Author's request

As you probably know, my husband Art and I published a book called "Return to Viet Nam: One Veteran's Journey of Healing." It came out last December, and we have received two quarterly royalty checks - what a total thrill!

We self-published this book; that is, we paid a publishing company to produce our book in hardcopy, paperback and eBook format. Though we're happy with the product, there were more bumps in the road than I had expected. We are still smoothing out some of the bumps.

For example, if you look for the book on Amazon, you'll find the hardcopy and the paperback if you spell the country in the title with two words - Viet Nam. But the Kindle version spells it with one - Vietnam. So the three versions don't sort together unless you search for the author's name - Linda G Myers. And on Barnes & Noble it's just the opposite - the Nook version says Vietnam and the hardcopy and paperback say Viet Nam - but for some reason all three versions sort together. These errors originated someplace between the time I submitted the manuscript to the publisher and the time the online retailers received the information.

As soon as our publisher corrects the online title problem - they told me last week it was being "expedited" - we want to submit our book to places like the public library, independent booksellers, and retailers. The library, at least, looks at reviews as part of its process to decide whether to carry the book. So here's my request. If you have read our book, I'd be most grateful if you'd go to Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble and write a review, so the library can see what people think.

This book is not the Great American Novel. It's the story of one young Marine, his day of combat in 1968, and the influence that day had on his life for 35 years until he returned to Viet Nam in 2005 in a journey of reconciliation and healing. I've heard positive, moving comments from veterans who have read it, and from others who have bought extra copies for vets they know.

If you'd like to hear Art read the first chapter, called "One Day of Combat", you can click on that option on the right-hand side of this page.

So that's my request. If you've read the book, please consider reviewing it as a step to getting it out there for others to read.

Thanks!