Shattered Minds Pre-Order Incentive, Bookplates Offer & Pre-Release Anxiety

Hello! It’s 17 days until Shattered Minds comes out in the UK and 22 days until it’s out in the US.

First, I’ll have some in-person events for Shattered Minds’ release:

June 15th: Forbidden Planet, Newcastle, 6 pm. More details here.
June 20th: Waterstones Aberdeen, time TBC.
June 22nd: Waterstones Glasgow Argyle St, 6.30 pm. More details here.

There might be more coming! Probably something in Edinburgh, and I’ll have at least one event in San Francisco in August, too.

Like with Masquerade, I’m offering a pre-order incentive. If you buy Shattered Minds between now (edit: if you’ve already pre-ordered before this, it counts too!) and June 25th, you will receive free e-book copies of two tie-in short stories: Through the Eyes of a Bluebird and Creatures of Celebrity.

This was first featured on tor.com for three months. If you missed it, you can catch up. Cover copy:

In the world of Laura Lam’s False Hearts, this mysterious little commune outside San Francisco exists in stark contrast to the biotech “perfection” of the not-too-distant future. It rejects outsiders and modernity both with irritating success, like a splinter beneath the skin, or a defiant middle finger. Those of the Hearth offer only the occasional glimpse of life within. But take care that you take nothing for granted during your visit. What you’re about to see is only the tip of a very, very deep iceberg.

This story is designed to give you a taste of Mana-ma’s Hearth, the cult featured in False Hearts. It contains no spoilers.

Craig also designed this cover. This is a tie-in story to Shattered Minds, and expands on the backstory of a minor character in the book, Isaac Clavell. It contains no spoilers for either book.

In the world of Laura Lam’s Shattered Minds, fame is a dream for many in the bright lights of futuristic Hollywood. The higher the social rank, the better your life. Isaac Clavell should have one of the best lives of them all–social rank in the top ten, a mansion floating above the sprawl of Los Angeles below. Yet the constant pretending has left Clavell hollow. It’s only when a fan becomes too obsessive, Clavell finds out just how much he has to lose. 

HOW TO ENTER:

1. Buy the book through a retailer of your choice. Some links on the main Shattered Minds page. Ebook or hardcover format is fine. Note that Shattered Minds is a standalone in the same world as False Hearts. You’ll get some minor spoilers of FH if you read SM first and you might miss some cameos, but they can be read in any order.
2. Email receipt to lauralamauthor [at] gmail [dot] com. Taking a picture of a paper receipt works, or including the email confirmation.
3. Tell me which format you’d prefer to have the story in: pdf, mobi, or epub.
4. Enjoy!

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Bookplate Offer.

I’ve decided to take a page out of my friend Amy Plum’s marketing book. If you leave a review on a retailer, she will send you a bookplate. I thought that was brilliant and decided to do the same.

Craig designed this nice and simple bookplate for me that should match both my SF and fantasy works. I will send this to you with a bookmark if you leave me a review! It’ll be stamped and signed: a double heart for the Pacifica series and a dragonfly for Micah Grey. I’ve just ordered the bookplates so they haven’t arrived yet, but here’s what the stamps and my signature looks like:

HOW TO CLAIM:

1. Leave me a review on a retailer website, such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Goodreads is excellent too, but it has to be at least 1 retailer as well as that affects algorithms for visibility. 50 is the magic number for Amazon, evidently, but only 1 of my 5  books have that so far, which means it doesn’t show up in as many “if you like this, try these” links that retailers supply. Feel free to leave more than one review at more than one retailer!
2. Email the link to the review to lauralamauthor [at] gmail [dot] com. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a positive review, but I probably will wince a little if you send me a one star. Note: If you review more than one book, I’ll give you more than one book plate. So if you review all 5 of my books, you can get 5 book plates.
3. Tell me if you want a double heart or a dragonfly stamp, and the name you want it made out to if you want it personalised.
4. Tell me the address you want it sent to. You’ll get a bonus bookmark as well.
5. Stick ’em in your copies of my books! Or wherever.

Both offers are open internationally. The review doesn’t have to be long–just a sentence is fine! And as stated, it doesn’t have to be glowingly positive. Honest thoughts are great. Thanks so much!

And finally, a little on pre-release jitters.

I find the pre-release period nerve-wracking for all sorts of reasons. This is book five, and it’s still about as terrifying as book one. Am I doing enough to help people find out about the book? Am I doing too much self-promo and being annoying? What should I be doing? What works? What doesn’t? Will my readers like this dark serial killer thriller? Will I sell enough to make my publishers happy, or will everyone finally find out I’m really a fraud and an imposter? Will I be finished forever? A lot of this is irrational, but that’s anxiety. The constant hamster wheel spins and spins in my head, and I’m left exhausted.

I let out my anxieties in a Twitter thread earlier, and I felt nervous about airing them. But almost instantly, I had four people reach out with ways to help. A few others chipped in simply saying that they planned to buy the book or pre-ordered right there. Asking for help is a good thing. As ever, there’s only so much I and my publishers can do. It’s you, the readers, who have the real power. So if you can think of a cool way to feature Shattered Minds, or if you could simply help me shout about it and tell others that it’s coming, I’d be so, so grateful.

Over and out!