Tag: blogging

To Support an Author

Updated: This post has been revised and updated on 8/12/18

Purchasing the book is just one way that we can support an author’s work. There are many more. Can’t afford the book? Know your options.

  • Buy the Book

Obviously, the best way to support an author is to purchase their books. This helps us financially as well as build our fan base. If you like the book we hope that you will be back for more.

  • Review the Book

There are so many advantages to you reviewing a book after you’ve read it. Amazon’s algorithm judges the author’s popularity and therefore the book’s quality as a product to promote by sales and reviews. It gives those who have not read it insight into what the book is about (beyond the blurb), helps them to see if it’s worth reading, and shows readers that others are talking about the author. This is important because Indie Authors have to do a lot themselves and will often be seen self-promoting. Book Reviews give us a chance to involve others unrelated to the work to do the promoting for us. As an author, this shows readers that you aren’t just tooting your own horn. Others enjoy your writing too. Book reviews are a form of social proof.

  • Rate the Book

If you don’t have time to review it, rating it is just as good. It will bring more attention to the book and make it more visible to readers. You can rate books via Amazon and Goodreads. This shows up at the top of your updates for your friends to see just like if you left a review. Also, if you rate a book it will automatically mark the book as read (so don’t rate books you haven’t actually read).

  • Mark the Book as “To read” on Goodreads

Again, this boosts a book’s credibility. The more people who mark the book as “To Read” the more attention if gets from people looking at the page. The book will also show up at the top of your timeline so that other readers can see it too, boosting visibility for the author. If you know of an author and you’d like to support them but you can’t purchase or review their book right now, head on over to their page on Goodreads and mark the book as “To read”. They’ll appreciate it. Also, if you’re an author, be sure to set up an Author Account on Goodreads. When you first join, you will be defaulted to a reader account. To learn how to upgrade to an author account, read this article HERE.

  • Follow the Author’s Amazon Page

If the author has the link to their amazon page on their site you can just click it and push the follow author button. However, if not you can always search them. Go to Amazon.com and enter their name into the box. Amazon’s search engine acts similar to Google’s so I am sure you will find the author you’re looking for. When you find them, follow their Amazon page to be alerted to new books.

  • Rate the Author’s Top Reviews

Scroll through the author’s reviews and pick one of their best ones. Then, if it’s helpful in determining your decision on whether or not to buy, click that it is helpful. Like ratings and reviews, this helps the book to show up more as a recommended read.

Other ways to support an author include, but are not limited to:

  • Follow the author’s blog
  • Join the author’s email list / newsletter
  • Follow the author on social media

No Whining Wednesday – Self-Pity

Welcome back to No Whining Wednesdays, the only day of the week where you do not get to whine, complain, or criticize. New to NWW? Click Here for more information on what this segment is all about.

The No Whining Wednesday Badge
The No Whining Wednesday Badge

Today’s inspiring word is on self-pity. We all need to vent at some point in our lives, we need to communicate our feelings and let it all out sometimes. We all feel down, depressed, and out of it sometimes. However, at what point does this get out of hand? Today, try not to complain by staying away from feeling sorry for yourself. Some quotes to inspire you:

“In life, you can blame a lot of people and you can wallow in self-pity, or you can pick yourself up and say, ‘Listen, I have to be responsible for myself.”

– Howard Schultz

 

“I never saw a wild thing feel sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.”

– D.H. Lawrence

 

“Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.”

– Helen Keller

 

“Self pity will destroy relationships, it’ll destroy anything that’s good, it will fulfill all the prophecies it makes and leave only itself.” -Stephen Fry

 

“Self pity becomes your oxygen. But you learned to breathe it without a gasp. So, nobody even notices you’re hurting.”

– Paul Monette

 

“He did not know how long it took, but later he looked back on this time of crying in the corner of the dark cave and thought of it as when he learned the most important rule of survival, which was that feeling sorry for yourself didn’t work. It wasn’t just that it was wrong to do, or that it was considered incorrect. It was more than that–it didn’t work.”―Gray Paulsen

3 Tips To Keep Your Reader READING: Cliffhanger Endings

I enjoyed this! Excellent lesson. I want to write now lol.

Dan Alatorre AUTHOR's avatarDAN ALATORRE

cover

Using my unreleased manuscript An Angel On Her Shoulder, I am showing you my techniques for reworking a story into a more readable, more enjoyable piece. It’s 45+ lessons in about 45 days. (To start at Chapter 1, click HERE.)

To view it best, bring up the two versions in different windows and view them side by side to see what was changed.

Then give me your thoughts in the comment section.

 

Cliffhangers

Most of the time we as writers get a scene completed and we say, “That’s enough, I’ll stop writing and end the chapter here.” We solved one of the mini hurdles. Whew! Time for a drink.

But

If we give readers that feeling of something being resolved, THEY may stop and go have a drink – and never pick our book up again!

