Karen L. Syed's Blog, page 10

Independent Book Blogger Awards – Vote for me, Please

Bloggers, get out the vote!

I have successfully entered the Independent Book Blogger Awards. The polls are now open! It's time to spread the word to my readers and drum up votes for my blog! Voting continues until 11:59 pm EDT, Monday, April 23. It is be okay with me if you want to Blog about these awards and let people know they can come visit my Blog so they feel good about voting for me.

There must be rules…

 

The rules: The polls allow one vote per person in each of the four categories, and voters must be Goodreads members so that we can accurately tally the results. When polls close, the top 15 blogs in each category will become finalists.

 

Winners will be selected from among the finalists by a panel of industry judges. Each of the four category winners will receive a pass to BookExpo America (June 5-7, 2012) with airfare and hotel accommodation in New York City.

For more details on rules and background on the judging process, please see the Contest Terms.

Key Dates:

Monday, April 9 (at 11:59 pm ET) – Deadline for entries
Tuesday, April 10 (12:01am ET) through Monday, April 23 (11:59 pm ET) – Voting
Week of May 1 – Shortlist of finalists announced
Week of May 7 – Winners announced

The awards are organized by the Association of American Publishers Trade Division members and Goodreads.

Let the voting begin!

It's All Good!

I said I would work my way through, what I consider to be, the most popular of social networking sites. Today I am going to focus on Good Reads.

Because I know there are so many authors out there who abuse social networking sites for book promotion, I am going to remind you all that these are first, and foremost SOCIAL NETWORKING sites. They were designed to get like-minded people together and socializing–see the connection? In this instance, the topic of conversation is books. Woohoo!

So, with that in mind, Good Reads is the perfect place for us to talk about our books. Notice I did not say promote our books. So what the hell is the point? I know that's most of you are thinking. The point is to promote our books. Whoa baby, confused? Your head spinning? Promote your books; don't promote your books. ACK!

This is where you get to show how creative you are. Like any social networking site you should be developing those ever-popular relationships with readers on Good Reads. Don't just sign up and blast all your new friends with snippets and excerpts on your books.

Here are a few suggestions on how to let readers know about your books.

Talk to them.
See what they are reading and discuss those books
Find readers who read in your genre.
Find readers who share your interest in topics.
Set up a discussion group for yourself and your books.
Set up an author page.

All of these things are quite simple, but totally useless if you don't follow through on them. Do NOT ask a public question and then never respond to those who answer it. You need to converse with them. Interact. I promise it won't kill you, despite what the media says to the contrary.

Before I go into the direct options for authors, please note how IMPORTANT the interaction with readers is. Don't just blast people with your books. Let the programs do the work for you while you talk about books with the other readers.

Post the books you are reading.
Post your reviews when you finish a book.
Add books you'd like to read.
Randomly look at other peoples pages and comment on their reviews.

The key to interacting is to communicate with others. I know, we are often solitary creatures, but we alone will not make our books best sellers. We need readers to buy our books.

Good Reads Author Program http://www.goodreads.com/author/program

The first thing you should do if you plan to promote your book is to set up your Good Reads Author page. After you have done that, then you can look into all these other things.

Good Reads eBooks http://www.goodreads.com/ebooks

For those of you who only have eBooks, there is a section where you can upload books for giveaway (use your freebies). You can also use this section to put up excerpts for people to read and get a taste of your style.

Good Reads Giveaways http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway

You can also do giveaways on Good Reads. You decide for how many copies and for how long people can sign up. I don't suggest giving away large quantities, but it is a GREAT way to get attention.

Good Reads Events http://www.goodreads.com/event

This is a good one. I am a HUGE fan of events and I think more authors should find ways and places to do them. We don't need no steenking bookstores to do events. The more unique, the better. But my point here is that Good Reads has a section specifically for posting your events. How cool is that?

