NBtM Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway: People of the Sun (The Eye of Ra #3) by Ben Gartner

Welcome to my stop on the NBtM virtual book tour for People of the Sun by Ben Gartner. This book tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an excerpt from the book as well as a great guest post from the author. There's also the tour wide giveaway for a chance to win a $50 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. Be sure to visit the other stops on the tour for more content. Enjoy!

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Title: People of the Sun

Series: The Eye of Ra #3

Author: Ben Gartner

Publisher: Crescent Vista Press

Publication Date: February 1st 2022

Print Length: 262 pages

Genre: Middle Grade Time Travel Historical Adventure

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The explosive reveal about who John and Sarah really are and why they’re traveling through time, with their most gut-wrenching challenge yet.

In the time of the Aztec, a scoundrel named Cortés arrives and the kids are forced to make an extremely difficult decision: If you could change history, should you? For more twists, more danger, and more fun, read the third book in The Eye of Ra series, People of the Sun!

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EXCERPT:

When they came out of a pine forest and could see the lake below, with Tenochtitlan as a dazzling island city, John couldn’t help but mutter, “Wow.”

He heard his sister mumble the same thing.

The city sparkled and spread out with a much bigger footprint than John had imagined. He’d heard of the famed city of the Aztec, but he’d always pictured something . . . smaller. This was a regular metropolis, with suburbs and floating islands and multiple huge temples. Canoes drifted on canals like the pictures he’d seen of Venice in Italy, though these canoes were loaded with goods headed to market. Farther out into the lake, men cast nets and brought up flopping silver fish, their scales sparkling in the sun.

John’s mouth watered when he saw a floating garden bursting with leafy greens. The rectangular plot of land had poles sticking out of each side, securing boards that held the dirt like a raised garden bed back home. But this was in the middle of the lake. John squinted at the marvel of it all.

The sound of sloshing water pulled his stare toward a stone trough that started in the hills and was then suspended on man-made islands right across the lake and into the city. “An aqueduct?”

“For our drinking water,” Ome said.

“But you’re on a lake,” John said, implying that there was fresh water all around.

“Lake Texcoco is too salty to drink. Great for the fish, bad for the people,” Huitzi said.

“There are dikes that keep some fresh water close to the island, but that is used for farming,” Ome added.

Wow. John never knew that either. They lived on a lake and yet had to build a system of aqueducts to bring in safe drinking water. Amazing.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ben Gartner is the award-winning author of The Eye of Ra time travel adventure series for middle graders. His books take readers for a thrilling ride, maybe even teaching them something in the meantime. Ben can be found living and writing near the mountains with his wife and two boys.

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GUEST POST:

Success Begets Success
by Ben Gartner

This will be a hard article to write because it requires some vulnerability. But I hope it’s useful to others, so I’ll give it a shot.

First of all, let me declare that I am no expert, nor do I claim to be special. I am simply sharing my experience in hopes that some portion of it may be useful to others.

Other writers have asked me about how I’ve been successful with my series for middle grade readers, The Eye of Ra (which includes The Eye of Ra, Sol Invictus, and People of the Sun). I am not a fan of “marketing,” so this isn’t necessarily a marketing-focused blog post. Though, of course, it is. There are many tendrils to this question, and they all assume that the content is at least “good enough” to warrant some attention. In terms of the marketing snowball effect, it all boils down to one maxim: Success begets success.

Find someone who likes your book and trumpet their approval. I know this feels like back-patting, and often we writers are loathe to do that. I am no different. So, I try to approach it as a business, which it is. I put on my “marketer” hat and think, “What would a third-party marketing person say about this review from author X about my client’s book?” And then push that out into the world. Leverage that validation from one to approach another. People want to read good books, and word of mouth referrals are the best source of recommendations. Seeing a critical review from Kirkus or Publishers Weekly or Foreword Reviews or any of the others that has a positive soundbite you can use will only help persuade someone else to think, “Hm, maybe I’ll give it a shot.” That’s all you can ask for.

And if that person then leaves a review or a rating, that’s terrific. If they tell their friends, even better.

Remember that this is a waterwheel (or hamster wheel, depending on how you look at it!) that requires constant investment of time and energy, and sometimes money. And remember that it is the quantity of exposure that cumulatively has a positive effect. One snowflake may be beautiful, but a bunch of them together has more of an impact.

Importantly, and hopefully this goes without saying, always be true to yourself. Be kind. Be helpful to others. I believe there is plenty of room for all sorts of books, and authors, and readers. A rising tide raises all boats, so focus on the positive of what you can reasonably do for yourself, and for your community, and lift others up too. Because you might just be that first review someone else is looking for to build their own snowball.

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GIVEAWAY:

Ben Gartner will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Good luck!

(All the Ups and Downs is not responsible for this giveaway, its entries, or the prize. Goddess Fish Promotions assumes all responsibility with this giveaway.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway