Writers and Non-Readers

You ever try to explain writing to someone who does not enjoy reading?
My parents tell stories about when I was little. I memorized a book when I was five, and my grandmother thought I could read. When I was six, I would go to the library everyday of the summer and borrow five books. I would read all day. The next day I would go back and get five more.

As a writer I am a big reader. When we go traveling, the used bookstores always catch my attention (even though I am an avid ebook reader now). So, it is always interesting to me when I have good friends or family members who are not readers.

As a writer, it is always interesting to converse with non- readers. They cannot fathom enjoying reading hundreds of pages let alone writing them all! This was further highlighted for me when I asked a friend to come up with some interview questions for an author's interview I was doing. My non-reader friend's contribution was, "How do you write all those pages?" (I am in no way trying to offend non-readers. How could I unless you tell them about this, because they won't read it.)

As I am in the process of self-publishing a book in print, my mind goes to who of my friends and family will buy my book. My brother and father are not big readers, I have several friends who are not big readers. I think about all the descriptions, adventures, and imagination that goes with reading. I love stopping at a place in a book, and wondering what will happen once I start reading again. I love how I can picture a character, and someone reading the same book will read it and picture them differently.

I love reading my writing over and over. It amuses me. I crack myself up. The characters are fun and witty, and intersting to build a relationship with. These are all things non-readers are missing out on. It makes me a bit sad. I guess they will just have to wait until I decide to expand to audio.
(Isn't my dog with my lap top the cutest picture for this? I am sure if she could, she would enjoy my books too.)



New Author with Amazing Books: J.C. Mells

I am practicing what I have been preaching and have bought at least one book from an Indie Author a month. In June my socks were knocked off by writer J.C. Mells. I stumbled upon Mells through a post she had written about how to market your ebook when running it for free. It is a pretty extensive post that keeps growing. Seriously, it is like a Chia Pet look at it How to Promote your Self-Published book.

There I was somehow drawn to how much work she put into promoting her book Pierced here is a description below.

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
 
Imagine the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Betty Crocker.
That’s Pierce in a nutshell.

Pierce has been on the run for two years from the man who held her captive in a vampire compound for almost a decade. Life on the run would be a lot simpler if she didn’t suffer from several social disorders and ‘quirks,’ have a ten-year-old brat in tow, as well as have two characters from a 1945 classic film living in her head and guiding her at every turn.

I surprisingly bought this book. Surprisingly because of the following:
1. I don't think I have ever read an urban fantasy/ paranormal romance. I am sure they are good, but not my style.
2. I try to avoid anything with the word vampire in it.
3. I RARELY buy books. I borrow from the library, and download free ones. I think I have bought maybe 7 books in the last year, and most of them were by well-known authors.

So, I bought the book. And . . . I loved it. How can you not buy a book that states in the description,
Imagine the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Betty Crocker.
That’s Pierce in a nutshell.

I loved it so much that I did something else uncharacteristic of me, I wrote the author and told them that I loved it & begged her to write the rest of the series. Side note: I have never read a series that was not completed yet. Narnia was completed way before I read it, Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, etc.

She came out with a 1.5 called Escaped. It is a prequel that in my opinion should be read after Pierced. So I bought Escaped and read it within 48hours of purchasing it.

So, I bought two books outside my comfort zone, connected with a new author, and scored an interview out of the deal with J.C. Mells.
Check her out. I think you will be happy you did.

15 1/2 Ways Readers Can Support Indie Authors

Lonely Indie Author

Several people have caught onto BUY LOCAL slogans, and supporting Ma & Pop Shops. How much has supporting Indie Authors caught on? How can we expedite and support that? I tend to try to find an Indie Book over other books. I have vowed to buy one Indie Book a month. I just bought two Indie Books this month.

There are several sites to connect Indie Authors, but I wonder if the word is getting out to readers. Do readers even care? As an Indie Author, of course, I do think they should care. Just one blog, Twitter, post at a time we can encourage people to help an author out!

Encourage your friends, families, and fans to not only follow you but another Indie author. I will write another post on Indie Authors Supporting Indie Authors.

Here are some easy ways that readers can support Indie Authors:

1. Buy their Books. Most of the time ebooks are have the right price $.99 to $3.99. You spend more on breakfast. When I was first marketing my ebook I had family members, and so-called good friends say, "I don't have an ereader" or "I only read real books." Then another friend pointed out to me, "Umm it is only $2.99. They can buy it to support you, and not even read it." I would do that for a friends, family or acquaintance. Wouldn't you? I challenge you. Set a goal to buy a certain amount of Indie Authored Books a year.

