FREE Book for an Honest Review

A free lunch may be hard to find, but a free book? We have one with your name on it.

Reviews at Amazon, GoodReads, and other places people go to find out what readers think can make a big difference in the success of a book, especially one published by a small press. Small presses produce great work that larger presses often ignore. Small presses take risks on work they feel are worthwhile, while most large publishers focus on the bottom dollar: is this a proven, sure think and will it make gobs of money.

Getting reviews helps the Davids get equal footing with the Goliaths.

That's why Merge Publishing is offering a free copy of my new book, Womb: a novel in utero, to anyone who is willing to read it and give an honest review and/or rating on Amazon, Goodreads, and any other venues.

Ideally, we'd like reviews to be posted during Womb Week, between March 21 and March 28. Having them online during the launch will be helpful. But a review anytime for a small press is appreciated.

The review can be just a few sentences, like a blurb, or longer, if desired. If you don't have time for a full review, even just a rating would be helpful. We're fond of stars, to the more the merrier. 

Of course, even after you get your free book, if you'd like to support my writing and Merge's efforts, you're welcome to purchase additional copies as gifts for other readers on your lest. In fact, we encourage it!

But first and foremost, we're looking for a few good reviews. Uncle Merge wants YOU!

Here's where you can claim your free copy of Womb: a novel in utero in exchange for an honest review. 

https://www.instafreebie.com/free/1mSOZ

And, here's an example of one of the reviews we've received so far.

http://ragazine.cc/2017/03/7-books-worth-a-lookreviews/


Claim your free copy of Womb: a novel in utero at https://www.instafreebie.com/free/1mSOZ

Experience Womb's Interactive Press Release

Enoch Pratt Free Library Hosts Womb Launch

The Enoch Pratt Free Library is hosting the official launch of Womb: a novel in utero. The release reading is part of the Enoch Pratt’s Writers LIVE series supported in part by the Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.

Past Writers LIVE authors have included Terry McMillan, Colson Whitehead, Roxane Gay, and Ron Tanner.

Writers LIVE: Eric D. Goodman, Womb: a novel in utero takes place on Tuesday, March 28 at 6:30 p.m.

Early readers and reviewers of Womb have called the book “engagingly original,” “strange and wonderful,” “amazing,” “a cocktail of all human emotion,” “brave,” “full of wisdom and goodwill,” and say that it “has a lot to say” and is “written with sophistication and poetry.”

Reviews have compared Womb to Ian McEwan’s Nutshell and Emma Donoghue’s Room, and said, “Goodman rises to the challenge posed by the foetus’ limited perspective, relating a story of betrayal and domestic turmoil through the filter of the uterine wall.”

Womb: a novel in utero will be officially released on Tuesday, March 21 and can be found in bookstores in person and online. Books will be available for buying and signing at the library event on March 28.

Learn more about this Enoch Pratt Free Library event at their online calendar.

http://calendar.prattlibrary.org/event/writers_live_eric_d_goodman_womb_a_novel_in_utero#.WG_1qoMrKos

Release Date Announced for Womb

Merge Publishing has announced the official release date for the forthcoming Womb: a novel in utero. My latest novel is being released on Tuesday, March 21, 2017.

Why Tuesday, March 21?

The publisher and I thought it would be fitting to deliver Womb during the season of rebirth. The first day of spring is Monday, March 20. However, books (like albums) are traditionally released on Tuesday. So Womb: a novel in utero will be released on Tuesday, March 21.

Early readers and reviewers of Womb have called the book “engagingly original,” “strange and wonderful,” “amazing,” “a cocktail of all human emotion,” “brave,” “full of wisdom and goodwill,” and say that it “has a lot to say” and is “written with sophistication and poetry.”

Reviews have compared Womb to Ian Mcewan’s Nutshell and Emma Donoghue’s Room, and said, “Goodman rises to the challenge posed by the foetus’ limited perspective, relating a story of betrayal and domestic turmoil through the filter of the uterine wall.”

Promoters say that you only need to repeat something three times for it to be remembered, so I won’t mention that Womb: a novel in utero will be officially released on Tuesday, March 21 again.

Learn more about Womb, it’s release, and related events at www.EricDGoodman.com/Womb.html.

Library Journal Compares Room, Nutshell, Womb

In an earlier post, I lamented that although I’d written my first draft of Womb: a novel in utero nearly a decade ago, literary legend Ian McEwan was coming out with his own novel in utero, Nutshell, around the same time. As much as I’m a fan of McEwan’s work, the timing could have been better.

However, I’m seeing the potential benefits of being the second in a pair of twins. As Amazon might say, “If you like this, you may like that.”

Library Journal, in their review of Nutshell, compared the new McEwan novel (in terms of unique perspective) to Emma Donoghue’s Room and my Womb: a novel in utero.

“Starred Review. McEwan joins Eric D. Goodman (Womb: A Novel in Utero) and Emma Donoghue (Room) in penning an expansive meditation on stability and identity from a confined perspective." - Library Journal 

Cited in the same sentence as McEwan and Donoghue: priceless. But what’s better is that my own small-press book may have been given a larger dot on the map, thanks to this “merit by association.”

Dozens of library websites, from New York to California, New England to Houston, have published excerpts from the review, as have a number of other websites that publish reviews.

Read the review (along with some others) at the link below.

https://catalog.aclib.us/Mobile/BakerAndTaylor/Review?ISBN=9780385542074&UPC=&position=1

Goodman Addresses the Nutshell in the Room

What are the odds? It was about a decade ago when I hatched the idea for Womb: a novel in utero and set to write a novel from the most unique and unusual point of view I could imagine.

In fact, look back at this blog post from 2007, in which I invite readers to come to the first public reading from my novel-in-utero-in-progress, Womb.

http://writeful.blogspot.com/2007/06/my-fiction-featured-at-xando.html

Most pregnancies take nine months. It’s taken nine years for this book to see birth. In part due to revisions, partly due to multi-year spells with the manuscript waiting on the back burner. And that pesky detail of finding the right agent and publisher at the right time.

So imagine my surprise when, just months after I got my book deal with Merge Publishing for Womb, I read about another novel narrated from within the womb—by none other than acclaimed, award-winning novelist Ian McEwan!

Ian McEwan is a living legend, and I’ve enjoyed his work very much over the years. But my mood sank when I found out that his Nutshell was being published in fall 2016, about half a year before my own Womb: a novel in utero. I wondered: will readers think I’m a copycat, even though I conceived this brainchild so many years ago?

Then, perhaps because I tend to try to focus on the positive, I reconsidered. Maybe having a literary powerhouse like Ian McEwan publish a book similar to mine is a good thing for a smaller book with a smaller press. Perhaps people who enjoy McEwan’s Nutshell will discover my Womb. Just as one zombie movie makes way for another, perhaps Nutshell will crack open the pathway for Womb to find a larger audience.

I haven’t read Nutshell yet. I look forward to reading it after Womb is published. As reviewers compare the two books, I hope Ian McEwan looks forward to reading Womb, too.

Learn more about Ian McEwan’s Nutshell by reading the Ron Charles review (not to mention the entertaining video).

www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/ian-mcewans-nutshell-a-tale-of-betrayal-and-murder-as-told-by-a-fetus/2016/09/12/8b31ba22-7694-11e6-b786-19d0cb1ed06c_story.html?utm_term=.91b4b3723107