Should You Add a Forum to Your Author Website?

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Lindsay

I was chatting online with another author this weekend (you know, during that time when I was supposed to be editing my manuscript), and we got to talking about forums and whether or not an author should add one to his or her site.

I have a little experience with forums (I added one to the first website I ever built with the intention of making money, and it actually grew quite popular), so I thought I’d post some of the some pros and cons. Instead of putting this over on my self-publishing blog, I’ll write it up here, in case any readers want to chime in (I’m not ready to add a forum to my own site, but I could see doing it at some future date). So, without further introductory rambling…

Should Authors Add Forums to Their Websites?

First off, on the chance you haven’t participated in any forums, and you’re not quite sure how they work, let me answer the question….

What is a forum?

Perhaps the earliest form of social media, forums or message boards are websites (or features on a larger website) that people can join to interact with each other, usually on a certain topic. For example, if you’re into ebook readers, you might want to hang out at the MobileRead Forum. It’s an opportunity to have your say and communicate with people who share a common interest.

As far as author forums go, the first one I remember visiting (this was ten years ago, and I even ended up meeting some of the regulars at a local Olive Garden) was the R.A. Salvatore forum. He used to have the message board on his own website (which is what I’d do if I were starting one), but it looks like it’s on a free forum site now.

How does one start a forum?

If you have your own domain name and web host (I talk about how to get the heck off Blogger and start a professional website here and also in this podcast), it may be less work than you’d think. There are lots of web hosts, including the one I mention in that article, that have one-click-installation forum software that’s included for free with your plan. So, adding a forum needn’t be an added expense, and it’s something that can probably be set up in an evening.

Buuut, before you get overly eager and rush to do this, let’s talk about some of the pros and cons. As I mentioned, I’ve run forums before, and there are some downsides. In fact, I’ll talk about those first, lest you get too excited by this idea and forget to read the rest of the post.

Disadvantages of Adding a Forum to Your Site

  • Forums are hard to get started unless your site is already popular — Having an empty forum that nobody visits can be a bad thing for your site. If your fans pop in but don’t see anybody else participating, they probably won’t join and post either. In fact, an empty forum could even work against you. If a potential reader visits your site and sees that nobody’s posting in your forum, they might think you’re not a very popular author and that nobody is buying your books. If you don’t have many (or any!) reviews on Amazon yet either, that could reinforce the feeling, and they might feel they should stay away. Social proof is a bitch when it works against you!
  • Maintaining a forum is a lot of work — Let’s say you do get your forum rolling, and it’s getting popular, with dozens or even hundreds of people visiting each day. With that popularity comes a need for moderation — spam, blatant promotion, off-topic messages, etc. may all need to be deleted or modified. Are you going to do that task yourself? (It is often possible to find a faithful member of the community to become a moderator, but you’ll still want to check in regularly, and there’s a limit to how much you can ask someone to do for free.)
  • Popular forums use a lot of bandwidth — If you keep your forum focused on your books, then you probably don’t need to worry about this, but if it grows and expands (as forums sometimes do) and covers multiple subjects in your genre (as a fantasy author, maybe I’d end up with a section for SF/F movies and steampunk and epic fantasy and who knows what else), it might get to the point where all your visitors are loading dozens of pages a day. You might then receive a note from your web host, stating that you need to buy a more expensive hosting plan, or you’ll just try to load your site one day and find that it’s down for the rest of the month with a “bandwidth exceeded” notice. Doh!

Advantages of Adding a Forum to Your Site

Okay, now that we’ve talked about the downsides to having a forum, let’s talk about some of the perks.

