Tagged: literature
Guest Posting with Adrienne deWolfe
Today I’m branching out and guest posting for author Adrienne deWolfe over on her blog. At the time I’m writing this the post isn’t up yet (and won’t be until 9:15am CST), but when I come home from work I”ll give you an exact link. So in the meantime, please check out Adrienne’s blog for all things writer-related.
If you’re wondering, my guest post is about book reviewing/reviewer FAQs. When do you call yourself a reviewer? How do you, as an author, get your book reviewed by a book blogger? You know, the usual things.
UPDATE 09/01/13: Okay, I’m dumb. It’s not until next Wednesday.
The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge Has Begun
UPDATE: The lovely Ms. Diantha Jones designed this button for me, which you can all paste on your blogs as part of the challenge if you like. Just please link the picture to my first challenge post here.
Well it’s January 1, 2013 and so my reading challenge has now started. In case you missed it, I figured out how I’m going to do the draw.
1. Mad Reviewer: 104 books in one year (4 entries)
2. Crazy Reviewer: 52 books in one year (3 entries)
3. Slightly Sane Reviewer: 26 books in one year (2 entries)
4. Sane Reviewer: 12 books in one year (1 entry)
I am still figuring out the exact prize, which will likely be larger than I first thought because Mark Lee of The Masquerade Crew is once again helping me out by pooling our resources. That’s really all I can say right now, but just know that the prize is likely more than just one free book.
I forgot to mention that if you’re new here and want to join the challenge, be my guest! Anyone can join between now and the deadline (11:59pm Central Time December 31, 2013). Anyone who reaches their first goal can upgrade and head on to the next level or if they don’t reach their high goal, will have the number rounded off to the next lowest level. Continue reading
Are You a Blogger?
No, sadly, this is not my usual Monday rant. Yes, I am currently ready to call a certain someone unprintable names, but I figure it’s best to ignore them as they obviously have the reading comprehension and manners of a five year old. Maybe I’ll get back to ranting after the Christmas spirit wears off.
Anyway, that’s not what this post is about. Here are some important announcements/questions for your reading pleasure:
1. Would you be interested in being interviewed by me?
If you’re a book blogger or an author that blogs about books and writing, I would love to interview you. Why? Because I like doing interviews and I want to give my fellow bloggers/author-bloggers some publicity. It also gives my readers a chance to discover other great blogs. So if you’re interested in being interviewed, tell me below in the comments and I’ll be happy to get in touch with you.
2. I’ve figured out the prize for completing The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge!
(A big thanks goes to James Kennedy who suggested this in the comments!) Here’s what I will be doing: when you complete your challenge and another blogger completes the challenge on the same level or close to you I will put you in touch with one another. You can then guest post for each other either about the challenge (what you learned from it, if you might do it next year) or just exchange reviews. But how the grand prize is going to work is as follows:
Everyone who achieves Mad Reviewer earns 4 entries, Crazy Reviewer earns 3 entries, Slightly Sane Reviewer earns 2 entries and Sane Reviewer earns 1 entry. I will put the names of the bloggers who have completed the challenge (and I have verified that they were honest) in a hat and draw one. I’ll even do it on video so there are no complaints about honesty. So what is the grand prize?
The grand prize will be a book blogger’s prize pack of a free book of your choice with the option of me to put my own annotations in it (some people like reading others’ annotations, but if you don’t like it, that’s cool too) and promotion on my blog. Yes, it’s not exactly a large prize pack, but what I will do that other contest holders won’t is ship anywhere in the world, not just North America. The promotion on my blog can be for either your blog or if you have a book out, I’ll promote that.
If more people enter next year’s challenge, I’ll likely up the prizes. But for this first year I’ll stick with a free book and some promotion.
3. Would you like to guest post for me?
Guest posting can be a drain on bloggers. Believe me, I would know. That’s why when someone guest posts for me, I always return the favour. It helps both of us because we both get exposed to new readers and our readers get to read someone else’s thoughts. I’ve had two amazing semi-regular guest posters, Caleb Flanagan and The Streetlight Reader, but a little variety is always nice. For more information about guest posting, please check out this post.
4. I will be posting a short story I wrote on Christmas.
I had intended on reviewing a Christmas-y book for Christmas, but I changed my mind. I’m going to post a short story I wrote a couple years ago that I think a lot of writers and conspiracy theorists will be able to relate to. It’s around 300 words and that’s all I’m going to say about it at this time. If you celebrate Christmas, think of it as my Christmas present to you. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, think of it either a special treat or torture, depending on whether you enjoy it or not.
The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge
Yes, it is very narcissistic to name a reading challenge after myself, but frankly all the good names were taken and I’m not one to plagiarize. So what’s my challenge for myself and for anyone who wants to participate? Well, here it is:
The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge is to read and review (either on Goodreads, Amazon or your own blog) 104 books in one year starting January 1, 2013 and ending December 31, 2013.
Yes, this is an insane amount of books and I know that not many people may be able to achieve it. That’s why there are different levels you can strive for:
1. Mad Reviewer: 104 books in one year. (2 books a week all year.)
2. Crazy Reviewer: 52 books in one year. (1 book a week all year.)
3. Slightly Sane Reviewer: 26 books in one year. (1 book every fortnight all year.)
4. Sane Reviewer: 12 books in one year. (1 book every month all year.)
Got that? So, of course, there are some rules to go along with it:
1. Self-published, independently published and traditionally published books are all completely acceptable. You can even read them on an e-reader.
2. No audiobooks. The point is to read books, not have someone reading to you.
3. I don’t have a sign-up form like many reading challenges, but if you have a blog you can copy and paste the code below into a text widget:
Goal: 104 books read and reviewed<br>
Current: 0<br>
<div style=”height:15px;background:#A9D0F5;border:solid;”>
<div style=”background:#3366FF;color:white;width:0;”><b>0</b>
</div>
</div>
(A huge thanks goes to Stacking Pennies for the initial format of the progress bar.)
This is the one I used, but you can of course modify it to fit your goal. Don’t have a blog? Don’t worry. Just keep track of all the books you read somewhere and comment on my year-end post on December 31. I’m trusting you guys to stay honest, but if I need to I’ll check out whether you actually posted reviews.
4. Everyone who achieves their goal will be entered into a draw for a grand prize, provided by me. What that prize is I’m not sure yet, but it will obviously be book related. If you have any suggestions for a possible prize, please let me know!
5. You can review your books on any site. Your own blog, Goodreads, someone else’s blog, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. The point is just to review the books you read!
So who wants to sign up? Just post your intentions in the comments below and what level you want to aim for. Personally, I’m going to go for ‘Mad Reviewer’ because I really should earn my name.
It would also be great if you could publicize this in any way possible because I want as many people in my draw as possible. Obviously being Freshly Pressed would be too much to hope for, but I can still dream, can’t I?
What do you think makes a good book?
I’ve written a lot about what I think makes a good book and maybe some time this month I’ll compile it into an article. But first I want to know: What do you think makes a good book? Is it characters you can connect with? An exciting plot? Fantastic world-building? I don’t think there’s one single thing that makes a book good every time, but what thing(s) make a good book for you?