Good Reads Self-Serve Advertising http://www.goodreads.com/advertisers/ad_home

Advertising a book has never been so easy, or inexpensive. I am on my second ad and while it was a not a huge success, I know of four books I sold because of the ad and I spent less than $10.00.

MOST IMPORTANT TIP!

Don't be an asshat on the social networking sites. Don't go blasting in with your book promotion and expect everyone to give a hoot. They won't. Subtly goes a long way and since Good Reads gives us so many opportunities to promote our work, the only thing we really need to do is to get to know the readers so they know to go look for our stuff.

You can set up your account to post an update when you post a article on your Blog. You can also make sure that when you post a review it goes up on Facebook and/or Twitter. This gives you a little extra exposure without having to actually go to Facebook and get sucked into the cute kitty pictures.

Promoting through social networking doesn't have to be hard and certainly doesn't need to be a time suck. But like anything in life, you will only get back what you put in. Of this you can be sure.

Tagged: authors, books, ebooks, Facebook, Good Reads, karen syed, Marketing, publishing, readers, reading, sales, Twitter, writers

What is a time suck?

Lately, I have been hearing this phrase a lot. Oh, first, let me explain that this is geared toward writers/authors. It will have only a small amount of relevance to the general reader who is not trying to market and sell books. Let me tell you a few of my least favorite phrases with regard to authors.

"Oh good another time suck. Pinterest can't possibly serve any purpose when promoting a book."

"Twitter is useless. It is just a time suck that serves no purpose."

"People on Facebook are just lonely people who have no lives."

Why would I want to be on Good Reads, it's just a bunch of writers promoting to each other."

"I don't need a LibraryThing page. No one ever goes there."

"What the hell is JacketFlap?"

"Blogs are overdone and outdated. Nobody reads blogs or comments so I am not going to waste my time."

Come on people. Let's think this through a little bit. Every single one of these has the potential to be a time suck. You know what makes it a time suck? When you sign up, follow a bunch of people and then never do anything else with it ever again. It doesn't have to be this way. Let's break this down one by one.

I'll start with the new kid on the block.

Pinterest

Now, some might think this is a stupid concept, but it would appear that many more love the idea. I personally, LOVE IT. I have so many hobbies and interests that I never get to share or talk about with anyone. Pinterest has given me an outlet for this. No matter how weird the interest–one of my more popular boards is "How Does Your Garden Grow?"

So, we know how this would work for the average Joe, and yes, folks, there are a ton of men on this network, as well as women. I get about 40 new followers a day. Problem is, I can't follow most of them back. Actually, I can, but I won't. This is where the time suck part comes in. It doesn't take a lot of time, but when you add up all the little times they become one big time suck. What the hell am I talking about?

Requests from people who have signed up and either set up NO BOARDS or have set up one board with only the books they have published. This is not socializing, people, it is spamming, or as a new term I heard the other day reveals…pimping.

I don't have time to sift through a bunch of people's accounts when there is nothing to see. I simply don't care. When I go to Pinterest, I want to know what you are into. I'm not saying don't market or promote on Pinterest, I'm saying pimp responsibly. Show me what you collect, who your favorite artist is, and what your dream kitchen would look like. I care about those things. May seem silly, but I truly love getting to know other people like this.

So how does Pinterest help you promote your book? Set up a board with all the books and stories you have written. Then before you start following anyone else, pick your favorite hobby, your favorite places, and dog pictures you love and set up boards for them. After you've done that, then you are ready to begin following people, with the knowledge that they will get an auto-request to follow you back. Each week you can add a new board with a new interest and that will keep people coming back. Each time they come back, there is the potential that at that moment in time they will decide, "Hey, maybe I'll read this book." And you better have set up your book covers with direct buy links. You are not beating them over the head with your books, but you are putting up there for them to decide when the time is right to buy. ::hands raised to the heavens:: Ahhhhhh ::the glorious sound of understanding::

Lastly. Don't just put up an account and never do anything with it. I spend no more than 10 minutes per day, sometimes every other day, updating my Pinterest boards and deciding who I want to follow. I often do it on the couch on my Kindle Fire as we watch TV after dinner. No time suck involved.