Your audience will probably keep reading if the story is…

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It’s About You

1

The way you treat people is only partly for them, but mostly it’s for you. To bestowe mercy on others, to show love and compassion even to those who aren’t showing it toward you, this is for you. To not judge others harshly helps them sure, but ultimately you are made better and your growth increases. To be tolerant, and sympathetically aware of others feelings is to be understanding. We need more understanding and not fall victim to judging people without compassion because then we easily prove ourselves to be fools, and the same judgment we give, is what we will be given back. This is why it’s not just for others, but also for ourselves.

Sometimes you must step back and look at your actions as if stepping outside yourself. Stepping back and looking at the whole picture. Anyone can respect those who respect them but it takes a uniquely special individual to be kind even when other’s are not. It is not then just about how we treat those who are good to us, but also those who are not. This is what makes us special and sets us apart. What I’ve learned in life in general is to always be teachable. Not always teaching, but always teachable. You can’t think you just have it all together and be so quick to criticize and bash others. Just show love. Be merciful even when people may not deserve it, not necessarily for their sake but mostly for yourself.

This week in Indie Publishing

This week in Indie Publishing…

Unknown's avatarDon Massenzio

art1Literary Agent Breaks Down How to Win in Self-Publishing

The facts don’t lie. Everyone who publishes a successful book doesn’t have a deal with a major publisher.  Over the last two decades self-publishing has flourished and the books sold by independent authors have done amazing things in the industry, including winning awards, becoming national bestsellers and even landing television or movie option deals.  Whether you are working on a children’s picture book, a romance novel, a photography or business book, or writing your memoir, if you are choosing to self-publish the following tips will help guide your endeavors.

Read the rest of this story HERE.

art2

4 Steps to Create a Blog or Podcast That You and Your Readers Will Love

If you’re a self-published author, in addition to writing and producing your books, you must take on the responsibility of marketing them. The most successful author-marketers foster strong relationships…

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Memories

nature-river-1080p-wallpaper

Nostalgia’s a nauseating

sickness

like four little girls

still trying to tear down the brick

painted on the sides

of their heads

Pocketbook scriptures still dangling

from underneath

their tongues

like a scorched covenant

under burned fingernails

still trying to get me to

remember

Truth be queasy

like first trimesters

be painful

like birth pains

I heard

a roll of thunder

and laughter more frightening

than decomposed bodies

at the bottom of bi-racial rivers

whispering

like the voice of Emmet

till when?

It asked me.

Before strings of voices erupted from some place

beyond the banks of the James River

from someplace before William Lynch’s arrival

somewhere marchin

stomping on my roots

somewhere printed on the back

of the forbidden fruit, I still

got between my teeth

a string of voices

sprung up

from the oppression

marching down the streets of Birmingham,

Chicago, Georgia, Mississippi, Harlem.

Willie Edwards,

James Chaney,

Michael Donald,

Michael Griffith,

Michael Brown,

Yusef Hawkins,

James Byrd Jr, and Trayvon Martin’s voices

sang hymns of “I told you so’s”

for my memories

like women giving birth

to still born children

Till when?

said Mr. Till.

Will you people continue to give birth

to death

still lying on the bed

of Martin’s dreams?

They sang with an authority

like rolling thunder

and butterflies in my stomach

like truth on top Moses mountain they sang

like earthquakes

cracking my memories into lynched question marks

they sang

like blood-thirsty whales behind slave ships

like ripping flesh

torn open

with Hebrew scriptures

in their veins

they sang

like diseases written into the sky

and prison chains

their voices roared

like a million I told you so’s they sang

like voices do

and they asked me a question

but their words

were few

Till when?

Screamed the segregated

Set-apart

and unequal lungs

of Emmett

Till when?

He sang.

Like the lyrics of Deuteronomy

carried up

Till when will Malcolm,

Booker T.

and Martin King

still dream

before

they wake up?

Herbs and Vitamins for Healthy Teeth

Important health information from Henrietta. My sister-in-law and me were just talking about how most people ignore the fact that unhealthy teeth is directly related to heart conditions.

Henrietta Watson's avatarAll About Writing and more

Our modern diet has caused many of us to become deficient in certain minerals and our teeth can become adversely affected. Cavities in children and people of all ages are being linked to nutritional deficiencies. Most of us take for granted that we are getting enough of the needed minerals in our diet. That assumes that everyone knows the importance of minerals for our health and wellbeing.
Much of our farmed soil has become depleted and the majority of people cannot afford a completely organic diet. Combined with dietary choices based on taste rather than health, it is easy to see how these nutritional deficiencies can occur.
Phytic Acid Locks Up Essential Minerals
Phytic acid is a substance commonly found in most grains, nuts and beans. It has the ability to bind to minerals in your body, just like a magnet. This process removes the minerals before they get a…

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