author or a seasoned pro, marketing your book effectively is key to connecting with readers. That’s where Chanticleer comes in! From the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) to our Editorial Book Reviews, we provide tools and services to help your book shine and grow its audience.

Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs): Boost Your Book’s Visibility

One of the best ways to promote your book is by entering it into the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs). As one of the most prestigious book awards programs for indie authors, the CIBAs offer incredible visibility for your work. Winning or placing in the CIBAs can propel your book onto readers’ radar, and with the exclusive badges and stickers we provide, you’ll be able to showcase your achievement wherever you promote your book!

Winning an award is great, but CIBAs also offer much more than just recognition. Each entry includes SEO-optimized technology, enhancing your book’s performance on our website and boosting its visibility online. With our dedicated SEO efforts, your book will be more discoverable by readers and search engines alike.

Whether it’s sharing your award badge on your Amazon author page, website, or across your social media platforms, the CIBAs provide the resources you need to amplify your book’s success. And with the white-glove service Chanticleer is known for, we’re always here to support you every step of the way.

Editorial Book Reviews: Enhance Your Book’s Reach with Professional Insight

In addition to awards, one of the most powerful ways to promote your book is with a Chanticleer Editorial Book Review. Not only do we provide in-depth, professional reviews for your work, but each review is packed with blurbs that you can use across various platforms. From social media posts and Amazon descriptions to website content and in-store shelf talkers, the blurbs we provide will help capture attention and intrigue potential readers.

Beyond the blurbs, our Editorial Reviews also come with comprehensive SEO optimization. This gives your book greater exposure on Chanticleer’s website and makes it more likely to be discovered through search engines. A great review helps you stand out, but the behind-the-scenes work ensures that your book gets the recognition it deserves.

Our team is committed to giving each author a white-glove experience, whether it’s crafting a tailored review or helping you optimize your marketing strategy post-review. We’re here to make sure your book gets the attention it needs to thrive.

The Power of a Badge and a Blurb

You know you want it…

Badges and blurbs are more than just accolades—they’re tools that can help you market your book and connect with readers. Whether it’s an award-winning badge from the CIBAs or a glowing editorial review blurb, these elements give you a professional edge that resonates with readers. Display them proudly on your book’s page, share them across social media, and use them to highlight your success.

At Chanticleer, we know how much effort goes into writing, publishing, and promoting a book. That’s why we’re here to support you with services that enhance your book’s visibility and marketability.

Get Ready for 2025: Make Your Book Stand Out!

This holiday season, take the opportunity to set yourself up for success in the new year. Whether it’s through the CIBAs or an Editorial Book Review, Chanticleer’s services are designed to give your book the recognition it deserves.

On the 10th Day of Christmas…

“But Jiminy Crickets, it’s after December 25th! Is it not too late for the 12 Days of Christmas?” you say.

Not to fear, Chanticleerians! The 12 Days of Christmas begins on December 26th! And it continues to the 6th of January – Three Kings Day. The four weeks leading up to Christmas is known as the Advent.

So if you haven’t finished wrapping presents, sending out those cards, and baking cookies—don’t worry—you still have time! Well, a couple more days.

Happy Holidays to You from the Chanticleer Team!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, my true love sent to me

Ten Lord’s a’Leaping

Nine Ladies Dancing

Eight Maids A-Milking

Seven Swans A-Swimming

Six Geese A-Laying

Five Golden Rings

Four Calling Birds

Three French Hens (Chanticleer’s favorite #justsaying)

Two Turtle Doves

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

We’re not sure why the lords are a’leaping over the 10 Commandments, but they sure do look happy.

Stay tuned for the 11th Day of Christmas!

Our favorite part about having the 12 Days of Christmas is that we can have the time we need to celebrate with our loved ones. We have time for wrapping our presents, meeting with friends for hot cocoa, and setting ourselves up in the New Year for publishing success (with Chanticleer Professional Services and the Chanticleer Authors Conference).

Wishing you Happy Holidays from Chanticleer from Kiffer, David, Dena, Scott, Anya, and Argus!

January 4, 2025
USING SOUND and SIGHT to REVISE YOUR WORK by Craig Anderson – Writing Instruction, Editing, Author Toolkit

When it comes to selecting an approach to review and revise their work writers have plenty of options. They can read it forwards; backward; silently; out loud to themselves, a friend, or even the family pet.

Regardless of the choice, a writer can end up reading it so many times their eyes cross, blur, or melt.

