Pratap Divyesh's Blog, page 7
September 17, 2018
The Making of Jake McTavish
In the west of the 1890s, Jake’s wife is raped and murdered, an image from which he attempts to escape and hide. When two thieves try to take what little he has left, Jake realizes he must face the past and solve his wife’s murder to truly escape the images in his head. But to find the killer, he discovers even more surprises …
Jake McTavish left his home in central Canada when he was in his early teens. After working ships on the Great Lakes, fishing Lake Winnipeg, feeding cattle south of Fort Garry, and shooting wolves on the prairies, he starts his own cattle operation in the foothills of the western mountains. Then he meets his life-long partner, Anna.
Jake and Anna were married three years when it all came crashing down. He came home to find his beautiful wife raped and murdered. In an attempt to escape the vision of his butchered wife and all that he lost, Jake runs deep into the mountains, where he spends three years trapping and panning gold. When two outlaws attempt to rob him and leave him for dead, Jake finally comes out of the stupor he has lived in and begins to fight back.
First he deals with the two thugs. Next he returns to his homestead to find his wife’s killer. Solving a murder after several years is no easy task, especially when it includes surprises he didn’t want to find.
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India Was One
…Suddenly, he saw something shiny at the bottom of the abyss. He squinted his eyes to see what it was. He ran back to his binoculars and turned them to see what it was. Sharp barbed wires that separated the two mountains came into focus. He had come as far as he could in his country. But she was standing in another country.
He was in South India and she was in North India…
Have you ever imagined India being divided into two countries? What happens to the millions of Indians who are from South India but are now residing in North India? Kaahi & Jai were two such people who got trapped in this situation. Everything was going smoothly for them and suddenly, their world turned upside down.
How will they get together? Will India become one again?
Take an exciting journey with them from their college days in Mumbai to their life in the US and back to India when they find out that India is divided.
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A checklist For Indie Authors
Being an indie can be hard. Very hard. Take it from me; I’m one. Here are some of my experiences that I want to share:
Back when I wrote my first book, I was new to the game. Now that I have put a few years doing this, I can say that I know a bit more. In no way do I consider myself an authority, but I’m sure lots of you have experienced something similar, if not the same. I’m merely sharing this so that the newbies don’t have to go through my horrible experiences.
As all indies know, there is a very limited budget to spend. So, the best, and the most economical, way to do things are free. Fortunately, almost all the tools available are free (or inexpensive). If you are serious about getting your work seen by many, and by many I mean many strangers and not friends and family members, here are a few “musts.”
Website: You have to have a website showcasing your work. There are many free website builders available in the market. They will help you get started for free.
Facebook: Creating a Facebook Page for your book is an excellent way to spread the word, and it’s very easy to set up one. After setting up the page, you can invite your friends to like the page (and hope & pray that they invite their friends and so on)
Twitter: Create a Twitter account to tell the world about your work and then use free services like www.hootsuite.com to tweet.
These three are the minimum “musts.” And the good news is that they all are free. You don’t have to spend a dime on creating these. There are other few you should think about having. However, they can be secondary, depending on the type of book you are writing. All of them are free.
YouTube: This is an excellent resource to have to have a book trailer. You can use various online tools to make a free video.
Pinterest: Even if your book doesn’t have any artwork, you should create an account here and upload your work.
Apart from these free resources, there are many free resources available that you could (and should) take advantage of.
This post is contributed as a Guest post by An Indian.
About the author:
The author was born and raised in Mumbai, India. He came to the US in 1989 to New York. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. He is a regular contributor to the BA Blog and wrote a post So You Think You Can Write a few days ago.
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September 14, 2018
Love Unboxed
Open your heart to new possibilities and explore the stories in this book. You will find a treasure trove of real journeys where you will discover answers to your questions about life and true happiness.
This book contains the voices of twenty such women from different backgrounds and eight countries. Their stories are real. They will tear at your heart.
The aim of the book is to give women strength by knowing that they are not alone in their struggles. These brave women have opened up to reveal their secret hidden tragedies to help other women.