2. Read their book.

3. Leave a review on the site from which you bought it and cut & paste to put on all of these sites that apply: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobi, Diesel, etc.

4. Leave feadback on GoodReads. Put the book on your book shelf.

5. Comment on Facebook, Twitter, StumpbleUpon, and/or your blog about the book before, during, and after the book.   You might draw other readers into the book.
5.5 Write about the progress on your book on #FridayReads.

6. Write a review in a newspaper, newsletter, magazine, or other periodical. This takes some more time and effort, but would help-out the author.

7. Highlight a quote or passage on your Kindle and let it go public.

8. Read the book in public. If is a hard copy of the book, the cover will speak for itself. If it is an ebook, people might ask you what you are reading. Tell them the book and the author. Laugh out loud and say things like, "Wow, I did not see that coming!" "This is brilliant." "When is her next book coming out." Okay, you don't have to be THAT dramatic . . . just reading it should be enough.

9. Contact the writer and give feedback. Was there a mistake in the book, do you have a suggestion, and/or are you a fan for life?

10. Offer to help with marketing. This could be in the form of helping on a book tour, handing out flyers, handing out book marks, putting a bumper sticker on your car, etc.

11. Do an interview or feature about the author on your blog.

12. Reserve the book at your library. Recruit friends and strangers to do so. If there are many people requesting the book, this could prompt the library to buy more.

13. Buy the book and give it away as gifts. You know you get stuck on what to buy people. Just have it be your signature gift. You know otherwise you will end up buying another mug, scarf, sweatshirt, picture frame, or  ENTER ANY OTHER TOKEN GIFT. If you contact the author he/she might even sign them and personalize them for your family, friends, Secret Santa at work, etc.

14. Talk about it with everyone.

• Friends- "If you were a good friend you would buy this book."
• Family- "This reminds me of the summer we spent by the lake and I punched you in the face."
• Co-Workers- "How was your weekend? Mine was spent in the year 1872 . . ."
• Doctor- "I would feel better if I could just find out a way that Clyde would fix that time machine before the Zombies take over the planet."
• Partner- "I am not mowing the lawn until you read up to Chapter 22."
• Cashier- "You haven't read this book? You have to. . . "

15. EVERY TIME you go into a bookstore ask an employee to help you find it. Chuck Sambachino had this great idea in a Writer Unboxed article HERE. This is a great idea. This way the employees get to know where the book is, you can talk to them about the book and why it is so great as he/she is helping you find it, and he/she might promote the books to others.

Here are other great posts on the subject.
20 Easy Ways Readers Can Help Promote Authors
Writer Unboxed: Helping Authors
How to Help Your Favorite Authors
10 Ways Readers Can Help Authors

Coming soon! Stay tuned for my post on Indie Authors Supporting Indie Authors.

How else do you recommend supporting Indie Authors?

Readers Attacking Writing: 10 Thoughts on Negative, Harsh Reviews

A post by Jody Hedlund titled "Is Our Culture Becoming Too Critical and Open" echoed my feelings I have been having about reviewers and critics of books. When I was interviewed by Brook Syers HERE. He asked me what my biggest surprise was as a writer. I answered that it was that readers did not like my book, and that others liked my book. I, however, think it goes a step further. I think that my biggest surprise was that people were so blunt and mean at giving reviews of books.

With  a little help from my friends, families and colleagues, I have come up with some thoughts about negative reviews.

1. In our society there is a Negative Feedback to Positive Feedback Unbalance. Meaning that people are more apt to give negative feedback and comments then positive. If you buy a computer chair and it works fine and no problems, you go about your day. If you buy one and the wheels keep falling off, you bet you that there is a higher chance of someone sitting down and writing a negative review on their wobbly chair!

2. I, therefore, think that for every negative review there are many positive reviews sitting out there.

3. Emotions get out of control. It is a book. I love books, I love writing, but it is a book. I have seen people leave some harsh and mean reviews of a book. To me it as if the author was writing about the readers life or slept with their wife. Get over it.

4. It was 99 cents to $2.99. You spent a small amount of money for this book. Why are you getting bent out of shape? If you fries at McDonald's were too salty do you go the manager? I realize there are people who do that, but I would like to believe that that is the small minority of people.