I found reading my work aloud was beneficial, but because I sometimes missed simple mistakes, I wasted valuable time going back over the material time and again. It took repeated face plants against the keyboard to uncover my problems.

Will anyone see my cry for HELP?

Reading too fast: My brain would fill in a missing word or skip over an unnecessary word: What was supposed to be written versus what I’d actually written.

Fast eyes; slow mouth: I found my eyes would be five to ten words ahead of my mouth.

Boring: Finally, and a most painful realization, I soon became bored at hearing my own voice read something aloud I knew inside and out. Thus, my attention wavered. I remembered my parents complained about my attention— hey, look at the puppy.

Several years back, I found a cure after listening to a book on my old 3G reader and its Text-to-Speech option. The author overused different iterations of the word grimace throughout the book, which the computerized voice pronounced as ‘gri-moss.’ I reread some of the text and grimace was not as noticeable as hearing it. I knew it was a time for a change.

Text to Speech (TTS) is a computerized program that turns text (words) into speech and is available on most Windows-based and Mac systems. (FYI: I use a Windows system, which translates into I’m Mac-challenged.) There are commercial TTS programs, free or fee-based, that you can load onto your system.

I personally prefer the TTS, Windows-based, free program Balabolka for all of my editing and revision. There are different ways to use the program, but I run it on one screen and listen to the words while I follow along with the manuscript on another screen.

Whenever I find an issue or, more importantly, discover a sentence, paragraph, or scene that is grammatically correct but doesn’t sound quite right or could be sharpened, I’d stop the voice and make the correction.

The effect is both amazing and humbling.

I like Balabolka because it’s easy to use; you can adjust volume, pitch, and rate of speech; insert pauses; adjust the pronunciation of words, so you avoid gri-moss and it remembers the change; and, what I think is the best feature, is you can create an MP3 file (similar to a music file) of your work—a sentence, paragraph, or an entire manuscript. Now you can take your work with you and listen to it on a phone, music player, in your car, or send it to a friend for a critique. It’s like an instant audiobook of your own work. Here’s a word of caution. You may not want to listen to your work while on a treadmill because if you hear a mistake and stutter step, you’ll ricochet yourself against another machine and hit the wall. It’ll leave a mark.

For those who may be skittish about the electronic voice of a TTS program, I urge you to stick with it. For me, I no longer hear it. You can purchase professional programs (for Windows and Mac systems) that offer different languages with regional accents or dialects in adult male, female, and children voices such as: American English—Southern, English—Irish or Scottish, Russian, German, French, Japanese, etc., which can cost between twenty-five and forty bucks. Some companies run periodic sales.

Some authors I know use the professional voice options to hear their genre-specific manuscripts. For example, a kid or teenager’s voice for Children/Young Adult; southern drawl for a Civil War-era piece; Texan for Western, and so on.

TTS is a permanent part of my writing toolkit, which means I no longer get bored listening to myself talk.

Priceless.

Here are some links to tutorials that you may want to consider:

Balabolka: An Introduction and Overview

Balabolka: Text to Speech and Saving Text to MP3

Balabolka: Importing the Dictionary and Word Pronunciation

How to use Balabolka for Accessible Textbooks

A note from the Editor: Craig’s Bio:

Craig Anderson served for twenty-six years in the US Air Force, completed an MFA in Creative Writing for Fiction, and a Graduate Certificate in the Teaching of Writing. He is a professional book reviewer, manuscript evaluator, mentor, and book editor for nonfiction and multiple fiction genres with Chanticleer Reviews and Editorial Services. An avid writer, he’s authored the forthcoming thriller Grabbed and Gone. He, his wife, and five large dogs dwell in Eastern Washington State.

Craig after a cup of coffee...

Craig Anderson before a cup of coffee…

March 22, 2018
What is an Editorial Review? And How is It Different from a Review?
After the post The ABC’s of Making Book Reviews Work Harder at Promoting Your Book, we received several questions about what exactly are “Editorial Book Reviews” and how do they differ from “reviews.”

You asked. We answer.

There several types of reviews and reviewers:
- peer reviews by peer reviewers (other authors)
- editorial reviews by professional reviewers in the publishing industry
- manuscript overviews – pre-publication editorial reviews
- consumer reviews by individual consumers (readers)
An author requires all four to make a professional impression on potential readers because each type of review has its own targeted audience and its own aim. And since there are many shades of gray (no pun intended), authors will benefit from having reviews from all four categories.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial reviews tend to focus on the technical aspects (grammar, formatting, spelling, consistency, punctuation, POV, etc.) of a work along with the writing craft of the author by an editing professional. Other publishing or media professionals use these assessments when evaluating for works purchasing decisions or for distribution purposes.