  • Creating a community for your fans — As I said, people like to meet and chat with those who share their interests. It’s amazing how many self-proclaimed introverts (as many readers are) you can find chatting it up online. By turning your site into a destination people visit daily (to check for new posts and to contribute their opinions), you’ll more easily keep your name in readers’ minds. They’ll be talking about your work in between books, and, because they’re visiting your site often, they’ll know exactly when your next book is due out, and they’ll be ready to grab it on release day (compare this to people who might just forget about you between one book and the next).
  • Loads of free, original content for your site (content you don’t have to write!) — If you’ve read any of my posts on search engine optimization, you know that Google loves big, authority sites and also that each unique page on your site is a chance for someone to stumble upon you via the search engines. If you’re a prolific blogger, you might get three to five new pages up on your site each week. Even a slightly popular forum could give you three to five new threads (pages) a day, each with lots of responses — i.e. lots of content that could come up on someone’s Google search. Once a forum gets rolling, you’ll see a big increase in the number of visitors that find your site via the search engines.
  • The possibility of selling more books — This goes hand-in-hand with my last bullet point. More people finding your site through the search engines means more chances to expose new readers to your work. You can set up your forum so your free short stories and sample chapters show up in the menu for each page, and you could have the cover art for one of your books as the header.

As you can see, adding a forum to your site can be a big responsibility, but it comes with some perks too.

If you have any experience with forums or have an opinion on whether authors should have them, let us know in the comments.

 

Posted in Tips and Tricks | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Self-Publishing / E-publishing Q & A

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Lindsay

For today’s blog entry, let’s answer some questions on self-publishing and e-publishing.

LB asks:

Epublishing has broadened the market for novellas. Do these sell as well on Kindle as novels?

While many readers prefer longer stories, lots of them will give short stories and novellas a try if the blurb sounds good. Most months, Flash Gold (and its recent sequel, Hunted) has been behind my novels in sales, but not necessarily far behind. I’ve come across some ebook authors who are specializing in shorter workers, and they only write novellas (and they sell more ebooks than I do!).

You’ll probably want to price novellas for less than novels, and I also recommend making it clear in the blurb that the story isn’t a novel. Some people get irked when they thought they were buying a novel and they ended up finishing the ebook in an hour.

Joe L. asks:

With the advent of ebooks and self-publishing, the ideas that I’ve had wandering around in my head for many years have the possibility of becoming at least short stories.  Where do you suggest I start on getting them out?

First, get some complete stories down on paper (there are a lot of writers who start lots of projects, but never finish them, and that’s kind of important if you want to publish!). Then it’s a good idea to get feedback from people who are in the biz (other writers or editors who aren’t related to you and won’t feel obligated to say nice things). Nobody’s stuff comes out perfect, and most of us spend a lot of time taking classes and participating in workshops before we have stories that are ready to publish.

I personally think it’s a good idea to submit some short stories to magazine and e-zine markets out there. While it probably won’t do much for your writing career, and you’ll be lucky to make $5 in most cases, it’s sort of a sign that you’re ready. If you start making some sales, your writing is probably polished enough that you can find an audience out there that will enjoy it.

Ceae asks:

What was your experience with getting your novels into the Kindle store? The Nook store?

That’s been the easiest part! (Getting people to find and buy the novels is the hard part, heh heh.) You can upload your ebook files and cover art at Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing and Barnes & Noble’s Pub It.

Marc Johnson asks:

How come you don’t use different covers for your paperback books and your ebooks? And how can I sell lots of books like you? 😀

Does anyone use different covers for ebooks and paperbacks? Hm. I’d think that would be confusing to the audience. Also, if you’re paying for your cover art, you’d have to pay twice as much.

As for the rest, I’m pretty transparent on what all I’ve tried and am continuing to try. You can browse through the archives here or check out my new self publishing blog.

Chad Kearbey asks:

How do you handle taxes with e-book publishing?

This will be my first year getting tax forms from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, etc. for e-publishing specifically, but I assume they will send out 1099 Misc forms (for the U.S. anyway; I’m not sure what folks in other countries get from them), and I’ll treat it like any other self-employment income.

You tend to have to pay more in taxes when you’re self-employed, so it’s a good idea to set aside a chunk of the money as it’s coming in. You do get to write off your expenses, though, and that’d include things like buying advertising, web hosting for your author site, paying for an editor, cover designer, formatter, etc. Make sure to keep receipts for everything like that.