Authors, don't be one of those people who shoves your books into everyone's face and never gives them a reason to give a damn. Let them get to know you so they will feel as if they have a stake in your success. Readers do care about their favorite authors, and they like their favorite authors. Readers do NOT like authors who waste their time and never give them a reason to care.

Tagged: authors, blogging, Facebook, Good Reads, JacketFlap, Marketing, Pinterest, readers, sales, Tinker Bell, Twitter

Life as a Gardener #2

Well, today was a better day.

Did not get the garden watered yesterday, exhausted from working on the front sidewalk path. Our front garden area is filled in with lava rocks. I hate them and they are not very good when trying to start new flowers from seed. I don't like the way they look either. So, I decided to take them out of the garden area and line the sidewalk and surround the mailbox with them. Possibly the driveway as well. This will prevent us from having to edge those areas when we mow the lawn.

However, I did not think it through. I spent four hours sitting on my numb arse, taking lava rocks out of one area putting them in a bucket after I cleaned them off, and then putting them into the new area. Of course, I had to edge, dig out, and weed the edge of the sidewalk before I could put the rocks back. But as you can see from the picture, I think it was worth it.

When I got up yesterday I had one new sprout in the green bean pot. It was barely poking out, but it was pretty exciting. So this morning I go out to check and that little sprout was full up. He was lovely. My first bean sprout! So a little while later it began to rain, which continued for most of the afternoon. When it finally stopped, I went out to make sure none of the pots had standing water. None did, but what do you think I found?

The bean pot has SEVEN full popped sprouts now. They are magnificent and they look so happy in that big yellow pot. I was giddy with pure joy. Might sound silly, but damn I love how it feels to grow things.

So, I mosey around to the back and low and behold we have a second cherry tomato on the plant. Woohoo, two at a time. A record for us. LOL Sad, but true. The tomatoes in the bed look good and strong and the pepper plants are looking stronger as well. I think I might actually do better with tomatoes from seed.

As a side note, I am going to dream about new ways to hunt and eliminate squirrels. I keep trying to explain to them–in rather colorful language–that I am feeding the birds, not their fat little hineys. So, they had better stop flipping my bird feeder over.

The cucumber plants, are splendid. The plants look lovely and hardy and I just know they are going to give us tons of the best cucumbers ever. My goal is to have cukes as yummy as those Zieglers. Lofty goal, I know, but I think I can do it.

Spent the entire day today watching repeats of Army Wives on Netflix and updating files and ISBNs and eBooks and all manner of things. Tomorrow it is back to editing.

Well, I have a lovely turkey, freshly roasted by me today in the kitchen waiting to be carved up for dinner. Hope you all have a super-duper night.

My Life as a Gardener #1

Well, with all the mess of the audit and my need to volunteer to be on the BOD and some committees for our Homeowners Association, and the day to day of running the business, I have once again over-extended myself. Moghis came home last night (I love my time alone, but I missed him horribly) and I woke up in tears this morning. Poor man might wish he had stayed gone.

At any rate, I did a bit of business this morning and then decided I needed to relieve some stress. What I am about to say may shock many, and make others giggle. I needed to go out and work on the gardening. I know, right. I needed to fuss in the dirt and plant things. So after an hour outside in my little garage/garden shed (heehee) I am back in and feeling tons better.

I began by planting some Derby (Bush) Beans in a big, bright yellow pot! I have read mixed reviews on whether beans grow well in pots, but I decided to give it a try. Once I get the next bed cleaned out and set, I will plant the rest of the seeds out there, then I will know for myself.

Next, I cleaned out all the yogurt containers that I had started the onions in and I started 8 Hale's Best Jumbo Cantaloupes. We really like cantaloupes, but they are too expensive to buy right now, so this will hopefully solve the problem …hopefully. We  have these two trees in the backyard, quite small and don't offer much shade at all, so I have decided to build a base around them (probably with bricks) and then build a sloped bed and use that when I transplant the cantaloupes. At some point I hope to plant strawberries inside the holes of the bricks. Should be lovely.