Placida who has brought these ladies together and encouraged them to tell their stories is a well-respected Business Coach, 3x International Bestselling Author. In her work, she hears many stories of women who have fought their way back after finding themselves in real adversity.
This book is dedicated to women that need to reach the love within themselves.
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Sudden Shock
Elleanor Stone has been alive for centuries. Cursed with immortality by none other than the goddess Aphrodite herself, Elleanor has been working for the past eleven years in modern day New York, as an investigator with the agency guarding against paranormal crimes and misdemeanors. As a lead investigator, she works alongside her partners, a fourteenth-century vampire, and a long-lived Sidhe faerie.
Brant Ankar, billionaire, and philanthropist, fathered by an Asgardian warrior, has only recently arrived in New York to open a sub-division of his company Ankar and Associates. Pleading for help, a woman from his past, begs him to recover a lost artifact which may have dire consequences if it falls into the wrong hands.
Elleanor has her own hands full when the murder of a young female werewolf leads her to believe the cause of death to be due to a vampire bite. Time is of the essence in solving the crime. Suspicion, hatred, between vampires and werewolves, runs deep. Having only recently halted their centuries-old war, finding out a vampire was responsible could cause a new conflict to erupt.
From New York to Florence, Elleanor follows the clues to solve the young woman’s murder. The arrival of a past love, one she long thought dead, will have profound consequences, both to the case and to her personally.
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September 13, 2018
10 Powerful Instagram marketing tips for authors (That really works)
Instagram has gained popularity with 800 million active users and it is the main entertainer in the social media circle. More than 60 million photos are posted each day, and 1.6 billion daily “likes” are given. Most people use it as one of the most wanted sources of interaction. Everyone likes to see fresh and original content, so they turn towards this source. You may like to see a sunrise, a pet playing with its owner, a beautiful blossoming flower; it is all here on Instagram. You can increase your business on Instagram by using different strategies and tools. In this article, you can have plenty of useful information regarding the sale increase. You will find 10 most influential Instagram marketing tips that really work.
Hashtags
You must be familiar with hashtag option if you are a consistent user of Instagram. Try to use different but suitable hashtags. This feature allows you to make yourself found by your targeted audience. If you use this feature wisely you will surely improve your brand, your business, and your followers. Before posting your content on Instagram, you need to find posts which are relevant to trending hashtags by using Explore tools on the Instagram page. The main goal is to use stylish and unique hashtags which are related to your brand. You can search by different kind of hashtags by emoji, now, for example; #mindblowing
Make Your Business Account
Once you have decided on what track you are going, your next step is to make a business account. You can also switch your current account to business account. It is very easy and quick, you only need to go over settings option and click on the “switch to business account” option. And that’s it. Don’t worry this account switching will not make you regret, in fact, you will feel proud after doing so.
This brilliant change in your account gives your customers the freedom to contact you directly from your Instagram page instead of your website. You have the opportunity to make your own ads and then publish them without wasting your time waiting for Facebook’s advertising tools.
You can easily approach Instagram analytic tools, named as Insights, and it allows you to check out your increase or decrease in statistics such as impressions and the status of your content. It also increases the chances of your content to be seen by your followers in their news feed. Account switching is a game changer for your business because it helps you to understand your followers much better.
Use Trendy and Unique Style for Business
The quality of your content and your photos are as important as you put efforts into your Instagram marketing. Use some unique and trendy style in your posts that will enhance your business and it won’t give your content a boring look. You can use a variety of styles, graphics, fonts, colors, and visuals for your business photos. Because colors and visuals will attract people definitely towards your business you can also download Instagram videos or Photos for later use on your website or your social circle. Composing better photos for Instagram is to shoot square photos and this is one of the best ways to save time from having to crop photos later. And you can do it with your Smartphone very easily.
Use Photos and Videos Both
You can make much more by using both images and video content for your Instagram business because it is the most effective way to promote your brand. Videos are more engaging and an amazing tool and can produce even three times more inbound traffic to your account than written content. Mix it up!