5. It was the readers fault in the first place. I have received a couple of 2-3 Star reviews. The reader/reviewer stated something along the lines of "I thought this book was going to be about _____ but it was about this. Disappointed." I go back and read the description and think, "Umm I have no idea how they thought it was about that."

6. People are unhappy in life and putting a 1 star review on authors blog make them feel powerful.

7. Who cares what people think. I read bad reviews of books and buy the book anyway.

8. I am a supervisor and I am a BIG FAN of praising in public, critical feedback in private. I recently was asked to review a book by a few authors. They say "Be honest." I email them back and say, "I will review in a useful way, and give critical feedback to them directly." Hey, I would love to get emails or private messages sent to me through my blog, than all my mistakes and shortcomings put on Amazon or other sites.

9. Use the feedback. I recently got feedback that my time frame was off in my book. It could have been said a little nicer, and possibly through email or privately. I, however, went back into my book and fixed it all. Thanks reviewer.

10. Don't respond to the Harsh Reviews. I think that authors get caught up in that, and spend too much time responding to viewers. Authors have different opinions on this, but my current philosophy is learn from it, don't respond, and move on. Some authors don't even read their reviews.

What do you think about these reviews?
Do you write reviews on books?

Check-out the inspiring "Is Our Culture Becoming Too Critical and Open"
post by Jody Hedlund titled

A few days ago I finished Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah. It is about Adeline's childhood growing-up in China during the second World War. It was a quick read, and just like in Memoirs of a Geisha I kept cheering for the main character. There was horrible emotional abuse that went on, and some physical abuse for this little girl. At one point her wicked step-mother brought her to a town that put Adeline in harms way.

In my everyday therapy work with children and families I am blown away by children's resiliency. This book is another example of this. Somehow this child held it together and became successful in life. She kept yearning for her fathers love, but I am not sure she ever gets it. She did, however, have the love of her aunt and grandfather. There is a lot of research that shows that if a child has one person that makes a difference in their life they are more likely to survive their traumas.

Overall, it was a good book and gave some flavor to China during the war. I am off to Tibet. I hope I don't have any trouble at the border.

Off to China

I finished Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. It was a pretty good book. The best part was not in the action, but in the description of the times. As a writer, I was struck by the fact that it was a guy who wrote the book. The thoughts of the main character a girl turned woman was so believable that I was very intrigued that this author captured this so well. I did some quick research and found tha Arthur was a history and art buff, and created a wonderful historical fiction.

He captured the desperation of the main character Chiyo Sakamoto and her plight to follow her destiny. Many times in the book it felt as if she was walking upstream and tripping over rocks, and pushed by the current. Toward the end of the book, she makes yet another huge, life-altering mistake and I cringed knowing there were not many pages left. That is when I know an author has me. When I cringe at an outcome that might be handed down, or mourn the loss of a character.

Not disappointed at all by this book. Four cups of tea. Off to China . . . I have several books to pick from.

From Thailand to Japan

So a few weeks ago I finished Thailand's Sickest a book by Michael Fook. I am lucky that the beginning of January was a reading frenzy because this last week and a half I have not been able to find the time or the energy to read. I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed the book. I thought it was fairly well-written and kept me entertained eventhough it was outside the normal books I would read. There are more books by Fook, and I might even check them out after my trip.

I am now half-way through Japan. I am reading Memoirs of a Geisha by Authur Golden. I usually stray away from books that are held as famous and well-known, but out of desperation to find a free, ebook, Japan book I settled on this. I have not been disappointed thus far.

This book is different from the others because it seems to focus less on terrain, wilderness, travel and more on the personal life experiences. Don't get me wrong. It has not made me want to put on a kimono, or slap on a bunch of make-up. I have been drinking more tea lately though.

I hope in the next few days that I will be out of Japan and into China. Then the search begins of where to go from there because the pickings are slim to find a free ebook for places within a stones throw from there.

Mister Pip: Papua New Guniea

I visited Papua New Guinea in the early 90's when there was rebels and fighting and danger. There was a sliver of hope given by a man who was the black sheep in the town (or was it the white sheep?). He used Great Expectations to mesmerize the village and take their mind off the awful and potential of more awful things going on. It is told through the eyes of a little girl. It was a wonderfully written book, and did not end in Papua New Guinea. I recommend it.
Off to Japan!