Lastly, I found two good size plastic (terra cotta-colored) pots. In each of those I planted a combination of Purple Coneflowers and Black-eyed Susans. When they bloom they should be stunning!

I am very shocked to find how soothing the act of planting things and watering and even weeding is for me. I used to view it as work and avoided it at all costs. But now it has become something I thoroughly enjoy.

Wednesday evening when I got back into town, I transplanted my onions–all 81 of them. And I am thrilled to say that one of our three concord grape plants has its first leaf!

How are your gardens doing?

What did you say?

I recently read a blog post by another author about the large variety of different ways to say "said" when writing fiction. There were quite a few on the list, and while most were correct, several were simply incorrect. I'm curious to know what you, as readers think, after reading the following. Do unique dialogue tags impress you? Amuse you? Annoy you?

What is the one dialogue tag that you've seen that has stopped you cold in a book?

The problem with all these choices is that writers become lazy in their writing. When you choose to use physical actions as dialogue tags, you are taking shortcuts that will often leave a reader jolted out of the story. Things aren't always simple, and many readers, myself included are very visual when reading a book. A few examples of what I mean are.

*spat is the past participle of spit. You do not spit words. You can spit while you speak, but take a moment to spit, now say a word, then try to say that word while spitting.

*flount is the act of treating with contemptuous disregard. It is an action, not a way of speech.

*guffaw is the act of laughing in a loud and boisterous manner. Again, guffaw then try to speak. It is almost impossible because of the manner of the action.

*a smirk is a smile or smug expression, a physical action. You can say something WITH a smirk, but to smirk something is just not a physical possibility since it is a an action not a tone.

*dazzling is an action that happens when you look into a bright light or the act of impressing someone. Again, it is not a tone it is an action.

*scrooge – a type of person. We all know what it means, to be miserly, how can you speak miserly? You don't speak actions, you speak in tones.

*onomatopoeiad – while this certainly could be a tag, it is so outrageous in its attempt to be "different" that if I read it in a manuscript I was considering, I would stop reading and reject immediately.

Writers need to be aware of the huge difference between physical acts and tones. To use these words improperly is simply incorrect and there are entirely too many other ways to display what you are trying to convey when using them. And if you take a poll, you might be surprised to find that readers are often annoyed by a writers attempt to use so many different words to replace "said."

What are you worth?

I've got a question for you readers out there. As an author, I am always looking for new readers who think I don't suck. As a publisher, I am always looking for new customers.

Is there a difference? There seems to be a lot of debate on whether or not books that are free or priced low are of lesser value than the higher priced ones.

If you, as a reader, frequent the bargain shelves and gravitate to the FREE downloads in the online stores, does that make you less of a reader? If readers are people, then if you are less of a reader, then are you less of a person?

I am not one of the people who attributes price to value. There are many wonderful things out there that are free and priceless…love, respect, consideration, honor, why don't those values translate in other venues?

Back to the original question. Do less expensive or FREE books because you think they might not be as good?

Where do you draw the line?

If you'd like to give my writing a try, you can check out Seducing Cupid on your Kindle for only $ .99 or if you are an Amazon Prime member, you can read it for FREE.

Talking to Myself

Here is the thing about social networking online:

Networking defined

1: the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions; specifically : the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business

Are you with me so far? I'm thinking for many of you, not so much. It has gotten to be a real pain the arse to socially network on the Internet because too many of you don't get it. It is a social EXCHANGE. Not a you come to all my sites and gather all the knowledge I have and give nothing back. Nope, not the way it works. You seem to forget the social before the network. Networking is awesome, you should do it, but do it appropriately.

Couple of differences between professional networking and social networking.