Then you can decide whether you want to use an accountant or tax adviser or just wing it with TurboTax or something similar. Those software packages have versions for self-employed folks and wizards to walk you through everything.

In your second year of earning income as a self-employed person, the IRS (again, U.S. only here) will expect to you pay quarterly estimates based on your previous year’s income.

Of course, a tax adviser can answer your questions here much better than I can!

Serena Casey asks:

Do you know what percentage of people who sample your books actually end up buying?

No, they don’t share this information with us. It’s too bad, since it might be helpful to know. Although, it might be a blow to the old ego too!

Ikkinlala asks:

Would you rather have readers purchase printed books or e-books?

Whatever someone is interested in buying is fine with me! If you want the author to receive the biggest cut, it’ll depend on what the author has everything priced at. If paperbacks are priced below $12 (and I’m talking about indies doing print-on-demand publishing), they’ve probably made the book as affordable as they can, and they’re not making a huge chunk of change on the sales. If their ebook is above $2.99, you’re sending them about $2 on every sale (we don’t make much on 99-cent ebooks though, and most authors are using that price to try and get you into their world, so you’ll try their other books!).

But anyway, the short answer is that most authors would be delighted to have you purchase anything from them, ebook or paperback.

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Flash Gold Chronicles Q & A

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Lindsay

I’m continuing to work through the questions from my “ask a question and get entered to win an Amazon gift certificate” (still open!) post. We’ve done a general Emperor’s Edge Q & A and one just on Sicarius. Today, let’s tackle the Flash Gold series (I’ll do the tackling; you can just read.)

Jenna asks:

When shall we expect the next Flash Gold installment (My friend and I are really anxious to see what happens next . . . )?

And Diana asks:

Are there more “Flash Gold” stories in the works?

I’m just starting to work on the next story, so I don’t have a date yet, but I’ll shift more focus to it soon (I’m sending EE3 off to the editor next week, and then I’ll be done working on that).

Ed asks:

I read a LOT, mostly books with lots of pages because there will always be a lot of info on not only the people in the story but the story itself. BUT, I’ve read both Flash Gold books and I have to tell you, you did an awesome job on both points while still making it great reading.

So I have to ask, are you working on the 3rd book or are we just going to be left hanging like so many TV shows do to us?

Thanks, Ed. Glad you are enjoying them! I’m not planning to leave anyone hanging! I’m not sure yet how many Flash Gold stories there will be, but I like to wrap things up (eventually). 😉

Amy asks:

Hubs and I are LOVING Flash Gold. Are you going to do more with that series? We particularly enjoy the unexpected setting, and the character interactions are fabulous.

And while we’re asking, how did you decide on the setting for Flash Gold? Because it’s just so not what one expects from any of the categories I’ve seen the series assigned.

Glad to hear it, Amy! I’d like to do at least six stories, so it should end up being the equivalent of a couple of novels. Of course, once Kali gets her airship built, they might have to go off on more adventures around the world. We’ll see!

As for the setting, I’ve always liked the Old West, since it was wild and uncivilized, leaving lots of potential for adventure. I decided to head up to the Yukon, since I was a big fan of Jack London as a kid and read lots of other books set up there.

Molly asks:

Do you have any plans for a longer entry (novel length for preference) in the Flash Gold storyline? I love the novellas (and everything else you’ve written to be honest) but something with a little more meat to it would be fantastic too. Flash Gold and Hunted ended too quick, I want more! 😉

I’m glad to hear that you want more, Molly! I won’t say I’ll never do a novel with the characters, but I’m choosing to do novellas right now since they’re something I can work on when I need a break from the books in my other series. It takes a lot longer to write a novel (especially since mine are always over 100,000 words!), so I like that I can finish a novella in a month or so. Once I finish with The Emperor’s Edge series, I’ll have to see where things go.

Ryan asks:

I have just put together a couple of stories that required research (and got bogged down in a third – too much research), and also began reading Flash Gold.