Chanticleer Editorial Reviews:

Here at Chanticleer Book Reviews, our reviews combine an editorial assessment of a work: plot, structure, dialogue, characters, story development, along with grammar and punctuation with the readability of a work. The assessment is written by a professional editor after reading and evaluating the particular work.

Our review team is comprised of experienced editors selected for their expertise in specific genres and blended genres. It is extremely important that the person reviewing the work understands the genre of the work and what the readers of that particular genre are looking for in a “good read.” Thriller fans will be bored with cozy mysteries. Cozy mystery fans will be annoyed with the rapid fire of situations found in thrillers. Romance readers typically don’t enjoy the angst of many literary works that are known for not having “satisfactory or happy” endings. Some works overlap and blend genres which would go against the grain of some genre purists. Even though a professional editor can see merit or if there are problems in a work out of their expertise, we try to select the very best fit between a work and the reviewer.

Chanticleer Book Reviewers uphold the time-honored publishing traditions that readers have come to appreciate and expect from published works while maintaining an open-mindedness for emergent ideas, talent and creativity in the field of literature, media and publishing.

Manuscript Overviews

Editorial Reviews may also be manuscript overviews. Manuscript overviews are to help the author evaluate his work on a broad spectrum on the following issues before getting a line by line edit.

Manuscript Overviews editors look for:
- consistency in story
- POV
- grammatical errors
- style sheet issues
- character development
- dialogue issues
- plotting, plot holes
- pace of story
- theme consistency
- does the work need tightening or is it too staccato
I always like to ask the manuscript reviewers, “Does the work have a ‘beat to it?’ Does the story move along? Are the characters memorable?”

A manuscript overview can answer these questions in an objective and unbiased manner. The goal is to help the author work out issues before she has it line edited and proofed for publication.

On another note, a work can be technically correct, but a horridly boring read. We know, we’ve read them! Then there are works that are compelling to read even if they are bungled with grammatical and writing craft errors. The decisive point is that while an editor can correct errors in grammar, punctuation, POV, etc., they cannot “correct” a boring story. Creativity and Content are King and Queen. However, lack of editing or just bad editing can cause the reader to “stumble” over the text and put it down in favor of trying another read, another author. An intriguing storyline can benefit from a developmental editor – the most difficult level of editing. Most works can benefit enormously from a correct dose of developmental editing.

Remember: The editor sees what the author cannot. The story lives in the author’s mind. The editor sees the gaps between the author’s mind and the words on the page. It is almost impossible to “see” your own gaps because your mind automatically fills them in.

Peer Reviews by Peer Reviewers

For most fiction authors, this would be a review by another author who writes in the same genre. The most beneficial type of Peer Review would be an “endorsement” from an author in the next tier of sales above you—an author who can validate that your work is worthy of his/her endorsement. This type of review generally bespeaks, “If you like my novels, you will like this author’s work. Give this book a try.” The author making the “endorsement” is putting her reputation on the line for you. Request author endorsements judiciously and respect the author’s right to pass on the opportunity.

Consumer Reviews by Individual Consumers

Translation: Readers are Consumers! Authors create content. Readers consume content. Thank goodness!

The reviews posted on Amazon, or on Goodreads, or on websites are precious! These reviews are from individual readers who (hopefully) enjoy reading your works. Readers, on the whole, write very few reviews for many reasons: too busy, not really knowing the specifics of why they like the work, not having the background (read vocabulary) to discuss the work, or it is just too much trouble.

Authors need to make it easy as possible for readers to recommend their books by:
- creating links
- making use of editorial (read: professional) reviews that will give recreational readers the vocabulary from which to discuss and share their thoughts about their works
- thanking the busy reader for any feedback, LIKEs, +1’s etc.
- Post, comment, LIKE, and +1 on the reviewer’s social media posts and blog-posts.
Consumer Reviews are instrumental in creating BUZZ! You, the author, should endeavor to do anything that will make it easier for your readers to spread the word about your work.

Visit examples of how to use the different types of reviews on your author platform’s website.

Great sites to emulate are: Michael Hurley’s website and Alan Brenham’s website.

You will notice that they list peer reviewers (other authors), professional editorial reviews (Kirkus, Chanticleer, Foreword), and readers’ reviews together making it easy to scan for the preferred reviewer(s).

Please look for the next article from Chanticleer Book Reviews on Mastering Book Discovery Tools and Methods.
November 11, 2014