LinkedIn:

This is a professional networking site. It is not so much a social networking site. You should not sign up for LinkedIn expecting to make new friends and sell lots of your product. You should be looking to communicate with other professionals who have some kind of relation to your industry. People you can share your knowledge with and those you can also learn from. It is professional.

The key here is that when I give you some bit of information, you give me some other bit of information back. You, then me, you, me…see how that goes? Below is my quick lesson on how to use the three main networking sites.

Facebook:

This is a social networking site. But there are still points of etiquette involved. Don't just share what everyone else posts. If you read an interesting article, share the link. If you see a cool image, share the link, if you take a funny picture of your dog, share the image. Or heaven forbid, just ask questions that you've always been afraid to ask. It's Facebook, nobody is going to criticize you.

For example:

Why is it that when our eye itches and we pull out like 6 eyelashes at a time we don't have huge bald spots on the edge of our eyelids? How fast do eyelashes grow back?

Twitter:

I have a friend who is a really hard-sell on this one. Something about inane chatter. Well, maybe to you, but in their network of followers they may all care what their friend is having for dinner. They may be swapping recipes. Or sharing book reviews, or all manner of things.

For example:

Because I am following lots of gardeners on Twitter, I am getting an overflow of links to various gardening sites which are helping me to get my garden in shape. Nothing inane about that. I also post links to books I have reviewed so others can know what I thought and perhaps help them decide if they want to read that book. I also have friends who live far away who I keep in touch with.

What I don't do is shamelessly promote my company and my books in print with every single tweet. I do promote, but I make certain that I give my followers information they might be able to use and not just what I want them to know. It's a common courtesy thing.

Pinterest:

This is a relatively new one and the jury is still out on whether it is good or bad and whether or not it will survive. I think it's cool. I also think it is a great way to get to know people.Oh wait, there is that whole social networking idea again. Every day I get 40-50 notifications that people are following me and I should follow them back. Well, that is all well and good, but I have like 22 boards up on my Pinterest account with all manner of stuff. My Tinker Bell trading, Women in the Mafia, all kinds of things. What I don't have are blank boards, or one board with only the books I have written up there.

Come on people. If you are going to take the time to set up an account, then set it up right and follow through. Profile, set up some boards, add one or two things each day or at the least every week. Give people a reason to actually follow you back.

I can tell you one thing, I don't care if you are following me or not, if you have no boards, or your only board is "Books I Wrote." I will NOT follow you back.

So I guess what I'm saying here is, if you want to socially network, then be willing to give back and don't just be a greedy taker.

Rain Rain Go Away

Today started off on such a down note, that I was not sure I had the strength to make a go of it. Our trip to Disney's Magic Kingdom yesterday was lovely and relaxing, but the cool wind seems to have left me with a bit of a head cold. But I was determined to make the best of the day.

I spent some time this morning out in the garden it was fertilizing day. So I fed my maters, peppers, onions, carnations, peppers, and even the ginormous cilantro. I also dug out and turned the spot in the front yard where I'm going to put the birdbath and wildflower patch. That was quite hard work as our front yard has those damn weeds that go deep and spread far. So I dug and I turned and I sifted and I turned and I made the most lovely dirt circle.

Yesterday I planted hollyhocks in the front landscaped area in front of the dining room window.

So now…it is pouring down rain. The yard is a big puddle of standing water and I'm certain all my hollyhock seeds have been washed away. Lord help me if they grow in some freaky place in the yard. LOL

I spent several hours editing, I hope you all like Arabian Dreams by J.A. Campbell as much as I do when it comes out.

I also set up a new boutique company designed to help authors. I love publishing and I see myself doing it forever, but there are those authors who want to self-publish. That is where they can make more money. No problem with that. My problem is when authors try to do it themselves when they have no idea what they are doing. My new brainchild will offer writers and other small business people a helping hand. So if you need help self-publishing or increasing your visibility with readers and other consumers. I hope you will tell them about Sassy Gal Enterprises.