I always like authentic settings, and I’m enjoying the Gold Rush feel in FG. I was just wondering how much you knew, and how much research you did for FG – and perhaps other stories.

I know what you mean, Ryan. Sometimes I start looking something up on the web, and then twenty web sites and an hour later, I’ve learned all sorts of good stuff…but it isn’t what I started out looking up. Sometimes I just end up on Facebook or Twitter. 😀

I take some liberties with my stories, but I try to get the names of the towns and river right and a feel for the time period. I don’t really trust my memory, so I look up most things before including them in a story.

The next adventure will have our heroes tramping around Dawson more, so I’m trying to figure out what some of the local businesses and such were, and they’ll be visiting the local Hän camp (Kali’s mother’s people), too, so I’m reading up on those guys to get the details right.

With my high fantasy stories, I get to make up my own world, but I still do quite a bit of research on the technology of the time period, trying to figure out what might be viable (even if there’s a little magic helping things out!). I’ve spent a lot of time reading about early diving suits, steam-powered ships, and steam vehicles. There are some great videos on YouTube of steam engines and trucks if you’re ever bored.

Okay, that’s it for the Flash Gold questions. Thanks for asking them, folks, and thanks for reading!

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | 3 Comments

The Emperor’s Edge Q & A on Sicarius

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Lindsay

throwing knivesMuch to the other characters’ chagrin (especially Maldynado’s), Sicarius is getting a lot of attention in my giveaway + reader questions post (plenty of time left to ask questions if you’re interested!). Let me see what I can do insofar as answers…

Gwen asks:

It’s been awhile since I’ve read the The Emporer’s Edge and Dark Currents so please forgive me if you already answered this question in these books. Do we find out where Sicarius came from and who his parents were before the emperor started “training ” him?

There are a couple tidbits along these lines in Book 3. I haven’t decided yet if his parents are still alive (and should make an appearance at some point). That could be fun. 😉

Margaret asks:

Will there be romance between Amaranthe and Sicarius?

And what is Sicarius’s true name? Sicarius is latin for assasin, or dagger-man, so I’m assuming that you may have a different name for him.

I’m not sure romance is a word I could ever see associated with Sicarius, but Amaranthe makes a little progress with him in Book 3…

As for any other names, I haven’t decided if anything will come out yet. It’ll depend on if Mom is still alive and we ever meet her.

Sara asks:

You’ve said that you want to write a book from the perspective of each of the main characters. I can see Akstyr’s and Sicarius’ books being very challenging to write — Akstyr because he’s a punk teen, Sicarius because so much of his character is about what he doesn’t say or share. Have you thought at all about how you’ll keep those characters consistent with what we’ve seen so far while writing from their point of view — and keeping it likable?

Yes, I’ve thought much about it, heh. Especially Sicarius. I know I can do Akstyr — he’s not particularly loveable, but doing his POV would be a good opportunity to have him grow up a little bit. Sicarius is more daunting, and I’ll probably save him for last and do a short story or two for practice first!

Raeann asks:

What’s your brainstorming process? Have you thought of doing a prequel-stand-aloneish book on Sicarius?? I’m curious about how he got entangled with everything.

For brainstorming, I take note of cool things I read about or hear about and that I’d like to incorporate in a story someday. (The idea for the Ice Cracker II short story came out of a History Channel special on ice-breaking ships.) I also decide whose story it’s going to be (like in Dark Currents, it was very much Books’s story, even though Amaranthe was a POV character too) and what that person is trying to accomplish or come to terms with over the course of the story. I mix everything together, and a story eventually comes out.

As for a Sicarius prequel, probably not a book (that would be a long time for me to spend in the head of someone with a very dry-to-non-existent sense of humor!), but maybe  something shorter at some point. I’ve thought about writing the story where young Sicarius and Admiral Starcrest (from Encrypted) meet for the first time.

Okay, I think that’s it. If I missed anyone’s question, feel free to ask or remind me below. Thanks for reading!