Measure the Statistics
When you are using most of the tactics for the betterment of your business, you must keep an eye on the statistics. Impressions, views, clicks, and reviews give you an idea of your performance. You can check for your performance after tracking these metrics. Follower growth rate can tell you how your posts make a difference
Associate Your Account with Influencers
Add to your list the most influential people to be partners with. Take some time to know what are your competitors doing and what are the demands of your customers. Try to build the content that is worth shareable and then tries to get in touch with the influencers who already have built trust among their audience. These Instagram influencers will showcase your products or your brand in a fun way. If your partner is the right manufacture influencer, you can get your brand out in front of those users. If you have managed to build a healthy relationship with each influencer, you will build long-lived firebrand awareness with a brand-new audience with chances of getting in touch with the top influencers in future.
Solid Instagram Content Plan
A firm content strategy is vital for success with Instagram marketing. When you don’t have the right content, you will face hurdles and failures in your way to grab the attention of your targeted audience. If you want to spread your product you would be inclined towards posting more content that is based on the product. It depends on your motives on Instagram, you can even focus on having a mixture of content created in-house and user-generated content.
Post at the Right Time
Before posting your useful content wait for the right time. Take some time to know about your audience, at what time most of the users are active and ready to respond. Never post too much it can distract your audience and also it can decline your product’s worth. But post consistently so that your product can be seen daily in the notification bar. Only post during peak dates and hours when your partisans are online.
Get Ready in Advance
Keep an eye regularly on your competitors and on the taste of your audience, so that you can create content in advance. It will help you a lot and also make your posts consistent at peak. Because post consistency is necessary if you want real results.
Instagram as a Sales Channel
Instagram sales are different, if you are not using the paid posts feature, you won’t be able to add an external link on your posts. You can sale via Instagram through a tried and tested approach. You have to be active all the time to get more information about your customers. Post your product photos and use all the sale efforts.
Try to use all of the above techniques to improve your business on Instagram. Right directions give you success.
This post is contributed as a Guest post by Tayyab Saqlain
Tayyab Saqlain is a digital marketing specialist who has helped several businesses gain traffic, outperform the competition and generate profitable leads. His current ventures include Instagram Downloader, Home Decors, VoVo Gifts, Qari Saab.
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So You Think You Can Write
So you want to be an author, huh? Join the queue. Millions of dreamers want to be one, and they are very talented writers with a repertoire of some fancy and obscure words that are seldom used. Their grammar is perfect and their statement construction is flawless. So it should be a no-brainer for them to write great books that everyone wants to read. Right? Wrong.
There are many elements that make up a good book. The most important element (at least in my opinion) is that the story should come from the heart. When I started to write my book in January of 2010, it took me less than a week to pour my initial thoughts down. However, to expand on the idea, to read over and over again for typos, to tighten the storyline, etc. — took me about fifteen months. Was it worth it? Absolutely. It was a journey down memory lane that I thoroughly enjoyed. If you decide to write a book, don’t hurry. I know…I know…you must be thinking, “it’s easy for you to say.” But believe me, it’s worth it. I too was very impatient in the beginning as I was very eager to have my “masterpiece” out.
My thinking was very simple. To make people read my book and let them decide if it was worth their time. Unlike seeing a movie (where one spends only 2–3 hours of their time), reading a book is at least a week of their time. So it better be worth it.
This post is contributed as a Guest post by An Indian.
About the author:
The author was born and raised in Mumbai, India. He came to the US in 1989 to New York. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
Contribute a post to Being Author Blog [Submit NOW]
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September 12, 2018
At First Glance: How the right cover can sell your book
I read as much as I write, even more, but like many other avid readers, I’m picky about what I choose to read. Because I’m an indie author, supporting other indie authors is important to me. Still, the process of whom to read can be difficult. Of course, there are the obvious choices: award-winning indie novels, or the best-selling indie books, however, I don’t always choose the well-worn path. In particular, I like to give new authors a try. Sometimes the choice I make can end up being a bad one, but more often than not, it pays off. How do I choose? It all starts with the cover.
