Success For Free

Newcastlewest Books author Katie Hanrahan gave away one of her books yesterday.

By all accounts, the free download of The Leaven of the Pharisees was a dazzling success. Rising to #10 on the historical fiction list sounds like success to me.

The author doesn't make anything when those hundreds of copies are downloaded, but when you don't have a huge publicity department behind you, it's a lot of free publicity for an author. Rather like the barter system in this deal. Give a book, get noticed. No money changes hands.

Today is the last day for the giveaway. If you want to read about a period in Ireland that was hidden for decades, only to explode in the faces of the Catholic bishops who protected the institution of the Church rather than the most vulnerable believers, you can download a copy of the novel at no charge before midnight, Pacific Time.

You might wonder, as you read it, if the plot has any truth to it. The answer, sadly, is yes. The Leaven of the Pharisees is a well-researched historical novel that drew from the accounts of survivors of the industrial schools and the Magdalene laundries.

Not all historical novels deal with famous people. For the next several hours, and at no charge to yourself, you can read about the lives of the most ordinary among us, whose extraordinary experiences shook the foundation of the Catholic Church and continue to resonate in the halls of the Vatican.