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Answering Questions on The Emperor’s Edge Series

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Lindsay

Those of you who were around on the weekend know I’m bribing people to ask questions for me to answer here on the blog (seriously, you can check out that post now — ask a question for a chance to win an Amazon gift certificate for the holidays). It’s a chance for me to give away some goodies and also find out what people would be interested in reading about here.

So, for this first post, I’ll answer a couple of the questions related to the Emperor’s Edge books:

Merry asks:

When will your next full length novel be out?

Next month! Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be doing the final edits for EE3 (Deadly Games), then sending it off to my editor. The cover art is already done, so it should be up by Thanksgiving.

Eyezak asks:

As a soon to be owner of a Kindle (Fire), which of your ebooks do you suggest a new reader start?

This page has everything listed with reading orders, but you could start with Emperor’s Edge (the first in my series of high fantasy novels), Encrypted (a stand alone set in the same world as EE), or Flash Gold (a steampunk novella set in the Yukon in the late 1890s).

Mihir asks:

Do you have a fixed number of books planned for the Emperor’s Edge series?

And Tiffany asks:

Do you already know where you are going to end up in the EE series, how many books there will be and how the story arc will go?

I have tentative plans for six books, each with a different member of the group for the alternate POV character. As for where the series is going and how it will end… kind of? Is that a good answer? Probably not, but I definitely plan to wrap up the story arc in that six-book span rather than stringing things along indefinitely.

Anke asks:

Are you writing the 2nd, 3rd… books differently from the first one regarding how well wrapped-up they are?

I like for each novel to tell a complete story, and I try to wrap up that story. That doesn’t mean I won’t leave you hanging with some teasers as to what will come in future books though. 😉

Carr asks:

I had hoped that Sespian [snipped due to spoilers 😀 ] would have made an appearance in the second book of the series (Dark Currents), having speaking lines rather than being mentioned by the main characters in passing. Will we see more of him in the next book in which he interacts face-to-face with Sicarius and Amaranthe, perhaps following up on the infatuation that was brought up in the first book (Emperor’s Edge)?

Sespian pops in at the end of Book 3, and he’ll have a significant role in Book 4.

Stephen asks:

I read The Emperor’s Edge on my Kindle, after buying it because it was touted as a steam punk novel…and because I liked the plot synopsis. I’m not some die-hard Steam Punk type, but I noticed that you barely touched on the technology. I love your stories, but wonder if the whole steam power thing was an afterthought to gain a genre following.

But steam, no steam or Sauna Time, please keep it up!

Hah, I never promoted Emperor’s Edge as steampunk! I mentioned it was a high fantasy in “an era of steam” because I didn’t want people buying it, expecting a medieval world (I’ve come across some folks who don’t like their fantasy to have guns and more modern tech in it) and then being disappointed because it’s more of an Industrial Revolution type setting.

I guess because I mentioned steam, though, people started tagging it as steampunk on Amazon. But honestly, steampunk is a pretty niche market, so I’m not sure it’s helped sales or not. I’ve found that a lot of people who are into the steampunk culture don’t actually read fantasy (horrible, yes).

That’s it for today. Have a question? Ask it here. Thanks!

Posted in My Ebooks | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Book Winners + New Giveaway (Amazon Gift Certificate)

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Lindsay

Many thanks to those who entered my first paperback books giveaway. The winners were Claire, Karen B., and Rochelle, and their books are on the way!

If you’re interested in purchasing copies of the paperbacks, you can get Emperor’s Edge at Barnes & Noble or Amazon. Dark Currents is also available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

And now for a new giveaway. *insert exciting drum roll*

amazon-gift-certificate-giveaway
I have an Amazon gift certificate to give away to someone, a little extra spending money for the upcoming holidays. How much money? The amount of the certificate will depend on the participation level.

To enter…

In the comments below, ask a question about self-publishing, writing, blogging, or my books. Questions that fall outside of these topics won’t count (you don’t want to know what I’m wearing or my favorite food anyway — boring!).