New Zealand: Kiwi Tracks

On January 6, 2013 I finished my ebook trip to New Zealand. I completed this journey with Andrew Stevenson's book Kiwi Tracks. The book hit the spot. Ten years ago I was all-about going to New Zealand. I left my job, and was ready to go on an adventure. The problem was that my friend has some complications with travel arrangements, and then we never went. At that time in my life I was not ready to go to another country by myself.
Through this book, I traveled with Andrew from the South Island to the North Island. He mostly stayed at backpackers (hostels) and huts on the tracks (trails). It started off cold with sleet and snow and ended warm enough. I was hoping it would be a warm book, because of me experiencing winter here.
What I liked best about the book, is that he didn't spice it up. He seemed to tell it like it was. He also had a couple of clumsy or ignorant mishaps which was something I could see myself doing.
Overall, I got the sense of New Zealand as this:

• Somewhere you could hitch-hike easily and safely.
• Beautiful.
• Rich in history.
• Honest and easy-going. There is a part in the book where Andrew mistakenly leaves a bag of ribs at a grocery store. He goes back to the grocery store and they give him new ribs, and are sure that the person who picked them up behind him would bring them back. It turns back the person did.
• There is some tension between North & South Island, and they have their rivalry with Australia.
• They have some dangerous birds, and a lot of possum.

Off to Papau New Guinea with Mr. Pip.

Mapped out- Filling up the Kindle

On January 2nd I mapped out my tentative Route starting in Australia and ending in the United States. I found a few books to start off my trek.

Australia- The Curse of the Travel Bug II- Read
New Zealand- Kiwi Tracks - Reading
Papua New Guinea- Mr. Pip
Thailand- Thailand's Sickest


I have given myself the freedom of changing the intinerary for reasons of the following:
 1. needing to change the country due to difficulty of finding a book
 2. wanting to read one book prior to another.

The good thing is I do not have to worry about changing airfare or taking long plane or train rides.

My trip started off a little rocky with a misleading book Jetting Away it was free for the Kindle,but it was about someone deciding to go to Australia. She never made it to Australia and there was another book by the author about going there. I opted out on buying that and read The Curse of the Travel Bug II. This book was okay. It was about a guy who was traveling Australia in a campervan with other backpackers and scuba diving. It gave a little taste of Australia.

Now, to continue my travel in New Zealand. I am tracking the best tracks in New Zealand. Now, where is my hut pass and passport?

Going on a Trip Around the World

I just celebrated another birthday. I was thinking about all the great things I have going for me and also things I missed doing. One of the things I love is writing and reading. One of the things I miss doing is traveling. I used to hike, drive, fly, bus, train a lot. Now, with lack of money and increase in family our trips usually consist of 3 hour drives. We will travel again. I am sure of it. Especially with a 10 year old EAGER to go across country, then to Paris and beyond. She asks for an RV every Christmas. She makes sure to write "An RV - a REAL ONE". She doesn't want some fat dude in a red suit getting all funny on her and getting her a toy one.
For 2013 one of my resolutions is to reconnect with old friends (beyond facebook). I hope that results in some road trips.
Then it all came to me while I was doing some marketing for my book. I went on Good Reads and stumbled upon a group Around the World in 52 days. Readers in this group were reading books from countries or by authors of different countries and traveling around the world that way. I never was part of a book club, but loved this idea.
Immediately I was taken back by the prospect of this. This combined my addiction of reading and downloading ebooks, love of maps, and my long-lost love traveling. A random point on the map resulted in New Zealand being my starting point. Lack of finding a New Zealand book I started with Australia.
I figured I would keep you up with my adventures through my blog.

My goal is tonight to map out my route.
I hope to read most of them on my Kindle.
I have already acquired 15-20 books from countries.
I hope to get free ebooks or ebooks from the library downloaded.
If I can't get for free, I will try to get an actual library or pay a small fee. (I hope to stay under $25.)

Now, where is my compass!?

7 Ways to find Free ebooks Legally

It is my Kindle and my one year anniversary. I was not sure I would be able to go away from my love of the feel and smell of old books. The love of sifting through piles of books at yard sales (tag sales, garage sales). I thought I would miss having a good, thick book in my hand. Here a year later, I am head over heels in love with the concept of ereaders and ebooks. Also, I have published ebooks and have many more on the way.I have downloaded hundreds of ebooks and paid for less than half a dozen of them. The only reason I had to pay for them, was because I was impulse buying and impatient.

The rest of them were free. All this was done legally!

There are many books that are FREE! Here are the many ways to find them. Some shortcuts are included.

1. Go to ebook websites and type in free ebooks or 0.00. Some sites add books to this search that are free only if you subscribe to a certain membership. There are tons of new writers that have books for Free.