When searching for a new book to sink my teeth in, I choose a genre that interests me, as we all do. After the genre, it’s the cover that nearly always seals the deal for me. Why? Because we are visual beings. Have you ever been scrolling past a post on facebook, or a pin on Pinterest and have to stop and check it out? Absolutely! Why? Because “90 percent of information that’s transmitted to the brain is visual” It’s no wonder that those who choose to create the most vibrant and alluring book covers get the most traffic.
I can give you an example. It’s not a secret that vampire fantasy is one of my favorite types of books. That being said, two years ago, I passed one by because the cover was less than appealing. This year, I came upon that same book (now a series) with a new dynamic cover, and I ordered it. My decision to get the book was mostly due to its new cover, and the fact that it was now free. It was a great book, but had the cover been up to par two years ago, I’d have gotten it then.
Writers can often spend years writing their masterpiece only to choose a cover that inadequately displays their work. Not to mention, the description; it’s the next thing to pull a reader in. It’s important to be as picky with the cover as you are with the content. If you have good prose and the right cover to match the genre, and finally, it melds with a good description or back matter—then you got me hooked.
If you’re going to write a book, give it a chance to sell. Get it professionally designed. Our eyes will thank you!
Credits/quotes: Humans Process Visual Data Better, www.t-sciences.com
All opinions are my own. Brenda Hickey (Contributed as Guest Post)
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September 11, 2018
The Eden Hall Series
I know when you meet this warm unique family, you will want to follow each of them on their individual journey to discovering what Eden Hall means to them and how the strength of their alliance helps them each find love and happiness.
Finding Eden – By day, Mary Alayna Dalton is a successful Chicago professional who is being considered for a promotion to the top position in her company. By night, she shares her home with six young men who grew up at Eden Hall, a boys’ foster home, and performs with them in their band that plays at the local pub. The only thing missing in her life is a loving relationship with someone accepting of her whole life. When a business encounter thrusts Clark Dulanty into her life, he accidentally stumbles from her days into her nights and uncovers both sides of Mary Alayna Dalton. Their encounters are turbulent and their ensuing romance revealing as Clark slowly discovers all her secrets, only to expose the ambiguities of his own life choices on his journey to Finding Eden.
Saving Eden – When Eden Hall’s long time administrator retires and the boys’ foster home is threatened by possible closure, Ryan Holt steps in as administrator. Growing up next door to Eden Hall rather than inside didn’t keep him from feeling it was a part of him. The job was demanding but lonely until Ryan wins a national award for his work and the Chicago Tribune sends a reporter, TJ McCord, to do a story on his success.
He finds it is more challenging to find success with Taylor than it was with Eden Hall, but just as rewarding.
Healing Eden – Vincent Dane struggles to deal with past mistakes and misunderstandings in the hopes of healing old wounds. For someone who didn’t feel as though he had much of a past, what he did have he didn’t feel he’d handled too well. An ambulance ride gives him a chance to right those wrongs and rescue his dreams.
Protecting Eden – Chicago Police Detective Sean Clary returns to active duty after a knife injury only to get an assignment that turns out to be his greatest challenge. His motto had always been “Protect and Serve”, but he’d never been in a position to possibly lose his future by protecting his past. Carena Cabot shows him that although he is a unique man, there is a woman out there just like him and she forces him to finally face himself.
Completing Eden – Seth McGinnis is the last single man standing and it’s a lonely place to be. As he battles his friends and pseudo family for privacy, he wrestles with his own conscience and decides he can’t let Brogan’s Pub be the only thing in his life.
Although his covert methods put a strain on his Eden Hall bond, he finally decides to take a risk on fulfilling his undisclosed dreams. Finding out along the way that he actually has a big Irish family was just an added bonus.
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Shadow of Eternity
Six thousand years ago, my ancestor fled the world that we had called home for millions of years. A foolish war based solely on religious ideology, which should have long since faded into our past. We thought we had found peace among the stars, and instead, we found only enemies.
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