I’ll pick and choose and answer some (many?) of the questions in upcoming blog posts.

The minimum gift certificate awarded will be $10. I’ll add $0.50 to the total for every question asked (only one question per person, and you need to use the email address linked to your Amazon account, so I can send the gift certificate electronically — in other words, no cheating and entering with multiple names and email addresses!). The maximum possible award is $75 (hey, I have to save a few bucks for my own holiday shopping), which we’ll reach if we get 130 questions ($10 base + .50 per question).

In other words, the more people who comment with a question, the higher the prize, so please share this contest around (Facebook, Twitter, etc. links are at the bottom of the post). Thank you!

Let’s run this through Sunday the 23rd. On the 24th, I’ll randomly pick a winner and award the prize.

*If you live outside of Amazon’s sphere of influence (I’ve heard it’s possible) and want to enter, go ahead and do so. We’ll figure out a way to hook you up somehow if you win.

Let the questions begin…

[UPDATE: The contest is now closed. Amy Murphy was the giveaway winner. Thanks for participating, everyone!]

Posted in News | Tagged , , | 66 Comments

Becoming a Book Blogger (and getting free books!) with Laurie Lu from Bonafide Reflections

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Lindsay

Last spring, I wrote a series of posts on How to Make Money as a Book Blogger, based on my years of paying the bills with my internet income (before shifting my focus to writing stories and self-publishing, I blogged about everything from home improvement to the cruise industry and actually earned a living that way). As I admitted in those articles, it’s not easy to make piles talking about books, but it’s certainly possible to make enough to cover web hosting and pay for a few new reads now and then. At the very least, book bloggers can snag a lot of free stories to review.

Laurie Lu from Bona Fide Reflections started her blog in February this year and has built up a following and managed to acquire a lot of books to review (traditionally published as well as indie offerings). I thought I’d ask her some questions, in case any of you are thinking of starting a book blog (or have one that you’re hoping will become more popular).

Interview with Laurie Lu from Bona Fide Reflections

What prompted you to start a book review blog?

Well hmmm… *taps finger on chin,* I love to read. And one day I found Goodreads, a book community, online. As I looked around, I noticed that a lot of people had links to other websites. I started poking around more. Looked at what they were doing and realized I could be doing the same thing – blogging about the books I read and interacting with an audience of like-minded individuals. So, long story short: blogging is just an extension of my love for reading.

You’re on Blogger, but you have a custom design and your own web address (www.bona-fide-reflections.com), so it doesn’t look like you’re on Blogger. Can you tell us how much those upgrades cost and how you went about having them done?

I have a friend who is a webmaster and I sought out advice from him on how to take my blog one step further than Blogspot. It is important to own your own domain (i.e., .com, .net, .org) so no one else can use that name. I went to Go Daddy and bought two domain names – bona-fide-reflections.com and bonafidereflections.com. The latter to cover all bases for “search” purposes. I think it cost me all of $12 for a year. After purchasing my domain names, my friend had changed everything over for me from my blogspot addy to my domain name. I have no idea how he did that part.

Bona Fide Reflections

Regarding the design of Bona Fide Reflections… when I first started by blog, I used the blogger templates to use as my blog design. But, I was not able to create the look I really wanted. I knew what I wanted it to look like. I just did not know how to make it happen. So, I enlisted the help of a blog designer whose work I had seen around the blogosphere. I really liked her style of design. The cost of having her do my blog renovation was close to $200. However, she did everything for me: Header Design, Column styling (2 or 3 column design), Background Design, Bloggy Button with grab code, InstallationCustom avatar/illustration, 4 HTML installations, 4 extra graphics (winner, interview, guest post, Teaser Tuesday etc.), Custom Style Sheet, Navigation (drop-down available), Signature. There are other cheaper options. This just what I wanted and what worked for me.

Hmm, maybe I should hire her! Okay, now for the good stuff: what’s the secret to getting free ebooks to review?