Things are changing faster than I care for in my life and it is more than a little bit scary. Trying to build a business and maintain a family is hard work, but the payoff is splendid.

So today's question is for the gardeners out there. How do you know when to transplant the onions you started from seed? I've got a bunch and I don't want to wait too long or go too soon.

Tagged: authors, books, ebooks, gardening, gardens, karen syed, Marketing, onion, publishing, Walt Disney

A New Adventure Has Begun: Brace Yourself

Never in a million years would anyone ever have been able to tell me that I would one day want to be a gardener. No kidding. Dirt? Bugs? Sweat. I think not! I had no desire to eat a vegetable, much less grow one. What the hell is that all about?

So here I am a couple decades later, and I am going to publicly proclaim myself a gardener. Okay, a novice gardener. Okay, a gal who is trying very hard not to kill the vegetables in her backyard. No, no, a gardener. I'm sticking with that. For most of my life I've lived in apartments. Only a couple of houses and never any with the space to garden, not that I wanted to. But in the last couple of years, a few things have happened to make me take pause and reconsider the whole gardening thing.

I met a lovely gal named Gale Borger who is an extremely talented gardener and the  brilliant author of Death of a Garden Hoe.
I connected with another gal on Twitter who has a site called Red, White, and Grew.
And I paid $1.29 for a freaking cucumber that little to no flavor.

http://redwhiteandgrew.com/

So, here I am. Pamela, at Red, White, and Grew (who has an awesome display of boards on Pinterest) had a lot to do with this as she reminded me about something I had long ago forgotten: Victory Gardens. You all know what they are, right? If not, hit Pamela's site and pay attention. I've watched Pamela's enthusiasm and willingness to answer a series of (what must be mind-numbing) questions from all manner of people, including me. She appears to be tireless. Truly.

Gale, who is also one of my favorite authors, has spent many an hour answering my questions as well. If you want to see what a true gardener can do, visit Gale's site and look at some of her award-winning plants and flowers. She has a remarkable gift, and she loves to share it with others.

Then there was the whole cucumber incident. Now, it wasn't just the high cost of that flavorless cuke, but my mouth-watering experience on the other end of the veggie spectrum. I was up in Pennsylvania at the launch party for Kieryn Nicolas' debut YA spy novel, Rain. It was a grand party, and I was overwhelmed with the family garden gracing their yard. As I was leaving that day, Mara, Kieryn's way super-awesome-cool mom, gave me some treats. One of them was a small bag of cucumbers. NEVER in my life had I had a cucumber that tasted so good. I mean , seriously people, my husband and I stood in the kitchen all but crying with the joy of this cucumber. I kid you not. It was SPECTACULAR. But I do go on.

Fast forward to a couple months ago when hubby and I gave up apartment life and bought a house in Orlando, FL. We had this lovely backyard and nothing in it. As of today, it has a patch of ground that I cleared, and tried to till, and turned, and babied so I could plant my tomatoes and bell peppers. A week later came one night of frost. Guess what? Yeah. Lucky for us Home Depot, gems that they are, took back all the dead peppers and one of the three mater plants. Two of them actually came back and produced a few more maters (9 cherries maters to date.) Then came another stupid frost. Really? In Florida? Come on.

'Maters and Bell Peppers

So, as I type this post in, I am anxiously waiting for Sunday when we will go out and buy the materials to build a couple raised beds. I have several mater and bell peppers plants that I started from seed and are almost ready to be transplanted. I have a monster cilantro plant that thinks its some kind of giant tree (I can't use as much cilantro as I keep cutting), and we have a grapefruit tree (with leaf miners), a lemon tree that might actually bear fruit, and a tangerine tree that is doing splendidly. Oh and three concord grape starters.

Onions

I am determined to become a successful and fruitful gardener, even if it kills me. I am trying to learn as much as I can, so if you garden and you have tips, ideas, and other stuff you would like to share, please let me know. Who knows, maybe I can become some famous publishing gardener.

I'd love to hear what you grow.