2. You can borrow books through the online library. Yes, you still need a library card. Currently, you can borrow up to 7 books at a time and put up to 5 books on hold at a time. If have kids with library cards,  you can take more and more out at once. This allows you to take out books that are new and popular for free. Follow this link for instructions,  Overdrive Library hints by CNET

3. You can borrow books from friends or family. A lot of books allow the buyer to share with one friend/family member/ other. The six books I have bought I have lent to a friend and she didn't have to pay anything. (Wait, I think I got the raw end of the deal here.)

4. You can borrow books from strangers. Site like Book Lending and ebookfling let you lend and borrow with strangers for free.

5. Go to ebook publishing sites, and writing forums to connect with authors with free ebooks. Such sites include Smashwords, Writer Unboxed, and Figment. Enter contests or make a comment on a article or post for chances to win free ebooks.

6. Find coupons and codes for ebooks RetailMeNot, Coupon Cabin, and many others.

7.  Last and maybe not least. You can find a lot of classic books for free on various sites.

Addicted to. . . .

Hi, my name is Michele and I am addicted to downloading ebooks. My justification here is that they are free, and good. I love, love, love that I can download books for the library for FREE. Using Overdrive the ebooks come from my computer right to my kindle. How can you blame me? Who could blame me? I am the type of person that yearned to be locked in a library on a college campus like Kurt Vonnegut's book Hocus Pocus. Okay he did have a illness that killed him, but that is besides the point. If I had to be locked away somewhere it would be with a bunch of books.

Okay I am not being completely honest. I not only download free, good ebooks, but I download as many as I can at a time using multiple library cards owned in my household. And to take it to that step further. I put as many as I can on reserve. So at any given time I will have 21 books borrowed and be on a waiting list for 15 books.

To go another step further, it is a coping mechanism. When I get stressed I go on-line and sift through hundreds and hundreds of books. Anything that seems remotely interesting, I download it. I have even taken to clicking on a random page number and randomly download a book from that page.
It is an addiction. . . what is the definition of addiction? I, however, justify it by saying 1. it is free 2. I am not harming anyone 3. it's free, good ebooks. I will not work any 12 step program for this, but I will download a book on it.

Trail Swap

A beautiful creation came to light a few weeks ago, Trail Swap. This is my first published ebook. This book comes after years of my work and time. I spent years writing daily and forming characters and stories. In 1998 I started writing about Swap and her adventures on the Appalachian Trail. When I started writing about Swap, I was living in the Florida Everglades area as a wilderness counselor. I was sleeping in a tent nightly, and learning aspects of outdoor living.  In 2000 I moved to Boomer, NC and I started the writing stories about Farryn and her adventures with southern hospitality. Then one late night at a local all-night diner, I had the idea to combine the two stories. Right there, Trail Swap was born.
I put the book to the side to marinate and age for about 5 years, my girlfriend at the time encouraged me to write again. I would write and re-write pages, and she would read them and fall in love with the characters as fast as I could imagine them up. I finished the book, and attempted to court several publishers and received rejection letters. Life took over, and the book sat dormant for 6-7 years.
The Christmas of 2012 my mother asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I am a simple person with very few needs. At this point in my life I have everything I need and want. I have a family, my health, and happiness. I conjured something up to ask my mother to get me, a kindle. I was not sure if I would like it. To me, nothing was going to replace that old book smell and the feeling of a book in my hands.
To my surprise, I got the kindle and I was instantly addicted. I frantically searched the internet for free books, downloaded library loaned ebooks, and even bought a couple of books.
Then it hit me. I need to publish an ebook. My book would reach so many people and I can by-pass the grueling publishing process.
Again, I scooted my lopsided office chair to the computer and edited my book 6-7 more times. My wife formatted my book for Amazon, and I downloaded my book.
Ok, actually I made a long story short. . . let's back up. I actually scoured the internet for the following: how to publish an ebook, how to market an ebook, where to publish an ebook, ebook vs print, what to publish, how to make money on an ebook. There were probably a dozen other topics I looked up. Each of these topics had hundreds of websites. I took notes, I printed things out, and I learned. All this information sat neatly in a binder next to the computer. Then one day I bit the bullet, and I downloaded my ebook.
The cover: then in the effort to avoid a horrible looking book cover, my wife went hiking and took a ton of pictures for the cover and made, what I think, is a beautiful, cover for Trail Swap.
There she was born, my first book. One of my life goals was reached. Many more books have started to pour from my veins. Stay tuned.