Great question. Well, I think networking helps a whole lot in getting your name out there. I made sure I interacted with authors and publishers on Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook. Interacting with other book bloggers has also been very helpful in this endeavor because they were able to offer advice and introduce me to some authors. Once you get your name out there, the authors and publishers tend to seek you out to help get the word out on their upcoming release or, in some cases, already published books.

Another great avenue to take is signing up with NetGalley. They offer a lot of ARCs (advanced reader copies) in a lot of genre categories. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for a book you’re interested in from the author or publisher. The worst that can happen is that they will say no; but, you are no worse off than before you asked. In other words: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

What do you do if an author sends you a book to review and you just don’t like it?

I approach them first to let them know how I felt about the book and why I felt that way. Then I ask them whether or not they want me to post my review. Most often times…., er, no every time they ask that I not post my review. But, I can completely understand why. Often times, I am dealing with an indie author just starting out and they really don’t need bad press. Just because I did not like the book does not mean they won’t find a following for it and I don’t want to hinder the author’s efforts to sell their work.

I know you’re active on Twitter. What have you done to promote your blog online and pick up followers?

Within the past couple of months I have really utilized Twitter. This a place where like minded folks seem to “congregate” and share information. Once you start socializing, you find yourself developing a larger network. This helps to get your blog’s name out there while having some fun. Plus, Twitter is a platform that can be used advertising your blog when you have got something going on the blog and need some traffic directed there. You pick up followers by putting yourself out there and interacting and following others. Many people tend to follow you back.

I have also gained a lot of followers by participating in blog hops. What’s a blog hop? A blog hop consists of linking up participating blogs which are hosting a giveaway and the blogs link up together allowing our followers to hop easily from one giveaway to another. For followers that means lots of chances to win free books. For host blogs it means lots of new visitors and followers.

Any tips for new readers thinking of starting a book review blog?

Having a blog is a lot of fun. I have enjoyed meeting some really wonderful people who are like-minded in their reading preferences and I have connected with really wonderful bloggers, authors and publishers. However, it has been a lot of work. It is hard not to get discouraged and feel overwhelmed. The most important thing to remember is that you are doing it for fun (or at least, I am) and just focus on that fact. If you have bitten off more than you can chew, always be honest and communicate whether it is with your peers, authors, and/or the publishers when you get to a point where you are overwhelmed. When, you are feeling discouraged, reach out to the peers you feel closest to because often times they have been in your shoes and can offer support or advice to help you get through a rough patch.

Thanks for sharing all that information, Laurie!

Posted in Blogging | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Kindle Fire Tablet, Who’s Getting One?

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Lindsay

Kindle Fire Tablet from AmazonI’ve been eyeballing the iPad since it came out, but haven’t been willing to pony up the $500+ for one yet, but now that the Kindle Fire Tablet is on the way, I might give that a try. Is anybody else thinking of getting one?

In case you’re just hearing about these devices, here’s the information from Amazon:

The Kindle Fire Tablet

Features:

  • Color display that lets you watch movies and tv shows, read picture-filled children’s books and magazines, and (of course!) play games.
  • Free no-commercial movies and shows for Amazon Prime members.
  • “Ultra fast” web browsing (I sure wouldn’t mind an upgrade to my Kindle’s web-browser)
  • Free cloud storage (you can access any digital Amazon purchases you’ve already made — this would be nice for me since I bought some stuff from their instant video library only to find out I couldn’t download them onto my Mac, so I can only watch my shows online)
  • MP3 player (I believe the Kindle has this, too, but I’ve thus far stuck with my iPod)
  • Amazon’s free “WhisperSync” wireless technology (I’m all about the no extra monthly costs)
  • Compact size with 7″ screen (this makes it smaller than the iPad, but perhaps more convenient for travel too)
  • 7.5-8 hours of battery life on a charge
  • $199 price tag (this sounds much more reasonable to me than the hefty iPad prices)

So, what do you think? Are you getting a Kindle Fire or sticking with a basic ebook reader? Or do you already own an iPad and have no need for Amazon’s offering?

Kindle Fire Tablet Color

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