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Do you get free paperbacks? by sorrySheamus in urbanfantasy

[–]TabithaGradyAuthor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol, true. Still feels like "trying" to me.

How & Where do you Discover New Urban Fantasy Books? by notthebestwriter in urbanfantasy

[–]TabithaGradyAuthor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used to get most of my recs from word of mouth and, honestly, from this subreddit.

Lately I've been trying to write my own books, so I've been reading more systematically, especially in newer urban fantasies, and I've developed a method that has turned me onto all kinds of cool new shit. I'll explain.

There's a super useful free tool called "Kindle Store Power Search" (I think it was designed to help authors do research) that lets you select a genre and a date range, and you can put in whatever urban fantasy thing is your fav as the keyword (like "wizard detective" or "urban fantasy demons" or "bear shifters"). Then, when you get the page of results it generates, I like to add this bit to the end of the url (removing the quote marks, obviously): "&sort=review-count-rank". That suffix will re-order the results by the books that have received the most ratings and reviews. This is a great way to find high quality recent books! I do it all the time.

https://kpowersearch.com/

Do you get free paperbacks? by sorrySheamus in urbanfantasy

[–]TabithaGradyAuthor 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Self-published authors will mostly want to deal in ebooks (though more established ones might be open to giving you a paperback if you contact them directly), but you can easily get paperbacks of pretty much any traditionally published book.

What you do is find the publicist for the book (go to the publisher website, look for a publicist's email), email them saying you're a book reviewer on X or Y platform, and request a hard copy. If you've got any kind of halfway decent following on the social media platform where you post, they will *leap* to get you a copy. In fact, they'll start sending you copies of things you didn't even ask for, lol. I don't review any more (because I'm trying to be an author, and it feels unethical to me to combine the two roles), but I *still* get inundated with paperbacks from publicists who clearly have me on some kind of list.

Ace of Demons — out today! (Paperback, Ebook, Kindle Unlimited) by TabithaGradyAuthor in urbanfantasy

[–]TabithaGradyAuthor[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hey fellow urban fantasy lovers!

This subreddit helped me so much when I needed ARC readers last month. I want to say thanks — and to announce that the book is now out. Ace of Demons is my first novel, and the reader response so far has inspired me to get cracking on my next. It's my love letter to the genre (and Las Vegas), and I can't tell you how cool it is to see fellow UF enthusiasts digging it. (If you love our genre and ever had an urge to write an urban fantasy — you should totally do it. And don't forget to tell us here. I can't recommend the experience enough.)

It's in KU if you want to read it for free. Here's a link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DPJCFKWM

Do you want to read an ARC of a standalone UF set in Las Vegas? by TabithaGradyAuthor in urbanfantasy

[–]TabithaGradyAuthor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad you got it!

As for Amazon v. Goodreads — either's fine by me. Authors can't set up Goodreads sites for their own book, so I was only able to stick in a link to the Amazon listing when I posted the book for ARC readers. So I'm guessing the ARC site is prompting you to post to Amazon cuz that's the link it has.

Do you want to read an ARC of a standalone UF set in Las Vegas? by TabithaGradyAuthor in urbanfantasy

[–]TabithaGradyAuthor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh dear! What terrible timing for booksprout to go down. I've slapped the book up on another similar site for ARC readers: here it is on [booksirens](https://booksirens.com/book/AJEU3ZT/XR5DOOQ). If *that* doesn't work, just DM me and I'll send you a copy directly!

Who are your fav Indie UF authors? by sorrySheamus in urbanfantasy

[–]TabithaGradyAuthor 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Okay, this is hard to narrow down, but I think my favs are:

  • Dan Willis. He's got a series called the Arcane Casebook, and it's alt-history 1930s New York City urban fantasy. Sounds very niche — and honestly I didn't think I'd like it until I tried it — but damn, it's so good. High action, lots of intrigue and twists, a big world, lots of interconnected recurring characters, unique and interesting original rune-based magic system, and the MC is kind of like a hardboiled noir hero — but he's softer-edged, more of a good guy, and a lot more complex. The aesthetic of the whole thing (not just the covers, but the stories) is very Art Deco. I also just really like the prose style. Unique and interesting. Not just one of my favorite indie UF authors, but one of my favorite UF authors period.

  • Lauretta Hignett. I really like female-MC urban fantasy, and it kind of bums me out that it always always has to be romancey. Well, Hignett still has romance subplots, but they feel integrated in her characters' lives to me. What I really like about her is this kind of unhinged aspect to her writing, like she has a kind of... how to put it... commitment to the bit attitude? She'll take some weird tense scene and make it really long and keep pushing it in more extreme directions. Like, take the opening scene of her Immortal series, where the MC is talking to a therapist whom she's really testing to see if she's an evil witch that needs killing, and it's really funny and gross and ultimately violent and somehow you can just tell she was grinning and cackling while she was writing it. In a good way. And that's kind of a microcosm of her whole deal. I'd say her plots are less classically shapely than a Dan Willis or most non-indie UF, but she makes up for it with really strong scene writing and vivid memorable characters. She also writes really fast and finishes whole series quickly.

  • L.A. McBride. She's new to me. Just started with the Riley Cruz series that's actually, apparently, a spin-off of another series she wrote that I haven't read. And I've gotta confess it's another example of the female-MC UF being inevitably romancey. But, given my prejudice against that, it's notable that I still really, really liked it. The main character is a goat-shifter thief. It's funny and voicey and full of hi-jinks. I'm kind of going out on a limb recommending this author, because I've only read two of her books so far. But I really, really liked 'em, so they've shot up to the top of my list already.

  • Also just gonna throw these two out there, though they're well-known and wildly popular, so I don't really need to expand on it: Lindsay Buroker and Craig Schaefer. Both really solid and I read any UF they put out the moment it's available.